Developments at our house, Vol. 3

Some more developments at our house in the past few days:

1. I accidentally left M- unattended with a yogurt cup on the coffee table, and I didn't end up with yogurt all over the couch, or anything at all for that matter. We must be making progress.

2. D- discovered the ability to step on his own finger, and how frustrating it is when you have no one to blame but yourself for pain.

3. M- sneezed and a miniature (appropriately enough) chocolate chip flew out of her mouth and hit my foot. I have no idea where she got this from, so I've gone ahead and assumed that D- dropped one at some point earlier in the week. It's too strange to ponder beyond that.

4. Possibly in an attempt to top M- and her chocolate chip, D- turned up at my brother's fiancee's bridal shower this weekend (at my parents' house) chewing on an unidentified black chunk of something. This was brought to my attention, since he was showing it off upon request but was unable to explain what it was.

I took a look at it and had no more luck recognizing it, and all I could get out of him was that he found it somewhere at our house before we left. The closest thing I could guess it was is half a dried blueberry (uncooked, hence all the chewing) from the "Mixed Berry" oatmeal he had the previous day. Again, guessing beyond that is too intimidating.

5. M- has begun insistently calling out "Deet! Deet!!" (meaning "teeth", not the potent insecticide) and tugging on pant legs whenever any of us are brushing our teeth, standing near a tooth brush, using or standing near any other type of brush, or whenever she remembers she has teeth. Apparently we won't have to worry too much about dental hygiene with either of our kids. J-'s curse may be broken already.

6. D- was sitting on the couch staring off into space, then he suddenly said "What? Did you say something?" I said, "Nope." He thought for a second and said, "Did I?"

Space cadet, indeed.

Note: Here are the other volumes.

Beware the dentist in March!

On this day, the Ides of March, I believe we should all be as idle as possible, out of respect for the opportunity to have an excuse to be more idle than usual.

To this end, M- found a travel See'n'Say at the bottom of the toy box and she has since chosen to spend the entire day laying on her stomach on a blanket, pushing the button over and over again. Since M- is unavailable for anything as strenuous as playing, that leaves D- no choice but to race a Matchbox car back and forth across our coffee table as many times as he can before I go insane from the repetitive noises filling our house.

Meanwhile, J- is napping to get over her ordeal at the dentist's office, leaving me to suffer alone. Don't tell the kids, who think that going to the dentist is Very Fun, but even though J- is slavishly devoted to our very friendly dentist, her horrible childhood experiences with bitter old tooth-torturers in rural Maine still make it hard for her to smile and not clench the armrests while he pokes her mouthful of denial-related cavities. Poor J-.

Only one more filling to go!