Hello! I am, alas alack, still cameraless. At least still stop-motion camera less. I keep not posting because I think most of you really just humor me putting up text to get to the photos, but really, in addition to being a photo repository this is also the kids’ baby books. So I should jot something down. And get a lead on this You-Tube business, because the other night Mat and I took a video of Claire Helen pretending to go camping (with “Charlie” and “Real Claire Jane,”) who were both lucky enough to get their own cakes made out of diaper wipes. There was a whole tent, and a river, and some raccoons. I love how involved she gets.

Now I’m feeling list-y.

1) Simon is in the middle/at the start of an insane must have EXACTLY what Claire Helen has in EXACTLY the fashion she has it thing, whether or not his tipping up the steamed milk cup with a straw in it results in all the milk spilling all over the floor or not. It all started with Cheerios a couple weeks ago, and permeates every aspect of their shared life. Kind of nice that they’re close together, actually, because there’s a lot of overlap in what’s appropriate.

2) Simon demonstrated the fastest word acquisition I have ever seen the other day. I gave him a marshmallow, while saying the word once, I think, and now all day every day he goes over to the corner in the kitchen where I keep my secret hot chocolate stash, and peeps “Mah-meyow? For the rest of his life he’s going to have a whiff of positive association he can’t place with that corner, all Proustian, because I am never giving him that much sugar at one shot again. Yowza. He can get worked up.

3) I just discovered you have to have carseats to travel in San Francisco cabs, and this makes my whole hippie dream of only using public transportation while visiting the hippie mecca as well as my hippie alma mater much less tenable. Hmph. New York doesn’t have this problem.

4) Claire Helen’s preschool buddies, Indra and Delphine (cool names, no?) told her if she said she liked orange she must be a boy, with accompanying genitalia she is not interested in having, because girls only like purple and pink. So now purple and pink are “her best.” Sigh. Textbook gender socialization, and ugh, not a purple or pink fan over here. Let’s hope this is a short phase.

5) But! They ordained Claire Helen “Prime Minister of the Horsies” today, meaning she got to tell them where to go, and got the super special pretend horsey with the plush head, so I will forgive them. I don’t think hearing about her pretend games will ever get old to me.

6) Simon has been doing this rage-y tantrum-y thing when he wakes up from his nap, lately(hence the marshmallow above, ahem). Apparently what he wants me to do, when I get up there, is to sit in front of his crib, nottouchingitatall, while he squirms and plays with his nearly dead aquarium toy on the side. Okay, weirdo. Whatever you say. I do it, though.

7) Claire Helen can now get herself dressed head to toe- socks, shoes(even buckle ones), shirts, tights, coats, whatever. She doesn’t always want to, and it’s not always super fast, but I’m pretty proud.

8) Simon is kind of past the stage where when Claire Helen is at preschool it’s cool to just let him wander around while I do laundry or whatever. So we’ve been going on little adventures instead, getting a muffin at a coffee shop or hitting the toddler playcenter. I don’t think we appreciated our clean, folded laundry that much anyhow, and Simon gets all puffed up with his me ‘n mom time.

9) In two days he will be the age Claire Helen was when we had him. Wild.