Little things

So, now that Madeleine is crawling all over the place, she is getting her hands on things that she really shouldn't be sticking in her mouth. I keep realizing that my attempts to baby-proof are far from complete. Despite the fact that we have safety gates up, all of Julia's toys with tiny parts have been moved up to her room, and things like markers, play-dough, etc. are kept up on top of the art table (as opposed to underneath, where they had once been, to keep the top of the table clear for doing art), Madeleine is still managing to get things in her mouth that don't really belong there. Some recent examples include a rock that had obviously fallen off someone's shoe onto the living room rug, an old red pepper that had dropped under Julia's seat one evening after dinner, and a stray piece of Julia's artwork that had been blown off of her art table. Some days, no matter how vigilant I try to be, she gets things in her mouth and eats them and the only way I discover them is by changing her diaper the next day. Last week I found a chunk of the cardboard binding to the book "Big Bird's Copycat Day" in her diaper. Mmmm, delicious.

In my attempts to get every little thing off the floor that should NOT be eaten, I have actually found some toys that had been missing for awhile. We were quite pleased to discover our missing copies of "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Mister Brown Can Moo, Can You?" under the couch, but perhaps most exciting was the return on Sharp Hand... often spoken by Julia in her raspy, spooky voice (Sharp Haaaaaand!):



Sharp Hand hangs out with Julia's little figurines like Elmo, Zoe, Sophia, Aunt Kathleen, Candy Corn, and so on, but they're all scared of him. Specifically, they are all scared that the Sharp Hand is going to get them. I'm sure they're not excited by Sharp Hand's return.


Aunt Kathleen, Elmo, Cole, and Candy Corn.


Per Ethan's request, I dug this old pretend play conversation out of my email account; one afternoon this past fall, I had been at my computer and overheard Julia playing with all her little figurines, and I got such a kick out of what I heard that I started typing everything she said and emailed it to Ethan. Here is the excerpt:

CANDY CORN: (dancing around on the table) Oh, we really wanna do it, oh we really wanna do it, we reeeeally wanna do it! AUNT KATHLEEN: Really good singing, Candy Corn. ZOE: I want a turn. AUNT KATHLEEN: Okay, Zoe, you take a turn. I'll go sit with Candy Corn. ZOE: (singing) We're really gonna do it, we're going to the show! (To ghost): It's your turn. GHOST: But I'm really worried that the sharp hand is gonna get me. AUNT KATHLEEN: (in a soothing voice) No, the sharp hand won't get you. GHOST: (singing) Everybody in the world, in the world, in the woooooorld. AUNT KATHLEEN: Good job, ghost.