To a T and Beyond

Gaz has drawn her first letter, and guess what it was. Letter #2 was an H that really wanted to be an A but couldn't figure out how to be slantier.

But that's not even the hard work. Far beyond the rigors of language acquisition and such, there's the very important business of "Am I in trouble?" and "What did I do now?" It's not easy for a two year old to figure out the differences between what's weird and okay (strumming her ukulele with one hand while using a calculator with the other), weird and unsanitary (licking people), weird and obnoxious (insisting on being held up on the window sill so she can reposition the seasonal window cling decorations in a big pile for the thirtieth time), weird and messy (planting popcorn kernels on the carpet), and weird and encouraged (singing the Mothra song). That's a lot of work.

Mostly, she's weird. Loveably weird, even when we've both got colds that put us in bad moods. Yesterday she made up a shopping list: four salads and an apple. But to get the salads, I had to take that section of 12" cardboard tube, lay it length-wise along my legs, and type on the inside of one end. It wasn't easy for ignorant old mom to figure this out, but somehow we avoided tantrums long enough to get the four salads and put them all in one imaginary bag. Then we got some apples from a cabinet door in the kitchen, and we ate them right away. The salads were forgotten.

Today Pony, Eunice, and Rubber Lizard learned a valuable lesson about apologizing after you knock everyone over. Now it's time for a snack of "being soup." I'll let you know how that goes.