Will do, Doodle.

"Momma, you really should put the salad dressing away so I will stop drinking it," she said, wiping vinaigrette off the corners of her mouth.

In Our Garden

Flannery has been telling people that there's a "Gentleman in our garden what protects our tomatoes." The Gentleman in question is likely a beetle that I showed her last week. I picked him up and showed him to her, saying, "Look at this gentleman, Flannery. He eats little bugs that bother our tomatoes." I picked up that term from reading the Doodle's namesake's Greenleaf, where the bull is referred to as a gentleman. The "what" is how Flannery introduces most of her essential clauses (instead of that).

I'm in no hurry to correct her on any of it.

Various Tomatoes


Sorry for taking so long to post again. No internet at home (actually really pleasant, in a lot of ways). We've been picking bowls of tomatoes like the one shown above about every two days; yesterday I got a bowl twice that size off our vines. Deliriously good fruit. Speaking of fruit, Flannery took about fifteen minutes to get her shirt on the other day.

We Are So Hip

After the recent brouhaha about tattoos, piercings, and the like, Sharon and I, ever the hip, edgy, and insecure parents, went and got Flannery's nose pierced. She wanted her eyebrow done, but we thought we'd start out slow (shh... no one tell her, but I'm thinking I'll take her to get it done right after Baby Seuss is born).

Following suit, Sharon and I are getting fitted for new grillz next Tuesday; pray that they have enough diamonds in stock to spell out my first, middle, and last names in full. Oh, and in the comments, let me know if we should spell $haron's name with three dollar signs or five.

Why we let her dress herself.

Views of Flannery's get-up when we asked her to get dressed for supper last night (grilled pizza for the curious). For your convenience, I have included fore and aft views:

the iPhone, and more important items

Work gave me an iPhone. It's meant for work (a replacement for my desk phone), but it has numerous applications in the home. To-wit, the camera:

A picture, left to right, of my wife and the Seuss. She's due in mid-December, and she's not having twins.

A picture of, top to bottom, my daughter, her belly button, and her red blanky. She slept on our floor last night because we had a guest who we put up in her room.
Yesterday morning, having just gotten out of the shower, I called out to Flannery from the bathroom window; she was on the porch, eating her breakfast. She ran over to the window and the following exchange ensued:

Flan: (growling) What are you doing?!?
Papa: (also growling) Getting clean. What are you doing?
Flan: (growlier) Getting YUCKY!

Amen.

The conclusion of her prayer over her lunch one day last week: "Please help us to love the trees, because they are beautiful."
Nothing like it in the world.

my new favorite

Every day as Brendan takes off for work on his bike, Flannery runs and opens the door to yell out to him, "Papa, be nice to your friends at work!"

Flanneryisms

Yes, Kristen is right in her comment on the previous post. I've had a bunch of Flanneryisms just storing up. Now is the time and this is the place:

So, she was doing the little piggies on Richard's toes, "This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home, this little piggy went to childbirth class...."
Only MY daughter.

On that note, she was present for a childbirth class in the last month. I had drawn a sketch on a huge pad of newsprint and then had moved on to other things. The next thing we know, Flannery is behind me drawing something somewhat recognizable as bones and quietly teaching her dolls, "And this bone is connected to this bone and it moves like this, and that makes this bone do this" as she pointed with the sharpie.

The other day we were discussing Father's Day. Flannery finally interrupted us with, "Yes, but when is Daughter's Day?"

This morning I walked into the bathroom to find Flannery on the throne with about 8 or 10 balled up pieces of toiletpaper on the floor. My first response was somewhat horrified, and then I decided to actually ask her what had happened. She responded, "Oh. Those are my children and I was reading to them."
Duh.

That'll have to do until I have time to upload some photos.

a few ideas from flannery's head

First of all, she insists that she heard me AND baby Seuss snoring the other night. I told her it was her papa.

Then yesterday we had run to do an errand and when we walked back into our house she stopped, looked around with her hands on her hips and said, "Mom, I think your house has, like, dirt things in it."

Then today, I was explaining her job as flower girl in Aunt Erin's wedding. When I finished I said, "So, do you think you can walk down the aisle and throw the flowers for Aunt Erin to walk on and be brave?"
She responded with, "Yes, but do you think you could keep Aunt Erin from running over me?"

We are also giving up naptime. But we're replacing it with a 2 hour rest time. Hahahaha!

Baby Seuss

Is doing fine.
His heart rate is around the 140's and he's wiggling. A lot. BTW, they say that hiccups don't start til the last trimester. They're wrong.
He's a busy guy. And no, we don't know if it's a boy or not.
Yes, I am huge. At least my friends tell me so. But I like it, at least people KNOW I'm pregnant now and don't look me over a few times wondering.

the importance of naming

As we all know, naming things accurately can help in many ways - it helps other people understand you better, it can help you solve a problem, it can help you understand a person better when you know that their name means "difficult to get along with" and, as it turns out, the name was prophetic.

Flannery has grasped this naming concept early. She now has a few sets of names for all of us:
My personal favorites are:
Brendan -"Mr. Boots"
Sharon - "Mother Bunny" or "Mrs. McGillicuddy"
Flannery - "Princess Sausage" or "The Hiccup Monster"

And, just in case you're wondering, she does call us by these names on a regular basis.

Three Strangest Things You've Found In Your Bed

I think I should also include - "Put there by your kids" , just to be safe.

Mine are:
1. Salad tongs
2. Oatmeal (yes, it was cooked)
3. Gravel (not the tiny kind that sticks to feet, the regular driveway materials that must be carried hence and put down in order to travel)

Feel free to list yours in the comments.