Friday Bits

Greta now approaches us with her arms spread open, saying “Cull. Cull.” This means “Cuddle. Cuddle.” She comes right up and gives a snuggle. It is cute enough to be almost manipulative.

Greta also says “melon” in a hilarious way. She somehow hears the L of “melon” as a difficult stumbling block, so she just keeps sticking her tongue out, saying “mlmlmlmlml,” like she’s lapping up milk. Hilarious.

We went to a library book sale last weekend on $5 bag day and brought home a ton of new-old kids’ books. Some have been hits, like The Princess Who Never Laughed and The Poky Little Puppy. I also bought Thumbelina, which I remember liking as a kid, but I read it to Lucia without perusing it first and found it pretty disturbing. That one might get tucked away.

Both girls continue to be obsessed with the Barbie accessories I keep in a bin on the porch. They are worth their weight in gold. They are often so absorbed in playing with them that I could easily read the newspaper if I remembered to bring it to the porch with me. (If I went inside to get it, the spell would immediately be broken.)

Lucia is also completely obsessed with stringing beads. She’s made about fifteen bracelets. Finding new beads is my garage-sale mission for the weekend.

I painted Greta’s toenails for the first time this week: fuchsia. This was inevitable. She is hyper-aware of everything Lucia is doing, and when she saw me doing Lucia’s toes, she rushed right over and placed her tiny feet next to Lucia’s. She’d done this once before, and I redirected her attention to other things; but this time, I could tell, she was intent on pink toes. She stayed perfectly still the whole time, pressing her little toes down on the floor. The rest of that day she kept looking closely at her toes, sometimes holding up a foot and saying “Pree! Pree!” (Pretty!) Too, too cute.

I took the girls to our community pool twice this week. They were beyond excited. For some reason I felt compelled to emphasize to Lucia how fortunate it is that we’re able to be members of the pool, how we should appreciate it, etc. She kind of looks at me blankly when I start rambling on like this, but really, at what point do these ideas of privilege and humility and appreciation start sinking in? The girls were sitting in their carseats after swimming, warm and dry in cute sundresses, snacking on Inner Peas from Trader Joe’s in their little snack cups, and it just struck me—They need to understand how lucky they are.