Good news!

Good news! The camera turned up! About four a.m. I figured I might as well clean out the diaper bag just to make sure the camera wasn't there, though of course it wouldn't be. But it was. :-) I feel like the woman with her lost coin. We should PARTY!

Meg is pretty sure Jonathan isn't a potato

It all started when Meg knocked on the bathroom door.

Jonathan called, "Nobody here but us chickens!"
Meg: "There aren't any chickens in there."
Jonathan: "How do you know anybody is in here? Maybe I'm just a potato."
Meg, giggling: "You're not a potato!" Then she stopped giggling and said, very firmly, "And I WANT TO GO POTTY."

Kate and the lost camera

We had a rough night last night -- meaning Kate did, meaning Kate and Jonathan and I did. Note to self: NO MORE EGG ROLLS. This morning we went out and about and she slept hard. That kind of night is exhausting, y'all. However, since I was out and about I didn't get to cuddle her and appreciate the improvement, and after we got back this afternoon and ate, we had more gastric distress and woe. But then I washed her and wrapped her in a big fluffy blanket and she's sleeping on my lap, very peaceful, and occasionally she'll open her eyes and look at me. And that is a wonderful thing.

I try not to post about hard things here, mostly because nobody likes whining and I don't feel mature enough to do it without whining. Generally. But I am sad today because we went to the church fall festival on Sunday evening, and it was delightful, only the camera display was acting up and then we lost the camera completely. I think it fell out while we were folding up the stroller in the dark. There were lots of baby pictures on there I hadn't downloaded, and our first family picture. So I'm kicking myself, because while cameras can be replaced, Kate will never be two, three, and four weeks old again. I don't know about you, but when something like this goes wrong, I tend to feel like everything is wrong. But I'm still hoping the camera will turn up somehow, somewhere. Maybe even if the camera is ruined the memory card will be okay.

I don't really know what to say to that

"Mom, why do people put up bones in their yard? To be pretty?" Meg
"I don't think bones are very pretty..." Me
"We could go buy bones! And we could wait until people's naptimes - it won't be our naptimes, but it will be their naptimes - and put the bones up in their yards, and when they wake up there will be pretty bones in their yards!" Meg

"Mom, does the light help you make stars into constellations?" Meg

A month and a day and another day

Kate's a month and a two days old. We're finally, finally having fall here. We had dew a few nights back, and this morning I woke up to condensation on the inside of the windows. There was some lovely fall color as I drove down Sycolin Road, the end out towards Ashburn, and it was bright and blustery and plenty cold enough for my puffer vest. I do like fall.

Meg held Kate for the first time this morning. We were all sitting in the big chair and I put her mostly upright in Meg's lap. Meg did a good job. Sadly I didn't get a picture, first because we were all in weird pajamas and unkempt-looking, second because it's hard to get a good shot of a chair you're sitting in, and most of all because the camera was clear at the other end of the house. So I wanted to make sure I mentioned it on the blog.

Meg is still fascinated by her sister. I call her Katherine, or Kate, or Katiekins. Meg calls her Kaffrin or Katie-kinsie. (Is Kaffrin like caffeine? Meg discovered slant rhymes and has been playing with them all week. "Caffeine" would be somewhat appropriate, if you are what your mother eats.)

I'm still kind of fascinated by Katie, too. She's charming. I love her little fists. I love the way she holds the frog wubba-nub pacifier with a hand on either side, to keep it from getting away -- when she can find both hands, of course. I love her curly little baby feet, which are straightening out and not going to be curly much longer. I love it when she looks straight at someone (preferably me) with those big eyes; and she makes the funniest faces. The best is with her mouth in an O and her eyes wide. What is she thinking?

Speaking of not knowing what they're thinking, Meg went in to her room this evening, theoretically to put on pajamas, and I hear maniacal laughter. "Ha ha ha ha ha! My destiny!" Just... what?

Blocks

"The attacking armies are wicked, Mom. That's why I'm keeping them out with this high high castle. Don't you like it? Don't you like the door at the top?" Meg

Then she went and got her catapult out to attack the castle with. "Mama, I can't find the ball. I'll shoot the dragon at it instead."


Meg has some catchphrases which we tend to hear a bit.

"I was wrong and you were right. E-I-E-I-O!" (Or, alternately, "I was right and you were wrong. E-I-E-I-O." I don't encourage this version, though.)

When someone sneezes, she says, "Zoontai!"

Me: "MEG! Oh wait, never mind, you're okay."
Meg, curiously: "What did you think I was doing?"

She also refers to the droid as "RD-2D."

No flood today

Meg had her toy car on its side and stuffed animals arranged in it.
"Okay, everybody out of the ark. God's not sending a flood today. <animal voices> No flood! Hurray! Yay!" And then in her own voice, as narrator, "That's 'cause there's only four percents of rain today."

Overcome

I am pleased to announce that our baby arrived! Katherine is two weeks and a day old, and is quite charming. We like her a lot. Just now, I said, "Isn't she pretty?" and Meg answered, "I am overcome by my sister's beauty."