Dec 4 ++ It’s a new season, with new house decorations that Toddler A can point out repeatedly during our walks. The pumpkins are gone, but lights are up! I took her on an evening stroll down our street where we discovered The Deer. This is a metal deer lined with lights whose head rotates slowly back and forth. Toddler A stood in the home’s driveway staring at Deer for 15 minutes, talking to it, and rotating her own head and arms back and forth. As we walked home she talked nonstop about the deer.
Dec 5 ++ Toddler A wants to see her new bff Deer, but I took her out early and the lights were off. As a consolation, we walked further down the street to see a $99 snowman toy with tiny beads of white “snow” that blow around its head. She was crazy for the snowman and blocked traffic in the doorway of the department store, talking to it. On the way back home, the Deer was all lit up and A clapped with delight.
Dec 6 ++ Playing with Toddler A in her bedroom. She told me, “Momo fall down,” so I pretended to fall down the way she does, slowly and dramatically, with a fake wail at the end. She rushed over with a concerned look and patted my arm, then tugged at my hands until I sat up, then she gave me a hug and kissed my cheek, patted my back and said “okay, okay.” Being rescued by my baby was a total delight.
Dec 7 ++ In the living room, Toddler A asked me to draw a picture of Mama, so I said, “Is Mama doing anything?” She said, “Mama fall down.” I know she falls down 20 times a day, but if an adult falls down it’s a major occurrence. I worried that drawing H falling over would curse her, so I asked if I could draw something else. She said, “Mama crying.” I drew it, and she asked for Momo crying. So I drew that and she asked for A crying. Now I had a family portrait of us looking sad, with tears rolling down our cheeks. She insisted I also draw our friends and their kid sad, followed by a solo portrait of Elmo crying. When H got home she saw the pictures and said, “Oh no! Why is everyone so devastated?”
Dec 8 ++ Toddler A’s new favorite song is a Taylor Swift Christmas song, and the album cover is a photo of her as a baby, so A calls the song “Baby Taylor.”
Dec 9 ++ H, talking in her sleep, calls out, “Well, I’m completely floored!” I said, “What happened?” But she didn’t respond so I said, “What floored you?” Sleeping H said, “They peeled the carrots and buried them underground where they released their energy that powers the plants and creatures and the whole universe and it’s just amazing!” WOW!
Dec 10 ++ Toddler A turned two! It feels so much more momentous than when she turned one, maybe because she’s conscious for the event now. We had over her two best friends and it was the most adorable party ever. When she realized so many of her favorite people were there in her living room, she got visibly excited. Her mouth scrunched up and she started darting back and forth giving people hugs. One of her friends kept singing happy birthday to her; the other friend ran behind the living room curtain and declared herself taking a shower (“my hair’s wet!”).
Dec 11 ++ Sigh, I created a Facebook account for my middle name, so I can try and give/sell our old baby paraphernalia and free up some space in our tiny home. I am shocked by how badly designed the Facebook website is, in addition to its being a privacy catastrophe (don’t tell my librarian colleagues I’m doing this!) I signed up with an alias email through my protonmail account that is associated with nothing else, and I refused to answer most of its questions about me, so, fingers crossed. But back to the design… how is this company so rich and so bad at creating good web design? It feels like playing video games on a Commadore 64 when everyone else is using a Switch.