I had a great weekend with my sister and my niece.

Awesome to hear, Zen.

My new niece continues to be the cutest.

BABY. I haven't cuddled a baby in a while. Hmm. Where can I find a baby... none of my friends here have a baby.

I should not still be up... but I've gotten a serious bee in my bonnet about pulling together a Hobbity picnic next Saturday for my birthday (and Bilbo's and Frodo's). So... would love to hear ideas for games, food, favors (yes, this is an adult party, though there may be some kids there). Major bonus points for cheap, easy, and fast.

I've been reading the books with the kids, Sarah. As far as I can tell a proper hobbit meal should have some nice cheese, butter, lots of mushrooms, and a good beer. And lots of it.

Oh, smonster, you will appreciate. I was reading an okcupid message from someone thinking "I can't possibly respond, because your command of spelling and grammar is so poor, it's a shame you're cute in your pictures"....and then I noticed this:

I am also good at krotching and cross stitch

Krotching?!? I'm thinking perhaps she means crochet??

Some of these look good.

As far as I can tell a proper hobbit meal should have some nice cheese, butter, lots of mushrooms, and a good beer. And lots of it.

I think I'd like to be a Hobbit sometimes.

I am also good at krotching and cross stitch

oh DEAR.

Conversation with Ryan last night. Context: he's been sick since Saturday, with a chest cold and fever (we've no idea what we're supposed to feed him). He woke up at 2 a.m. in a state of extreme upset because "someone had been pulling on his Bubby" (i.e. his stuffed toy frog and stalwart sleepytime companion lo these many years gone by). I assured him it was just a bad dream, and we chatted for a while; after he was feeling more settled, he then confided that his nappy was "full of wee", and could stand to be changed. Now, on the ceiling above his change table, we had placed some alphabet stick-ons. Each letter has an animal picture to go with it. Thus begins the following exchange:

Ryan: "There's letter Q!"
Me: "That's right! Do you know what bird that is with the letter Q?"
Ryan: "No, but it starts with Q."
Me: "It does, it's called a quail."
Ryan: "And there's letter V!"
Me: "Right! Do you know that bird?"
Ryan: "Nooo..."
Me: "That's a vulture, and it starts with V."
Ryan: "What else starts with V?"
Me: "Well, let's see. How about violin?"
Ryan: "Yes!"
Me: "And then there's also val--"
Ryan: "And velociraptor!"
Me: "...That's-- Ok, that's very good, Ryan."

The palaeo-love is strong in this one.

More about Ryan, because I have much love for the little boy today. He's been learning the names of many dinosaurs (his favourite is the Triceratops), but last night we got into it. I told him that there aren't any dinosaurs anymore, and how did we know they used to be on the Earth? And he didn't know, so I told him it's because we found their bones. He got very excited, because he remembered that in my dinosaur book, they have lots of dinosaur bones.

This is Ryan's dinosaur book: [link] It's quite excellent.
My dinosaur book: [link] Also excellent. A couple of weeks ago, we sat down together and looked up dinosaurs in both books, and Ryan remembered that there were lots of bones in my book.

So then I started explaining to him that there aren't any dinosaurs anymore, but birds came from dinosaurs. I told him that a mummy and daddy dinosaur could have a baby dinosaur that's just a little bit different from them, and then it has a baby that's a bit different, and so on; and after a long, long time, they become birds. Not that he really grasps that yet, but he gets that there's a connection between dinosaurs and birds. I pointed out that some dinosaurs in his book has feathers, and he understood that; then I explained that the dinosaurs had teeth, but that changed with the birds, and now they have beaks. And he commented, "And some dinosaurs have beaks!" He was absolutely right, there was one I'd pointed out called Psittacosaurus ("parrot-lizard") with a parrot-like beak, and of course his favourite dinosaur, Triceratops, likewise has a beak. (And eighty teeth as well, I think it has the most teeth of any dinosaur.) And he made the connection, that birds and some dinosaurs had beaks, and birds and dinosaurs are related. (Erroneously; the beaked dinosaurs were ornithischian - bird-hipped - and the birds' ancestors were the carnivorous, saurischian theropods, i.e. lizard-hipped - just for a spot of irony. But he grasped the connection, and started looking for similarities.)

Mere words cannot express how I've looked forward to the day when I could talk to Ryan about such matters. And here it is. (He's feeling his way towards the discovery that some dinosaurs were carnivorous, and I'm not rushing him; he has ten dinosaur stickers on his wall, and he still believes they are all good friends. He really is a thoughtful little man, in every sense.)

Triceratops was my favorite dinosaur too.

In fact, I learned how to read with dinosaur books and Dr. Seuss.

I am also good at krotching and cross stitch

Krotching?!? I'm thinking perhaps she means crochet??

I have a friend who crochets and knits and does other crafty stuff. She registered on some message board somewhere as "Crocheter," and got a lot of grief from people who told her she needed to change her name to something that wasn't vulgar.

They thought it was "Crotch eater." Hand to god, this is true.

Triceratops was my favorite dinosaur too.

It is a fine choice. My favourite was, I think, Deinonychus; Ankylosaurus and Stegosaurus were also right up there with Triceratops. Generally speaking, I was pretty keen on well-defended ornithischians.