Imagination

This old Sesame Street clip is so sweet it brings a little tear to my eye:

Bedlam

Can I share some bedtime stories we've been cycling through as we try to get Anonybabe to lie down at night?

It' s more of a formula really: Anonybabe and Pooh Bear and Elmo generally go on adventures together.

Last night they went swimming in the ocean. Each one had a different colored swim noodle and soon some dolphins swam up and gave them rides on their backs as they proceeded to jump over and dive under the noodles. They patted themselves dry (helping each other reach their backs). Then they came home, ate some honey toast and took the bus to the library, where they got to fill up a green shopping basket with all kinds of books and then take the bus home, sit on the couch together and read them.

This story was intended to calm Anonybabe down, but it got her so excited that I thought she was going to explode.

The other night, in our story, they went for a walk in the woods and somebody decided to sing the "moon" song. Anonybabe shot up in bed and demanded that each character sing the song in his voice. "Ellllm? Moooooo?" So I would sing the song in Elmo's voice. "Poooh? Mooooo?" So I would sing the song in Pooh's voice. And so forth and so on until she finally flopped down, exhausted and blissful.

Just terrible

Do 19 1/2 month olds fall under the "terrible two" umbrella? Because Anonybabe has been saying "no" a lot lately. There was a transition period a few weeks back where she would default to saying "no" before thinking about what we'd asked and changing her answer to "yes". We got several "no-kay"s and "nyeah"s.

But now it's just "no". "NO MAMA! MAMA NO! NO MAMA! WAAAAAAH!"

For frig's sake. Just in time for winter. How do you hibernate through the debilitating cold with a bear who won't sleep?

What fools we mortals be

Dude. I was so excited to see a comment on one of my old posts this morning. In my gmail inbox was a notification that someone had posted a comment that simply said "good post". I was elated. I went back and read the post. I wondered what had drawn the commenter named Sylvia in. I was flooded with goodwill and went to check out Slyvia's webpage.

Only to find out she was spam. Like, insurance spam. Intended to lure affirmation hungry bloggers such as myself. I am both annoyed as hell at "Sylvia" and impressed. Somebody sure knows how to use the right bait.

Why Anonybabe wanted to watch Grover

This has been stuck in my head on a continuous loop since I saw it Friday night. Even so, I liked it until Sunday morning. A pretty good barometer of quality...if it takes 36 hours of constant exposure to get sick of something:

Bad Mommy

I think I need to start a "Bad Mommy" segment to this blog (inspired by the "Bad Parent" section of the Daily Babble magazine found at http://www.babble.com/ ...let's give credit where credit is due).

In it I can whisper secrets I can never tell my daughter, or the ones I hope Anonybabe never tells anyone but her therapist, or maybe her significant other in a moment of weepy vulnerability.

My first confession is this: the tonality of my daughter's voice is driving me crazy. She ends almost every word she says on the same high questioning note, particularly when she's demanding something. "Coo-keeee? Coo-keeee? Coo-keeee? Ma-maaa? Coo-keeee?" was one I heard a lot Saturday. She'll keep repeating her phrases, louder and louder, until I repeat them back to her, acknowledging that she said them. Here's a sample conversation:

Me, to Anonyhub: So, I was talking to...

Anonybabe: wa? guuuuuuuuh?

Me, to Anonyhub: ....Sarah about Obama's.....

Anonybabe: Wa? Guuuuuuuuh?

Me to Anonyhub: ....first cabinet picks......

Anonybabe: WA? GUUUUUUUH?

Anonyhub, from the other room: What? I can't hear you over Anonybabe.

Me, to Anonybabe: We're not going to watch anything right now, Anonybabe.

Anonybabe: WA? GUUUUUUUH?

Me, to Anonybabe: No, we're not going to watch any more tv today, baby girl; we're going to play.

Anonybabe: Noooo? No pay. Waaa? GUUUUUUH?

Me, to Anonybabe: What are you saying? You want to watch Grover?

Anonybabe: Yea! Yea mama, Okay. Okay, mama. Wa guh. Okay, mama.

Me: Fine.

Naive me. I thought that if I gave my baby enough attention she wouldn't clamour for it so much. Little did (or do) I know the vortex of need that Anonyhub and I created on that fateful July 4th weekend a couple of years ago.

So my confession is not that I try to fill my daughter's aching need for attention with television. I'm over that. Do it all the time. My confession is that at the moment I often hate the sound of her voice. It was all I could do to keep myself from mocking it the other day.

Bad mommy.

Sweet nothings

There's so much to talk about and so little I want to say. I've been retreating into myself lately. It's not a good thing, but sometimes these ebbs of generosity just have to be weathered. I'll just introduce a couple of things I wanted to talk about and write as much as I have the energy for.

Went to a homeschool association meeting the other night. I was floored; it was lovely. It was set up as a formal meeting, with minutes and a business section and such. But people brought materials to sell or give away, they chatted and ate popcorn that somebody brought. And there's always a topic of discussion; this time it was "the other" parent. Pretty much everybody talked about their setup as far as who the main educator was and what the other person did to support them. Some people loved their setup, some people hated it. Some people had hoed a long hard row to get where they were, some people had fallen into their roles easily. Most people who had been homeschooling a while had changed and progressed over the years. Everyone shared so openly, with only one person in a group of about 40 crossing the line into oversharing. I was buzzing with goodwill when I left, and again kind of hoped that Anonybabe wants to homeschool. That we're presented with a situation where she'll thrive if we do it. I like the idea of homeschooling, but can't get ahead of myself. There's so much to gain if there are good schools around. Or even just one or two good teachers and some decent classmates.

Another thing is I think I found something of a soulmate in a girl I used to babysit. We found each other on facebook. I think I friended her when I first started there; it's strange that I did, but at first I would befriend anybody and everybody I knew even remotely. She went to my church and just graduated from a Christian college and is pretty disillusioned with religion as she knows it. It was great to get to chat with her about life, god, and whatnot. Who'd have thunk that little button nosed girl would turn out to be someone I could unload the story of my college angst to, and vice versa?

Anonybabe must have burst into tears ten times today. "Today" being a five hour span, since she got up at 9:30 and went to sleep at 2:30. Holy crap, look at the time! I'd better go wake her up if I want to sleep tonight!