Piglet Pie

Piglet Update!

11-8-07 purple upside down
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

Hey friends. The semester is slowly but surely coming to a close, and I'm looking forward to the break something fierce. I'm tired. Tired, tired, tired. Happy, but tired.

Some quick updates from the world of Arden. A few conversations, a few songs, and some news.

First, the news. This week started Undie Time. As in, the transition from diapers to the toilet. Today was day three at school in undies, and she stayed dry the entire day! Amazing. I love it.

We went up to NY for Thanksgiving and Arden got to go goofy crazy happy silly with Grandma and Pappy and Uncle Boom and Indu and Aunt Jenna and Aunt Maddy and Uncle Ed and the whole rest of the family clan. She went to the Central Park Zoo, ate a whole lot of yogurt and cake (Grandma gets credit for the former, Pappy gets the blame for the latter) found a new love in The Little Mermaid, and played a lot of hockey.

She also attended her first hockey game. The Islanders lost to the Montreal Canadiens, but Arden only had eyes for Sparky, the dragon mascot (or Farky, in Ardenese). If you ask her what her favorite part of the hockey game was, she'll tell you "falling down," referring to the fight that we tried to shield her from. And if you ask her what a Zamboni does, she'll tell you that "it drives around and cleans the ice!" As a former member of the Pat LaFontaine fan club (1983-5), I am duly proud and thankful for her appreciation of the One True Sport.

School has been nothing but fabulous. Arden is in love with Primavera, and so are we. Her two guides/teachers, Bethany and Marie, are so loving, warm, fabulous, sweet, gentle, kind and silly. She loves school. She loves bringing her "yonch box," usually full of macaroni and cheese or tortellini, fruit, and some other tasty treat (tamales, peanut butter and jelly, carrots...).

Dropping her off on the playground is so sweet--for a while she wouldn't give us kisses or hugs goodbye, just a "bye bye spit." Now it's often a "poke poke!" with her finger. Or a "moop," which she learned from Ezra. A moop is a kiss without any kissing noises. Just a lip touch. Very sweet.

She still very much loves having some nyum, and she loves sticking her hand down my shirt and palming my nipple. Today at pickup on the playground she was snuggling in my arms, a hand down my shirt, and she called out to her teacher, "Bethany! Look at my mama's nyums!" Bethany has three kids of her own and just laughed along with me...

One of the things Arden loves most about Primavera is all the singing. Bethany and Marie know so many good songs, and Arden loves loves loves to sing. A quick list of songs she sings, partly to remind me of them in the future:
Shiny Engine, The Train goes up the tracks, I've been workin' on the railroad, Baby bumblebee, I have a little froggie, I have a little turtle, Twinkle twinkle, I'm a little teapot, ABCs, I'm a witch, Scarecrow, One little owl, Five little pumpkins, Albuquerque Turkey, The little hammer, Happy and you know it, Three little ducks, Good morning w/ name sounds, I climbed up the orange tree, You shine like a star...

Arden also likes to invent songs. One that's stuck recently goes:
Ha-da-da-da...Butter!
Ha-da-da-da...Balloons!
(first we all sing butter. then I sing butter and she sings balloons, and we sing in unison)

Arden still looooves reading, and memorizes and reads back lots of books.
Right now her favorites include But Not the Hippopotamus, Owl Babies, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight, Olivia, Time for Bed, and Frida, which is a gorgeous children's book all about Frida Kahlo.

Adwah...This is Arden's made up word. As in, "Who did you play with today?" "Liam and Ian and Terra...and Adwah!" or "Can you wash your hands, please?" "I wash my hands with soap! I wash my hands with...adwah!"

More soon, but to end with, a few conversations from this afternoon:

Arden and Owen are talking. Talking about playing with her friend Berkeley.
"We ran around! And we hugged each other! And we ran around in circles!"

"And who else did you see?"

"Baby Vera! I love her."

"You love her, eh?"

"Yeah, I love her all the time. All the time when I go to Berkeley's house."

"She's pretty good, huh?"

"ALLLLLL the time."


Arden and I outside Amy's house, where there's a big inflatable Santa across the street.

"HEY! Mama! Who that guy called?"

"That's Santa Claus."

"Ohhh...My daddy turn into him."

True indeed...(Owen plays Santa every year at a cool shop in Austin. He'll be there on Saturday...Arden has been terrified every year. I'll post this year's photo after this weekend...).


Talking with her about the grandparents. I was trying to get her to say "Jeff," but she had other ideas...

"Hey, Arden. What else do people call Pappy?"

"Papperford!"

"Ha! Yes....and what's his full name?"

"Papperford Miriam Egerton!"

Fever Girl

10-20-07 arden lies down in my shadow
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

When I picked up Arden from school today, her sweet teacher was just finishing taking her temperature. As Arden described it later, "Befany do the temperature in my armpit to feel me better!" Arden had a fever, as did three of her classmates. It was a warm and fussy afternoon at Primavera...

The whole pitiful car ride home Arden repeated "Mama...I have a fever..." We stopped at the store for some supplies--namely, popsicles ("pink popsicles!") and sorbet ("purple ice cream!") which, combined with some motrin, helped cool off my steamy little girl.

We spent the afternoon snuggling together in bed, watching movies, eating cool snacks, and stamping penguins and tigers with her new stamps and ink pad.

Thankfully, Arden passed out shortly after 8pm. She's asleep like a tiny bug in the bed next to me, on her belly, arms and legs tucked under her, snoring slightly. Every so often she pops up her head and says something completely hilarious:
"And then my mama brings me juice"
"No, I don't want to go to my home!"
"You like the duck? Okay, I go with you, duck."
"Hey! I see the wiggly guy!" (That's in reference to one of those goofy fan-blowing arms-stretched out...wiggly guys that are in front of stores as advertisements. We pass a red one every day going to school and it's the highlight of the ride (unless there's a train, or a firetruck, or a taxi, or an ambulance, or a digger). Arden LOVES the wiggly guy.

And just a few minutes ago she popped up her head just long enough to sing "...just as you are..." That's the end of the song they sing at school to end their circle time. They sing a verse with each child's name and that's the child's cue to leave circle and move into work time: "Arden, Arden you shine like a star, we love you Arden just as you are..." Super sweet song, and she's apparently singing it in her sleep.

Fever dreams. Wild.

Checking in...finally

9-19-07 hilltop a and o
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

I'm sitting on the upstairs wrap-around porch of a lovely B&B in Austin. I dropped Arden off at school yesterday morning, did a quick shopping trip with Owen, and then left for a night away. I'm not far from home, less than 5 miles, I'm sure, but it feels a world away.

Quiet.

It's so wonderfully quiet here. I arrived at noon, took a long hot shower, and climbed into bed. I read a novel. I closed my eyes and listened to the silence. I drank some wine. I went to the monthly meeting of my mamas renewal group last night and loved the fact that I was in the midst of exactly the kind of personal rejuvenation we talk about.

As I expected, I didn't have the world's most restful sleep. I've become such a light sleeper over the past three years, and wake often just to do a mama-check. Last night was no different--waking up every two or three hours, just checking in, making sure all was well. Sometime soon I think I'll take two nights away, to let my body more fully relax into restful mama and away from Responsible Mama.

It feels good. Mostly, I've been savoring the quiet.

This blog has taken a way way way back seat, and I can't say I see that changing too much. I've started teaching at a lovely small university here in town. I'm now an Assistant Professor, and it's wonderful and exhausting. My colleagues and students are delightful. The campus is beautiful. The workload wavers between heavy and monumental. The first few weeks were overwhelming. I worried about whether I could hack it, working and parenting. I was depleted, frayed, frazzled.

But in the last two weeks, I've started to find my rhythm. I'm no longer constantly counting off the things I have to do, always worrying about a stack of papers to grade. I'm getting more efficient, remembering my best teaching strategies, rediscovering my teaching style. I'm transforming the classes bit by bit so that they're more my own. I'm finding my place. That, too, feels good.

And Arden. Amidst all the stress of starting this job, the one thing that's been so reassuring is that I feel really happy with Arden's world. She's started a new school and I couldn't be more delighted. It is exactly what we were looking for, and I am completely in love with her two teachers. And she is as well. She's thriving, growing, becoming more and more hilarious and insightful and fun and headstrong by the day.

We get lots and lots of playtime, too. I've managed to work my schedule so that my class time is the same as Arden's school time. And I'm finding that the "break" I get while working helps me to be really present while parenting. I find that I'm a better parent when I also get time away, doing work that challenges other parts of my brain.

So, things are good. I'm tired, still, often, always tired. But happy.

I promise another update soon to rattle off all of Arden's current favorites...

She sings, she dances, she enjoys her chocolate

7-29-07 cruise chefs dinner 14
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

Long time. No write. Very busy. We went on a fabulous adventure with Grandma and Pappy and Uncle Boom and Indu to Vancouver and then Alaska on a cruiseship. A wild, weird, wonderful ride that included glaciers, whales, snow-capped mountains, and late night karaoke of "Bohemian Rhapsody." Memorable, indeed. Tons of photos on my flickr page for the trip. And hopefully at some point I'll do some highlighting here...but right now I'm in nonstop preparation mode as class starts at my new university in a week and I have three courses to teach!

But just to satisfy your Arden craving, here's what today looked like in our house. Arden spent about an hour putting on a show that had Owen and I in stitches. She stood on her bed on her pillow (which was "the stage") and performed for an audience made up of Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, and the Armadillo-who-wears-a-dress (aka Armadollo, because it's a doll). She'd make up a song, and we'd make her friends dance along, and then she'd say "stop, guys. Another song is coming on..." and then she'd start with a new one. Once she found the chorus of her song she'd exclaim "C'mon guys!" and we'd all sing along and she'd stomp her foot in rhythm or just dance away. We must have heard twenty or more songs, which included such soon-to-be-classics as:

"I was a baby! I was a baby!"
"I am a big girl! I am a big girl!"
"I can sing...nose! Beep beep!"
"I can see...purple! I can see...red! And I can see...blue!"
"Primavera! Primavera!"
"My friend has hair! But not a chin!"
"Blueberries!"

She also shared a few old standards like Rubber Duckie (with multiple verses...who knew she knew all that?!), five little monkeys jumping on the bed, head shoulders knees and toes...

At one point she sang a song for each friend ("Fozzie! Bear! Fozzie Bear!") and then would say "C'mon Fozzie! Come up on stage with me!"

Holy crap, it was absolutely KILLING us.

Hopefully we can share more updates soon. Things have been going nonstop. I have to be on campus at 8:45am for my first official day at work, and I have meetings all week long. When class starts next week it's going to feel so relaxed and laid back and I'm going to be so thankful to be an academic and not A Person Who Works A Regular Job. But I'm super excited and really feel like things are slowly but surely falling into place. Still don't have an office but I should be getting that this week, and I already have my fancy new computer and my "you can park anywhere you important person you" parking pass. I also have an ID card with the worst photo ever. Glad I'm not going to be flashing that one too often...

And two last nuggets before I sign off. Arden has, for the past year or so, considered our Swiffer sweeper to be "her" broom. Sometimes she'll get her broom and I'll get my broom and we'll sweep the floors together. Or, really, I'll sweep and she'll un-sweep, as her version of sweeping is finding the pile of schmutz and using her sweeper to spread it all around the floor until you can't see it anymore. Anyway, two weeks ago or so Arden suddenly announced that her broom is named "Bobby." I thought it was just a quirky one-time thing, but no, Bobby is now a staple in our home, a friend. And my broom, my boring plain ole yellow broom, is now "Mama Bobby." They have conversations:

"Mama Bobby! Can I sweep this, please?"
"Yes, Bobby, I would love for you to sweep this!"
"Thank you, Mama Bobby!"

Bobby is incredibly polite.

And today, Arden took the big cushion of our papasan chair and put it on the floor like a mat. Then she had Owen take the dome frame of the papasan chair and put it over her while she sat on the mat. She called it her "cage," and insisted that we give her pretend food while she sat in her cage. Over a few minutes of play she became Baby Cow, and we were Mama Cow and Daddy Cow.

"Mama Cow, can I have some strawberries in my cage, please?"
"Yes, Baby Cow. Here are some strawberries. I'll put them in your cage."
"Thank you, Mama Cow."
"You're welcome, Baby Cow!"

Baby Cow is also incredibly polite.

Baby Cow played in her cage on and off for probably a half hour twice today, and ate her weight in pretend strawberries and blueberries.

So. Improvised Musical Revues, Anthropomorphic brooms, and polite caged cattle. This is our life.

Missing Dado

6-21-07 dado in the paper
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

Owen's on day 6 of his two week book tour. Today he reads at a bookstore in Atlanta. We're proud. We also miss him. Arden and I talk a lot about how "Dado is driving in his new car to bookstores and reading people his stories!"

Last night, I spent a long time struggling to convince Arden to go to bed (for the record, she slept an amazing 9 hours straight, from 10pm-7am!). I was lying on her bed, she was jumping and dancing and playing with her dollhouse and feeding her snake some milk and taking off her shirt and sticking paintbrushes in her mouth. We had finally started to get cozy together in the bed when she jumped up and announced "I have to go look out the window!" This "I have to" is a new phrasing that I think she picked up the last time we were in New York. It makes me laugh.

She walks to the window and pulls up a corner of the blinds and looks out. She stands there for a minute or so. Then she turns around and says,

"I remember me and Dado dancing in the rain." She starts dancing, and continues, "We danced outside! In the rain! Me and my Dado! Me and my Daddy!"

I ask her "What else do you remember?" (I've never heard her say the word "remember" before...).

She replies, "The hot tub! Me and my Dado go swim swim in the hot tub. The hot tub is warm. It makes your body feel better."

Oh, the remembering! The Dado stories! It was so terribly sweet. I snuggled her up onto my lap and smothered her in kisses while she giggled, and then I told her a story all about Dado's driving adventures.

And then, finally, she went to sleep.

Miss you, Dado...

love

7-5-07 wearing dado's boots
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

We're lying in bed an hour ago, reading a book. Arden has her foot on my leg, her hand is stroking my arm as we read and read and read. Her head is tucked against me, and we read. We finish the book and recite together "The End." She takes a deep breath and says quietly,

"I love you, Mom."

Then a pause. Then,

"I have to...touch you."

I lean into her hair, breathe deeply, say, "I love you too, Arden."

She blows me a kiss.

Then says,

"Oh! How 'bout we watch a little bit of Ernie and Bert?!"
I am such a sucker. A completely head-over-heels sucker. Man, that "I love you" gets me every time. Calling me "Mom" was such a funny, big girl moment. And the gentle touches, the kisses. Dado's on the fifth day of his book tour road trip, and things here have been simultaneously great and hard. But this moment? Made all the middle of the night waking and nonstop running and sheer exhaustion worth it.

So yes, we watched a little bit of Ernie and Bert.

Wouldn't you?

Peeing on the potty...kinda

le petite pot
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

Arden is getting inspired by her friends. Mercer, Anya, Sofia, Lucy, all her girly girl friends wear panties and pee in the potty. And now, Arden wants to too.

[note: I hate the word panties. Hate, hate, hate. I'm an undies girl. Or underwear. Or bottom-cover-er. Or whatever. Anything but panties. But Arden? Much more interested in them if I call them panties. So panties it is.]

So yesterday she spent much of the afternoon wearing curious george panties. And I spent much of the time asking her repeatedly if she had to go potty.

[note two: I also hate the word potty. But, again, Arden's clicked with it, so there we go....]

At one point, Owen called me in to help him clean up some pee. Arden had been playing with her fabulous doll house (a birthday present from Aunt Jenna, Aunt Maddy and Uncle Ed) and had peed on the floor. No big deal, I'm expecting accidents galore for a while here.

But as I was cleaning it up, I noticed something. I walked over to Arden and asked her "Where did you go pee pee?" And she replied, "In the tiny potty!"

Friends, Arden went pee pee in the potty that came with her doll house. The one in the photo above. The teeny, tiny, carved out of wood, designed for a three inch doll to sit on, cupable in the palm of your hand potty.

This kills me. I love it so much it hurts. I love that she knew it was a potty. That she knew she needed to pee. And that she knew where she needed to go. The tiny potty? Was full of pee. I am so freakin' proud. And bemused.

We have since moved her two potties (one for each bathroom) into her bedroom and the living room so that she can use them if she feels the urge, rather than using the tiny potty. And the tiny potty got a thorough cleaning. But I have a feeling that isn't the last we're going to see of that tiny potty being put to its sort-of-intended use...

Potty training the piglet? Going to be quite the adventure...

She's bringing...

6-28-07 arden alamo hat 5
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

Here's my girl, who spent much of yesterday either wearing or forcing me to wear this bright yellow hardhat, safety gear for the showing of Earthquake during the final night at the downtown Alamo Drafthouse.

I keep wanting to write about that night, about saying goodbye to that sweet theater where I've spent hundreds of hours during the last seven years. Hours spent watching films and hours spent supporting and cheering on and laughing at/with Owen and also hours spent up front, on stage, hosting the Oscars, hosting sing-alongs like the Muppet Movie, the SouthPark movie, the Nightmare Before Christmas, and some memorable nights filling in for one of the Sinus guys in the Karate Kid, Mac and Me, Crossroads...

But holy goodness, I am still so freakin' tired from that night. We stayed at the Alamo til 6am, til all the chairs were dismantled and carried home by the audience members, til all the whiskey and beer and molten chocolate cake were devoured, til the ceiling tiles began to fall and the lights began to break, til the sweet sweaty glow on everyone's faces began to become...just sweaty. And oh, I just don't party like that anymore. And it was fabulous, and festive, and I will never forget that night...and I'm having a hell of a time recovering. I am just absolutely exhausted. Fell asleep tonight while putting Arden to bed and woke up two hours later with her sweaty body on top of me.

Now, it's not just the Alamo festivities; I've been running nonstop this week. Today was a great example of my Renaissance Woman lifestyle. Woke up and immediately drove to a local B&B to re-shoot a few scenes from the film we worked on all weekend. Got to get my nails repainted and my makeup done and pranced around through a grassy field. Then went and picked up Arden at the Bungalow and had a thirty minute nurse-a-thon before leaving her with babysitter extraordinaire and Alamo sing-along crafter Caitlin so that I could go to a faculty meeting for my new university job. Played Dr. Jodi for two hours, talked about course design and textbook selection and curriculum planning. Explained the reason I was sporting hot pink nails (just to alleviate any fears on their part...). Then Arden and I went to play at our friends' house, one of my favorite activities (thank you, playdate with wine!). My three year old friend Berkeley and I danced raucously to some Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and then danced some more (with me feeling just slightly uncomfortable) to Prince's "Cream."  Then Arden and I came home and went on a walk in the neighborhood with Dado, bumped into Carson and six week old baby Enzo leaving Brance's parents' new house a few blocks from us, and got some surrogate-grandparent time as Karen entertained Arden with Mercer's toys. And then home for night night time, the nurse-and-snuggle fest, and the sweaty wakeup two hours later...

And here I am.

I should just go back to sleep. Because I'm on call for my friend Amy (Berkeley's mama) who is due to have baby Vera any day now. And I have to be ready to rub her butt and bring her earl grey tea between contractions...

But mostly, I wanted to write this post. And not because of anything I've already shared. I wanted to write this so I could share Arden's new favorite song. The only song she'd let me listen to on the thirty minute round-trip drive to and from Marcela's this afternoon.

Not the Itsy bitsy spider. Not I'm a little teacup. Not even the Beatles.

No, Arden's new favorite song is Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack." Over and over, we listened to this song. When the next song came on she'd cry out "NOOO! Not this song! The other song!" And then when the opening beat would start she'd just settle back in her chair and bop along with it. Over the course of the car ride, I managed to learn all of the words (who knew that song had words?!). Me up front singing seductively, she in back moving to the beat...we two girls rocked HARD.

So, that's my life. Fun, exhausting, entertaining, with a thumping bass and some earl grey tea...

[and yes, i do have justin timberlake in my car. and journey. and abba. what?!]

Mama gets her groove back...

You know, I don't spend every day playing dragons and singing "I'm a little teapot" and changing diapers. Okay, I spend most days like that. In fact, over the past two years and two months, I've spent probably 89% of my time being Mama. But every so often an opportunity comes up and I get to break away from JodiMama for a while.  Our run of Plays Well With Others at Zach Scott completely reawakened the comic performer in me (heck, I even got a bit of acclaim for that, and never bothered to share it here before...enjoy). After a long hiatus of postpartum fuzziness, I finally felt like I could hold my own on stage again.

So then my friend Meg approached me about acting in a short film she was writing and directing for a film class. I said yes. Then I instantly had pangs of regret, imagining endless days of shooting, anxious stuffy film people, and generally a big headache. But. I had agreed, and so on Saturday I tromped off to the first location, prepared for a long  and probably painful weekend.

Well, kick me in the pants and call me Jimmy, I had a freakin' blast. I mean, seriously, I had nonstop fun for the entire twenty four hours of filming. Part of that had to do with not having to be on mama-duty at all the whole time--I hadn't realized just how much of my brain is constantly devoted to watching out for Arden's well-being. And I love that girl more than anything in the world, but holy goodness it was nice not to have to worry about her for two days straight.

Much of it also had to do with a general spirit of fun and joy on the set. Which I so appreciate.

And then there's the fact that I was playing a very un-Jodi-like role. Usually, if I'm doing any kind of performing, I'm the comic relief. I do goofy really well, and witty, and slapstick, and parody, and all kinds of funny. In my early performing days, back in junior high, I would have given anything to get to play Sandy in Grease, or Anna in the King and I, or Annie, or any one of a collection of leading ladies. But slowly, after years of playing goofy sidekicks, I came to really love my life as the comic. Fewer lines to remember, and you could steal the show with just a single well-played moment.

But man, it was fun getting to try my hand at a more serious role. The photo at the top? Shows the taping of the climactic moment of the film, as Mrs. Benson destroys her car after losing her fantasy love...And there I was, straddling the camera and whacking the shit out of a fireplace grate with a wrench while wearing crazysexy pants and a strapless top and hot pink nails, while getting sprayed with (thankfully fake) motor oil. It was an intense scene to shoot, raw, visceral, emotional, and physical, and I found myself breathing so heavily that I collapsed to the floor in a heap once they called "cut." Exhausting and invigorating and just plain fun.

I think what surprised me the most was that everyone was really happy with how the scenes turned out. I think I secretly didn't believe that I could do a role that called for serious, visceral, sensual scenes. I'm the clown, the funny girl, the improv comic. I'm not really an actor. I think I subconsciously expected responses like "well, that was fine," or "hmmm...maybe this isn't going to work." And I'm glad that wasn't the case.

Pregnancy and birth and postpartum and infancy and toddlerhood have taken a toll on my creative energy. But finally, some of the other layers of Jodi are getting a chance to reemerge, to unfurl after a long slumber. Don't know that I was ever a caterpillar, but these days I'm sure feeling more like a butterfly. Or maybe a luna moth.

 

Happy Birthday Pappy!

6-15-07 new york 10
Originally uploaded by jodimama.

Arden and Owen and I just got back from a ten day trip up north. First to Swarthmore College, 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia, for my 10 year college reunion. And then to Long Island to celebrate Pappy's 60th birthday!

We had a blast. We had multiple blasts. The reunion went above and beyond my expectations. The weekend was full of catching up with old friends, rediscovering friends, meeting friends' children, playing at college, and remembering what a powerful, inspiring, and fun time of my life that was. It was so fun to get to run around Swarthmore with Owen and Arden, to share my memories and friends with them. And it was also fun to realize how happy I am now, how much my life now is full of that same spirit of fun and play and work that I so valued during my time at Swarthmore. Photos of the reunion are here.

And then up to New York to celebrate Pappy's birthday. Arden loves birthdays (well, she loves cake, and she loves singing "Happy Birthday to You") and I think we must have sung happy birthday to Pappy at least fifteen times over the week we were there. The weather was perfect, we swam and chased bunnies and went to parks and playgrounds and farm stands. Owen and I even got to spend two evenings in the city, one dining at Indu's restaurant (which was one of the best meals I've had in a long time) and the other celebrating Russell's birthday, while Arden entertained Grandma and Pappy.

A few bits of Arden-catchup, since I've become a really lax blogger lately.

Arden loves puppets. If you know me and my history, you'll know this isn't surprising. But it's become a bit of an obsession to have puppets or just any stuffed animals talking. I'm regaled at least three times a day with "I want my rainbow bear talk!" or "Put on Ernie and Bert!" She gives voice to her friends too, so I might have the Ernie finger puppet on my hand, and she'll have Bert on hers. She has this special high-pitched voice she uses when she's doing a puppet voice. She always starts with "HI!" and then often announces something like "Hi! I'm Ernie! I love Rubber Ducky I'm awfully fond of you!" (in her world, that duck has a very very long name).

One of the puppet friend teams she likes most these days are the dragons. Apparently for about a year now Owen's hands have been "dragons" in the bathtub, swimming, playing with soap, etc. I only met the dragons while we were in NY, and suddenly I was asked to do the dragons myself. The dragons are just your hands as if you were doing a sock puppet, the thumb moving as the mouth. Well, Owen's dragons like to eat Arden's toes. This morphed into a funny game that she and I play.

Out of nowhere, Arden will call to them: "DRAGONS!" Assuming I have hands free, I'll make them into dragons (I've had to apologize for the dragons on a few occasions, mostly because I was driving). Then she'll demand, "Dragons, eat my toes!" The dragons then munch on her toes, and she grabs my hands, turns the dragon "heads" to face me and says "I want my Mama to talk to the dragons." I then have a little conversation with the dragons that usually goes like this:

Mama: Dragons?
Dragons: Yes?
M: What were you doing?
D: Eating Arden's toes.
M: Dragons, what did we discuss about eating Arden's toes?
D: To not to...
M: Why don't we eat toes?
D: Because Arden needs her toes.
M: Right! Arden needs her toes for running and jumping and dancing!

At this, Arden jumps up and starts running, and jumping, and dancing, showing the dragons just how much she needs those toes. When she's done, it starts again... "Dragons! Eat my toes!" We can go through this ten times before she loses interest (or, full disclosure, before the dragons lose interest...)

Other fun things in Arden's world. Jumping. She loves the song "Jumping J" from the Sesame Street ABC DVD that Levi gave her for her birthday. I've got to get a video of her singing "J, J, Jumping J, Who joins the jump with the jumping J? Does the Jackal jump? The Jackal joins the jump! J-J-Jackal joins the jumping J!" She sings, she jumps, she sings and jumps.

She has also taken to singing "Together Again" and "Somebody's Getting Married" from the Muppets Take Manhatten, and the Beatles' "Good Day Sunshine" and "Strawberry Fields." Owen used to sing Strawberry Fields to her during his nightly walks around the neighborhood when she was an infant. They haven't sung it much lately...but we discovered recently that she knows all the words. Amazing.

She also loves matching. She has some matching games which she loves to play, but she'll point out any match she can. If we're both wearing blue shirts, she wants to bump them together and say "Cheers! A match!" This morning she woke up and the first thing she said was "I wearing my purple jammies that Grandma and Pappy bought me and I want to match my purple jammies with Dado's new purple shirt." (I'm not kidding. That was what she said). She then climbed out of bed, grabbed Dado's shirt, and held it up to her belly. A match!

She likes to dig through my wallet, find my driver's license and a photo of her as a tiny, crying baby (in the frog towel). She gives me the license ("This is you!") and holds the photo of herself ("This is me!") and then we have PhotoMama and PhotoArden talk. Usually the first thing PhotoArden wants is nyum. So Arden reaches over, mimes pulling up the shirt of the picture of me, and then puts her photo against my photo and makes nursing noises. Definitely one of the quirkier things I've seen...

There's more, there's always more, but I have to go run and pick up Arden at the Bungalow. Mostly, we're having a blast, living in a world with lots of pretend play, lots of friends, and lots of jumping, dancing, wiggling, and matching. More fun stories soon...and check out the whole new collection of photos I just uploaded to our flickr page!