Girl child: Baba, [name of little brother] just poked me with his finger.
Baba: Well, punkin, what might you want to say to him?
Girl child (turning carefully to address her little brother): [name of boy child], I don’t like it when you poke me with your finger. Next time, when you’re angry or frustrated, I want [...]

Baba [to the lil' monkey, following a lengthy parental disqusition about something or another, after which, crickets]: I get the feeling you’re not reallly listening to me.
Pause.
Lil’ monkey: What did you just say?

…I give you, lil’ monkey’s second first day of school. See the image at right, from yesterday’s post, for a glimpse of the stalwart toughie, her first first day. �
Note above, by stark contrast, the relaxed demeanor on this year’s model. �What a difference a year of loving community-building can do. �
Note the lack of [...]

This week, the lil’ monkey’s preschool is on vacation. As evidenced by the yawning gaps between posts, I find myself with a bit more childcare on my hands. In between our many trips to the zoo, the arboretum, the natural history museum, the botanical garden, the planetarium, and the Museum of Modern Art, [...]

Who’s having more fun: kid, or babysitter? You be the judge.
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One of the lil’ monkey’s two childcare-for-voice lessons caregivers cared for her for the last time today. Most likely. She’s a recently graduated high school senior, virtually matriculated college freshman. She’s off to Boston any day now.
They had spent the morning together [...]

This evening the lil’ monkey took umbrage at being interrupted to come to dinner. �She had been spelling her name out over and over, along with sundry other words and non-words.
Baba: Why in the Sam Hill did you just whack Mama?!
Lil’ Monkey: Because I wanted to find some harassing way to get her to let [...]

Isn’t it nice to know a lot?
…and a little bit… not.
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[Above lyrics from "I Know Things Now," Little Red's soliloquy from Into the Woods, recently produced for her local youth music theater co. by the beloved, and still all a-swirl in the head of our music-mad girlie. �
You can imagine the thrill when a chum [...]

  
I don’t come to my sister’s cabin nearly as often as I could.  Not nearly as often as I should.  It’s beautiful; it’s above 5,000 feet elevation; it abuts a state park and is just a few miles from a beautiful national forest.  She has always extended me and mine an open invitation.  Conifers hundreds [...]