English is needlessly hard

Simon has started contracting the phrase "I am not" as "I amn't." E.g., "I amn't going to bed right now." "I amn't a goofy kid." When I start to correct him I become tripped up by the fact that what he's doing is just applying rules of grammar in a completely logical way, even though we're used to putting the contraction someplace else in the sentence. He'll figure it out. I amn't too worried about it.

- M

Hi!

I am 6 months old!


I can sit up! All on my own!


But not crawl. I try to scooch, but I only go backwards, away from whatever I am trying to get. (the cat.) It is very frustrating.



I have 2 teeth, that I always cover with my tongue. Don't try looking for them.



I still sleep through the night, am willing to smile at strangers, and giggle when Claire Helen shakes her hair all around. People look at my hair, and say "oh, another baldie like Simon?" but no, sadly that is a lot of hair for a Morris-Harrington baby. Simon was bald as a cue ball. I at least can legitimately lay claim to peach fuzz status. About the same amount as Claire Helen at this age.

That's it for now.

Oh wow, is that the last time I posted?


Simon: How do cows sell their milk?
Claire Helen: On Craig's List, like everybody else.

I don't know about that. Doesn't Craig's List have a rule against selling your own bodily fluids?

Penny has recently started solids, and furrows her brow and makes a low, gutteral growl if you do not share food she thinks looks tasty with her. Or if you are not fast enough to get the spoon refilled.

Happy New Era! I know this is a family blog, and my better self would keep politics out of it, but we are so excited our old professor is now the president! Claire Helen thinks her teachers should get a turn next. We'll see, kiddo. I'm hoping Obama hogs it for 8 or so years.

Preschool cancelled for nonexistent snow

I'm better than you!
No you're not!
I'm better than you!
But you're not 4 or 5!
But I'm 3! And you are not 3!
But you're not 4 or 5 and that's better and you're not 4!
Weeeeep. Waaaaaaaail. MOOOOoooooooooooooan.
Hit! I'm gonna hit you!

Guys. Cut it out.

EVERYTHING EVERYONE SAYS IS HURTING MY FEELINGS!!! I DON'T LIKE ANYONE SAYING ANYTHING!

Fin.

Simon got a haircut!

His very first one, ever. He's going to be 3 in a couple weeks, and I guess I could have waited until then for hyperbolic effect, but it was driving me nuts, and we had a free hour this morning. Isn't it cute? I am very particular about male hair- I absolutely cannot stand facial hair or guys with long hair. It looks awful to me, no idea why. Distractingly bad. So now Simon is all clean cut and boyish.

He's dropping his nap, though, and really not able to handle it. He's started waking up at night again, having night terrors. I know it's because he's tired. He should go to bed earlier, but he can't, not if Claire Helen is still up. She goes and wakes him up to play/boss him around. Don't feel too bad for him. The other day Mat caught him doing the same thing to Penny. Round and round it goes. Hopefully it will work out soon. It's only been a couple weeks.

But hey, Penny is three months old! She rolled over for the first time today.

Go, Penny, go. Poor thing looks exhausted in that picture, doesn't she? She is. She fell asleep about 25 seconds after I finished taking pictures. I always forget to do these things until she is long overdue for a nap, so she is mostly photographed looking like this:

When she is more of a this kind of baby:

You know, happy, kicky, coo-y. She is a very contented child, I think. Not super ecstatic, not very sensitive. I think she's going to be another slow to warm kind of kid, but she doesn't show quite the same disdain for people trying to make her smile Claire Helen did. She'll do it, play along, but it's clear she finds the whole rigamarole a bit ridiculous. "Are you serious? You are going to talk to me like you are on crack, and I am supposed to smile? Ok, but this is pretty weird, dude." So far I've been pretty dead on in my 3 month guesstimates of their personalities, so I may be a bit cocky. We'll see, won't we?

She's just finally started to look more like her own person:

Very basically Claire Helenish, but with some of her own stuff too.

She's a big baby:

But not quite so Baby Of Unusual Size as Claire Helen was

Don't make fun of my sister, mama. But it's true! You have never seen such a big baby as Claire Helen was. An off the charts, extraordinarily, stupendously, voluminously chubby baby. Penny is just big. 90th percentile, and I get a feeling at her next appointment she'll be on Simon's track- 95th percentile for height, 75th or so for weight.

I worry that I am not feeding her enough. I know she's big, but she is acting hungry. She gets one bottle a night as supplement, but Mat is absolutely loathe to give her any more than that until I'm working. We tend to go with the more conservative opinion when we have a difference, so I'm trying to stick it out. I nurse her as often as I can, in an effort to get my supply up. She is super fussy at the boob, and is very likely going to yank it off one of these times. I was with a friend yesterday, who just has one kid, but had a heck of a time getting things started in the nursing department with him. She witnessed Penny's crazy thrashing, and as I was (as usual) whining about nursing, she said in almost a whisper (so the Seattle nursing police don't hear us?) "You don't have to do this, you know. I had such an awful time, and made myself keep going. If I had it to do over again, I would have just quit." But I am not sure I have it in me to quit. I can't quite suck it up and go at it stoically, so I'm going to whine, but I can't yet make the decision to quit. Probably by 6 months. Oh, I hate it so. Well, 3 months down. Even if we go a whole year, we're halfway until we can give her solids, and that should help a lot.

Claire Helen was at preschool, so she doesn't get a pictoral update. But this morning in the car, she said "Mommy, we've been going to a lot of playdates after preschool lately. I think we should try something else." Well ok then. Thanks for being direct. So I'm going to go get some candy boxes (boohoo, so sad, please do not tell me that raisin boxes would work just as well) and do the itty bitty city project from this website: http://lapazfarm.homeschooljournal.net/ Oh she will looooooove it.