T.O.T.E.

What I imagine it looks like:

Or this:

Reality:We still ate the cookies.

And they were really good…

Just a little salty.

(Was that too much? Cause I’m laughing right now…)

…

Every time I look at that photo it gets better and better. It may be one of my most favorite mother-daughter photos so far. Kudos to Nikki for taking it.

As promised…

I was. Remember?

…

“Mama, what’s that?”

“It’s the spray bottle I use on the cats when they jump on the table.”

“Birdhouses!”

“Yes, there are bird houses on the bottle. You’re right!”

“One, two, free, four. Four birdhouses. Daddy said no for Mo.”

“You’re right. Daddy said Mo can’t use it.”

“Doe,” (That still means ‘yes’.) “Mo too little.”

I smiled as I tucked the hair behind her ear and thought, Oh, but you’re so big.

…

There are hundreds of other conversations we have every day that better express how far her verbal skills have come. But for some reason, that simple exchange at the breakfast table made it clear to me: we’re in the clear.

She has a growing vocabulary, can tell you her feelings (this morning, as she remembered falling down a couple days ago, “Mo is a little bit sad”), can count, say her ABCs and sings Twinkle Twinkle (video to come).

It is a joy to watch her grow.

Somehow, every day, Mo is both “too Little” and “so Big”.

(Photo Credit: My Mom – Awesome doctor kit credit: Uncle Tim)

Recently, comments about Lu have switched from “Wow, she’s a chunky monkey” to “Wow! Look at that hair!”

And I couldn’t agree more.

This girl has a lot of hair.

Well…on top, at least.

She’s a fan of wiggling. ‘Round here, we often call her Wiggles. And most of her wiggling involves rotating her head from side to side. So, she’s worn off most of her original hair on the sides and back.

That wouldn’t be a problem if it was growing back in that dark, luscious, almost black color she came with.

However, she is following in Mo’s footsteps (or, more accurately, gene-steps, hardy har har), and Lu’s hair is growing in blonde. This means from the back and sides, she looks bald. From the top or front, however, her hair looks dyed.

No, I did not have my daughter’s hair “tipped” as I had to tell one inquisitive stranger. It’s 100% natural.

Just different. And exactly the way we like it.

Sometimes, it’s hard to finish supper. Especially if nap was skipped (like yesterday) or late (like today). There are so many other things Mo loves to do besides eat, like sing and dance and color and watch Dora. It was time to get creative before we moved to Meltdown-dom.

I introduce to you: Pirate Dinner. Because, as everyone knows, the best way to eat yogurt is while covering one eye (actually that can cause some depth perception issues, and perhaps more yogurt ends up on the table/face/floor than actually in a mouth, but we don’t judge).

After a hearty round of “Arrr Matey!” the parrot was introduced, played by my hand perched gently on my shoulder.

“Squawk! Eat your yogurt! Squawk!”

Mo thought that was perhaps the funniest thing she had ever seen. We almost witnessed yogurt out her nose.

In her own parrot like manner, she repeated everything our fake feathered friend said.

“Squawk, squawk! Squuuaaawwwwwwk!!”

However, it came out a little warped.

“Squ” came out sounding more like “Ffff” and “awk” sounded a lot like “uck”.

Yeah. That word, over and over and over, interrupted only by fits of laughter and a hearty “Arrrr!”

Curled up fingers became pirate hooks, spoons became swords, and our hands were filthy-mouthed parrots.

At some point the yogurt got knocked to the floor, but I’m not sure when. We were too busy laughing. And pirate-ing. And laughing some more.

How do you end a perfectly good Pirate-supper? Pirate dance party of course!

And when Mo wants a dance party, everybody dances.

Even that dirty parrot, “Squawk! Polly wanna dance!”