1500, my new radio home

That show Medium always freaks me out. I love it!

Tonight I seriously HAPPENED to turn on 1500AM, only because I just had to reprogram all my radio stations in the van because my in-laws left the lights on when they took Lucy to church on Saturday so the battery died so all my pre-set stations went the way of pin-rolled pants and banana clips, and while reprogramming the stations I actually remembered that the Twins are no longer on 830 but 1500, so I actually set it correctly, so then when I turned on the radio (which I only get to do when I'm alone in the car which is very rare these days) THERE WAS A TWINS GAME ON!!!!

Yes, spring training has begun! I am not kidding when I say my little heart skipped a beat at the sound of John Gordon's voice. The ride to the Dayton's Bluff Rec Center is less than 5 minutes, so all I really caught of the game was that we were ahead 1-0 in the 3rd based on something Jason Bartlett did, and that we're scheduled to play against Kyle Lohse later this week, but WHO CARES, it's BASEBALL!!!

Now, it still confuses me that major-league ballplayers can be younger than I am. I know, I know, some of them are an entire decade younger than I am. But it's still something that I have a hard time wrapping my mind around.

Silly kid update!
Lucy's taken to calling Ed "a stinker." Probably because I do too. The other day Ed was hollering about something and Lucy said to me "What a loud stinker!"
Also, she uses "stink" when she means "smell" as a verb. Today, she picked up a diaper Ed had just dirtied (and I had just carefully wrapped) and said "Let me stink this," right before sticking her nose in it.

Good-bye, nursing bras! Hello...

Um... hello? Hellooooooo...

hello... hello... hello...

Well! I finally went through my bra drawer and removed every last nursing bra and washable nursing pad. Ed and I had one last nursing session last week and we are totally done now. So now my chest is a size it hasn't been for... three and a half years? Which means the only 2 bras I have that fit now are four years old and came from the teenage-girls bra department at JC Penney. Ugh.

Lucy's word for "nipples" might actually be "mittles." I can't quite tell.

My mother-in-law is participating in a Polar Plunge at Lake Calhoun this Saturday. We're going to see her to cheer her on and wish her luck and warmth!

Going ot have to finish this later; it's bedtime...

Friday

Nuthin' new here. Lucy just got up from her nap; she walks out on her own with her sleep-ruddy cheeks and says "Hi, Mommy." It's awesome.



Ed still has his four teeth and they're huge. He grins and says "Hi, Da" all day.



Lucy's phrase this week is "You gotta buy some more." As in:



Me: "Lucy, this is the last cookie for you tonight."
Lucy: "You gotta buy some more."

Lucy discovered her nipples (or "mimples") this week.

(Lifting her shirt) "What are these, mommy?"

"Nipples, sweetie."

"I have breasts?"

"No, right now you just have nipples. In about 10 years you'll have breasts."

"Maybe later. When I'm older."

We had lovely playdates with the Dalys and Watsons, respectively, this week. Toddlers are just so, so funny. Love them all.

New baby

Well! Ask and ye shall receive!

CONGRATS to the Pudwell Family on their new baby girl! I got this email this morning:

Nicole, Scott, and Joshua are proud to announce the newest Pudwell!!
Ashley Ann Pudwell was born at 8:02pm [on Feb. 22].
Ashley weighed 7lbs 11oz, and was 19 inches long.
Pictures coming soon on pudwellfamily.com
Both Mom and Ashley are doing great!!

Welcome to the world, Ashley!! Welcome to big-brotherhood, Josh!

New blogs and whatnot

New Blogs
My friend Jara now has a blog, as does my cousin Amy. Actually Amy has had one for several months; I'd just missed the loop, for some wild reason.

Whatnot
Also! Congrats to my friend Michelle who is relatively-newly pregnant with #2.

Please send power out to 2 of my due-any-minute preggo friends, Nicole P and Tricia. Can't wait to hear their stories!


More Whatnot
So I read this item about birthing and breastfeeding/latching in Parents magazine last night and I thought it was really interesting. Of course, I am the crazy granola mom. So I'm embracing my role. :)

"Sometimes it takes a bit longer for a newborn to latch -- and the most common reason is that the baby's sleepy because his mother was given an epidural or other labor medications."

Then they quote a gal from La Leche League, Katy Lebbing:

"Research has shown that if an epidural is administered for more than two hours, you'll have latching problems. The longer the epidural is in, the more likely you are to have trouble. ...A woman ... had an epidural for 48 hours; her baby didn't latch on for three weeks."

I had never heard before that the two were related... though I knew I was already a firm believer in both natural childbirth and breastfeeding, but I guess this info makes me feel a little better since I know I'm in the minority. Maybe I need to really strap on the Birkenstocks and learn how to become a doula or something. Always searching for my mission in life... :)

I should really try to figure out the source; I would love to read more about this "research." Usually Parents magazine is a neverending slosh of ridiculously expensive "must-haves," excessively consumeristic "great ideas" and unrealistically idealistic "safety tips."

Sample tip for raising earth-conscious kids: "Go on a hike through some nearby woods and introduce your children to the different types of plants, trees, and ecosystems in your area." This would be assuming the parent is some kind of crazy botanist with encyclopediaic knowledge about the local flora. Can you even see me? "Okay, kids, this is a tree. It's got branches. And... leaves. And here's another tree! Also with leaves. Ooh! This one looks like a bush. It has leaves, too. Here! On the ground; this is a stick. It fell off a tree. Or, a bush. And here we have some mud. And there! More mud!"

Rounds and worms

Happy Fat Tuesday, everybody! I'm actually coming off an entire Fat Weekend (pizzas and gyros and pie, oh my!), so I'm trying to eat healthier starting today... sort of. I was actually thinking maybe I should add a couple more layers of fat to insulate me from this ridiculously cold weather we've been having. Then today it's 43 and sunny. Can't win!

My friend Nikki posted that she thought she heard a bird the other day. I heard nothing, but saw an entire round of robins* on the roof of my garage! And they were the fattest little robins you ever did see. It was a little bizarre. This was RIGHT in the middle of the coldest part of the cold snap, too. I do not know what they were doing. But they don't look too happy with themselves.

*(I Googled "collective noun" and "robins" and came up with zilch, so I sort of made that one up. Okay, actually I just looked a little closer and one site says "worm"!?!? Well, that's just silly.)

There's GOT to be a better way
Hey there, inventors and entrepreneurs! You need to invent something that makes it easier to get kids in and out of car seats during winter. It's not safe, buckling their buckles over all those coats. And it's certainly not responsible or possible in a practical sense, to remove the coats before putting them in the car seats.
I think what needs to happen is a special coat with slits made to slip the seat belts/buckles through. The slits could Velcro closed when the kid's not in the seat. Oh, no, that wouldn't work because of the kids' arms... Okay, what about a harness that you put on the kid prior to donning the coat (which would still have to be a special kind of coat, with slits or something) and then buckling the harness onto the car seat? Grrr.

Let's see, what's new -- my mom ("Grandma Books") was up for the weekend. It was so great to see her and the kids just loved it. Ed even took a couple steps (maybe even 4?) unassisted (but with heaps of encouragement) for her to see.

Ed had a yucky fever most of the weekend (high of 104.3 on Saturday morning) and the rest of us have been a little cold-y too. Lu loves being the booger police, letting us know when she or Ed needs a kleenex. I guess we should have taught her to say "runny nose" instead. You live and learn.

Ed loves to say "hi." Over and over and over. It charms the heck out of old ladies at the grocery store.

More later...

My brain was frozen and filled with snot!!

Back by popular demand, today's Guest Blogger is none other than fan favorite, JG!

I was so excited to find an ultra close spot at the bus stop. Background: My company subsidizes a parking spot monthly which is, say, 9 blocks from work. Okay so like only 4-5 blocks. It's walkable, but a bus pass is included in the parking permit so you don't HAVE to hoof it. Buses leave from the lot every 10-15 minutes in the morning. So my usual routine is to catch a bus in the morning. (The walk is uphill and I can barely stand to think in the morning before my 3rd cup of coffee.) Not to mention, every time I do walk I see the stupid bus pulling up like just as I am arriving at work. So really, why not just catch the bus. I do walk at night, so I don't have to wait for the bus, and then, yes, you guessed it, it's downhill. Easier to keep one's momentum going when one has some additional weight in the fulcrum of one's body, you know?

So, like I mentioned, I found a primo spot in the lot. I believe Meggo and I used to call it porno parking. Since we have kids now I think we have taken that out of our vernacular. Prolly not though. Noting that the bus is ready to leave, I hop out of the car, grab my workout bag, and jump on the bus. I pull out my cell phone to play with the buttons so I know how to shut off the ringer... see if there are any games... just get used to how the blasted contraption works. I mean really, I don't need to take pictures, make a meal, or complete a masters degree online with it. I just need to be able to call someone and answer it when it rings. On the bus I start a conversation with a guy who was recently in the news, quite an interesting story, I'll tell ya sometime. Then I arrive at work to realize gangnabbit I left my keys on the bus; they must have fallen out when I was playing with my stupid cell phone. Well there's nothing really one can do when that happens on the bus and we had our all company meeting to get to. So I started that trek of lemmings down to the meeting room with our good friends Carol and Patrick Daly.

Meeting over. I stopped by at the bus office in the skyway to get info as to what one does when they leave something on the bus. Call lost and found tomorrow, is the answer I get -- I knew that one. It's now 11:45ish and I'm working up the gumption to call Meggo to let her know and logistically it's not a big problem; I can catch a bus home at night and back to work in the morning, but just in case I'll walk on down there to make sure: A. I didn't leave the keys in the car; B. I didn't drop them in the transition from the car tothe bus; and C. Verify the car is still there. I bundled up and walked down. Half way I realize I didn't grab my cellphone. Smart Joel real smart. I mean, insert Meg's voice here: "What do you have a cell phone for ANYWAY!" I turn the corner to where I can see the parking lot and the cars all lined up. Terror dripping from my brow. I'm straining to just get a glimpse of the little car and not seeing anything. Scanning the row back and forth hoping that it's just hiding behind the Bonneville. Nope. Getting closer well maybe it's beside the Seabreeze. (A shout out to Bridget Fors old baby the Sebring.) Oh wait I see my bumper. WHAT THE HELL, there's exhaust coming from the tailpipe. You have got to be kidding me. Sure as my vacant expression. I did something I have never done before. I left the car running with the doors locked for 4 and a half hours. No cell phone. IDIOT!! I caught the bus back to work, called Meggo who I knew was at book readings (ed. note: it's actually called "story time") with the kids. Well my valentine came to my rescue. I walked on down there again to visit and grab my keys and see the family. Eddie fast asleep, Lucy clutching her red balloon and new "Philadelphia Chickens" CD Meggo purchased for her and the funniest little expression on Meggo. One that says, you will never live this one down. Needless to say Meggo now has, in the immortal words of Paula Abdul, her back pocket token for whatever she wants. What can I say, my brain was frozen and full of snot.

I switched to the New Blogger

I don't feel any different.

Also! I need a recipe. I was sitting next to a mom at storytime today who fed her daughter what appeared to be an oatmeal-raisin cookie, but what I'm sure was actually an uber-healthy granola-ey concoction, optimized for high fiber and nutrition and minimal fat and sugar.

But you can't exactly type that into Allrecipes or Epicurious and expect to get any results.

Also! New poll. Oh... except I don't have the time to figure out how to do a poll again.

Ed slept for maybe 30 minutes in the van right before noon/lunch, due to a set of somewhat bizarre circumstances that I will allow Joel to post at his discretion. We got home by noon, finished lunch by 12:30 and Ed was in his crib for nap by 1:00. Except he was wiiiiide awake. But happy. He jabbered to himself and played his fish-music-boxes for close to two hours(!!) until I thought to go in, at which point I immediately discerned he had a large dirty diaper. I changed it, and put him back down. He fell asleep almost right away.

Am I a bad mother for letting him fart around for two hours on his own? I'm not so concerned about the diaper; it didn't seem to bother him. But, like, should I have taken him out and played with him? I really thought he was going to fall asleep at any moment. Really.

Corrections and Clarifications

ST PAUL, MINN --
In a recent blog entry, Meg may have unintentionally misled readers to believe that she:

a. has this whole motherhood thing figured out

b. is never cranky, crabby, or at all out-of-sorts

c. never, ever wishes that the kid clawing his/her way up her pants leg would just go bang some Tupperware bowls together, or something, and let her just fold this one last stinkin' dish towel, if it's not too much trouble, please!??

d. galavants happily throughout each day, magically whisking her children to and from enriching activities, providing nutritious and delicious snacks and meals at appropriate times, and always provides consistent and firm, yet gentle guidance and discipline when necessary.

Meg wishes she wasn't so fast and loose with her posts on her happy days, and Meg wishes she could also post her grumpy days too, but you definitely don't want to read that. Meg guesses that what Meg meant was more, like, she understands herself and her role and her life a little better now, and she hopes that readers know her well enough to know that mood swings and waffling emotions are still to be expected.

Meg regrets the error.



Lucy Speak
These days, when Lucy asks us to do something, and we have to say "no" (like, she wants me to pick her up when I am already holding a very sad Eddie... OR, she wants me to peel her another orange when she has just devoured two of them)... she replies:

"You got to try!"

Or sometimes it's:

"Don't say 'no' at me!"

It is sooo hard not to laugh.

Also, I know everybody already knows this but I have to write it down for posterity: she calls the refrigerator the "fridgerfridger."

Half a recipe

I was emailing a friend and she sent me a recipe for some Asian wraps that sounded wonderful, and in a weird coincidence, us Gs had just eaten some really tasty wraps for dinner that night. Short story long, I promised I would post my wrap-recipe... but the bag that the tortillas came in (on which the recipe was printed) got tossed so now I have to kind of recreate the recipe for you. Whatever; they're really good. Joel raved.

Flour tortillas
Cream cheese (you don't need a whole brick unless you're making like twenty)
Shreddy cheddar cheese
Deli-sliced roast beef
Red onion slices
Avocado slices
Roasted red peppers (I always use jarred)
Fresh spinach leaves

What I did was warm a tortilla a little, then spread about 1 tablespoon of cream cheese and 2 tablespoons of the cheddar on the tortilla. Add 1 or 2 roast beef slices and then microwave that shebang, just to soften the cheese and bring out the meat flavor a bit. Then add some of the onion, some avocado, a bit of red peppers and exactly six spinach leaves. Roll up and eat. Feasty!

Really, I don't know why this was so good. It just kind of was.
If you're not a tortilla person, the results are just as nummier on some toasted sourdough bread. Toasted bread is good.

I can't actually feel my toes... is that a problem?

I peeked out at our thermometer in the backyard this morning around 7:45 and I said, hey Joel! Looks like it's up to 20 degrees! Thank goodness!

No, you dummy, he replied, that says twenty below. And gosh danged if he wasn't right.

So... it's chilly here. How chilly? You may ask.

Whatever diesel gas mix they use in school buses is actually freezing.

Paint is chipping off the window frames in Ed's room.

There is snow buildup inside many of our windows on the north side of our house.

Every once in a while I hear a loud "pop" come from somewhere... like the roof or an exterior wall... like the stucco or something is cracking? Ick.

Our garage door opener has gone into hibernation. It now takes a party of at least two to open our garage door... one inside, madly pushing the button; the other kicking and/or pushing against the door trying to force it up.

Wait, there was a point to this... what was it? OH! Some clarity.

I was at a party this weekend (one of three, all of which were very much fun if a bit overwhelming; Sunday morning when Lucy woke up I asked if she knew what we were doing today and she said "Another party?!?") with both kids climbing/hanging on me, and I realized... I didn't mind.

This was sort of an unusual (that word has three u's. That's a lot!) feeling for me, and I was trying to figure out why. Most parties in recent history, I've been super annoyed that the kids were hanging/clinging and I just wanted them to run/crawl off and play on their own. So there I was, happy to be serving as a human jungle-gym.

Here's my only theory: I have grown to accept them as part of my life, and not just a distraction from my life. Is that terrible? I'm sure most mothers pick that up sooner than I did, but it's a great feeling. Joel's Aunt Denise (who comments here sometimes) sent me a wonderful message when I quit my job back in October about how God showed her that her kids should be her first priority, and never simply an "interruption." And I think I'm beginning to feel that way, too. Which isn't to say that I don't certainly need my Meggo time. I think maybe I'm just finding out how to embrace motherhood.

Speaking of embracing, Ed just turned on his fish-music in his crib which means naptime is over and cuddle-time must begin. Now I get to find a warm spot in the sun to hang with Ed until the Princess of the World wakes up.

Thanks to Julie, Carol, Trish, Kevin, and Dave and Dana for hosting your respective parties over the weekend! We had such a great time. Thanks to Peg and John for driving all the way up from MKE to visit as well! Warm, warm, warm hugs to everyone.

Bored?

If you want a good laugh, go over to the right of this page and click on the link(s) to Jan and Feb 2006. It's mostly me being pregnant forever but I've had SUCH fun rereading everything, now that I have a year's perspective on it all. Of course, maybe it's only fun for me, because it was me... well anyway, read the comments too; there's some good comedy in there. :)

Ed gets a haircut

Here's the new 'do!

Nothing else is new. The windchill is eight below today. I WANT OUT OF THIS HOUSE.

I am, however, a genius for stocking up on fresh foods last weekend. Fresh basil, tomatoes, avocados, and assorted other whole foods have been fortifying my sanity for the last couple days. Well, as much as possible I guess.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me three times, thy name must be Cub Foods.

So I've HAD IT with Cub Foods. They have their stinkin' coupon books with all their "buy-one-get-ones" and you have to rip the coupons out and hand them to the clerk and then you have to bag all of your own groceries even when you have both of your very small and very wiggly and very vocal children with you in the store, so you can't really take the time to watch the clerk's every movement to make sure they actually ring up all the coupons you just handed them, and then you get home and just happen to be glancing at your receipt when you notice that the $10 worth of roast beef that you bought that should only have been $5 was still showing as $10 so you have to go all the way back to the store and have them adjust it and give you back your $5.09 in cash and you're telling me they don't have the technology just to put it back on my card?! because giving it back to me in cash is like not giving it back to me at all and it happens once and I feel stupid and embarrassed and it happens again and I start to get angry and it happens a third time and even though your 18-year-old manager was super nice and actually gave me back the entire $10.38 I spend on roast beef that day, and even though Cub is super close to my house and also I know the layout like the back of my hand so I can actually find a jar of roasted red peppers or wheat germ when I need it, I will be taking my grocery business elsewhere for the next month or so, because I Just. Can't. Take. It.

So, Byerly's, here I come. Or Rainbow, I guess -- it's probably only 5 minutes farther away.

As Joel said last night, if I'm going to get ripped off anyway, I'd like to know about it when it happens (i.e. at Byerly's), rather than finding out after I'm already home.


In More-Positive News!
Ed got his first haircut yesterday! I did it myself, with distraction-help from Joel and Lucy. Ed is so adorable I can hardly stand it. I guess I could post a photo... um...

Far be it from me

I hate to squash my daughter's individuality by gently suggesting she wear something other than dresses. I mean, I like dresses too and all. They're pretty. And what the heck, they were all either hand-me-downs, save one which was $6, so it's not like we're saving them or whatever. And they make her SO happy.

Here is the problem: LOGISTICS.

A. It's January. Minnesota. I can put tights on her, but they are a very thin and ineffectual windbreaker against single-digit windchills. I can put pants under the dress, but then she gets bunchy and tuggy and that causes trouble.

B. She's going potty on the potty. Only occasionally, true, but with enough regularity to make it really difficult to bunch up the dress, pull off the tights/pants, tuck the dress up into itself, and hold the entire package steady atop the toilet for upwards of 5 minutes... with one hand, since the other is invariably either holding a whiny Ed or stiff-arming him to keep him from splashing in the toilet water.

C. I know, I know, I should have a C. I don't.

Have a great weekend!

Do yourself a favor!

Go see my sister Jean's blog and scroll down to her photos of Peru. The photos are breathtaking.

Oh! And we figured out Jean looks more like me when she doesn't wear makeup. Which is why, for a sec, it might look like I'm in Peru. I am not. :(

Photos! At long last! (Sorry if the captions don't line up correctly; also, don't forget you can click on each picture to make it bigger.)

Adorable Ed in his cowboy jammies (just like Joel's!)
The kids with friends-from-Winona's kids. See Carol and Becky's respective blogs for versions of this photo with at least one child actually looking at the camera.


Ed eating jubbalos. You can see his hilarious front teeth.
Waking up happy from nap (for once!)
Lucy dolled up for Elmo. In one of her dozen "pretty dresses" that she insists on wearing. Every. Single. Day. I have a hard time coming up with reasons why she can't wear them. Every. Single. Day.


Ed and my dad sharing a moment at the window.

Hail, Knight of the Woeful Countenance

Where to start?

We took the kids to see Sesame Street Live last night. Our friends, the Curtis family (whom we met in birthing class pre-Lu) got a bunch of free tickets at the last minute, so we, the Curtises, and Liers all met at the Target Center for some Elmo madness. The show was pretty cool. Lucy was an angel (she danced and sang and looked totally wowed by the spectacle, plus the "number of the day" was 8, her favorite number) and Ed was a little wiggly but spent long moments staring at the stage and he yelled along a little bit too. Joel and I got a big kick out of the old-school Sesame Street songs; we did NOT get a kick out of the $8 mylar Elmo balloons they shamelessly peddled during the completely unnecessary intermission. But the evening was very fun and very unexpected, and a nice treat for us all.

You know what's a better treat? The kids proceeding to take FOUR-HOUR NAPS today. Heck, yeah!!

Speaking of sleeping! Ed has slept through the night (from 8ish PM to about 7:30 AM) more often than not the last week! Sweet action. This has obliterated our middle-of-the-night nursing session (I decided to hold off on the weaning for now), so we're just taking it one day at a time. I, inexplicably, seem to wake up much more rested when I actually get to sleep all night. It's amazing.

Lucy is... man. She's Lucy. I really don't do her justice here; you just have to spend some time with her. I'm sure I've said this before, but it's hard to remember she's only two, because she talks so much and has so many things figured out! Okay, okay, actual conversation when my dad was in town on Monday (tip: "Boofer" is my nickname for Joel):

Grampa: Lucy, what's Mommy's name?

Lucy: Meggo.

Grampa: And what's Daddy's name?

Lucy (so pleased with herself): Boofer!!

Okay, what else? Eddie bit Lucy the yesterday. HARD. His teeth, they are few but they are sharp. Usually they get along really well. I asked Lu how old Ed is, and she told me "Thirty." Where does she even get this stuff?

Oh! And we're working on pronouns: people are not "this" and "it"; "her" isn't generic for "he/she/him". And the concept of a double standard: we can tell her to do things but she can't tell us to do things. It's very challenging simply to stay ahead of her.

With upper lip we do a "pico"

They're back!

Jean and Ellen made it home safely from Peru. I hope Jean will blog about the trip; it sounds like it was totally amazing. They went whitewater rafting, biking, and hiking (apparently all three of those words are euphemisms for what actually occurred) and managed to get Ellen a new passport and all that rot.

And they brought back souvenirs! Including a "quena" flute for Lucy. It looks a little like a recorder, but it's not super-intuitive to play, so it comes with an instruction booklet. The booklet is entitled "Quena: method for to learn to play" so you know you're in trouble from the start. Some excerpts follow. I have actually corrected spelling of words I could decipher.

The quena method and size
As belong the family flutes, the quena is a instrument mouth piece with 6 holes before and 1 back.

(Ed. note: so far, so good, right?)

The permit intervening to blow of uslert air and opening and closed different musical notes necessary for any song. The measure the quena it's 37 cm. length for 2 cm. diameter.

TIPPED
We support the quena for medium part with finger index and thumb with chim closed hermetical entrance to quena.
With upper lip we do a "pico" that we throw a flow air weak to entrance of tipped as a "tunnel" try play sound.

FINGERING
Use hands following way:
The index middle and thumbs finger the both hands it cover upper holer and right hand the inferior, the back hole it cover thumb of the left hand. They also work the little finger of the two hands but the thumb finger of left hand.
Also worked the small finger both hands more thumb finger the right hands as supports and back part. ...
That sames the fingers not must, pressure the holes with finger tips more good a few more back at the sames.

Mannery to Utilize Method
There is in musicsing it change the intose a the sounds it rising, descend or changing at his natural state, this figures it put at left part the note and it read so.

.
.
.
.
.

Great! So at least the thing comes with instructions. At first I got the biggest kick out of the last "Mannery..." part, but now I think "FINGERING" is growing on me. We gave the whole shebang to Lucy to see if she could figure it out. She licked the whole thing and then started hitting Ed with it. It's probably a good thing that we can't figure out how to make it make noise yet.

Boring kid updates

Ed says "uh-oh" when he drops his cup on the floor. I guess we're counting that as his first word. He repeats what we say, too, as long as it's "mama" or "dada" or "eddie" (which is more like "ah-dee," so maybe he's just speaking Steve Lindsayese and we don't know it. OK, like four of you will get that joke). I don't recall Lucy repeating things at this age. Wait, I phrased that incorrectly: Lucy did not repeat sounds, back before she knew words. Does that make sense? Now, as you know, she's a stinkin' parrot.

Lucy ends every sentence with "...okay?". Ex: "Lucy, it's time to brush your teeth." "No, okay?" I know exactly where this comes from, as JG and I end everything we say with "okay?" -- I think we do it to make sure Lu heard/understood us. Well, she's picked it up.

P.S. Today got a lot better when both kids took 3+hour naps. Sweeeeet.