my soupee!

because cybele is the baby, that is, because she's our third, we let her get away with murder. in part that's cus we're too experienced (worn down) as parents to sweat the little stuff with her like we have in the past. hence, we don't worry if she pees her pants, for example, and as a consequence of being allowed to 'fly without a net' so much, she is virtually completely potty trained and she's not yet 2 1/2, which seems pretty precocious to me. we also let her make a complete mess of her food when she eats, meaning that she should be competent at feeding herself sooner too. still waiting on that gambit to pay off. it wouldn't be so bad, but cybele LOVES SOUP. i think it kinda started as a 'sauce' fascination, begun at a Bob Evan's somewhere in Appalachia this past summer, when mary lent cybele some gravy, which the baby put on her macaroni and cheese. and, uhh, she loved it. now she loves anything she can identify as "my soupee", and will eat pretty much any kind of soup, as long as it not too 'picey. she expects there to be some at every meal besides breakfast. such a little peasant. if there is broccoli around, she likes to soak it in her soup and then suck the soup liquid out of the floret. i think it's a little gross. but she pulls it off.

Boss of the bananas

Cybele is such a maniac, but I wouldn't want her any other way. She is the most independent and stubborn person I have ever met except for maybe her father. It seems strange that finally we have met Tristan's match and she only weighs 27 lbs.

It was really funny to see Cybele run the house a couple of weeks ago while her cousins were here. Actually she always runs the house but when there were three under three running around it had a slightly more chaotic feel to it. Forts were built and destroyed. Lunches dragged on until nap time and nap time was a battle to be fought and won by tiny little people and their wills. Cybele remains imperious now that our visitors are long gone. She seems only to have gained power and self assurance from their visit and does not doubt that she will be obeyed when she demands that you sit down, watch caillou, run errands, bath-time, shower-time, read book, or any of the other million two word commands that she has.

them talk pretty someday.

as longtime followers of the blog may remember (or not), i am ambivalent about our childrens learning how to say things properly. as long as they say things in their own idiosyncratic crypto-language, they are still innocent, and, moreover, still belong more to us than to the world, and i don't want to share them just yet. so i view their malapropisms as little perfections. they gradually fade away, of course, like baby teeth and diapers. but even elias still has his: askited, not excited. sophia still has several, including, in addition to the one above that she shares with elias, breafixed, not breakfast. actually sophia has a lot. she won't say 'as', it is 'has', has if she has a jamaican patois for one word. she also has been singing a christmas song recently: "deck the walls with lots of pollys..." sometimes elias will correct her--i'll try to stop him from doing so--but she doesn't care at all, confident as she is in herself and her ways of doing things. and she has taught cybele to sing twinkle twinkle little star, 'how i wonder what you are, uhbuh-buh-buh weird so high...'

role modeling

A few weeks ago Elias expressed a wish for a brother, an older brother. Whew that got me off the hook but it got me to thinking about the family dynamics and all the estrogen in the house. Elias has two sisters and I think that he has a great time with them but its just not the same as having a brother. Luckily, his cousins came in to town before Christmas and Elias had a chance to run around and play brother.

It was great to see Elias with Atticus and I think suddenly Elias was rethinking his wish for an OLDER brother. A younger brother adores you and thinks you do no wrong. Atticus may just be Elias' biggest fan and in the spotlight is a great place to be. That visit may have been the best behaved I have seen Elias in months. He was gentle and generous and kind. He was a perfect role model which is all I ever ask of Elias. I admit is must be confusing to Elias when we ask him to be a role model for the girls and their wily ways. Maybe he does need a brother...
Ha ha just kidding