Mari's cute

I should probably have something more insightful to say, but Mari's been really cute lately. She's very expressive, moving her eyes around a lot without moving her head (like Susannah Hoffs of the Bangles in the Walk Like an Egyptian video -- you know). And she does the slow nod (in script format):

PARENT
Do you want a piece of fruit?

Child tilts head up. Hold a beat. Another. Slowly, she
touches chin to chest. Beat. She looks up expectantly.

Also, she's got more hair now, and she's big enough that she's not always automatically crushed by Austin. In fact, she gives him these "hugs" that are essentially headlocks that drive him crazy.

Yep, Mari's cute.

Going vegetarian?

One thing I worry about with kids is that someone in the family is going to be a vegetarian. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, but I don't want to have to conceive and prepare more than one meal for any one meal time. Call me lazy.

But it might happen. Because of Austin.

And not because he's squeamish -- it's because he's grossing me out. He asked Julie the other day if people ate cats. She told him no. He nodded and agreed that the fur would be awful in your mouth.

And then I roasted a chicken and he ate both drumsticks. And then gloated -- gloated! -- about it afterward: "I ate two chicken legs! The chicken has no legs! He has to bounce around on his belly! Bok bok bok!"

I felt a little ill.

100th post! More funny kids!

Okay, Austin gets a lot of attention here because of the funny things he says.

Today we made a big deal about getting out of the house earlier so we could go vote. He got really excited and changed his clothes and put on his shoes and jacket much faster than usual. I told Austin that voting was secret so he was whispering, and then I showed him how I filled out the ballot and he helped me put it in the reader. As we left the building, he started to get mad. "We didn't go! We didn't go!"

What?

"You said we were going to a boat and we didn't go!"



And this is classic: while putting on his shoes, Austin turned to me and said: "Daddy, is this a dream?"

What do you mean?

"If this was a dream, we'd still be sleeping, right?"

Right. No, Austin, this is not a dream.

More Mari

It's been pointed out that Mari gets short shrift on this blog. She needs to talk more!

But she's still pretty funny to watch. She definitely knows what she wants and can be stubborn about putting her shoes or jacket on by herself. She also knows when she's tired.

Sometimes when we're reading to her, she'll just walk away. Once, I called out, where are you going? and she shouted back "I go to bed, Daddy!" Sure enough, she climbed upstairs, went into her room, climbed into the crib and lay down. Just had to throw a blanket on her.

Themed Halloween

Can you guess the theme?

"I am your father!"

"You're our only hope!"

Eyes design: Mari; Mouth: Austin; Carving: Jack

"I want my breakfast!"

Batman

I got Austin a Batman reader a while back. It tells the story of Bruce Wayne becoming orphaned, vowing to fight crime and then traveling the world learning crimefighting techniques.

The other day we were reading about Bruce going to Asia to study martial arts with Master Kirigi. For a month, Kirigi ignores Bruce. Then, realizing Bruce isn't going away, Kirigi teaches him the proper way to sweep a floor. A month later, Kirigi teaches Bruce the proper way to make rice. Bruce learns patience and earns the right to learn martial arts.

Austin interrupted me. "Can Bruce cook eggs?"

Um, yeah, he probably can. Why do you ask?

"Because if he can cook rice and cook eggs, he can make fried rice."