I got my new phone today.

First thing I did, I checked the messages.

Apparently, Lizziey had called and left a message a while back. Sounded like she was mad at me. Unfortunately, I didn't have a phone - and even if I had, it would not have helped because I could only hear enough to tell it was her talking, the reception was that bad.

So, Liz. Why'd you call? Or did you?

I was talking to Ana the other day, and I don't know what I said, but she told me...

"My mommy dooz that!"

Not "does" but "dooz". Very nice, very regular, very wrong.

I've also heard "goed" a few times.

Of course, I tell Jenn when I see her (I saw her before 'dul), and point out that this is a Big Step, which she didn't get. "A big step back?"

But no, it's a step forward - Ana's seeing that language has rules, and she wants to know what they are. She's not just memorizing. This is a really big step forwards.

It's like with "behave". For a long time, if I told her to behave, and she thought she *was* behaving, I'd hear "I am hayve!"

But now she's realized that's not quite right, so I get to hear "I am hayving" or "I am being hayve" or things of that nature. Alas, the proper form is "I am behaving", but she hasn't figured it out yet. Oh well. She'll get there.



The baby now asks me to tickle her - she tickles herself for me. And she asks for milk. And if she wants me to pick something up, or give her a high five, or such, she'll take my hand and position it properly so I can do what she wants. Smart kid :)

Friday, we went to the SICM, as is our wont, and during tunnel time I really tried to not let her go in the tunnel, for fear that she'd stop midway and not want to come out. Well, that didn't happen. Exactly. Instead, she got to the end, saw me there waiting for her, and turned around. Got to the other end, saw me waiting for her, giggled and turned around. Eventually, I had to crawl in after her and push her out. Silly.

So, wait....

What was that Firefox extension that lets you open up the page(s) you were on when you had to shut down Firefox and couldn't save 'em?

Thanks guys! Got it now!

You know what?

I'm so tired of alphabet blocks and books and whatnot that look around for a word beginning with "x" and end up resorting to xylophone or x-ray.

Xylophones and x-rays are all well and good, I suppose, but using those images does nothing to teach children the normal sound of the letter "x", does it? Of course not!

Dr. Seuss' version was much better. "X is very useful is your name is Nixie Knox. It also comes in handy spelling ax and extra fox!"

(Of course, in an ideal world we wouldn't have the letter "x" because it can be more effectively written as two letters. In an ideal world, the same fate would await "q" (kw), and we would have letters for sounds such as "sh" and "th". In an ideal world, I'd get full permission to redo our alphabet.)

*sighs*

Having decided I was going to do more with Ana this year, academically, and told her parents that, it is now actually up to me to figure out what's appropriate for her age and then find a way to do it. So far, I've found a host of articles about how preschool is unnecessary (well, I already was saying that - note that unnecessary doesn't mean "bad") but not much that's actually, y'know, useful to me. Something tells me that my google skills need work.