Turkeys & Family

Squeaker and I are back from our usual whirlwind tour of the Commonwealth. She and her Aunt Gidget are still trying to figure out how to stop talking and go to sleep when they share a bedroom, with obvious and not unexpected consequences.

Meanwhile, Squeaker enjoyed orchestrating a game of pool. She told her Daddy and Granddaddy which balls to knock down which sometimes took multiple attempts. We even had time for some blueberry pancakes.

Have a good week.

No Post This Week : <

Sorry! The Daddy person was busy being an economist last week (rather than just teaching economics) and was away from Squeaker and didn't get a good post together.

Stay tuned for turkey day stories next week.

Sleep Over

Three nights sleeping over with our Aunt Gidget
Three days without a nap.
Hours and hours of playing.
A big lunch.
Being in a quiet car.

Priceless.

Videos

Its been a while since we have uploaded video, though not since I promised video, so here's a collage of shorts. We enjoyed a quiet weekend at home, something of a rarity recently. Have a good week.

The Empathy Strikes Back

Check-up Time

Not long ago Squeaker (shown here in her Halloween Costume) went to the doctor for her check-up. Part of this year's check-up was a flu shot. She did not enjoy the experience. It took a little while for the tears to cease. Once they did, she had some questions for Brite.

"Why did you let them give me a shot?" Brite's answer was that it was "to prevent the flu". Squeaker then wanted to know "What does the flu feel like?" and sometimes "What different kinds of flu are there?" Every ten minutes for the rest of the day, she would interrogate Brite again (looking perhaps for Brite to change her answers in an attempt to minimize her betrayal). Although she still enjoys playing doctor with her kit, she no longer gives any of her friends shots.


Squeaker on Hair Styles

Last week at the wedding she got to see her Aunt (technically great) Sandra. They even had a chance to play basketball together in their wedding finery. At dinner last night, after a long period of what Brite referred to as "glorious silence", Squeaker looked a Brite and said "I think Mr. B and and Aunt Sandra are the same." Not surprisingly Brite wanted to know way. The answer was that "Mr. B has long hair. Aunt Sandra has very short hair. They are the same because that is different than usual."



The List

Squeaker can be very empathetic when it comes to characters in stories. Most of the time her empathy make sense. On the way to Kentucky a viewing of "Ratatouille" had to be cut short because Squeaker was became unstrung during the storm drain sequence. For any little person, this could be intense, especially for this one, since Squeaker recognized that "drowning" (her word, not mine) was a possibility.

Last night she and Brite were reading "Frog and Toad Together" when empathy struck again. In the story, Toad decides to make himself a list of activities (such as, wake up, get out of bed, eat breakfast, etc). Each time Toad finishes an item, he enjoys crossing it off the list. One of the items was to go for a walk with his friend Frog. During the walk a gust of wind blows the list away. At this point in the story, Squeaker is curled up in bed with Brite and seems to be enjoying the story. Frog tries to catch the list for Toad, but the list is lost for good. Frog comforts Toad and the story ends. Squeaker sits straight up in bed and begins sobbing uncontrollably. Brite doesn't quite understand why until Squeaker blurts out "Oh, Brite, will Toad ever get his list back?"

Brite tried hard to comfort Squeaker while stifling laughter. Squeaker takes the book out of Brite's hands and starts furiously flipping through the pages to see if Toad is every reunited with his list. Squeaker did finally calm down, but Toad was never reunited with his list.

Off to Kentucky for a Wedding

Squeaker and I are off in far can-tuk for a wedding. No pancakes this morning, but we did have a continental breakfast. A breakfast she decided that the table ad looked like a hat. So, as the saying goes, she put it on.

More on the trip next week.

Understanding?

Squeaker has made a couple of trips to target since they put up halloween decorations.

The two that have caught her imagination are a ghoul with a skull like face and a witch. She wants to buy the witch and put it in her grandmother's attic (no hidden meanings here). In one of her favorite Dora episodes, the explorer and a mermaid put an evil witch in a "high tower" an attic is a nice approximation. This fate befalls Hopa when she is bad.

On our first trip to Target she wanted to see these decorations again (as a reference, the ghoul is my height and the witch, while short is taller than Squeaker). While we were looking at them a shopper pressed their buttons and Squeaker was entralled.

I didn't let her press the buttons that trip. I told her that she could press the buttons the next time we went. When we got to the store, all she could talk about was pressing the Stallion's button. After a while I figured out she meant Skeleton. I didn't tell her that's what it was, but Brite did.

We discussed that a stallion was a male horse and despite some troubles with the two words, she got the idea.

I, we really, know she got it beause the next morning she went up to Brite and said "I'm a horse, here's a letter". It wasn't until breakfast when I quizzed Squeaker on the Ghoul that Brite figured out why she had been visited by a "mail horse"....