Still Kicking

Yes, Ruth, I'm still here, and I haven't completely given up on blogging. I'm just a bit swamped with other projects at the moment.

For those (two) of you holding your breath to hear the source of "tootle with vigor," here you go:

More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to. It would be charitable to say that the results are sometimes mixed. Consider this ... warning to motorists in Tokyo: "When a passenger of the foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet at him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage, then tootle him with vigor."
. . . .

[I]t would appear that one of the beauties of the English language is that with even the most tenuous grasp you can speak volumes if you show enough enthusiasm--a willingness to tootle with vigor, as it were.

-Bill Bryson in The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got that Way

Have a happy weekend!

Happy Birthday!

Today is the first anniversary of the birth of Experience Imagination. Enjoy. Celebrate. Tootle with vigor!

And, bonus points to you if you know the source of the last sentence.

Finally!

According to some commentator or another I heard last week, it's pretty common to watch the Conference Champion one year, the so-called "team to beat," turn into a regular, average-joe, nothing-spectacular kind of team the next year.

That is, last year at this time, I was overjoyed by "my" Bears winning five in a row. Woohoo! They went on to become NFC Champions and had an excellent first play in the Superbowl. After that opening drive highlighting Devon Hester's amazing return capabilities, unfortunately, things went down hill. At the end of week five, this year, we're at only 2-3. On the plus side, at least we have finally managed to have an interesting game that put another tick in the W column. It doesn't hurt that the team we beat last night was the arch-rival, 4-0 Green Bay Packers.

Oh, yeah, make that 4-1. ;)

Two for the Price of One

This morning, I was working at the computer while Adam was crocheting a doily (no, really, he was). Our daughter was alternately dancing around the living room, watching TV, and whining because all eyes weren't focused her way.

As one show ended, PBS began advertising the next program: Caillou. Adam looked up at the screen and said, excitedly, "Oh, it's Caillou" (in case you're not familiar with this show, "Caillou" is the little boy's name and it rhymes with the phrase "dye you").

Our daughter responded, "Oh, Cai-me!"

After my stumbling explanation that the "you" sound is not actually a pronoun like she's been learning, she changes it to, "Oh, my Cai."

Another program announcement followed for the show Wishbone. Our daughter got all excited to have recognized the letter "W" in his name and called out "Double-u. Double-u!"

Her daddy encouraged her, "Yeah, Wishbone starts with a W."

She smiled, and began repeating the letter's name, "Double me, double me, double me."

* * * *

Lately our daughter has really been getting into reading books. She's memorized bits of her favorites, and will even read some by herself when Adam or I have refused to read them for the 647^th time.

She brought a book to me yesterday and I just wasn't in the mood. I knew she'd been very patient with my moodiness this week, though, and I thought she should be rewarded. I decided to see if I could make her smile. I opened her book to the first page, and started to read the opening sentence from a completely different book, "In the great green room ...."

"No!" She interrupted me, "Not that book. This book!"

"Not that book?" I asked, grinning.

"This book!" She repeated, poking the page in front of her and giggling.

"Oh, okay," I replied, turning back to the book. With a smile still playing at the corners of my mouth, I started reading lines from yet another book, "Stomp your feet ...."

"No!" She interrupted, already giggling.

We went through that routine three or four times, before, mood much improved, I read her the book she'd brought to me in the first place.

A little while later, she tired of playing by herself again and climbed up in my lap with The Giant Jam Sandwich back in her hand. She asked me to read it, again, but I suggested she read to me instead.

She opened to the front page, started out, "In the great green room ..." and collapsed in a wave of giggles.

How Do You Post?

I've decided to participate in Lori's Advice Forum Friday once again. Actually, it's something that came up in my mind as I was visiting blogs for Backwards WFMW this week.

How do you fit blogging into your schedule?

The times when I have managed to be prolific lately, I know I'm blogging when I really need to be catching up on chores or (ahem) I should be asleep. I only have one kid, here. I know a lot of you are writing with three, six, even ten kids! So, I want to know ... how do you do it? Where do you find the time? Do you really type that much faster than I do?

Help me figure this out, please.

Works for Me: Stain Tactics?

Aha!! I've finally figured out how all of those people manage to get on the list before me at Shannon's WFMW--You all post on Tuesday night. Cheaters! :P

At any rate, this week is Backwards WFMW over at Rocks in My Dryer. Instead of my sharing some brilliant tip with all the world (or the three of you who still read my blog), I am to pose a question to the rest of the WFMW crew to share their brilliance.

So, here's mine: How do I get stains out of my daughter's clothes?

Particularly troublesome are tomato sauce and mud. Is there a product that really works for you? What about set in stains from, say, when we went to the park after it rained and she landed on the seat of her pants, smack-dab in the mud puddle at the bottom of the twisty slide, then I didn't get to the laundry for another three days? Not saying this is necessarily what happened ... okay, it's exactly what happened. Her light pink pants now have huge brown stains where you really don't want to see brown stains.

Ooh, and what if I accidentally didn't notice, say, a red marker she'd put into her pocket, so I've already washed and dried a whole load of t-shirts that now look like they were tie-dyed by someone with no sense of balance in their design. Am I just out of luck? Or can my clothes be saved??

Tune in next week ....

Whoops! Sorry, I was suddenly hearing the warbly organ music from those old radio dramas.

If you have any hints, especially ones that don't require I treat the stain right away, please leave me a comment. I would be eternally grateful--or at least until she grows into another size and requires new clothes anyway.

A Proud Day

As a parent, I'd known this day would come. I looked forward to it with a mist in my eyes, unshed tears of pride mixed with grief over the all too rapid passing of time.

This morning, my daughter gave me her first full-on raspberry, pressing her dainty little lips against my shoulder. Truly a YouTube moment. If I YouTubed, I mean.

Seriously, though, what is it about that sound of passing gas that children (well, mostly children) find so hysterical? My daughter was blowing a raspberry and laughing hysterically for a good sixty seconds before starting the whole process over again.