March 15, 2007 by Barbara.

 In addition to the alphabet books that we read most every each morning, we read:

• Olivia’s Opposites and Olivia Counts with illustrations from Ian Falconer’s other books, two books that have been lurking on our shelf just waiting to be chosen;
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red fish, Blue Fish by Dr Seuss, read by Ken - I love to hear him read books that he seems to enjoy;
• The Very Bad Bunny by Marilyn Sadler, a book that tells the story of a bunny who accidentally is “bad” and another who is bad for the sheer joy of it. I am not sure what the moral of the story is, though; and
• Because I Love You So Much by Guido van Genechten, which demonstrates that a mother’s love isn’t judgemental, or isn’t when she is forced to consider things.

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March 15, 2007 by Barbara.

You need a little background to understand my Reid story today. The story goes like this (since my first-hand memory sucks, we’re going with the story that I’ve been told): When I was a little, Mom would speak for a long, long, long time with Grandma D. Grandma D.  had a rule that it was the prerogative of the person who started the call to end it. This may have contributed to what happened one day when Mom was on the phone for an eternity and I needed her for something. I don’t know what I wanted and nobody else cared enough to remember or I didn’t get the opportunity to say, as you’ll understand. Anyway, I figured that if I started rolling a piece of cranberry glass (think expensive and fragile) on the heat stove, Mom would get off the phone. I was right. Mom told Grandma that she had to go, cam right over to me (so far, so good, I thought), took the vase or whatever away from me and paddled me. I’m reasonably sure that I didn’t get whatever it was I wanting so badly.

So, last night I was talking to Karin on the phone while I peeled potatoes for all of 90 seconds when Karin asked to speak to Reid. Reid gave the phone a hug and kiss and then handed it back to me. I noticed that her foot was close to the phone, which was sitting on the floor. I told her, looking straight in the eyes like the parentinmg books say to, that if she hung up the phone I would be angry. Reid looked in my eyes, like the defiant toddler code says to, and used her toes to disconnect. I told her that she was *not nice!* and called Karin back while Reid lay on the floor and cried. The first thing I said was, “I am so glad that I don’t own cranberry glass.”

Mom has always wished upon us kids a child just like us. Each of the others has one kid with a particular echo of their childhood personality. I think that I’ve got mine, too.

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March 15, 2007 by Barbara.

Reid picked up a navel orange the other day and looked at it carefully. “Whatz it?” she asked. I told her that it was a navel orange and that the one end had a belly button, just like she did. She grinned and pressed the orange to her belly, with the naval pointing out.

Life is fun when you look at it through a two-year-old’s eyes.

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