Random

- Kate drives me crazy these days. Throws food on the floor (tonight it was a container of white rice -- excellent). Throws her milk on the floor, then wants it back. Says "No" and nods yes to the same thing in a span of a minute or two. Wails like a banshee if I put her down, or don't pick her up, or try to wipe her nose (and I always, always have to wipe her nose), or take something from her she shouldn't have (one of Jack's things, or a metal fork, or whatever). It's frustrating, and then I remember that she's frustrated too, maybe because she doesn't have enough words yet to articulate what she wants. Maybe we should have worked harder at the baby sign language, I don't know.

But when I was making dinner, she came out into the kitchen and (I suspected) planned to cry for food, or to be picked up, or whatever, but in fact she spotted the drumsticks from the xylophone, which she picked up happily and disappeared with. A minute later, I heard the happy xylophone noise coming from the next room. And then: she came back into the kitchen, with the xylophone and drumsticks, and started beating on it on the kitchen floor. Making happy noises, too.

And then tonight I was putting her to bed, reading her stories, and she was as into them as she's ever been. Laughing and pointing on each page of Big Red Barn. Opening all the flaps in the "Do Crocodiles Moo?" book that I hated the first time I saw it, but she clearly loves (and so now I do, too). And then at the end when I turned out the light I normally hold her in my arms horizontally, but instead she kind of snuggled into me as I sang her to sleep.

So, I forgive her.

- Jack came up to bed with Mommy tonight. When I was hugging him goodnight, he said, "I kissed all my toys goodnight downstairs." Big smile on his face as he explained. "I said to my balloon, 'now balloon, good night, and please don't pop and please don't lose all your air tonight....' And...." This went on for a little while, with him using a different voice to represent him talking to his toys. It was pretty funny. (Later, Emily told me he actually started doing this when she was in the next room. He looked up when she walked in, paused, almost guiltily, then went right back to talking to his toys.) Sweet.

We start soccer on Saturday. Blog entry to come, I feel certain.