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.

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

Susan, there are many a days when I say, "fuck it" I'm not going ANYWHERE because O's so hard to contain. Store trips with him need to be short or with another person because he hates to be confined in the cart more than 15 minutes. And he grabs literally. every. thing. I'm not surprised, though. If I leave him to his own devices in his baby-proofed areas, his main goal is to dump out any container or drawer he can find and spread the contents everywhere. It's only when he's done with that that he'll take a book and plop down somewhere to regain his energy to spread more chaos.

The ped assured me today that that was a healthy curiousity but man, it's running my ass ragged.

My DH's mom had a tradition of giving him his own special ornament every Christmas. This started because one time, when he was Owen's age, she noticed when they got home from Christmas shopping that he'd taken one of the store decor ornaments when she wasn't looking.

We still have it.

Sorry for the toddlers that are runny our mommies ragged. But, yay for good doctor's appointments.

We still have it.

Bwah!

I am up. I do not want to be up. But, it's giving me a chance to get caught up on e-mail and whatnot. I think I was stressing about the trash. We had SO much this week, because we missed it last week (usually Not!Emily takes out the trash, but he didn't come home last Friday and forgot), and we were cleaning off the balcony and getting rid of stuff that's just been sitting there since before me and Emily moved in. Not!Emily said that he would take care of it all, but I felt guilty leaving it all for him, so I tried to take a bunch of stuff down. Of course, it exhausted me, and I ended up leaving most of it for him. So, I told him I'd get up early and take down what he couldn't. I didn't mean to wake up *this* early, though!

I have a moment before people arrive for our games night. (Hi vw!) I got an email back from one particularly lovely lady, to assure me that she hadn't been ignoring me, but had been having internet trouble. So that's nice.

That is nice, billytea. (Hi!)

Have fun at game night!

I am up. I do not want to be up.

This is me, every single hour of the day. Except those where I am, in fact, sleeping.

Sounds like pre-party obsessing to me, vw! A fine tradition.