Snakey

Tyler has a shape-shifting imaginary friend named "Snakey." Snakey appeared this evening, when my father-in-law was walking through the bathroom.

"Pop-pop!" Tyler yelled. "Don't step on Snakey!"
"Who is Snakey?"
"Snakey is my friend. He's on the floor right now."

Snakey made it through dinner as a standard-issue imaginary friend, but after that he began to possess Tyler's regular toys. His tiny flashlight? "This is my friend. His name is Snakey." His stuffed Piglet? "This is my friend named Snakey." Eventually he put Snakey to bed in a bucket.

"Be quiet and go to sleep, Snakey," he said.



Riding Home: August 25, 2006
The nights have been getting (mercifully) cooler, so we drove home with all the windows down. As we approached the driveway, the windows went up, one by one. In the silence that followed, Tyler sighed.

"I farted," he said.

Negotiating with a Terrorist

"Please I can have a piece of cheese, mama?"
"Tyler, if you eat all your dinner, you can have a piece of cheese."
Tyler eats one bite.
"Now I can have cheese?"
"No, you have to eat more than that."
Tyler holds up a grain of rice / a single noodle / a pea.
"This much?"
"No, more than that."
Tyler eats the grain of rice / single noodle / pea.
"Now please I can have cheese?"
"No, you have to eat half of your dinner, then you can have cheese."
Tyler pushes food around.
"Was that a bite, mama?"
"No, that was you pushing your food around."
Tyler picks out the least offensive morsel and eats it. With his fingers.
"Now is time for cheese, mama?"
"No, you have to eat one more bite, and then you can have cheese."
Tyler eats one normal-sized bite. He grins.

Tyler 1, Mama 0.

Maybe Teaching Him "METAL!" Wasn't The Best Idea



Then again, maybe it was.

Tyler turned 3 on August 1. There are still days when I wake up and can't believe he doesn't have two heads. How did I make something so normal, and happy, and well-adjusted? Hmmmm?



When he appears on "Behind the Music," this will be the shot from his innocent childhood.

Natural Born Knitter


Okay, okay, so it's crochet. At any rate, this adorable baby girl is wearing one of my original designs. For lack of a better name, I call it the Flower Head Baby Hat. There are booties to match, oh yes there are.


I realize that, for a fully-mobile (i.e. walking) baby, these little booties are impractical. But infants can get away with flowery toes.


This is a better view of the hat. Note the built-in air conditioning - a necessity in Alabama during the summer.