dear Hazel: Month 5

Dear Hazel,

Five months have flown by, and I can hardly believe how far you've come. One thing I know for sure: I have fallen Totally and Completely in love with my little bitty tiger cub. Hazel Amazel continues to astound!

So let's see:

The first week of this month, you started doing something that I found quite endearing and silly. You have all the skills necessary to crawl - you know, the strength, being able to push up, balance yourself, a modicum of coordination, knowing what limbs are involved, etc. - but you seem very resistant to the idea of crawling. Why? My guess is that it is because crawling doesn't involve walking, which is your favorite thing ever, and how you KNOW people are supposed to get around. So, starting that first week of this month, whenever we put you into a crawling position, you end up sticking your feet on the floor, which results in your cute little bum sticking up in the air in a perfect downward dog position, and you inevitably hang out there, attempting to lift your upper body so you can stand up and walk, until you ultimately topple over sideways.

But that doesn't seem to be holding you back that much. By september you had figured out how to roll in every possible direction, and that was followed quickly by your canny little self putting this skill to good use, employing it as a form of locomotion.

You'll set your sites on some goal or other, and then roll across the room to get to it. just tumble tumble tumble, and there you go. Of course, you don't really do much once you've reached the destination, given that you haven't figured out how to get from you back to a sitting position yet, and you inevitably end laying on your back in whatever spot it is you've chosen.

Actually, other than the brief moments you pass through as you roll from point A to point B, you spend almost NO time on your tummy. Like seriously. I'm getting kind of frustrated with how consistently you stick your butt in the air and roll over to your back, because you do it EVERY TIME I put you tummy side down. Without fail. At this rate you really are just gonna skip the crawling bit, because you NEVER stay on your stomach (or hands & knees, etc) for more than, oh, say, about a 10th of a second.

You even try to get up to walk to retrieve objects just out of your reach, rather than leaning over and being almost in something that resembles a (Gasp!) crawling position.

You do, however, sit up just fine now - you can't get there on your own, but if we put you into a sitting position you'll hang out there indefinitely, unless someone makes you look up too far, in which case the weight of your head proves too much for your poor top heavy body, and you topple backwards...but this is becoming increasingly rare.

We've had a few Big New Life things this month...we've started integrating the subway into our travels, though we still opt for the bus when time permits, since we don't want to overwhelm your poor little ears, but the faster transport allowed by this has been...kind of earth shattering, at least for me. It kind of makes New York feel like an entirely different city, and I can feel the possibilities - for all of us - yawning up at us. It's pretty amazing.

Also, SOLID FOOOD!!!

You basically chose your own first food - and established your readiness for it beyond a shadow of a doubt - pretty early on by stealing some of your sister's avocado. So, we went ahead and mashed some up really well, and voila, you became a bona-fide consumer of solid food! You seemed to genuinely enjoy it, so much so that we actually had to cut you off during that first meal for fear of overwhleming your poor little digestive tract, but you seem to very much enjoy getting to eat like the rest of us do at mealtimes now. So. Much. Happy. (and so big already! ahhh!!)

Oh, and how's this for precocious behavior, kid? You've taken to trying to change your own diaper. I have to be even more on my game lately than I would normally be, because you've evidently discovered the relationship between big poops and the removal of the soiled diaper...while you know how to take off your diaper, you almost never do it. If your diaper is clean, you don't seem to mind its presence and don't bother it. If you've have a large bowel movement, however, you begin the removal process as soon as you're done. I am both proud of your intelligence and ingenuity, and dismayed at the level of inadvertent mess-stress this particular behavior causes me. I love you, Hazel Rose.

You have other little personality quirks that are beginning to show up more and more...like how you now roar at your toy tiger...like, seriously, lean forward, focus all your energy on it, stare-it-down and throw your whole body into it roaring, right at the tiger...SO MUCH LIFE!

You've also discovered blowing raspberries, and so, of course, everything in every aspect of all four of our lives has become glittered with raspberries. There is no other way to put it.

These days, you are standing so well we barely even need to hold on-even just having our hands hovering by your hips is enough support for you -you've got some strong gams and a solid core, m'lady, and you're just itching to strike out on your own.

And that will come, all in good time. Already, you're picking up on behaviors we teach you -intentionally or not - and making them your own. For instance, the classic baby game "how big is Hazel? Soooooo Big!" has been a favorite, but now you actually throw your arms up in the air on your own, even if someone just says the phrase "so big" in a completely unrelated context. And you look so pleased with yourself whenever you do it, too.

And now you can recognize the wrap! We go out and about often enough that you now know what the wrap means. Its really kind of cool...I usually put you in the bouncer while I get everything ready to go - including putting on my shoes and such - and you will quite often get worried and fussy, and I think you're afraid I'm going to leave without you (which is silly...I never have, save one or two five minute trips to the grocery store across the street while you and Cadence played with Baba) but you always stop crying as soon as I pull out the wrap, and you watch intently while I put it on, and then start to get wiggly-excited as I move to pick you up and put you in it, its really genuinely exciting. Every trip is a grand adventure in your eyes, and you love being included in them...and that, pretty lady, is absolutely wonderful. Because you know what, little Hazelnut? I absolutely love having your company in every minute thing I do each day.

Thank you for being a part of my life, little bitty wonderful. I adore watching you grow, and getting to cuddle with my sweetheart little tiger cub. You're growing up so fast, it almost hurts - but I am immensely proud of you, and so grateful to be here for you in each passing moment. Here's to many more adventures, my little Hazel Rose, with kisses to your Hazel Rose nose and your Hazel Rose toes. (and everything in between, and the top of your head, too!)

Love Always,

Mama

recognizing the wrap!

Crazy Week

...

I have no idea how to start this post! I wanted to keep up the momentum I've regained recently in terms of posting, so I thought I'd sit down and just do a brief description of this past week, but that is proving slightly harder to actually accomplish than I would like.

Not only has it been James' first full week of classes (the last two weeks were short weeks with things like "legislative mondays" in the mix) and the start of his duties as a journal editor, and not only did Cadence have her first week of school ever, meet all of her new classmates and take definite strides in terms of asserting her independence by kicking me out of her classroom before most kids would even consider letting their parents go; but it has also seen the first school-borne illness to hit our family (at this writing, Cadie is asleep but with a temp of 102.2, Hazel is finally resting after two days of goopy baby nose, and I'm trying to deny that my throat has a tell-tale tickle...)...and oh yeah, we had a break in about midway through it, too.

On Wednesday we left just before noon to walk Charlie, as always, before I brought Cadence to school. There, I got to witness her class' introduction to the 'picture clock'; their schedule for the day broken down into representative photographs to give them an idea of what to expect for their school-day routine. There was a picture of the courtyard for outdoor time, a picture of the rug they all sit on for 'circle time', a picture of her teacher's ukulele for their musical end-cap, and of course representative images of snack time and for free explorations and all the activities they'd get to encounter there. After they were done going over each item on the list, my little Cadie B called for the teachers attention and, very politely though quite firmly, expressed that this was all good, but that "I really want to do learning time." Of course, when I relayed this story to my mom later that night, she reminded me of my reaction to my very first day of kindergarten at the age of 4. I got off the bus and met her enthusiastic inquiries about how it had been with utter disappointment, declaring that "it's just a playing school." Apple? Tree? not too distant, evidently...

Anyway, she sent me on my way shortly after that, so I headed out to Clementine, a great little kids' consignment shop right next to the law school, to pay for a skirt I had (embarrassingly) accidentally shoplifted a couple days before (I know, I know! It's terrible...I tried it on Hazel, Cadence distracted me, Hazel zonked out on my chest while I was dealing with Cadie and I, forgetting that Hazel had the skirt on, absentmindedly just stuck her in the wrap out of habit, without looking, and didn't discover my error until much later).

Having made amends and had a longer-than-I-should-have-stayed conversation with the store's owner about life as the wife of an international lawyer, I hustled back to the blue school to fetch Cadence, and we met with James back at the law school for an OWLS event. OWLS, (Older Wiser Law Students) is a student organization aimed at students who are not fresh out of undergrad, and may have other priorities in life which can make the law school experience significantly different than it would be otherwise, for which James serves as a board member.

The girls were wonderful representatives of some of those outside priorities, and everyone seemed to have a quite enjoyable time. After some good food and schmoozing, I took Hazel home to prepare to receive the guests we were expecting that night, while Cadence and James stayed to see out the event. It had already been a thoroughly exhausting day by the time I got home around 7:00 in the evening, so I was perhaps less prepared for the shock that awaited me upon my return.

I arrived home that evening to discover that someone had broken into our apartment while we were away, and had stolen our computer, my engagement ring, the girls' family rings, and almost all of my jewelry including almost everything I had inherited from my late grandmother.

Thankfully though, no one was hurt. Only the kitties were home when it all went down, and they were all present and accounted for, and didn't seem to have been harmed (but were understandably a bit freaked). All in all we were quite lucky, and I am grateful that all that we lost were material possessions...the place wasn't even ransacked, and in fact they didn't seem to touch anything other than what they actually took...really, this could have been a much worse incident than it was; the way it all went down, it's almost nothing. (Though the feeling of violation and the decreased sense of security make that a big almost.)

Anyway, the rest of that night was a bit of a blur of guests arriving amidst police reports and phone calls, sorting through things and dealing with the shock. There was no sign of forced entry and the door had definitely been locked when we left the house, so the police (and the locksmith who replaced our locks and installed an additional deadbolt the next morning) think they must have had a key...

So, despite some lingering parental trauma, I think we'll be fine. And I really do believe that if someone had to go through all the trouble of breaking in to take it all, whether they were doing it to survive or to support some sort of bad habit...chances are they needed it all more than I do right now, since they are clearly in a worse state of crisis than I. So I sincerely wish them peace.

Anyway, we were all glad to greet the weekend today, though with sickness and some very troubling news within the family (which I won't divulge here out of deference to a loved one's privacy; suffice it to say we are sending oceans of love and worry to someone we all care deeply about), and trying to figure out how to recover our functionality without our main computer...well, we're all a mite exhausted.

First Day of School!

Any old friends recognize those socks? Surprised they're hangin' on, but hey I found a great place to wear them!

Taken at one of the parents' events earlier this week.

Today was a very big day around here, since it marked an occasion that has been actively anticipated for months: Cadie's First Day of School!!

Needs no caption.

It went splendidly...The Blue School has a new building now, right on Astor place (Sesame Street aficionados: In the 'word on the street' segment featuring the word "humongous," there is a brief shot of the Astor Cube ["HUMONGOUS!"]...the rather non-descript building in the background houses Cadence's new school. Exciting! For those of you of a NY persuasion but perhaps less current in your Sesame knowledge: it's the building that used to house the Starbucks across the street from...well, the other Starbucks.) .

HUMONGOUS!!!

They have a great program for easing kids into the idea of going to school without the company of mom or dad, which is really reassuring, but evidently unnecessary in Cadie's case. I'd have more to report about specifics except that she kinda kicked us out after the first few minutes.

Baba and Hazel are very excited for Cadence on her first day.

We were there as she played with sidewalk chalk in the courtyard (and started a trend, surprise surprise, getting most of her class to play, or at least draw, hopscotch 'courts'...) and changed her shoes, [No street shoes allowed in the building proper!] which was the first point at which she told us she wanted to play with just teachers and friends and wanted us to go...Katrina, one of her teachers, convinced her to let us come do the introductions and hello songs with her...so we all went through the glow hallway and up to the classroom. After the bathroom tour and a few minutes of play...she wanted her independence, so I ran some errands and waited in the "multi-purpose room" [where Hazel and I got bombarded with first graders on their way home, boisterous as ever after their first day...] and came back to fetch her at the end of the day to reports that she'd done very well, played with a girl named Oonagh (pronounced Oo-Nah) for quite a while, and had a great time overall.

Getting ready to go...

So much for my plans to stay for the whole first day to get to know the routine/kids/other parents...but who am I to stifle her independence when she is so clearly asking for it? And I am so proud of her confidence and grace...so I let expectations fall away and will take it all as it comes.

So Grown Up.

She was mad at me when I came back, though. She hadn't gotten enough. She warmed up a bit once I reassured her that she could come back tomorrow...so I have to think that the first day was a rioting success.

Cadie B and Baba walkin' from his school to hers!

Congratulations, Cadie B! Here's to a great year! We are all SO proud of you, sweetheart, and we're so excited to be taking on this adventure with you, even if it is by supporting your decision to take it on solo for the time being. Parents are invited into the classroom later in the year, and we look forward to coming in as welcome guests at that point. We love you, honeybug! Onward!

Our Little Cadence Ann, at school. (!!)

Trout Fishing in America Concert!

...also a little addendum to my last post: The next morning we got up and headed down to madison square park to attend a Trout Fishing in America concert!

TFIA is a duo (Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet) out of Texas, who does music for adults and kids alike, though I think they've been more focused on kids music these days. They are good friends with a very close friend of my family's, so our paths have crossed often over the years. Since I grew up listening to their music, it was very exciting to be able to share this with my own girls!

Cadence loved it, but bless her little heart she didn't understand why everyone was talking and smiling and singing along, and got very angry with me when I tried to get her to get up and dance...it only occured to me afterwards that we've trained her to be a good audience member and when she heard the word 'concert' she must have immediately thought of the many classical music concerts she has attended to see her Baba and uncle Andrew perform.

Afterwards, though, we got a copy of their latest CD and Keith and Ezra both signed it (and Ezra drew a teddy bear for Cadie!), I sent Hellos from my family, and Keith even told us that he once spent a whole birthday chasing birds, too, just as Cadence had done the day before - and he caught one!!

Afterwards we went to splash around in the water feature in the playground, hence the bathing suits...all in all, it was a pretty great excursion.

Cadie's b-day adventure

Well Happy Birthday, Litty Bitty Big Girl!!

A bit late in coming, but here is a brief pictorial recap of a totally awesome day: Cadence's 3rd Birthday!

It started out at the bus stop, where Cadie B asked me to take her picture.

It ended up being many pictures.

It was painfully hard to narrow it down, but there were tons of other pics, to...thus I keep it to a minimum.

Anyway, the first act of unsolicited kindness of the day took place right at said bus stop...a couple of very nice folks, after talking to Cadence briefly, discovered that it was her birthday and gave her:

Her very own dollar! She was actually remarkably pleased and grateful (even said thank you with ENTHUSIASM!) the troubled expression is simply the product of the latest phase of 'not smiling' in posed pictures. I asked her to hold it up and smile - she held it up, said "no." and held that frown until I put the camera away. The headless folks in the background are the awesome folks who helped kick off her day in a big way. I was very grateful to them for helping to add a little magic to the day!

We went downtown and walked Charlie, as we always do, and of course had a lot of good fun puppy time. Then we caught a bus uptown and, after a joyous ride which involved singing to people and getting tons of sweet birthday wishes, made a stop Cadence has been asking for and looking forward to for weeks: The Natural History Museum, to "see the dead dinosaurs!!"

She'd seen some footage from the dinosaur exhibit on sesame street (or was it dinosaur train? I truly don't recall...) ages ago and asked me if we could go there. She brings it up, all the time, and so this trip was truly a birthday worthy excursion, a highly anticipated trip of her own design.

We had many awesome little experiences on our way in...and can I just say, I am SO impressed with the security guards at the museum? They ended up playing a significant role in making this day such a rioting success, you'll see more of why in a minute.

The first guard we encountered welcomed us heartily and, while we waited for the elevator, he made sounds for Cadence's amusement...trains, rain, various creatures...She loved it, and he got major props for birthday salutes...and he even threw in some compliments, and mentioned that she looked like his own daughter, who, he proudly proclaimed, is also half chinese and about to graduate from Harvard.

Next stop was the ticket kiosk thingy...I didn't want to spend any more than necessary since we were on a very tight budget, however we had a very certain destination within the museum, so I figured better safe than sorry, and asked the security guard stationed at the entrance what level ticket I'd need to just take her to see the dinosaurs. She started to tell me, then stopped, looked at cadence, and waved us on through. Cadence thanked her and said what a nice birthday present...it was very cute.

We spent a long time in there, I let Cadence lead the way, and she gleefully rushed from one display to the next, and then back again, big ones little ones, asking questions, making huge excited gestures when she came across something familiar...

The photo below, for example, is of an archaeopteryx...an ancient bird that was once featured on dinosaur train. Cadence was so thrilled! She was telling me all about them, and I cannot tell you how amazing it is to be schooled in paleontology by your just-now-3-year-old.

Which she can fully pronounce, just FYI.

The Photo below was taken by the Cadie Ladie herself. She's getting really good with the camera, the framing is consistently good...focus is a bit off here, but shooting through dirty glass is always a challenge.

Cadence was also really excited about the ornithomimids.

So proud!

After a while, we ended up, where else, but in the gift shop. She poked around a bit and I told her that she could choose one small thing to get as a birthday gift, if she so desired.

She chose a small bucket full of plastic sea creatures...whales, sharks, dolphins, rays...she was SO HAPPY and proud of it, and wanted to carry it all by herself and not put it in the bag.

We kept exploring for a bit after that, and found ourselves wandering to the other side of the floor before announcements started blaring warning visitors to get the heck outta dodge 'cause the doors were being locked.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, all I know is that somehow, my poor sweet little birthday girl tripped, hit the floor, and her precious bucket smashed and broke into pieces on the floor.

It was devastating.

A crowd of good samaritans gathered as I scooped her anguished little body off the floor...she was fine, but her present...well, a family helped her gather all the sea creatures and put them in the paper bag, while trying to reassure her that they were all fine, but I knew the real disappointment couldn't be remedied...she'd wanted that bucket. The animals were awesome, but that bucket...oh, the possibilities with that bucket!

Clear plastic that she could put things in...oh the amazing worlds that could become!

To her rescue came another security guard, who's name I sadly didn't catch, but who I think was the unopposed hero of the day. Here's why:

He came over, made sure she was ok, talked to her briefly about what the problem was, and swiftly said "well then we'll get you another one" and after checking with me to make sure it was ok, he took her hand and lead her over to the nearest gift shop, which was just lowering the gate. He stopped them, explained the situation, and while quite sympathetic, the manager there informed us that those buckets were only sold in the gift shop we'd purchased it from, on the other side of the floor!!! There was no way we were gonna make it.

But then, this guard, our hero of the day, looks at Cadence, then looks at me, and says "We can do this. Follow me!" And he scooped Cadence up and took off at a run, pulling out his radio as we went...there we were, in a truly cinematic dash through the closing museum, the guard on his radio shouting "this is 17, this is 17 OPEN THAT DOOR!" and magically making locked doors open before us as other bewildered guards trundled after us...there we went, taking a short cut through one of their special exhibits that you need separate tickets to see, zooming through the maze of its twists and turns, he was on the radio the whole time and shouting we "can make it! we can make it!" as we went, and we finally arrived at the closed and gated gift shop, nearly deserted, empty but for one older man, who was just on his way out the door...Our guard urgently called to the guard on the other side "unlock this door unlock this door and tell that gentleman to HOLD he is not to leave the store!" There was a flurry of activity and the gate sprung open, he and Cadence dashed through ahead of me, and I arrived at the counter just as the Guard was finishing his story to the rather stunned older man. My heart was pounding and an excited anticipation was coursing through my veins as I realized holy crap, we made it!

But then I heard what the older gentleman was saying.

He was saying "No."

I wasn't about to let this whole mad dash end in disappointment.

"Please, sir, I'm willing to pay for another bucket!" He looked at me, He looked at his closed register, he looked at Cadie and the slightly winded guard, and relented, somewhat grudgingly, but he reopened his register and let us buy another bucket.

(Here's our friend, the awesome guard, talking to his colleagues about our adventure after leading us back through the now entirely locked floor so we could get out.)

What an amazing thing to have happen, to have so many wonderful people to step in and help out our little girl. I was so incredibly grateful, and so was Cadence, who took several hours to really process what had happened but then talked about it nonstop for days.

Here is another shot Cadence took of Hazel and I with a dinosaur...she's getting so good at using the camera!

After our mad dash, we planned to go splash around in the fountain outside the museum, alas, it was also closed, so we sat in the park for a bit instead. There were other kids there! Amazing!!

She ran and played in that park for hours, playing ball, hide and seek, and a bunch of games I couldn't figure out but they seemed to enjoy...

Cadence ate some more of her bagel from lunch, but dropped a bit of it on the ground. It ended up being a happy accident, as far as she was concerned, because it drew a crowd of sparrows and pigeons. She spent a significant chunk of time trying to catch a bird. Childhood bliss.

Once the sun began to set, we headed over to the shake shack uptown for her birthday dinner. She was in such a good mood, despite being hungry, and managed to totally charm the folks working there; without even knowing that it was her birthday, one of the women working there asked me "do you think she'd like a custard? Just a small one? with sprinkles?" and thus Cadence got a free (really amazing) frozen custard (for those unacquainted: really rich amazing ice cream), with sprinkles, at one of her favorite restaurants. What a perfect end to a really amazing birthday. Another wonderful, sweet, generous person to add to a long list of benefactors that helped to make this birthday super special for a very deserving, patient, kind, and wise-beyond-her years little lady. Thank you thank you thank you to you all.

After that, we sang songs while waiting for the bus, and Cadence got to play/sing/talk to some other kids on the bus, before finally getting home and getting to see Baba, and tell him all about the wonderful adventure.

Happy birthday, wonderful bug. We love you, oh so much. Here's to another jam-packed year of new adventures!

Dear Cadence: Month 38

Dear Cadence,

This has been a rich month, as so many have been, and it has been a joy to spend this last bit of time with you before you -sniff- go off to school! I know, I know, it's only preschool, but you'd never know that by how you talk about it, and how freakin' intelligent you are. You continue to astound me, and much of the time I have trouble articulating how...The little note I made because I knew I wanted to talk about this in this month's letter just said:

"being really smart. like really smart. explaining things. describing. understanding complicated ideas. allergy vs intolerance...kids can't drink alcohol so she can have root beer, but not every day because it's not good for you"

Yeah, you know all sorts of relatively complicated nuances like the difference between alcohol being dangerous for kids and sugar just being unhealthy, but ok sometimes, (and how alchohol is only a sometimes thing even for grown ups, and that too much sugar can be dangerous for anyone) and that rootbeer is a kind of soda even though it has 'beer' in the name...and you know the difference between an allergy and an intolerance. Most grownups don't even know there is a difference. And So. Much. More.

[Speaking of that, you're also much more aware of my medical status than I had given you credit for. Danial and Poonam have been living with us for several weeks while they search for a home of their own. Unfortunately, Poonam is allergic to cats, and so, in an attempt to make it as safe and comfortable as possible for our guest, we moved our air purifier into their bedroom. I was honestly surprised when, at bedtime that first evening, you asked Baba with a concerned tone: "where's the thing that helps mama breathe?" (and only slightly related: Of course you know about my allergies, but it still melts my heart a little when I hear you reciting to someone not to feed me some food or another because I'm allergic.)]

But yeah, you've got critical thinking down surprisingly well for a kid your age, and it is certainly not uncommon to hear you begin to reason with us with a hearty "how 'bout this:", which you will follow up offering real compromises and deals that are often quite fair and well thought out.

You've also learned what it means to describe something, and you've been practicing this skill quite a lot lately. You LOVE learning, and cannot wait to get to school where you'll be able to learn SO MUCH!! It's terrifically exciting to watch.

Oh, and did I mention your speech yet? 'cause, it's kind of amazing. You recalled and perfectly pronounced the word 'stethoscope' the other day, entirely independently, and recently corrected my grammar when I incorrectly used the word 'trip' instead of 'slip'. You were not amused, but you were a graceful and understanding teacher. "no, no, Slip. Not trip."

All this is not to say that you don't still have plenty of age-appropriate quirks, even if they are sometimes expressed with rather adult vocabulary. "It's taking too long, I just can't wait!" has become a recurring mantra, often used when we're cooking or if we've told you we'll play a certain game once we've completed the task at hand. Usually, if we talk you through what needs to be done, you'll concede with a dejected, sighing "OK" and slink off to the other room, only to reappear within moments declaring once more that "it's taking too long, I just can't wait!" and the cycle begins over again.

One heartbreaking thing you've started doing lately is crying because you miss Nana, Papa and Kelly, and saying that you just want to live with them again. I do think we're doing the right thing by being here in New York, but I can truly sympathize with you, little lady...I miss them all, so much, too, and part of me does just want to go back and be near them. and I feel terrible that we are depriving you of those relationships, which are obviously very important to you...and we do try to keep you from feeling too distant, we do video chats whenever we can, and talk on the phone...There was one day in particular when you woke up sad, and you spent much of the morning in a weepy stupor, not wanting to play or do anything that involved getting off the couch, until I called Papa and let you talk to him on the phone...you talked for maybe 15 minutes, probably less, and after you said goodbye, you perked right up and went about your day as if nothing had ever been wrong.

As always, your vocabulary continues to astound. Though you do have some interesting pronunciations here and there -for instance, one of your favorite words lately is 'section', but you pronounce it with a 'p' at the beginning. You'll sometimes divide (something? the air? It's fairly unclear) into the "boy psection" and "girl psection" in your play...so silly.

But you really do take on new words and phrases at an almost alarming rate. Recently, you've made a rather hollywood-style dramatic shift regarding the phrase "take my word for it." You used to get really upset if we used any variant of that particular phrase, often shouting something along the lines of "Nooo! Don't taaake it!" I think you were genuinely afraid that this meant that we would actually be taking some something from you, but you didn't know what, exactly...anyway, the other day, after a few weeks where this phrase had not been heard in our household, you and I (and Hazel) were waiting to cross the street outside. The sun was angled in such a way that I couldn't really see the walk signal, but evidently you could, because you pointed out that we could cross. I remarked that I couldn't tell, to which you responded "we can go, mama. Take my word for it."

And dontcha know, you were right!

You readily use terms like "metamorphosis" and "hypothesis," and one incredibly fun quirk you've got is how you bastardize big words in completely unrelated play. The other day, while we were on the bus, you invented what I think was basically a pringle-style potato chip that was called a "Mangomorphosis!" (and evidently, it was mango flavored. Perhaps you have a future in marketing.) Emphatic delivery included.

Oh, Cadie B, you rock my world. You're getting way into photography and I have to say, you're getting pretty darn into it. Your artistic endeavors continue to excite and impress me, even when they make me laugh: For instance, you still love to make up songs, and I'll conclude this letter with the chorus to one of my recent favorites. I don't know what inspired it originally, but here it is, presented without judgement, but a lot of love:

"I can't find my dad because he's lost and impatient!"

Keep on keepin' on, my beautiful darling. I'm so, SO excited for you as you begin what promises to be a pretty magical journey into the world of education. I love you, little bug. You're still my amazin' b, and I am so, incredibly proud of you.

Love Always,

Mama

First Foods!

Something big happened last night!!

Lookit who's growing up so fast...Hazel's first solid food:



And, for a trip down memory lane, I also dug out this video of Cadence's very first food. It's really amazing to see the similarities and differences in these two events. We've all grown so much.