More of “the cute”
This is normally the type of thing I would have called to tell my mom, probably lastnight before bed. Instead, you get to read all about it.
The girls have been using the rattiest, nastiest sippy cups for about the last two years. Neither of them should really still be using a sippy cup, but I’ll admit to the convenience, especially since Emma still wings hers around like it’s a toy, flipping it upside down and tossing it on the floor. I can’t imagine what she’d do with a cup that had no lid. Anyway, yesterday when I stopped to get bunny greens, I noticed sippy cups with straws, and decided that my big girls needed big girl cups. They were a huge hit… Wia said “Thank you for my new cup!” And Emma… well, she was too cute. She kept offering me a drink, but she would put her hand on my cheek, or under my chin. At first I thought she was just being sweet, but then it occurred to me that we adults put our hands under her chin to catch drips when she drinks out of our glasses or water bottles. It just tickled me that she would do the same, even though I was drinking out of a straw. It was just too, too much.
And now, a note to the colleague two cubicles down and across the aisle:
I like Sinatra, too, but not at the volume you like to listen to. There are other people here doing work, too, you know. It’s an office, not a concert hall.
Also, your ringtone is annoying. No one’s cellphone should whistle.
Tuppence a bag
When I was younger and still lived at home, I gave my mom all kinds of grief for her obsession with feeding the local bird life. We had three or four bird feeders: one for finches, one for cardinals, and a couple for whatever other birds might decide to visit. Mom was so concerned about feeding these birds, that she’d buy food almost every time we went out. We bought her a set of nice binoculars one year for Christmas for her “bird watching”, and she desperately wanted an electronic bird finder that would identify birds by song. I made fun of her every chance I got, telling her she was just like the bird lady from Mary Poppins… she might as well have sat on a park bench singing “Feed the birds, tuppence a bag.”
Nowadays I find that feeding the birds is really enjoyable. I love seeing a new type of bird at my feeders – last year, for example, I had indigo buntings (of course, I haven’t seen any since). I have a cardinal family that lives in the raspberry thicket behind my house, and there is a pair of blue jays making their presence known this year. I’m also feeding goldfinches this year, and the thistle seed is attracting larger birds, too, like mourning doves. Now there are purple finches, and a pair of red-headed woodpeckers… the woodpeckers seem to enjoy the suet cakes the most, though I’m not buying any more of them now that the weather is getting warmer. Oh, and the hummingbirds… they’ve just shown up again, and they’re so fascinating to watch!
I guess I really am my mother’s daughter.
Cute
Sometimes the cute is too much to take… for being a special good girl tonight, Wia got to listen to music on my iPod, which she loves. We listened to several songs, and finally settled on Colbie Caillat’s “Bubbly”, which is her daddy’s favorite song. She sang along, stopping periodically to very seriously ask me to share my earbud with her stuffed bunny. The song ended, I put it all away, and she picked up the bunny and looked at him and said “Thank you for the fun singing!” Then she hugged it. And then I melted into a puddle of goo.
The other one, Emma, barrels into me as soon as I come in the door… “Are you here, Aunt Amanda?” All of her questions come out in this sing-songy little voice. But she’s such a teenager right now… one minute she’s all lovey, the next she’s yelling “I DO IT!” She’s awfully moody for a 2 year old. It’s a good thing she’s so adorable.
