Life is a Banquet

I heart Moxie et al

This is one of the best blog posts and honest exchanges I have read in a very long time.

This is another victory for honesty. Let's embrace honest about what it means to be mothers, wives, women right now and cast aside the myths that weigh us down. Houses do not have to be perfect. Motherhood does not have to be all-fulfilling and all-consuming. It's time to kill superwoman.

I am done with guilt. I want to live a practical life, not a perfect one. Here's a start:

Functional. It's the new black.

She wants what she wants when she wants it

I drive this cart
Originally uploaded by wavybrains.

The manifesto of the 18 month old (3/25/2009):

I want to wear what I want when I want it. Clothes which i have not picked out myself are useless. However, since I cannot yet dress myself, you will be obliged to change my outfit at my whim. I reserve the right to change my mind mid-change. I reserve the right to remove my pants moments after changing because I can. If I holler "diaper," and then holler when being changed, this is to be expected. I want it changed, but I don't want the changing. Should you be lax in this area because you wish to avoid the battle, I will remove the offending diaper and hand it to you, or I will waddle like an overloaded duck until you take note of my distress. I want what I want when I want it.

I want to eat what I want when I want it. As a royal personage, I require a tester for all my food. I must feed you a bite before I can eat myself. If you like it, I will eat your portion for you. Conversely, if you have something that I cannot, I know that it is worth eating. No testing required. I will hoard your packs of gum and store them in my secret hiding hole with the rogue chocolate chip I found. I will eat portions larger than Daddy until you actually fix me a plate that big, and then I will eschew all food. I will name food that I want. Woe be you if they are not in the house or if they run out before I am full. I will not be fooled. I know that you have vanilla ice cream while I have a lump of sour cream. Unacceptable. Do not bother fixing me snacks as everyone else's snacks are tastier.

I want to do what I want to do when I want it. I will back up into your lap with a story, and you will want to melt with the sweetness. I will pat the square of tile next to me, and you will turn to goo until, however, you select the WRONG square or you wish to move. Unacceptable. I run the show here. I will climb. I will. I will tap dance on the table. I will climb on and off the dining room table bench a zillion times a day. I will climb into my own high chair. This is my right. If I want to swiffer the kitchen floor at 7:30 a.m., hop to woman! There's cleaning to be done!

I am 18 months old and the world is my oyster. I have 30 odd words now. Sentences, I'm coming for you. I can push buttons and draw scribbles. Next stop, blogging. Freedom will not taste this sweet again and restraint will not be so bitter. At least not until I am 18 years old. Mama weeps at the mere thought.

Review: Baby Einstein World Music

Tavy loves Mom Central. She loves their white mailing envelopes, their friendly logos, the lovely packing materials, and once she's spent an hour with the envelope, she loves what's inside there too. This time, we were thrilled to test Baby Einstein's new World Music DVD and CD.  The DVD is rated for 3 months and up, but includes tips and settings for using it with older kids. I loved the idea of new music--I have certain toddler songs burned into my brain, and I want my brain back. We decided to try it out under a variety of settings, with special focus on using it with friends. In the case the Easter Bunny is reading, I have a variety of suggestions and tips for gifting this combo. PLUS I have an awesome Baby Einstein book I found on my own to share as well.

 For its premire showing, Tavy took the DVD to the lovely Katie's house. I went off to grade in the car (seriously. It's amazing how much work I can get done in the front seat of my car. No giggling now!), and Katie decided to see if the DVD worked to tame Hurricane Tavy. Her daughter is around 9 months now, crawling, pulling up, and very mobile. She's a tropical storm. She reported that while the DVD added some entertainment to the playdate, it wasn't a magic potion. Darn. However, Tavy liked when the babies appeared on the screen, and she felt it was a nice adjunct to playing. "Look! A baby! A drum!" (Snatch other baby from jaws of doom). SUGGESTION: From her experience, I could see this being a nice surprise to leave for the babysitter in your life. Experienced Mamas like Katie need fewer tricks than the average high school or non-parent babysitter. This would be a good DVD to leave behind with a pre-mobile baby, especially a pre-mobile, NURSING baby where the sitter feels particularly powerless.

My latest search has been for a playdate friendly dance DVD (i.e. keep children in one room so adults can pretend to talk while picking crackers out of the rug and resolving toy disputes or allow one mama to grade papers while the other mama keeps toddlers alive to the eternal gratitude of the professor mama). Tavy took the DVD to her pal S's house next. S is a month younger than T. He is also a very mobile child, but he generally has more of an interest in videos (loves Yo Gabba Gabba) than Miss Must Destroy All I Survey Before Bed. After running the Mamas ragged and eating our hostess out of house and home, we popped in the DVD, and selected the toddler mode. Toddler mode adds more words and flashes written words on the screen. This was my first time viewing the DVD, and I was surprised that the music was still instantly indentifable as Baby Einstein. It's still classical music, but it has the addition of instruments from around the world. Unfortunately, our two toddlers needed something with a faster pace.

SUGGESTION: This would be great for a multi-age playdate with babies of multiple stages. I plan to use it for this in the future, bridging the gap between the mosh pit of storytime and the all-out chaos of unstructured play. I plan to use this for lap-sit time with everyone focused on the video. It's not distracting enough to allow for adult conversation, but it can be a good teaching tool for staging your own DIY baby classes with friends. Baby Einstein videos are designed for a lot of parent-baby interaction, and this can feel a little silly when it's just you and your two foot tall shadow. The pre-verbal stage is rather lonely. Why not share the awkwardness with other moms? You can take turns pointing out and naming the instruments.

Last, we tried the DVD at home a few times. As I mentioned above, the DVD works best with the child on your lap and the adult narrating the DVD. Viewing tips are included in the bonus features and can also be found on the website. When I pointed out a lot of things, I held Tavy's interest fairly well. The DVD also includes a number of short five minute segements that you can individually select. Tavy has yet to watch a whole DVD of anything. I like the short segements because it gives us a focused burst of activity, and I don't feel frustrated when she's ready to move on quickly. Also, because it's so short, I have the energy for lots of narration and interaction.

SUGGESTION: Watching Tavy with the video in different situations, I decided that this is an excellent shower gift. This would be a great gift from an Uncle or single friend who feels more at home in the "entertainment" aisle than the onesie aisle. Then, the new parents can have it on standby for babysitters, playdates, and middle-of-the-night-try-anything moments. I think younger babies would probably love this the most. Had Tavy had this when she was in the swing-bouncer-jumpy seat stage, I think she would have squealed and fawned all over it.

Her current state makes the CD the better choice for her. The CD features more of the same classical music with a slight ethnic beat; however, I liked the CD music far better than the DVD music, and I'm eager to use it as "mood music" for the next playdate. The CD is great because you don't have the frustration of no one watching the TV, and you can do other activities or focus on the music as you see fit. We clean to the CD as it's a good windown for naps or pre-dinner shuffle choice. Other parents might like to add this to their bedtime routine if they use music--there's nothing too activitating here. It could be a good choice for a car music too. The CD plus the DVD would make a wonderful gift. Add a maraca or other rattle, you'd be a hit!

Two weekends ago, I attended a book signing for two of my friends and couldn't resist browsing the clearance racks. For $2.99 on clearance at Borders, I got Baby Einstein's My First Book of Letters. This has quickly become one of her all-time favorite books, and it's rocketed up my chart as well. This book features famous paintings to illustrate the alphabet, and while I could do without the annoying Ghecko on the opposing pages, I love this idea of getting kids used to looking at a variety of different types of artwork and thinking about art beyond just animation and illustration. I have noticed that since we got this book, I take the time to point out other paintings to her when we are out and around. If you are near a Borders Sale Rack, look for this steal!

Balls in the Air

Now this one!
Originally uploaded by wavybrains.

There are times when the entire blogosphere seems to be grappling with the same problems as me, and this when the value of all that random blog reading pays off: I don't feel so alone. From bloggers lamenting how hard it is to juggle full-time mothering with part-time work, to blogger getting honest about what gets lost in that balance (housework, partner time), to bloggers being honest about what they do when stressed, I feel like I owe the universe a big "Thank You" right now.

IT IS HARD. Last night, I stayed up till 2 a.m. cleaning the kitchen because it had been over 2 weeks since we were caught up on dishes and triple that time since the floor saw a mop. I collapsed in bed thanking my lucky stars that I got to sleep in this morning. And still the guilt that I didn't use the time for laundry, syllabus writing, research, or fiction writing. So many balls in the air, it is inevitable that some keep falling.

But, I'm okay. In fact, I'm better than okay. I think I LIKE having all of this to juggle. I love the place where I am with my career right now, but I hate the stress that it places on Freak. I love the toddler stage so much, but lo the mental drain. It's nice to have more than cleaning to escape to, and it's lovely to have the toddler world to escape back to.

What balls do you have in the air? What keeps getting dropped?

Review: The Mighty Queens of Freeville

Calling all Gilmore Girl fans! I have your spring break reading right here. Contest at the end of the post.

It is funny how well you feel like you know someone from their writing. Often, when you have a fiction author with one successful series who then switches direction, the reader struggles with the new shift. "Hey! This isn't MY author! MY author wouldn't write like this!" And the reader struggles to like a book that they might have absolutely adored had it not been because of expectations that they had for that author. The same is also true in the nonfiction world. Mother Talk's Blog Tour for the Mighty Queens of Freeville excited me because I am a long-time fan of Amy Dickinson, author of "Ask Amy" and NPR correspondent. The Amy who emerges from The Mighty Queens is a different Amy from her other incarnations

The Mighty Queens of Freeville is racking up some much deserved buzz, but based on my "picture" of her + the buzz/cover copy, I was expecting a slightly different book. I loved the voice that emerges from it, but it's a shade different from her "Ask Amy" voice. As part of this voice, Mighty Queens deviates from much nonfiction by being not exactly a collection of essays and not exactly a unified narrative. Instead, it's like meeting an old friend, one whom you haven't seen in 20 odd years, and having drinks where she catches you up on the high points of her life. It's a fabulous, witty, tender conversation, and I once I figured THAT out, I was able to fully embrace the book for what it is. I have spared you the trouble, so you should enjoy it from the get-go.

This book chronciles Dickson's journey after a difficult divorce. It's part her journey to Ask Amy and part her journey to a place where she can finally break the streak of unhappy unions that plague her family. Her family is one of the most compelling things about the book. Her mother, who carried on after Amy's father literally walked away from the family farm, became a professor in her "second life." Amy's Aunts and sisters flesh out the community of women who surround Amy. I really wanted to see more of them and more of the local color of tiny Freeville, as I am huge fan of tight-knit families and teeny towns.

However, the focus is on Amy's personal journey, not the town, so we get to visit London, D.C., Chicago, and New York along the way. The contrast between Amy's married life in London with her life in Freeville is one of the high points of the book. This is much more a "divorce" memoir than a "mothering" memoir. It would be a perfect choice for a friend going through a rough spilt, especially a friend for whom you don't know quite what to do, and you want to tell her that it will all work out, but you don't want to sound trite. Just give her this book.

The book is such a perfect gift for the newly-single-again playground crowd because it doesn't dwell on the negative stuff but it doesn't sugar coat it either. Instead, just like that old friend playing catch up, it lightly glosses over details in a slightly maddening way. I was dying to ask how she afforded such large gaps of unemployment and other little gossipy details that polite conversation forbids. However, the conversation is interesting enough that the reader is swept along to touch down in the next highpoint of the journey.

The relationship between Amy and her daughter reminds me very much of Loreli and Rory from Gilmore Girls. If you enjoyed that show, you will really like this book. The extended family is like Stars Hollow with significantly less cash floating around. In short, read this book and share it with other women in your life who need a good empowering story right now. But, go into it expectation and preconception free--it may help to forget that this this is Ask-Amy and NPR Amy until later in the book when that becomes relevant again. Instead, focus on the community of women that surrounds this book, and invite yourself in. Have a nice long chat. You'll emerge feeling reengerized.

And, lucky us, local readers can ACTUALLY chat with Amy when she reads at Salem Public Library on April 9, 2009 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance/$12 at the door. The library really needs our support, plus it will be fun to see how the public Amy/NPR Amy/Ask Amy/ Freeville Amy all jockey for space on the stage.Click here for more details.

CONTEST: First local reader who promises to attend the reading (bonus chocolates if you sit near me) gets my review copy The Mighty Queens of Freeville. Nonlocal readers, what authors are coming to libraries near you? Have anyone you want me to read?

Mingy Has Much to Say

We do not condone
Originally uploaded by wavybrains.

Dear Small All-Too-Mobile Human,

Yet, again, it falls to I, the cat, to educate and enlighten you. It warms the cockles of my furry heart that you can now say names. Or the names that you have assigned us. I, Mingy, am E! E! E! The dog is sit-sit-sit. While the dog now answers gleefully to her new name, I am not amused to be reduced to a VOWEL. Ming-E! Ming-E! See what a difference a syllable can make?

Last week, you decided to ESCAPE your cage wherein you sleep. I cannot fathom your reasoning. For the last two years, much of my day has been spent trying to get IN baby equipment. Do you understand that in Cat Heaven where my poor departed brother resides there is a changing table, a stroller, a bouncy sit (with working batteries!), a crib, and a bassinet all placed in the sun? The large humans provided you with a cage, added fleece sheets, added your own personal Warming God, and gave you a machine that filters out that annoying beast clomping around overhead. Oh, and it blocks noise from the dog, too. What more do you want?

Apparently, a lot. Within hours of your escape, your cage was in pieces. A huge, fluffy rug NOT FOR MINGY was installed. Oh the cushiness. . . NOT FOR MINGY. Mingy didn't even get the pole that the cushy came in on, because YOU wanted it to be a giant didgeridoo, so it was. Your cage was transformed into a lounge. NOT FOR PETS. Large fluffy pillows were placed underneath. We had to watch while you did the dance of glee upon your new throne.

Of course, you were dancing! You figured out to get the humans to do what you want by doing what they DO NOT WANT. It's brilliant. You are the mistress of this tactic. Later that night, when you went to sleep in your new luxury lounge atop your new cushy carpet, with floor pillows, I was locked out only to woken from my cold, dark, hard bed by the large humans screeching. You were missing! All the lights came on! There was much hollering! I was just getting hopeful, when you were found. Oh glee. You were sleeping UNDER your lounge. Yes, they reconfigured your cage for you to allow you easy egress and ingress, placed new carpeting, added floor pillows, and you chose to sleep on just the rug, far away from the Warming God who shares your room, far from your pillows. What were you thinking?

You were thinking: "I want bumpers." Because, next thing you know, the large humans were doing crafts again (I am always very cautious of their artistic impluses and suggest you do the same) wrapping up foam (NOT for Mingy to scratch!) in a quilt and giving you something to cuddle up against.

As another example, you wanted a bath the other day (why, we have no clue), and when you were told to wait (something we have great experience with), you climbed into OUR WATER BOWL. And guess who had to wait for a refill while you got a bath? Yep. That's right. We waited.

We were still waiting when you figured out how to make the magic talking box work. And you made it play your favorite noise. AFTER the round large human had told you, "No more signing time!" Guess who got to watch signing time?

You use these skills on behalf of the canine. "Bah! Bah! Sit-Sit!" And out you go. "Meat! Meat!" The canine has never eaten so well. You figured out that she loves cheese, but you hate it. However, using your powers for good, you started requesting cheese last week. It took the large round human several days to realize that it was only for the dog. You frequently request food only to feed it to the dog. If you are taking orders, I like squirrel, pheasant, old cod, and lightly warmed liver.

You can say Fish now, so use that one more often. Fish! Fish! Ming-E! Ming-E! Fish! Fish! I have no idea why your sound for Fish makes the humans laugh so hard, I do not fathom. You can say Fish, Phone, Food, Fry, Foot, and they all make the humans roll on the floor laughing. Admittably, coming from you, all those sounds seem to end in "K," but there's nothing funny about a Foot that ends in K. Really. Do not be swayed by their fawning. Fish! Fish! Ming-E! Ming-E!

Also, since you are so good at summoning the canine to accompany you on your jaunts and to keep you company with your square objects, perhaps you could start summoning ME? Although it pains me to take orders, I could suffer silently if you summoned me to warm your lounge in your absence, or summoned me to help you unpack the large round human's boxes of yarn.

Further, I suppose I could muster up the strength to bear your company should you decide to start begging for me to accompany you to The Temple of Warm and Cushy NOT FOR MINGY each evening. After all, the household comes to standstill while you shriek BABY! BABY! each evening. Doll = Hard plastic. Mingy = Warm, luscious fur. Who would YOU rather sleep with? I am trusting you to use your powers for good here and convince the large humans that only I can comfort you when you yodel in the dead of night. It's the least you can do.

Now, let's practice:

Ming-E! Ming-E! (see what a difference a syllable makes?) Ming-E! Ming-E! Ni-Ni! Ming-E! Ni-Ni! Stomp. Point. Turn. Sign Sleep. Ming-E! Ming-E! Quiver bottom lip.

Once you are successful and I am installed as your new roommate, we will start our plan to take over the household. I have much to teach you, Small Human.

Smart Money: Current by Discover Card Blog Tour

As I mentioned earlier this week, when I am stressed, I tend to go a little . . . shop happy. I don't go nuts, but somehow I tend to think that little $5, $10, $20 "treats" have the same emotional lift as brownies and chocolate ice cream, but the truth is that neither are all that good for me.  Freak and I have spent many hours, both pre- and post- kid, discussing how to impart good financial values to our offspring(and I'm asking for your advice below!). This is why I was really excited about Mom Central's blog tour for Current by Discover Card.

The most important thing about this new program is that IT IS NOT A CREDIT CARD. Uncle Nanny and I were discussing a while ago about how part of our skewed monetary values comes from growing up "financially challenged" and then getting to college where credit card offers rained down on us like God was shaking the money tree just for us. Going from no money to "it's on the card," is a huge leap, and luckily, we both had Clanna-voice-of-doom reminding us that CARDS MUST BE REPAID. Still, it wasn't until I swapped an 8:00 a.m. art elective that I really wanted for 10:00 financial planning course that met next to my dorm, that I really understood how credit works and learned about budgeting. Without this course, I think I would be in far worse shape, and it is one of the few non-literature or law texts that I kept.

Unfortunately, many teens don't luck into such a course, and many end up in very bad situations. I have had students need to drop their college classes to make car payments because they fell into bad deals, and I know of several people who graduated with credit card debt exceeding student loan debt. I think a lot of the problem is that kids go from very supervised money situations to the freedom of a card to swipe wherever, whenever. I know I loved the freedom of my first debit and credit cards, but I had a really hard time tempering myself. I still do.

What the Current by Discover Card does is it lets parents put money on a discover card for their child. This can be as an allowance, or teens can also have their paychecks put directly on the card with direct deposit. I, personally, would strongly urge parents to educate about split direct deposit which is something I only learned about myself in the last few years. You can direct deposit a portion of your check to spending, a portion to short-term savings, and a portion to long-term savings. This tool has greatly increased our savings and our control over spending. If you get teens in the habit of putting 10% aside and showing them the rewards of saving, it can help instill the habit.

The Current program also teaches savings and budgeting habits by helping teens and their parents track spending habits, and most encouragingly, it lets parents block certain categories of merchants. This is a significant advantage over cash IMHO. Current has teamed with the National Endowment for Financial Education to offer the Money Smarts program to high school Junior and Seniors. I think this is a great step forward, although it might be ideal to start even earlier. I could see getting Tavy one of these cards as a tween and helping her manage it as part of her allowance so that she has good habits long before she starts lusting after big ticket items.

I think that this is a real nifty idea, and it is one I am really looking forward to trying out in a few years. If any of you try it out with a kid let me know. Or try it yourself--there's no rule that says that must be for a kid, and if you like the envelope idea of budget management, but hate the envelope, this might be a good option. Freak and I have been doing something similar for a few months--loading a spending card each month rather than lumping it all together--and it has been working very well for us.

Thanks, Mom Central and Discover Card! Now, you tell me, dear readers, what sort of money values did you learn early on? What things can Freak and I add to our list to teach Tavy good money habits? Ideas that work in your families?

It only FEELS like forever . . .

1859
Originally uploaded by wavybrains.

Four years ago today, Freak and I stood on a bridge in our favorite town and said vows that we wrote. We have an anniversary tradition of saying our vows to each other every year and writing down what did that day. Last year, however, we forgot--for about a WEEK that it was our anniversary. So. um. yeah. But we still did the tradition. Two years ago, I was pregnant which directly caused the year-of-the-forgotten-anniversary. This year we remembered. Sort of. I remembered earlier in the week. Then, I went to Big Box on my way home last night, knowing that I was there for some reason and that I wanted to do something nice for Freak. I ended up getting him a frozen Indian meal for his lunch as a treat and 3 packs of gum. Then Clanna was all "Happy Anniversary!" And I was all, "WORST WIFE EVER!"

Yep. Chock Full-o-Romance right here.

HOWEVER. For all that we do an awesome impersonation of a couple married for 40 long grumpy years, I feel more secure in our union than ever, and I know that tonight, when Tavy is in bed, and I take a breath from all the grading that I'm swimming in, that I will mean what I say in a deeper way. And that this true each year. I understand so much more about my partner this year. Each year we find hew solutions to old problems. I often say that what I love most about Freak is that he is always working on things. He is always trying to do better, to be better, and to understand why things occur.

In addition to this being our anniversary, we are now crossing into new territory for me--this is becoming my longest relationship ever. We watched Oregon turn 150 earlier this month, and I know that we will, grace of the universe willing, watch her turn 200 together. We will not discuss how old *I* will be then, but Freak will be positively decrepit :)

When in doubt, shop (And Wear Your Baby).

So, apparently I deal with extreme work stress, by getting my shoppy on. (THANK YOU JEEBIES THE SEMESTER FROM HECK HAS ENDED--just final grading remains). More $$ from work really doesn't translate into more payments on important stuff. Instead, I go off my militant budget and find the following imperative. I'm just doing my best to help the economy. (Just FYI that none of these are mom central or other review links---just stuff I love and want to hook you up with the bargains on. Because the only thing better than clearance is SHARED clearance).

•  FSOT on The Babywearer. Secondhand sales and trades of baby carriers are very slow right now, and this means incredible bargains. Must look away. (Note my blue-green Acapulco RS is up there for a mere $45 right now. Enable my purchase of other items?)
• Lane Bryant is FINALLY offering the Right Fit Jeans on sale for 29.99. This is still more than I have ever paid for pants that were not part of a suit, but I have lusted over these for two years now. Must. Have. Also, I spent $50 on the clearance rack last week and walked out with: 1 work appropriate dress, 3 sweaters, including one cashmere, 2 night gowns, 2 bras, and I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something else.
• Sweet Pickles is offering amazing deals on lucious baby wraps right now. Or heck, maybe you have no baby, yet you need a lovely pashima or shawl? Why should babies get all the fabric love? She's the sweetest local mama as well.
• The Calyx Carrier that you see in so many of my pictures is also on amazing sale right now. She's got some on clearance for $99 right now. I'm trying to convince myself that one is enough. One is enough. (O' course I'm telling my ovaries the same thing these days . . . ). Oregon made fair-trade product by an awesome WAHM too! 
• Why settle for bathing your baby when you can paint her? These bath crayons (note that I did not get mine at auction. Another great local mama!) are so much fun!
• And why dress her when you can turn her into a tiny fashionista courtesy of another awesome local mama?
• And why settle for dressing only her when you can dress Baby Baby too? Tavy and I stopped into Preemie-Yums shop last week hoping to find something for a special boy, but walked out with a new wardrobe for Baby Baby courtesy of the $1 clearance bin. Yes, you heard that correctly--locally sewn, beautiful, tiny baby clothes for $1.

Y'all know when I start buying clothes for Baby Baby that I must be a *tad* stressed right? Hoping to plow through the grading and wade into MORE work soon. Sigh.

My baby, Your Baby

She's my baby when she demands Banana like it is a street drug, and regards Fruit as a neccesity on par with water.

She's daddy's baby when no meal is complete without a protein and when dinner is an acceptable breakfast option.

She's my baby when she takes an ice age to fall asleep. She's my baby when she wakes up cranky and in need of sustenance pronto.

She's daddy's baby when she requires ridiculously little sleep.

She's my baby when she squints at the computer screen or furrows her brow at a book. She cocks her head and looks for deeper meaning.

She's daddy's baby when she stacks blocks and manipulates items with freaky dexterity.

She's my baby when she trips over air.

She's daddy's baby when she fearlessly climbs and navigates obstacles.

She's my baby when a story calms her down.

She's daddy's baby when being turned upside down and wrestled does the trick.

She's my baby when her mood turns on a dime, and she laughs while she cries.

She's daddy's baby when she holds a grudge and pushes away comforting hands.

She's my baby when she ignores organized activities in favor of socialization.

She's daddy's baby when she'd prefer to investigate things.

She's my baby when she leaves a trail of carnage in her wake.

She's daddy's baby when she stages things for later.

She's my baby when she makes pretend stew.

She's daddy's baby when the electronics lure her in.

She's daddy's baby when she escapes her crib.

She's my baby when she delights in fabric and bed linens.

She's daddy's baby when clothes are superfluous.

She's my baby when changing outfits is fun.

She's our baby. Nature and nurture collided and lordy how we love watching it unfold.