We're famous, but are also all alone

A NEWS FLASH!!! Following up on my earlier post, Margaret and I were pictured in the Washington Post in association with a story about dog parks. Our friend Mariesa is heavily quoted in the article ("Geez, I sound like a complete loser," was her reaction) and the author does clearly point out our park's location, as we feared she might. But Margaret and I, along with Mariesa and a few friends, are pictured in a black and white photo that, in the early Sunday edition, was on pg. A4. A slightly crowded photo, but there we are with Margaret looking right at the photographer. Apparently, we'll be on the inside of the Metro section of the actual Sunday edition, but it doesn't appear that they've posted our photo online. We'll see if our photo pops up online and will buy up some extra copies and scan a copy for our many fans.

The CT grandparents left on Friday, so we are officially on our own. I suspect that we'll be able to handle it reasonably well, although some logistical issues associated with dogs walks and morning showers will have to be addressed. But after all, we're veterans at dealing with kids at this point. At least we like to think that we are. The whole experience of dealing with an infant is interesting since most people experience it only a few times in their lives, so few people are "experts" in the usual sense. However, once you realize that the kid's crying doesn't mean that he is really suffering all that much (despite the fact that the cry of an infant is one of the most unpleasant sounds in the world), you can handle them pretty easily.

And Teddy has continued to be a pretty easy kid. He fusses a bit, as any infant will, but doesn't reach the sustained levels of fussiness that his sister achieved. And, frankly, for all of the difficulties that she caused (e.g. only sleeping in the swing, heavy reliance on the nuk-nuk), she wasn't a very tough kid. Upshot is that he's been a real champ and, despite out initial concern that it was only temporary, he's managed to keep it up. Admittedly, he does wake up at night, but he's pretty quiet about announcing his presence, so it doesn't bother me too much. And frankly, that's probably the efficient outcome since while I can change diapers, there's not much point in having me do so when there's not much else I can do for him.

As for Margaret, her latest doctor's appointment put her in the 90th percentile for height and the 50th percentile for weight - still our little supermodel. Although the doctor did point out that the height-weight chart reflects lots of kids who eat lots of fast food (when she asked whether Margaret ate fast food, I quickly shook my head while thinking about Margaret's lunch of chicken nuggets, french fries, and pizza that she had the day before with the grandparents at the Museum of Natural History.)

She also has a pretty good vocabulary. Her use of words is naturally a bit rudimentary, but she appears to be using substantially more words than most kids of her age. This may be partly a result of her love of books. One of her favorite pastimes is reading books. Every night, she lies with her head on my chest as we read through book after book. "Hand hand finger thumb" (dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum - it's amazing how catchy books stick in your head) is a new favorite. After every book, Margaret will sit back and say "Bu" (book with out the "k") followed by a heartfelt "peeze" accompanied by her rubbing her tummy (the sign language for "please".) This works for a while as her pleadings are so cute that I can't deny her, but eventually I turn out the light. She'll fuss and occasionally call for Mama (as if Mama would have a different view of the situation), before settling down.

My suspicion is that Margaret will end up being like her Mama and her cousin Alex, both of whom were reading way ahead of their grade levels once they got to school. But I've also learned why Alex's parents have TONS of kids' books - it gets pretty tedious to read the same books over and over. Millions of monkeys, millions of thumbs. Millions of monkeys drumming on drums. Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum.