Libby's ready for Baby, Mommy & Daddy not so much

Quite the Chef

Libby was in charge of our Thanksgiving meal this year. She did an extraordinary job--especially considering that Martin and I still have to open and close the oven door for her. But she was a trooper and cranked out two kinds of stuffing and two kinds of pie. I can't wait to see what she'll do for Christmas!

Libby Loves Babes

Aunt Kimmy sent Libby a new baby doll to help her prep for the upcoming role of big sisterhood. Martin thinks Kim hit a developmental stage just right because Libby just loves to cuddle with that new little babe (not to mention carry the baby around by her foot, but we won't get into that).

Thanks, Aunt Kimmy!

Finally

Well it's about a month after I'd planned on putting it up (with help from Libby), but the new crib (thanks Bob and Margrethe) is put together, the new matress is in it (thanks playgroup friends), the mobile is attached (thanks Kelly and Airan) and the room is cleaned (thanks me).

I think I'm finally ready for the new baby. Once we arranged the two cribs, the room just felt right. Two cribs fit in it quite comfortably, so we should have a cozy little room for them until we move into a bigger place (in, oh, say 10 years).





We took a little video of the room too.

And finally, it's here.

Smartest Baby Ever!

I gotta say it. My daughter is the smartest baby ever. My baby is awesome. Your baby sucks.

Here's a list of things that my baby can do (that yours can't) that allows me to assert so strongly (and truthfully) that she's a genius:

>>Ask her what a [insert animal here] and she properly responds to the following (in roughly the order she learned them)
dog
snake
cow
bunny
fish
elephant
jaguar
lion (which sounds different because she's a genius)
bear
monkey
cat

>>When we play ABC Animal Zoo she anticipates some of the animals and makes the sound.

>>We were looking through the encyclopedia the other day (yes, she reads the encyclopedia, see the title of this entry) we came across a picture of a spider and she said "boo." Why? Because MONTHS ago, her aunt Kimmy gave her a plastic spider and taught her how to scare people with it.

So please, I implore you, don't fight it. Just give in and accept your new super intelligent overlord, Libby Vida.

RIMFY

You know political scientists have a saying NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)? Today, we here at the Livin' La Vida Libby household had a RIMFY experience (Right In My Front Yard). I only wish it was NIMBY.

I was giving Libby her lunch in the back of our condo when I heard a car horn stuck in a long beep. This is nothing unusual in urban life, so I didn't even pause. It was only Martin's cry of "Holy @#$!" that gave me pause. I looked down our hallway to see him silhouetted against our sunroom windows. "Is that snow?" I asked, seeing the gray, gray sky and the flakes raining down. No, it wasn't snow. It was the ash and smoke of this:



The truly sad part is that--in her short life--this is the second car arson (as this clearly was) right outside our Libby's door. Classy, classy, classy. I truly do love living in the city, but this is not really part of the experience that I enjoy--or enjoy subjecting my kids to.

Speaking of kids plural, I haven't posted a single belly shot this pregnancy, and I'm down to only five (!!!!) or so weeks left. I know you've all been thinking, "Gee, I wish I could see a picture of Kerri's mountainous belly naked." Wish no more, my friends. Wish no more.


And now as a payoff to enduring the belly picture, here's Libby playing with a headband (she's great at putting it in herself, isn't she?) and Libby just plain being adorable.

Uuupppp-pppuh

Libby's favorite word these days is "up" (as in pick me up; put me up on your lap; help me up on the couch so I can maul the cat; etc.). She pronounces it "uuuuppppp-pppuhhh." Here is her exact face after she is on the "pppp" part (as you can see from the picture, upppp-pppuuhhh also means "pick me up over the gate").


I say it's her favorite word, but I should say one of her favorites. She also likes to say "Hiiii" and "Bye-bye," and she loves to woof-woof at dogs, cats, and squirrels. In the last week, she's also started to say book much better (it's pronounced boo', by the way; I've been saying it wrong all these years) and has started on shoe, which is right now at sort of a tstst-sshh sound.

Alphabet Caterpillar

Libby’s Aunt Lisa and Uncle Ned sent her this Leap Frog Alphabet caterpillar for her birthday (thanks guys!)

One of the greatest things about this is that it not only has a mode where pressing each leg makes the caterpillar say each letter (A, Bee, See) but also a mode where it will say each letter sound (ahh, buh, cuh). Which means you can use it as a simplistic speech synthesizer (cuh,ahh,tuh). Oh the mischief I shall wreck with this.

Or so I thought. My giddiness was short-lived as I went straight for the crown jewel of curse words. Fuh –uw—ha ha, that tickles. What the hell? I’m not trying to tickly you, I’m trying to make you make a c or k sound and thereby make an innocent child’s toy give me thirty seconds of juvenile pleasure.

Alas, ‘tis not to be. After hours of experimentation I discovered the parameters of Caterpillars no-cursing algorithm. I, at first, assumed that it simply had a list of words that it would cause the last letter to giggle rather than finish the word, thereby robbing me of a tiny pleasure. But it turns out that the algorithm is cleverer than that. Instead it just blocks two letter combinations. Not just the obvious ones either, like u-c or o-c but also phonetic ones like a-x.

So they went to a lot of trouble. Why exactly? I realize that I’m not the first person to make children’s toys like this try to do things they really shouldn’t. But really, who exactly am I (are we) hurting? Is a child really going to accidentally hit on a letter combination that comes up with a dirty word? And if so, what exactly is going to happen? Will there head explode? If so, I wholeheartedly support the blocking of said letter combinations. More than likely however, they won’t even realize they’ve made a word (it takes an adults imagination to really make works out of the sound combos). And if the Leap Frog Alphabet Caterpillar is still kicking around when Libby’s six or seven and starts thinking along these lines (too early? She’s really smart) then so be it. If you’re smart enough to make the caterpillar curse, have at it!

Here then is the definitive list of letter two-letter combinations (and one three letter) blocked by the Leap Frog Alphabet Caterpillar as well as examples of words that are banned and thus make my daughter cry (really,no honestly, she’s heartbroken every time she can’t make it say ‘clock’ ). Thanks a lot Leap Frog.

Ax; Ag; As; Ax; Fc; Fk; Fx; Sc; Oc; Ok; Sk; Sx; Tit; Xt; Uc; Uk; Wp