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.

I think Annabel was nearer six months before she really seemed to look at the books. I read to her a lot when she was tiny, but mostly because she seemed to enjoy the sound of my voice and because it made me feel like an Involved Parent to read her a few pages from whichever Aubrey/Maturin novel I had going.

Now she'll bring us picture books to read to her, but will often page through them so fast we can't fit all the words in. And she grabs for the pages of whatever I'm reading myself.

Yeah, the closest we've come to book enjoyment was a couple days ago, when I was re-reading HP5 and read out loud, so as not to be Neglecting the Baby. He actually seemed to like listening. It may just be the sitting still and looking parts that are not popular.

Speaking of HP5, I have comments upon re-read, but I can't venture into Literary due to my compulsive highlighting of whitefont. So I will share the comments here:

- I totally get why people thought Lupin and Sirius were a couple. Didn't see it the first time, as I was waiting for plot events, but saw it this time.

- Condoleeza Rice is a taller, more slender, Dolores Umbridge.

- "Toerag" is a great word.

Lily enjoys her Boynton book time--though possibly just for the fic--and dozes off to Goodnight Moon, but was far more interested in The Job than she had any real right to be when we were watching it last night (tonight, of course, I distracted her with boobie).

I sense danger on the horizon, but I guess I'm good if her first celebrity boyfriend is Denis Leary.