My Valentine's Got Class

Tulips (get it? tu-lips) and Ghirardelli. What more could a girl want?

Quote of the Day

"I'm only doing the top button on my sweater so everyone can see my PINKness."

Statisticians in Training

(found these at the American Statistical Association store, where else? I personally think this one is especially appropriate for Mr. Pickles.) ;)

Recent Developments in Katish

I wish the Alma Mater had had a linguistics minor. I would have eaten it up. I love watching a little mind trying to make sense of a language. Katie's vocabulary increases by the day -- what's amazing to me is that she's not just aping words she hears, but actually understands them. Lately she's been trying to master prepositions. She has most of them down, but it's SO hilaryus, as Miriam says, when she mixes them up.

When it comes to enunciation, she's requiring less and less translation for outsiders. She can even say the difficult consonants like S and R and L pretty clearly, although when she says L she sticks her tongue far out of her mouth. I love watching her say "silly." One bit of Katish that I find particularly cute these days is that she can't pronounce an initial S followed by another consonant. This leads to cuteness such as:

"the leeves on my weater"
"my have bagel for my nack"
"my wanna mell"
"my have fuzzy noman sheetth!"
"my no want shaushage -- too picey!"
and my personal favorite:
"my wanna nuggle"

She's also been experimenting with the concept of "very." But "very" is just a little beyond her articulatory abilities. So once when I was telling her not to eat some disgusting piece of something she found on the floor, she responded with, "No, that's WAY ewwy."

Did you know hobbits were homeschooled?

Are you a Hobbit?

I thought this post was really neat. I've always admired hobbits (and wished I lived in Hobbiton) -- now I know why! They just seem to be good ordinary folk who are generally happy and take delight in the pleasures of ordinary life (like family, friends, good eating, and comfort). My kind of folks!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Who can guess the perfect caption for this picture?

Why I Really Shouldn't Spend So Much Time On the Computer

Because Katie never lets pass an opportunity to get into trouble when Mommy's not paying attention.

A Letter from Miriam

This was sent to me via Katiemail (i.e. Miriam handing it to Katie and yelling, "Now, go give this to Mommy!" and Katie running over to me and saying, "Heyoogo, Mommy"):


I asked Miriam to translate:

"Dear Mommy,
I wish...
I want...
T-T and Maddy are coming to my party.
Edy is coming to my party too.
We're not going to eat cakes until Edy gets here.
When Edy gets here, we're going to eat cakes.
I'm going to open presents that everybody gives me.
I like it every year ago when I get to open presents.
When people come to my house, I like to-- I like it when I have a party when people come to my house.
When my basement flooded, I should get a new carpet."

The computer desk is littered with similar missives.

She even addresses the envelopes.

Can anyone tell me...

...why lettuce has suddenly gone up $.80/lb.?

And also a way to keep fresh spinach so that it doesn't get mooky after 2 days?

If only they stayed this innocent...

(overheard as they were heading up for their bath):

Miriam: C'mon, Katie, let's go upstairs and take off our clothes and run around naked!
Katie: Yeah!