Connections

Helen walks up to me this morning carrying a ruler we bought Megan years ago, that has the names and little oval portraits of all of the presidents on it.  She presents the ruler to me and says, "Look, Daddy: Money!"

Stuffed "friends"

One of the fun things about having multiple kids is comparing and contrasting their personalities. Take, for example, their attitudes toward having stuffed animals in bed with them. Megan is very monogamous: She has one special "friend," as she calls them, and is loyal to just that one. Occasionally she switches to a new one, but it's always one. Helen wants nothing to do with these freaks; she has one stuffed animal, which is great for playtime, but when it comes to night-night she doesn't even want it in the room, much less in bed with her. And Mary Kate, the youngest, is just a glutton: She loves them all, and the more the merrier; She'll take a dozen to bed with her if we'll let her.

Eraserhead

My laptop has an "eraserhead" pointing device. Apparently sometime this evening one of my kids walked off with the eraser off of the eraserhead, rendering it unusable. Hopefully I can find it, or the spares that came with the machine. I know they were messing with the machine, because they presented me with the "]" key, which I can't figure out how to reattach. I tell you, they're like the gorillas with the Samsonite luggage, only computers aren't nearly as durable.

My job description

I'm sitting here working, and Helen comes and asks if she can sit in my lap. I say no, but she never accepts that, and just bulldozes her way into my lap. She then takes a minute to get comfortable (think of the way a dog or cat prepares an area before they lay down), settles in, and then gestures toward my computer and pronounces, "OK, do your clicking."

Blanket monopoly

What is it with the baby blankets they use in hospitals? Every single child I've ever encountered has come home in the same blanket: white with teal and pink stripes. If these are all made by the same company, they seriously have a lock on the hospital-baby-blanket market. Googling for about two minutes, I can find nine photos of new babies in this blanket: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. We still have a couple of ours; they're really durable, which surprises me a little.

Welcome to the pit of despair

We have a storm sewer in our back yard, which never really concerned me before. However, the other day I was there when a workman removed the manhole cover, and that sewer is about 20 feet deep! I don't think a kid could fit through the opening, but I think I'm going to fence around it just in case. I'm tired of mowing back there anyway.

Babies no more

Mary Kate is two years old now. Being a closure junkie, one of the great things about knowing you are not having any more children is being able to get rid of their clothes and toys as they outgrow them. Still, of course, it's bittersweet to watch milestones go by that you are celebrating for the last time.

Surprises

Five things I didn't know before I was a parent:

1. Choosing occasion-appropriate clothes for little girls is incredibly complicated. I doubt I will ever master it.
2. Cheerios are tasty, as is peanut butter and jelly.
3. You have to eat things you don't like, to set a good example.
4. Happy Meal toys are mostly pretty cool. Your house will be littered with them. (If your child is wee, you can ask for a toddler toy, which are typically even cooler.)
5. While it would seem that toys that make a lot of noise are the most irritating, toys with a million tiny parts are worse.