Crow Tastes Really Good With Salt

Last week I spent a little bit of time talking about Squeaker's sleeping habits. In particular I mentioned that "Inexplicably it still doesn't occur to her that with the sides down, there really isn't anything keeping her in bed." I wrote that on Sunday night. Well... No, no, let me start at the beginning.

We lowered the side on the crib at my parent's house, but she still had somewhat of a barrier between her and the outside world. The next time she slept in her bed was Tuesday afternoon. We got back a home a couple of hours after nap time. The late start did not dissuade her from chatting with her friends. She finally fell asleep after 5 pm. Since she needed to have dinner and some awake time before she went to bed at 8, Uncle Mack and I went up to get her out of bed. She was sound asleep. Waking her up is an unusual experience. To say that we almost always let her wake up on her own would give you the impression that occasionally we wake her up.I don't recall the last time I woke her up, so I was surprised when Uncle Mack and I stomped into the room and she didn't wake up. We talked to her. Not a muscle twitched. Uncle Mack and I realized together that something was amiss. We also thought it was a little funny that she was scrunched up on the left side of the bed. Her head was resting on Hopa and her feet were on the rail. The bed is maybe two and a half feet wide. Squeaker is every bit of three feet tall, so it wasn't a very comfortable position. I thought about getting the camera at that point, just because it was such a funny position. I decided that even bounced off the ceiling a flash going off in your eyes would be a rough way to get up. I did get the camera upstairs before she got out of bed, but first we called Aunt Brite. I yelled downstairs (which also didn't wake Squeaker up) and told her she had to come upstairs too. When Brite came into the room, I asked how many books she had let Squeaker take to bed. The answer was three. That would be the pile on the left. Squeaker apparently got bored with those three books, because we found her with those three on the left and that pile on the right too. We don't know if she brought them all at once or piecemeal, but Squeaker carried all those books with her into her bed. If you look back a the first picture, you can see that she was actually sleeping on a couple of them. She actually hasn't gotten out of bed since then, or at least she's figure out not to make is so obvious. We've started cataloging the books that go into bed with her to make sure that she isn't working a bait and switch on us.

We enjoyed our visit to the zoo on Monday. I took a few pictures, but most of them framed a wild animal between my parents and Squeaker's head. Artsy, but not that interesting. She did make friends with this bronze panda while we were there. We saw elephants, seals, a cheetah, zebras (penned next to the cheetah, which is just wrong), small and large hippos, pandas, and a very bad orangutang. I will let Squeaker tell her about her.

Story of the Week

S: 'Rangutang up on wire.
D: What did the Orangutang do when it was on the wire.
S: 'Rangutang almost pee peed on Granddaddy.

Tour de Grandparents

Squeaker and I have been riding the grandparents circuit this week. Rain kept us indoors for much of the first leg of the trip, but things cleared up nicely for the weekend. Squeaker and her Aunt are pictured here next to a memorial for her mother. It was dedicated this morning by Grammy and Granddad's church. Squeaker carefully smelled all the flowers.

While we have been traveling, the Daddy person has had some trouble getting naps to happen exactly at nap time. The one day I actually got her down on time she sat in her bed and chatted away for three hours. Inexplicably it still doesn't occur to her that with the sides down, there really isn't anything keeping her in bed. Most of the rest of the trip her naps have been both later and shorter than usual. This pattern has given me an extra opportunity to observe her when she tired.
I have come to the conclusion that Squeaker is pretty funny when she's punch drunk. While I was putting her to bed tonight (40 minute nap in the car, half of which was in my parents driveway) Squeaker started playing Brite's rhyming game, somewhat with me but mostly with herself. She got the easy ones like "Daddy waddy" I got "fireplace". Go ahead rhyme "fireplace". When she's tired now, she gets really chatty, chatty enough that I have a hard time keeping a straight face during bedtime. We went to the playground this afternoon. This week's sentence of the week is a single word. Between the last two pictures, she said 'backwards'. We are headed to the Zoo tomorrow. If I get some good pictures, I will post them when we get home. Have a good week.

More Story Time with Squeaker

Stories of the Week

This week I think I am going to let Squeaker speak for herself, so I have two stories of the week for you.

Squeaker believes in having a personal relationship with her Librarian, a nice man named Ron. He spoke to Squeaker and Brite the first time they went to the library and is almost always there when they visit.

On the way to the library Squeaker says, "We go li-brary today."
Brite: "Yes Squeaker."
S: "We take back old books get new books."
B: "We'll be there in a little bit."
S: "See Ron at library Brite?"
B: "Maybe. I don't know if he's working today."
S: "Ron. He's good man. Squeaker's friend."
Brite giggles: "Ron seems like a good man."
S: "Umm. Yeah. He takes care my old books, when I get new ones."
Brite chuckles at the thought of the Squeaker-centric universe. Sadly for all involved, Ron was off that day.

Squeaker has been learning the ABC song. She sang the parts she new at dinner with Brite, the Daddy person, and Uncle Mack. The Daddy person corrected a couple of her mistakes. Brite looked at Squeaker and said: "Tell Daddy how old you are Squeaker". Squeaker's answer was "I am two." Brite glared at the Daddy person and said, "Why don't Daddy and Uncle Mack sing you the ABC song?" After some joking they seemed to agree. However, only the Daddy person was 'singing', and he did so deliberately off key and without rhythm. At about 'H', Squeaker looks at the silent Uncle Mack, and says, "Uh Oh, Uncle Mack forgot it". Much laughter ensued at Uncle Mack's expense.

That's all for this week.

PS - For the record, squeaker has kept renaming her cadre of friends, formerly know as Froggie, Ducky and Hopa. I will try and keep you informed of the changes, but for the moment I have lost track of who's name is what.

The Obstacle Course and Big Girl Bed

On Thursday Brite, went upstairs to get Squeaker after she had woken up from her nap. See picture number 1. Do you notice anything out of the ordinary? For several days we have found Hopa, Kamile, Baby James, formerly known as Jacob (sorry little guy) originally known as Froggie, blankie, and all her books on the floor. We didn't know if she was throwing them out so could sleep or if she was getting bored. Whatever the reason, they were on floor when Brite came in, with Squeaker asleep on top of them.
Brite managed to remain composed so she decided to take the Socratic approach with Squeaker.

Brite: What happened Squeaker?
Squeaker: I threw baby James out of bed.
B: Then what happened?
S: I threw Hopa and Kamile out.
B: What happened after that?
S: I threw blankies out of bed.
B: What did you do next?
S: I threw ALLLL my books out.
B: And then?
S: Go to sleep. (This is not the answer Brite is expecting.)
B: Where did you go to sleep?
S: On Hopa. (Brite loses her composure).
B: Were you in bed? (speaking slowly and clearly)

Squeaker looks around for the first time.

S: Umm. No. On floor.
B: Did you climb out of your bed?
S: Umm. Yeah.
B: Did you hurt yourself? Are you OK?
S: Got boo boo on my elbow, Brite.
B: Honey were you sad? Were you crying?
S: My say Brite. (with a smile)

After that the Daddy person was told what happened. He beamed for a while and it was decided that the crib needed to become a big girl bed. Squeaker enjoyed a reading to Hopa while the Daddy person took the side off her crib and replaced it with side rails. Since then she's been adapting to sleeping in her bed. In other news, the sandbox continues to be a big hit.

Thanks Uncle Mack

Last weekend when Squeaker went to the Steel children's museum, she was fascinated just playing in the sandbox. Aunte Brite and Uncle Mack thought about ushering her on to the other exhibits, but decided to let her stay where she was having fun. The sandbox turned out to be too much fun to leave. Even though she was warned that she had 'two more minutes', she had a small fit when it was time to leave. What stopped the fit was Uncle Mack explained that sandboxes were not indigenous to children's museums. So using a little extra lumber from the house and some sand, a fully formed sandbox sprung forth from the earth yesterday.

Sentence of the Week

"No Brite. Froggy named Jacob. Ducky named Kamile" I returned a phone call to some friends we had seen last spring. Squeaker listened and guessed who I was calling. I explained that it was our friends from out west and that she had seen them twice before. I recounted the details for her and showed her pictures of their visit. I was asked to repeat the story a number of times. I finally got her off topic with a visit to the children's museum. That afternoon she decided on her own that new names were in order for her friends. Hopa almost got renamed too, but the Daddy person and Aunte Brite didn't like that idea as much.

Have a good week.

Why Oh, Why Oh, Why Oh?

Squeaker, Brite and Uncle Mack are out of state this weekend, so the main event this week was a ten hour car trip. Squeaker barely slept but none the less the trip has gone well so far. The intrepid travelers are planning on going to a steel children's museum on the way back. There is a good chance that we'll be posting a trip report sometime this week, so check back around Thursday and see what Aunte Brite has to report. Meanwhile, enjoy Squeakers new favorite word game

Squeaker's Story of the Week

Squeaker: Say piglet brite.
Brite: Piglet.
(Brite laughs, Squeaker does not.)
S: No Brite rhyme. Go for it Brite!
B: Piglet wiglet.
S: Say sample.
B: Sample ample.
S: Say polar bear.
B: Polar bare snare.

Later daddy jumped in and got
S: Say watermellon daddy.
(long pause as the Daddy person runs for a thesaurus)
D: Watermellon fellon

Have a good week.

Happy Birthday Squeaker

That's right readers, Squeaker is the big 2. We've had a busy weekend, and the Daddy person has been fighting a cold, so I don't have much in the way of stories for you. These pictures I think tell a pretty good tail by themselves. No my spelling isn't that bad, I'm talking about the special pancakes. Regular features will resume next week.