Our Little Neatnick

Our neighbor had borrowed our blender, which she returned yesterday. Being the capricious cleaner that I am, our blender was still sitting out on the kitchen counter this morning. Over breakfast, Margot asked me to "please put it away" and then she said "thank you, Mama" when I did. I foresee years of being asked to "please vacuum" and "please scrub the bathtub". At least she's polite about her requests.

Pronunciation Fun

On the car ride in to Cambridge, Margot was telling me a complex story about what she was going to do at Murray, Lisa, and Bob's house today. She ran through the list of classics (eat crackers, play with toys, etc.) and then told me that the squir-OHLS were going to run away from her. I loved that word! It has two very distinct syllables with the smallest of pauses between them and the emphasis is definitely on the last one.

I then spent the rest of the drive playing with this new way of saying squirrels. It feels great in the mouth. You should try it.

Oh no! The TV stopped working!

We've just watched Coraline on DVD. Something about it totally captured Margot - don't know if it was the animation, colors, motion, or what - who basically could barely tear her attention away long enough to open her mouth for me to spoon dinner in occasionally. She kept commenting on or asking about what "that girl" in the movie was doing, what was going on, etc.

Anyway, we got to the end, and the screen went black just before the credits started to roll. At this point Margot came to life with an "On NO!", and jumped up with an "I fix it!", walking over to try to turn the TV back on. The credits rolled, and the music came back, so she realized it hadn't stopped after all, but I was trying to figure out what she was doing, so I paused the movie with the remote. "OH!" she says, trying to figure out whether to go fix it or not. I restart the credits, telling her that I did it, to which she says something like "...it stopped by itSELF".

I'm not sure there's any great lesson or observation in this, but we were pretty amused. I like that she was going to take it on herself to go across the room and turn the TV back on, since it had obviously just turned off in the middle of us watching this entertaining show.

A Morning with Margot

This morning, Margot had a hair stuck to her chin when she woke up. Good mother that I am, I removed it. This prompted M to yell, "No, I need that!" then she reached out and took the hair from me and tried to put it back. All the while, she glared at me in that "how dare you?" way. We're in so much trouble.

A Budding Songwriter

As you've already seen, Margot loves singing. In addition to a new take on already existing songs, she has been making up a bunch of her own. Two recent favorites are "I do not love you, ha ha ha!" and "Do not worry, it is only Margot".

She cracks us up. This is such a great age!

A New Take on A Classic

Margot now sings all the time. Generally the songs are ones that she makes up that list the people in her life or things that she likes to do. Going to the playground with Murray, Lisa, and Bob feature prominently.

Here is a video of a more traditional song that Margot picked up. Check out her version of Rock-a-bye Baby. You get the gist of it from the first clip.

The second clip is a longer version of the song and involves some wonderful conversation interaction with Adam for those of you who haven't seen her in a long time. You get an idea here about how much of a talker she is and how she understands absolutely everything.

Overheard...

I'm working in the dining room this afternoon, shut in so that I don't have to answer "what Daddy do?" continuously.

Overheard from the kitchen, as Christi and Margot come downstairs:

Christi: (rustling of plastic bag)
Margot: (urgently) No hot! NO HOT!
Christi: But that's what makes it toast!

No specific reply was audible, but I also didn't hear the toaster ding...

Happy Birthday Soren (the day after)

Margot had a special "Happy Birthday" message for Soren. Owing to technical difficulties (ie: I couldn't get the movie out of iPhoto), the message is now a day late. The sentiment still applies!

I especially love the break she takes to keep her vocal chords moist before singing the song.

Guessing Game Two, Part Four

OK - last one for this series. Can anyone put current events together? Yes, "Spamalot" was playing this town last week, awesomely clashing with the tremendous gothic cathedral a couple blocks away. . .

Guessing Game Two, Part Three

It's not Prague...