Thirst Quencher

Roxi has become concerned about the well-being of her pals. She often puts her sippy cup to the mouths of Turtle, Lobster, Twinkie the Kid and several of her many other inanimate companions. It's cute.

Even cuter was today when she offered her animal crackers a sip at lunch: "Bear is thirsty. Give him a drink!" Followed by her fruit: "Strawberries thirsty too!"

Pigtails

Pretzel Girl

Practicing a stretch learned at her weekly gymnastics class. The instructor calls this one Bonk Your Nose. Another side effect of the class is that Roxi wants to get in her crib and jump. A lot. With very much jumpitude. And often jubilant yelling. I call this exercise Being A Wild Thing.

Anatomy

One of Roxi's favorite books includes a section in which the protagonist, our hero Cookie Monster, examines some cookies using his five senses. Rob and I explain, as we're reading that section, that he sees the cookies with his eyes, listens to the cookies with his ears, etc.

Roxi has lately applied this knowledge to her daily life. She'll often ask for something by saying, "Want it. In the hand." We have flowers on the kitchen table, and she inquires, "Smell them? Want to? Flowers? With the nose?" This morning, she commented on her breakfast, "Eating it. In the mouth."

In Celebration of Snow

Vail, last weekend, and home, yesterday:

New Traditions

Last night, we joined the annual Valentine's ritual of some friends of ours: Dinner at McDonald's. The tradition started several years ago when Heather and Paul wanted to have a romantic dinner together ... and ended up at Ronald's when every other place in town had an hour-plus wait.

So we joined Heather, Paul and Josie this year - along with pals Dola, Shannon and Hailey. The three girls could not have had more fun. The fabulously salty cuisine aside, they enjoyed chasing each other around the restaurant, pushing each other in the wheeled high chairs and being goofy in general. You'll know where to find us next Feb. 14.

Running Commentary

On the way from the house to the car last night: "Roxi and Mommy walking to the blue car. Daddy walking to blue car, too! Mommy and Daddy walking. Roxi walking, too! Daddy, Roxi, Mommy walking together. All walking. Roxi and Daddy and Mommy. Walking to blue car!"

In the car: "Roxi is riding. Daddy is riding, too! Mommy is driving. Going to restaurant! See Hailey and Josie. And Heather. And Dola. At restaurant! Mommy is driving. Roxi and Daddy are riding. Going to see Josie and Heather! And Hailey! And Dola! And Paul and Shannon. Going to restaurant! Daddy is riding. Mommy is driving. Roxi is riding, too!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Joy Is ...

... listening to your daughter sing the ABC song wherein all the letters are replaced by "pig", while simultaneously dancing in circles with a wee toy piggy. Pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig, PIG, pig, pig, pig, pig, pig-o-pig-pig ...

Hut! Hut! Hut!

Roxi is, among other things, a budding wide receiver. She and Rob often play football together, which goes a little something like this:
• Rob shouts, "We're going to run a post route into the bathroom. Blue 42! Blue 42! Hut! Hut! Hut!"
• Roxi replies, "Hut! Hut!" as she goes tearing down the hall towards the bathroom.
• Rob throws the football over Roxi into the bathroom. Roxi picks it up.
• Rob: "Touchdown Tusselwupper!"
• Roxi: "Yaaaaay! Touchdown Tuppahwuppah!"

She doesn't quite understand the finer points of the game yet ... because her favorite play after the touchdown is to run halfway back to Rob with the ball, throw it on the floor, scream, "Fumble!" and laugh hysterically. The fumble play never gets old.

Roxi is also quite the fan. Whenever she sees football players in motion on TV, she belts out an appreciative, "Niiiiiice!"

It's In The Bag