Happy brithday, Jessica!

Oh my gosh mac is adorable! His smile is just melty.

tommyrot it's totally fascinating watching kids learn to count. You can totally see the wee cogs working. Right now Isaac is big on counting, his sister is working on spelling.

All the experiments I want to do on babies are totally unethical. For example, raise a group of babies in a completely isolated environment with robots that don't speak, to see what kind of culture they come up with....

The kids or the robots?

I love watching the cogs in children. If you're paying attention (and are lucky enough to be around at the moment) you can practically see the spark in the synapses when a cognitive leap is made. It can be hilarious. Like telling you not to look when they are in the midst of havoc, which you wouldn't have noticed had they not mentioned it!

Learning the basics of manipulation can be pretty hysterical, too. I'm not talking simple cause and effect, but more deliberately- trying to get you to give a specific kind of emotional response. Like what D was doing when I was there. He'd try to rile me so transparently and once he realized I wouldn't play would cheerfully proclaim "let's talk about something fun now!" Hah.

Every day, show you baby a bowl of marbles and ask her to give you one. Wait until your baby can do this. This actually takes some time, during which you'll either get nothing or maybe a handful of marbles.

Um. Am I the only one instantly imagining a third possibility that ends with a trip to the ER?

Um. Am I the only one instantly imagining a third possibility that ends with a trip to the ER?

No, because marbles look like grapes. Or even olives, a favorite snack of my strange daughter.

It is fun to watch the mental gears turn, though. Annabel has been counting objects for awhile, but she's just now gotten good at counting on her fingers, and she's very proud of the skill.

Lovely mac pictures!

ooooh, yes! please to get scrapbooking tape. probably two rolls.

ok. how do I get it to you?

I'm having trouble identifying a handful of grace/noah pics. bleh.

a handful for you to keep or in general? Take what you want.

I should go to yoga.

I think I remember flea mentioning Casper putting olives on her fingertips before eating them--which I think is just too adorable.

Um. Am I the only one instantly imagining a third possibility that ends with a trip to the ER?

Nope.

I caught Owen trying to clean out his own ear with a q-tip he found in my gym bag and I freaked immediately, imagining that he had punctured his ear drum before I could get it away from him.

When my cousin was little, we tried to make him put the olives on his fingers, and he totally didn't care! It was hilarious, because we were all cracking up, and he was like, "WTF, dudes? Don't these go in my mouth??" He must have been like a year and a half.

Casper putting olives on her fingertips before eating them

My dad rightly pointed out that we'd be disowned if we renamed her so their names would combine into a race car driver's name.

And as I oh-so-sanely pointed out, you don't disown the guy with the cool toys.

Casper putting olives on her fingertips before eating them

Isn't that how you eat olives?