Thanks, Raq! I'm gonna send it off shortly. Eek! I'm nervous about this one. I'd really like it, as it wouldn't require that I use my Federal Work Study (I don't think)...so, it would be more steady. Plus, it's in my field of study, which would also be good and helpful.

Last night, I guess following Teppy's dream about Lilybean & Susan's about Annabel, I dreamt that I drove to Louisiana to rescue the latter two (dream geography prevailing, of course). Annabel was perfectly lucid and articulate, and helped me devise our escape plans, but warned me not to let her mother know, otherwise she'd send her to school early and *that* sounded like a drag.

OK, that's hilarious, especially given that I've been stressing about her non-verbality again! She turned 17 months this week, and the 6th of every month is now the time where I freak out over her lack of talking, what might be causing it, etc. I really shouldn't have watched Letterman last night, for example--hearing Gwyneth Paltrow go on about the cute things 16-month-old Apple says didn't help me at all.

I'ma say it over here, too: Yay, Stephanie!!!

I really shouldn't have watched Letterman last night, for example--hearing Gwyneth Paltrow go on about the cute things 16-month-old Apple says didn't help me at all.

Wait'll she learns to say, "What the hell were you thinking when you named me Apple?"

I know you always get to hear the stories about kids who didn't talk until "late," Susan, but one more: My boss' son said not one thing until he was 26 months old. Then, one evening, he walked into the dining room and announced that he did not want to eat supper.

Mal (not talking) has learned to razz. He wants to crawl so badly, and was on his tummy, arms and legs going furiously and not getting anywhere, and suddenly he started razzing. We figure he thinks he's added an outboard motor.

YAY FOR GIRLS!!

YAY FOR NO MORE IRAQ (FOR STEPH"S JOE)!!

Em now says, "uh-oh bubble" and is the sutest thing EVAH.

I have a job interview on Monday. Granted, it's for a position that I'm WAY overqualified for (and the woman knows and recognized that), but hey, it's an interview at school. Yay!

Hopefully I'll hear back on one of the two that better fit my qualifications.

Owen babbles non stop. And loudly. With only about three words I can understand. I'm convinced he's just inventing his own language and expects us to learn it.

Stephanie, that's so EXCITING! YAY!!!

Good luck on the interview, vw.

We're thrilled she's saying "Uh-oh bubble" and not "Fucking cocksucking goddamn bastard son of a whore bubble!"

That's reassuring, Cashmere, because it's more or less what Annabel does, only NSM babble nonstop as occasionally when she's in the mood for it. She says hi, daddy, and bye, will echo "thank you" as ay-ooh, occasionally (as in maybe once a week) will come out with mama, kee for kitty, or bayba for baby, though she hasn't done the latter in weeks despite all my pointing to pictures of babies and asking her to tell me what they are. And sometimes she'll echo. Last week I was getting her lunch ready and talking about what I was putting on her tray. I said, "And this is cheese." She said, "izz izz eez?" So it's not like she doesn't make a sound, but she's not making lots of obvious progress either. I'll be glad when she finally gets through this so I can stop stressing about it (at which point I'll probably start stressing about her reading, since DH and I were both self-taught early readers--but at least I don't fret overly about her health and safety or other aspects of her development).