Hey, it just means I need to be in a different level. Make it happen.

I love "Obbie" as a nickname for her big brother. So adorable.

Footdie (also, Foogie) = Feathers. Things of horror and disgust. Usually said in a state of high agitation.

Why are feathers horrific to Matilda?

Oh and I am reading this article from this Sunday's NYT Magazine about internet trolls.

Leif had a brief but very intense fear of flowers. He said they looked like mouths.

There are 1,524 people in the US with my first name and only 518 people in the US with my last name and 1 or fewer (hee) with both.

I love kid logic.

Me too! It reminds me of my brother when he was a small child - he wouldn't say "open the door"/"close the door", he'd say "open the door open"/"open the door closed." Similarly, we'd have "turn on the light on" and "turn on the light off".

I, on the other hand, abbreviated everything possible. If I wanted the light off, I'd say "toff the light", and "goodnight, sweet dreams" became "greams".

Interestingly, my brother prefers wordy books with lots of description, while I like terse prose.

Given that there are only about 1500 people with my first name (in the U.S., there are 350,000 in France), and 900 with my last name, it is probably not surprising that there are 1 or fewer of me in the US.

Back on the Fall/Winter warm/cool color thing again... I just read a website that seems to say that if your skin has yellow/warm undertones you are a winter, and if it has cool/blue undertones you are an autumn. Which I am pretty sure goes against everything I've read elsewhere.

That is odd, but looking at their chart I think I'm a six which leads them to say I'm a spring, but one that should only wear the bluer bright colors, which gives me pretty much the color palette I have using the What Not to Wear mid-tones.

Why are feathers horrific to Matilda?

We don't know. But they're in the couch pillows and so they turn up in the living room fairly often.

Even more complicated, I superstitiously pick up bird feathers before Emmett's baseball games. It always seems to bring us luck when I can find a crow feather. His all-star / tournament team is named The Eagles. So I figure it's a totem.

Anyway, she was in my arms one day and was delighted to find a breast pocket on my shirt. "Pockie!" she said, and then began to root around in the pocket.

And then she pulled out a feather and the look on her face was such a mixture of horror, betrayal and confusion. "Footdie! Pockie!"

Now she seems to accept that she might find feathers in my pockets and treats it as a matter of great mystery. The Great Enigma of Daddy And Why He Is Aligned With the Dark Forces.

The Great Enigma of Daddy And Why He Is Aligned With the Dark Forces.

Please don't show her The Empire Strikes Back yet. The after-movie toddler-talk report would be too heartbreaking.

Hee! Yeah, he's evil, so? He's still my Dah.

Leif had a brief but very intense fear of flowers. He said they looked like mouths.

I still remember the panic when my mom had to take me out of the theatre at three. We'd gone to see Disney's Alice, and flowers that sang just wigged me out, man. That shit ain't *right*.