The story of Stars and Lemon, the mice

Meg has a story for you.

Once upon a time, there were two mice named Stars and Lemon. One mouse was blue and one was green. They decided to have a party the very next day. But the day of the party, all the lemons on their lemon tree were gone! At night, some very hungry raccons came and ate them all up.

Then the mice decided to plant another tree. The stars at night helped the new lemon tree to grow a lot of lemons and potatoes and all sorts of yummy food. It grew so tall so that no hungry raccoons could reach all the lemons, but the mice had a special ladder so they could get up the tree and pick all the lemons.

And their party was a great party. Some other mice named Tomatoes, Grapes, Oranges, Purples, and Crayons came over, but Purples was orange.  Tomorrow was Lemon's birthday and Lemon wanted a sea turtle under-the-sea-space party. Crayons, the aunts, and other mice from all over town came. And there was a kid named Potatoes. They named the plant after the girl. But some goats and foxes jumped high into the sky to eat all of the yummy food, but they couldn't do it because the tree grew a lot taller than they expected. Stars and Lemon had to build the ladder even bigger. Lemon's party was a great party.

The end.

Kate is great: nine month update

Today is Kate's actual three-quarters of a birthday! She's a cheerful,* friendly, social baby, who likes to charm everybody who passes by.

She also likes to eat. She's at that funny stage where she'll be playing happily and discover suddenly that she'd quite like a snack, and just up and start screaming. Exciting. Her favorite food, bar none, is sauteed onions. She likes them alone, with bell pepper for fajitas, on or with pretty much anything, and last night she ate onions, asparagus, and beets, roasted with balsamic vinegar. I nearly fell over. She likes beef (cut up small), and she likes enchiladas (green chile and all), and she devours pretty much any fruit. She does not care for baby food purees, considering them beneath her time and dignity. But any food on my plate is a matter of deep interest.

She hasn't figured out rolling yet. She has a squirm that's almost a roll, but it's unpredictable. She crawls backwards nimbly, and she's developing this awkward over-the-leg scoot for forward motion. She can go from sitting to stomach, but it's harder to get up once she's down. She's just started trying to pull up on things, which doesn't do her much good since she refuses to try standing up. Sitting is so useful. She's so good at it. She likes sitting. Standing is unnecessary.

She loves books. She likes to wave the pages back and forth. She really learned how to scoot forward to get those grown-up hardbacks we tend to leave just out of reach, and yesterday she was showing me and Jonathan this really cool thing: a book cover opens and shuts! Watch this!


*Unless she's hungry. She gets this from me.

Telling it like it is

"Dad, while you do some really not very interesting things, I'll go get my milk." Meg

All illusion, really

It was such a harmless quote...

"Mommy's just filling in the corners."
"Which was a hobbit allusion, " I said, for Meg's benefit. Because she clearly needs to be fully acquainted with all of Tolkien's passing turns of phrase at the earliest opportunity.
Meg announced, "It was an OCCLUSION!"

We all laughed, and Jonathan started defining all the "--lusion" words he could think of.  Meg suggested "solution."
"Yes, a solution is a problem fixed," Jonathan agreed.
I added, "Or it's something dissolved in liquid."
"Yes, which solves the problem of nothing being dissolved in your liquid. Or you're about to throw it at a troll. Which makes him solvent. His bankruptcy creditors are delighted!"

"I'm going to be a laughingstock of linguists and alchemists alike." Jonathan