Claire is at her first sleepover tonight. We went to her friend Faith's birthday party this morning at 9:30. She was invited to go from there out to Faith's grandparent's house in Elgin where they do country things and have goats and presumably eat sausage. I had a feeling a sleepover request was going to follow her being gone ALL DAY. And I am OK with that. Mom's a principal, dad's a cop, Faith is a great kid. She is in good hands. But I am still lonely for my little girl. Not lonely for her physically (though there is that) so much as lonely for what sleepovers mean. Fast-forward: light-as-a-feather-stiff-as-a-board, Ouija boards, boys in board shorts. Bored of mom.

Reading

Today Gavin and I were laying in bed before his nap. He had a folded up strip of paper with some dinosaurs that we had colored on it, which he was using as his story. I had my book too, so he "read" from each story. For his, he said, "Once upon a time there were two dinosaurs. ROAR!!!!" For mine he looked at the boring, picture-less page and read, "Once upon a time there were E's and O's". Not much for plot, but a good read nonetheless.

Words abound

Gavin is starting to talk a lot more. His favorites:

No! (naturally)
Stop it!
Don't do that!
Too tight! (Said when he sees a diaper coming his way, let alone when I put it on. Shane saysI just don't understand what's it's like for a boy.)

Understanding that he is mirroring what he hears the most, I need to find some more positive ways to re-direct him as he is dangling from the ceiling fan.

His first non-copied sentence came the other night as we were watching Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. The Loch Ness Monster thing is angry and sees his nemesis, on the shore, which happens to be a dog that looks like Rosie, barking on the shore. After some roars and teeth gnashing, the dog's barking ceases....we can only assume what happened, as it is a kids movie after all. Gavin had no problem putting it together and thus his first real sentence: Didodaur bite Ro Ro!

Giant love

Claire likes to find creative ways to tell me how much she loves me, which of course, I love.

Yesterday, she said she loves me as much as a billion giants standing on top of each other. I was thrilled with that much love. Then she said, with great drama, "And the giants are standing on the stool from Daddy's bathroom!"

So not only am I loved a billion giants high, I am loved a billion giants and approximately 12 inches high.

Take that.

The Shape of Things

Claire went to a friend's house to play today. Before she went, she asked me whether her friend's dad was going to be there. (Gulp, thinking the worst.) I told her I didn't know whether he would be home or not. (What did he do? My poor baby.) She said she really hoped not. (Oh please, no, this can't be happening. I will kill that badwording badword if he put a hand on her. NO!) I managed to croak out a why, and dreaded her response. (pleasenopleasenoIwillkillhimpleaseno)

Her answer: I don't like the shape of his hair.

Come to think of it, I don't really like the shape of his hair either. But not enough to kill over.

Baking Shane's B-Day Cake

We had fun making the cake, but I forgot to add baking soda so together, the 2-layers were about an inch high. It still got eaten.

My Kid in a Box