Yay! I wish I liked the taste of absinthe even a fraction as much as I like the idea of drinking it and the whole ritual.

Yay! I wish I liked the taste of absinthe even a fraction as much as I like the idea of drinking it and the whole ritual.

You and Pete. But yes, if you don't like the taste of aniseed, absinthe is going to be a not very pleasant experience.

Oh that sounds just lovely...

Tipsy and no headache... Mmm...

But spoons and noses are ouchy together. They are unmixy.

The cat is sprawled in front of the a/c. She found the cool spot. Smrt.

Mmm. Absinthe.

Of course, my serving size of any booze now is about 1-2 tablespoons. Which means my scotch is going to last ages.

Me, I want to know what happened at the party where the Hippos went Berserk. Because if seven hippos heading west left six hippos quite distressed, well, there's totally a missing scene in there.

Ugh. What an exhausting evening.

Annabel was one of three toddlers there at tonight's cookout--Sara and Johanna are a few months older. The other two girls mostly stuck with their parents. They did not have to be chased at a run to keep them from plummeting down stairs. They did not grab the doggie's tail, nor did they pick up the doggie's toys, place them in its mouth (and this is not a tiny dog, we're talking big mouth and big teeth here), and then take them out to chew on themselves. They did not grab any unattended cup within reach and drink from it. Nor did they grab handfuls of ice to carry around with them every time they wandered by the drinks table. If they were curious about something, they poked it with a single finger rather than grabbing it with both fists.

I wondered aloud if the difference was that the other girls were a little older, or if there was something about toddler discipline DH and I needed to figure out. The couples there who had more than one kid said, no, not at all, you just happened to draw a different personality type than the other girls.

This too shall pass, right? Before I drop dead from exhaustion or a heart attack?

I am guessing that is what you get when you get an inquisitve child. Soon it will be the Why?s.

And then I'll wonder why I was in such a hurry for her to learn to talk, huh? Not to mention pray that she'll be an early reader like DH and I were so she'll have a quiet, non-destructive way to satisfy curiosities on her own.

It's like the very thing that made her such a good kid before she was mobile--the fact that you could take her anywhere, because she was happy and fascinated by anything new she could watch go by--is making her such a handful now, because just looking at interesting things isn't enough anymore.

I tended to disassemble anything I could get my hands on growing up. Amazingly I ended up being able to put much of it back together. I'm sure it drove my parents nuts, but it's probably one of the reasons I'm so good dealing with technology today.

Not to mention pray that she'll be an early reader like DH and I were so she'll have a quiet, non-destructive way to satisfy curiosities on her own.

I was an early reader, and I'm pretty sure all it really did was put ideas into my head that lead to more sophisticated acts of destruction.

I was an early reader, and I'm pretty sure all it really did was put ideas into my head that lead to more sophisticated acts of destruction

Same here. Also, my parents would occasionally say things like "Would you quit reading and go make a mess somewhere?"

I am already worried about Mal, at the tender age of 4 months. He's watched Baby Einstein the four times I've put it on, rapt, and bitched when it ended. But he shows next to no interest in books when I hold him on my lap and read to him. Even the big shiny board books are uninteresting.

I don't have a quote, but billytea mentioned Port Moresby upthread...I'm pretty sure that Port Moresby still holds the honors as having the highest personal crime rate of anywhere we have an embassy or consulate (this includes places like Brazzaville, Port-au-Prince, and Lagos). Our housing there all has iron bars across the windows and doors, so the robbers will chop through the wall to get inside.