notamouth.org

last night in the car with grandma, amelia said “that sign says ‘no robots on the road.’”  then, correcting herself, she said “well actually it says ‘open container law enforced.’”  she knows them all…

amelia came up to the office saying the pooh movie was over, and that there was an “edult” in the movie singing a song with cowboy boots.

i searched for “carly simon piglet” on g. video and said “was it this lady?”

amelia said “yes, how old is she?”

i opened another browser while the vid played and went to wikipedia. “she’s 64.  that’s older than papa.  she doesn’t look that old does she?” — “no.”

we watched “coming around again (itsy bitsy spider)” after that.  amelia said “how old is she there?”  i referred to wikipedia and did the math, and said “42.”

if amelia asks what happens when we die i hope wikipedia can give me a nice easy answer… maybe “42.”

today was good.

elliot has been saying “side” for “outside.”  i really need to get that recorded.  he has been imitating lots of words, and using several pretty well in real life:

“shoe!”

“no!” (sounds like an elongated now!)

“sasa” for sister

“mama” for mama and grandma and dada

“dada” for dada

“da” for dada

elongated “don” for down

he also knows the sign for please, although he only uses it when you ask him specifically to say please. usually he just screams at you.

he loves to use his fork when he eats, he concentrates on it with an admirable tenacity.  he hardly uses his fingers anymore… most of the time.

amelia amazed me with grape formations today at dinner.  there were four grapes on the table, and she said “what is that, a k?”

sure enough they were in the shape of a k.  then she grabbed one and ate it and said “now what is it?”

i said it looks like a y.  she grabbed another.  now there were two grapes side by side like a roman numeral II.

“now what?”

i asked, is it a 2?

“yes.”

she rearanged the two grapes.  i asked, is it a number 1?

she said no, its an L.  except she didn’t say L, she made a capital L with her hand.  never mind that the single line on the table made out of two grapes was a lower-case l.

she ate one more and i said “now it’s a 1,” as she walked away, leaving the remaining grape for me to eat.

after elliot was asleep, amelia and i snuck out to the front stoop for a minute and looked at the stars.  i pointed out the bright ones, and she informed me that bright stars were wishing stars.  we wished upon a couple of stars.  she knew the chant.  i asked her what she wished for, and she told me “two daddies.”  i asked her why she needed 2, and she told me one would be a toy daddy.  she asked me what i wished for, and i said two mommies.  she asked me if i would give one to her, and i told her yes of course.

we watched all the cars trickling in to kimberly/hadley, and i told her everyone is coming home for the night.  “why are those people still out?” she asked.  i said that old people can stay out as long as they want.  the crickets chirped all around.  amelia said she liked nighttime.

we went inside, and the one mommy who ever was was leaving a goodnight message on the machine.  amelia dialed her back to say goodnight.

what really gets me is when amelia reveals how she is thinking.  a couple of weeks ago, she was talking about death, as she does fairly often these days.

“dad, when can i use big girl toothpaste?”

- “when you are 11….   no, when you are 12.”

“is 12 when we die?”

- “no sweetie.”

“what is the other one you said? eleven?”

- “yes, i said 11, but the toothpaste tube says 12, see?”

“is that when we die?”

- “no, sweetie.”

“when do we die?  when we are 8?”

- “we die when we are very very old, a long long time from now.  you don’t have to worry about it.”

“when?”

- “most people die between 70 and 120. very very old.”

“when will you die? when you are old?”

- “when i am old, and when you are old.”

[real tears] “if you die, then it will be up to mom!”

- “oh honey.”

“and if mom dies, and elliot dies, then i will be next!”

- “sweetie, don’t worry, we aren’t old.”

[tears are over] “if mom and you and me and elliot die, then marx and duncan will die… ”

- pause -

“dad, don’t worry.  if you die, i will hold you up.” [note that death play at school involves falling over and saying "i'm dead!"]

i remember this conversation with amelia from last fall… paraphrased of course, except for the last line.

“dad.  today, austin called me a jerk.”

- “a jerk!  you aren’t a jerk.  what did you say?”

“i told him to leave me alone.  what is a jerk?”

- “hmm… a jerk is someone who isn’t very nice.  but you are a nice person, you use nice words, don’t you.”

“yeah. . . well, my friends are jerks.”

- “no, honey, you have nice friends.”

“well dad, they aren’t very nice to me.  so they are jerks.  think about it.”

in the car this morning she said “you know mom has a wedding dress.  she showed it to me.  [very excitedly] and she’s saving it for me!  so when i get married i can wear it.  and zach [the boy at daycare that she says she is going to marry] can wear your jacket…. but maybe i won’t get married.”

while kat was giving elliot tylenol:

“i’m sick”

- “you’re sick?  well then you can’t go outside to swing”

“no, i’m not sick, i’m hot.  i’m hot because i was under the covers.”

- “you don’t need medicine just because you are hot.”

“well i’m not hot.”

about a month ago, amelia started changing all leading vowels to “e.”  sometimes she even discards consonants in this process:

edult  adult

e-cited excited

e-cation vacation

she has also been saying ridiculous a lot.

last week, amelia demonstrated her amazing awareness of her stomach.  she said she was full after dinner, then said she wanted a popsicle.  when kat said “I thought you were full,” she told us, “i have a line right here of space” and she pointed to her chest where the popsicle would go…

Here are a few pics from the past couple of months:

I think it was two weeks ago that Elliot really started going for it with his walking.  That weekend, he seemed determined to stay on his feet, and he walked two steps with nothing to hold onto, many times over.  Now he is consistently walking three steps at a time, but he still goes back to crawling when he wants to get somewhere quick.  and he is a fast crawler.

He has been waving good-bye too.  Today I saw him do it when someone said “goodbye” to someone else.  They were walking out the door, but I like to think he is understanding the word.  He always makes a noise like a muffled “eye” sound when he does it.  When Kat gets home from work, or when he sees Amelia for the first time in the morning, he’ll often let out a joyful “ehy!” sound.

He loves being active.  He started this thing, maybe a month ago, of raising himself up on his knees, arms up, and yelling as he falls forward, catching himself just before his face hits the floor.  then he giggles and does it again.  He has a “starting position” for this ritual — the vinyl flooring by the door in the front room.  luckily he usually lands on the carpet.

Today he gave Kat 4 kisses in a row when she got home — he very distinctly smooched her on the cheek.