when i grow up...

Alita has been learning about "jobs" recently. Mommy works in a big kitchen making Jammy Sammys, daddy works on a computer at Stanford and plays with green ice algae in the big freezer, uncle Will helps people to feel better when they get big owies. A couple weeks ago we asked Alita what she wants to do for her job. She said "I want to be an engineer flying an airplane."

Tonight, as we were tucking her in to bed, she said, "I'm taking off tonight for Los Angeles." I asked what she was going to do there. She said, "I'm going to my office. I have green water bottles there filled with green ice and I'm going to help people to feel better."

Also an amazing memory seemed to surface this evening. Alita said, "when I give people shots, I'm going to give them trains." I asked, "you mean, if you were a doctor, you'd give the kids a toy train to help them feel better after getting their shots?" "Yes," she said, "Who was that guy driving the police car for a long time when I got shot?" I was perplexed. Then I started wondering -- "You mean the ambulance?" -- "Yeah, the ambulance" she said. "You remember when you went in the ambulance and got shot with the epi pen?" "Yeah," she replied. Wow... she was only 15 months old when that happened. I guess traumatic events really do stick with you.

Speaking of which, Alita tripped and fell at preschool the other day and skinned both knees. This prompted her to lie on the couch all evening with a dramatic look on her face, and she limped with bent knees for the next two days, whenever she remembered she had owies on her knees. Also, she did not for any reason want her owies showing, even when going to the bathroom she wanted her knees covered up.

Dakota is showing her personality more each day. She is really great at entertaining herself - with a whisk, a ukelele, or one of Alita's toys... She's also putting everything into her mouth. Twice now she has barfed in the past week, we think from eating random pieces of lint, dirt and other stuff off the floor or ground. Our little goat. She is making all kinds of sounds - consonants, raspberries, hitting her hand on the highchair tray... she also loves the swing. She is sitting up and quite mobile - she is pretty darn close to crawling, and even though not fully mobile she can pretty much get where she wants to go. She loves the bathtub, loves watching the chickens and any other animals.