Finding the Equation of the Whine

"Brian, can you hear that sound?"

"Yeah, I can kind of hear something but I can't understand it."

"It's kind of hurting my ears."

"Me too. I wonder what it is."

Scampering up to me, "Maggie whining!"

"Oh, you were whining?! Mama and Papa can't understand whining."

"Maggie talking now."

"Oh, good! Mama and Papa can understand talking."

This strategy, which we took from the Love and Logic book we mentioned earlier, has started to work wonderfully with Maggie. I can't wait to try it with my whiny algebra students.

Commando Kaleia

Happy 8 Month Birthiversary!

Stealthy as a soldier bellying across the battlefield, Kaleia glides across the laminate flooring. Mission: Dog food bowl.

"Kaliea no touch."

In the instant it takes to lift the temptation out of reach, she's off to the unguarded kitchen. Next Mission: Splashing in the Water Dish. Foiled again! Okay...New Mission: Finding something small to put in mouth.

With all the army crawling she does I often contemplate designing her some jammies made of swiffer sheets so she can be my ally in The War of the Dirty Floor. Until then we'll just stick with changing her uniform often. Lucky for us she recently hit the all-important milestone of pushing her own arm through her sleeve.

During moments of ceasefire, Kaleia spends her time: standing at the music table jamming, making lots of (mostly spitting) noises, and reading--instead of eating-- the occasional book with Mama and Papa.

Sweet potatoes, having the right texture, taste and stomach agreeablity, have become a daily staple. But M-I-L-K is still the prefered sustenance. We now have to spell the word so as to not insight a wiggle fit, a fit rivalled only by Mama's return from work. Surprise kisses freely given are a welcome development and enthusiastic high-fives are a fun new trick.

Eye rubs and sweet moments of resting her head are surefire tiredness alarms and she's still super easy to put down. With the increased mobility and activity we experienced a few glorious nights of full sleep until the invasion of The Two Front Teeth. Hopefully, a treaty will be estabilished soon and our little Gremmi-bear will be transformed into a Gremmi-beaver. We do however need to teach her that Mama is not a chew toy.

Unfortunately, we are realizing, that despite our best intentions, 2nd child syndrome has set in. We have not been as intentional about signing with Kaleia or reading to her. She hasn't had swimming lessons or been to as many places as Maggie had at her age. While we know that it is not possible to give her the exact same experience (and in some ways her experience is better than Magnolia's -- we are wiser, more prepared parents and she got to begin life with a loving sister) we want to make sure we don't deprive her of the activities that will help her develop.

That's our mission.

Celebrating 2 Years

Saturday, March 6th we celebrated Magnolia's birthday.

Our little girl LOVES cooking, so we made that the theme for the day.

In the morning the Graceys and Rushes came over for brunch, which consisted of Magnolia favorites: Pancakes with "hiding blueberries", Congo Bacon, Fruit Salad, and Juice.

Then we opened presents. Magnolia still doesn't quite have the idea.

So older cousins Noah and Ella stepped in to help.

After opening lots of play-food presents, she pulled off blankets to reveal her very own kitchen!

She has been making us boiled bread and jelly bean pizza ever since.

After naps, we invited some friends over to play in our *new* family room.

The kitchen was a hit.

So was decorating aprons.

We paused to enjoy cupcakes.

Then returned to playing with the kitchen.

Overall, it was a great day. Thank you to all who helped make it special!

Remembering Magnolia's Birth

If you want to read one of Brian's best short stories, click here.

Maggie-Speak Vocabulary Quiz

After being gone for a month Brian is getting a crash course in Maggie-Speak. More and more of Magnolia's "baby" words are being replaced by the "real" words.

So we thought we'd do a little quiz before they're all gone. Below are some of our favorite Maggie words spelled according to her pronunciation. Post your translation guesses in the comments. We'll post the answers in a few days.

1) beer
2) nah
3) noo-n00
4) go-go s(h)a-s(h)a
5) oh-lo0 choo-choo
6) chin-chin
7) c0-meh
8) pay weh-weh
9) hoohoo soup
10) ape-team

Hint: There are 3 edibles, 4 animals, 1 number, 2 articles of clothing, and 2 verb phrases. We realize that doesn't add up to 10. Some of them do double duty.