Homonym

Tonight we read A is for Angry: An Animal and Adjective Alphabet.

A is for angry. (She is well-acquainted with this concept.)

B is for bashful. ("What's bashful?" "Bashful is when you are shy.")

C is for clean. (She can sometimes be found in this condition.)

D-L (Insert darling animal and adjective combinations.)

M is for merry. ("What's merry?" "Merry means happy." "No, Mom, merry means when you have a wedding. You get married. Like you and Dad in the picture. You were dancing around and around." "What we were wearing?" "You were wearing a dress like poor Cinderella and Dad was wearing a tie.")

Merry? Marry? Well, she's not entirely wrong.

Un-Happy Feet

Nini and Uncle Adam took Lu to her first movie last weekend: "Happy Feet." It didn't go so well. Could have been the volume. Or the darkness. Or the fact that the first preview was for Harry Potter. Or the scary opening scene with a tribe of penguins dancing around a fire. She made it maybe 5 minutes into the movie itself before deciding she wanted to leave. Nini and Adam were good sports, even though I know that for Adam it's like walking out of a religious service.

Even though she didn't like the movie, she did enjoy dancing like a penguin:

Ice Ice Toddler

Ice Day, Number Two: Being shut in has been a lot more fun than I would have expected. I have cooked enough for an entire winter and we have eaten like bears. We have avoided cabin fever with a rigorous indoor exercise regime consisting of me chasing Lu around the house, Lu chasing me around the house, tickling, wrestling and the ocassional tantrum, as well as one trip outside to see the snow. Lu loved it. Now she very much has winter on the brain. As part of her naptime stalling monologue, she noted that "penguins are good swimmers" and "you have to wear your glubs and cowboy boots outside, otherwise you will be very, very cold."

Post-Party Depression

I am always sad when the holidays end. So is Lu. She doesn't understand why the party is over. Why the presents have stopped coming. Why bedtime has been reinstated. Why we have to stop eating all those carbs (no wait, that's me).

We went to see the big Christmas tree on the last day it was up. This was Lu's reaction to leaving:

Which is pretty much how I feel about having to stop eating fudge and white flour.

Some Things She Said Last Week

Snuggling up with us in bed, apparently too close to our morning breath: “Mama, your face sinks. Dad, your face stinks too.”

On a 70-degree day: “I need to wear these gloves. Otherwise I will be too cold.”

In the bathtub: “You have to wash your tickytocks. Otherwise they will be stinky.”

To Baby Rosie: “You have to stay in your bed. Otherwise you cannot watch ‘Dora.’”

About 20 thousand times in reference to any wrapped item: “Is that for me? Can I open it?”

After demanding that I “make it dark so Baby Rosie can sleep,” unsatisfied by my explanation that the blinds were as closed as they get, then fooled by Jason's remedy of opening the blinds and closing them again exactly as they were before, smugly: “See, Dad knows how to do it.”

Littlebrook

It is a perfect miracle (but no great surprise) that two beautiful giants like Wendy and Jason would produce the tiny, perfect specimen of Rylan:

I am proud to report that, although I have not met Ry yet, I have already talked about his poop in great detail with his dad. This from the man who shuddered (but was otherwise a great sport) upon being shat on twice by Lu.

Lu looks forward to having her ass kicked by Ry in every sport and holds out slim hope that she will be better than he is at something (spelling? origami?). I am hoping to arrange a marriage. The Littlebrook-Suganaho progeny would be of slightly above average height and athletic ability, making the gene pool a little fairer for everyone else.

Doh!

Ah, the familiar salty, yeasty smell of Play-Doh. The Stephens' gave Lu some for Christmas, and she's been having a ball (although I left the room for a second and when I walked back in she immediately confessed, "I ate some").

Excerpt from Instant Message Conversation

After much effort to put child to bed, we resorted to silent treatment.

9:15 PM
J: OMG
J: GET ON YOUR COMPUTER
J: She keeps turning the light on and off in my office
J: Now she is going through my CDs
J: ok she is playing with a puzzle
J: now she is putting it away
9:20 PM
J: Now she is just walking around the room looking in the air
J: Playing with the broken chair
J: I think I have to vacate
J: here I go
J: SHE KEEPS FOLLOWING ME!
J: I'm going to drop the hammer
K: LOL
J: She is brushing my hair!
J: What the heck am I supposed to do with that?
J: I'm going to ask her politely to go to bed
J: What do you think?
K: i don't know, this is some pre-school psychology experiment
K: no
K: IGNORE
J: She's climbing up on the bed
K: her bed?
J: no OURS
K: any bed would be fine, i guess...
J: ok now she is turning off every light
J: then turning them back on again
K: the door from our room to living room is closed
K: did i just hear a toilet flush?
9:25 PM
J: She came in the back way
J: The little stinker
J: No flushing
K: back way to where?
J: The hallway door
K: where is she now?
J: Close the door to the living room
J: Lets try and keep her in this side of the house
J: She's in the bedroom
K: ok, fine, but i don't care
K: this is the least mad at her i have been since bedtime started two hours ago
K: this is fun
J: She keeps messing with the lamps
J: She keeps LOOKING at me
J: touching my arm
K: IGNORE!!!
J: like "PAY ATTENTION TO ME"
K: exactly!!
K: be strong, sugawa
J: ok
J: Why isn't she bothering YOU?
K: because i am mean
J: No you are not
K: you are weak!
J: She's going to break the DVD player
K: whatev
K: the one in our room?
J: Yes
K: is pretty much broken anyway
J: I HAVE to tell her to stop it
K: no
K: is she safe?
J: SHE IS TOTALLY BREAKING IT
J: yes
J: but she is breaking it
J: It's kind of driving me nuts
K: I know
K: she is wiley
J: I'll leave the room
K: come in here with me
K: where it's fun
J: ok now she is playing with your belt
K: which belt?
J: and dragging it on the ground like a train
J: The El Paso belt
K: hmm
K: let's pretend we're going to bed
9:30 PM
K: is she whispering?
K: what was that noise?
J: Yes
J: She is messing around in the closet
K: hmm
K: maybe not good
J: oh sure. take your clothes off the hanger or break the DVD player
J: she is wearing a basket on her head
K: trying to squelch laughter
J: She is sitting on the bed
J: SHE JUST TURNED ON THE TV!!!
K: no
K: way
J: yes
K: WHAT DO WE DO? SHE IS WINNING.
J: Fresh Prince of Belaire is on
K: let's go sit on the front lawn
J: NO
K: she loves some will smith
J: so it seems
K: is this working?
J: I don't think so
J: Can I whisper to her to go to bed?
K: no
K: she is waiting for some feedback from us
K: if anything, maybe we silently put her in bed
K: NO WORDS
J: That's a good idea
J: I'm going to try that right now
J: here we go
J: 1
J: 2
J: 3

Frosty Elena Sugawa

Lucy made her stage debut tonight! She had the title role in her class skit in International Night, the Indian Montessori answer to the Christmas pageant. The program was held in a nearby church auditorium, complete with a real piano. The first class was the youngest of the bunch: the 18-month to three-year-olds singing/mumbling "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Maybe the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. Wincingly cute. Where oh where was the film crew and the good holiday product I could be hawking with these darling, off-key creatures?

The only thing that could top those little stars? MY little star! Her class, the 2 1/2 to 5 year-olds, came out holding hands, dressed in winter finery despite the 80-degree day. They formed two circles, with the youngest kids on the inner circle holding snowflakes and the older kids circling the outside. Lucy/Frosty danced in the middle with a slightly dour look on her face (I neglected to give Lu the advice that Leslie's mom gave her before dance recitals and has apparently served her well her whole life long: "Smile your ass off!"). But she was DANCING, DOING IT! That was the cutest thing I have ever seen (see for yourself). Especially when they walked "off-stage," hand in mittened hand, and someone pulled Lu's mitten off and kept walking. She stood frozen, staring at her bare hand, holding up the line. She got a huge laugh. Then she cried.

My Little Bird

I was just listening to this sweet children's album by Elizabeth Mitchell and started to cry thinking about how much I love Lu. It has been a while since I could access that tenderest feeling for her. She is so big now, and so fierce, that even though I am crazy about her, I rarely have the feeling I am holding her the way I used to, like I had her pliant little heart beating against mine. These days, holding her is like having a bird cupped between my hands, with her wings beating, wanting to go. All I can do now is let her go and watch, hoping she will alight.