Pointing, head shaking, and tongue wagging

These are a few of Roxanne's favorite things right now. And on a good day, she does them all at once. Impressed? I thought so. I always worry that she will get dizzy while shaking her head, but so far, she seems OK. The tongue thing is just kind of icky. It's like all of the sudden she has really discovered her tongue. She likes to grasp it with her fingers, and pull on it. She likes to stick it out and wave it around. I'm hoping that this, like many of her little quirks, will be a passing phase. It's just kind of gross, since there is no way I can keep her hands as clean as they should be. Of course, when I try to put myself in her shoes, I can imagine that it's kind of awesome to realize that you have a tongue. I mean really realize it. I certainly remember being little and doing this thing with my sister where we would lick our hands until our tongues got all dry, like totally dry. Then we would close our mouths, and it was the most bizarre sensation feeling that dry and rough thing in your mouth. Sort of like a kitty tongue. Yep, we were kind of weird. But really, what kid isn't?

Speaking of kitties, Roxanne is totally in love with Ben's kitty, Milo. He's generally a nice kitty, and he's very handsome. He's all black with a small white spot on his chest. He likes to come and hang out with us when we play, but he's older, like 12 or so, and so sometimes he is a little surly. Or a lot surly. Last week, Roxanne hammered him a few times with a wooden toy hammer (it goes with one of those little peg things so you can hammer the pegs into the wooden bench thing) and he scratched her. She was a little traumatized. But I can't really blame Milo. And she was on a hammering tear. She was hammering everything in the play room. After the incident with Milo, I tried to hide the hammer, but Ben found it today and gave Roxanne a couple of love taps on her head. He really was pretty gentle, but of course she reacted to me running over and snatching the hammer from Ben, and then they were both wailing. They made up, and Roxanne pushed Ben around a little on his fire engine riding toy. It's too light when he's not sitting on it and she tends to fall forward while trying to walk, but it's just right with Ben on it. There's a little snapshot of what my days are like. Well, that's leaving out Josh. He's usually asking me to read a book or tell him a story. But he's really a sweet kid, and I'm enjoying having a big guy to talk to. And over the weekend my bosses got a triple stroller for me to use. It's HUGE, but definitely a big help. We took a walk during the "witching hour" before lunch, and it made the day much much better. We all need fresh air during the day. And I can usually go for about half an hour to forty five minutes, which is usually about a mile and a half, before they get squirmy and I have to let them out of the stroller. But pushing a triple stroller is probably akin to pushing a VW beetle, but with less agility. And people were staring at me. But whatever. I need the exercise.

I still have to pinch myself sometimes, and try to remind myself of how much happier I am these days. And my wonderful sister gave me a wonderful gift of yoga classes! I start this Wednesday at 8:00. I'm really really excited. It will be the same studio where I took my pregnancy yoga, and I really like it there. Apparently it's a very small class, too, so I should get lots of individual attention. I hope to work on my back pain and carpal tunnel. It's going to be awesome. I can't thank my sister and her family enough for such a generous gift. And I got my haircut on Saturday! I really loved the stylist, Martha. She was great, and had curly hair, too, so she understood my hair really well. I like the cut a lot. She agreed that I should keep growing my hair out, so she gave me a cut that would grow out really well and help me keep a nice shape as it gets longer. She understood what I meant when I said curly hair tends to grow wider and not longer. It's a strange thing.

Happy voting to everyone tomorrow! I hope you all make it to the polls and don't have to wait for too long!