Happy Halloween!

Julia is SO excited that it's Halloween - so much so that first thing this morning, she decided to put on her "pumpkin shoes" and glide around the dining room floor giddily:



She had a great time helping carve her pumpkin; she drew the face she wanted onto the pumpkin with a sharpie marker, then helped scoop out the pumpkin goop and seeds. Madeleine wanted in on the action, and we really didn't want her anywhere near knives or choking-hazardous pumpkin seeds, so to keep her at bay I gave her one of Julia's "shoes" filled with a few boxes of mini Charleston Chews. I figured she would enjoy shaking the box to hear the rattling sound the chews made, but instead, she preferred to eat the box to the point that it started dissolving in her mouth and the chocolate candy was visible through the holes she'd eaten:


Mmmm. Paper.

Julia then got jealous that Madeleine was allowed to have candy, and started begging for some of the candy from our bowl, not understanding that we were saving it for our trick-or-treaters and she would get plenty of candy herself tonight while out trick-or-treating. So in a self-decided compromise, she got a chance to get her hands all over the candy by arranging it in the bowl so that it was "really high" so the trick-or-treaters could see it easily, because "I don't know if the trick-or-treaters know where our dining room is." She was a little disappointed to learn we wouldn't be inviting the trick-or-treaters up to hang out with us and that they wouldn't actually get past our front door.

Moving onto a new project, Julia decided that her jack-o-lantern needed a finishing touch, so she gave him a hat:



(May I interest you in one of these CVS trick-or-treat pumpkins? They're versatile! They can be used as shoes, hats, OR as buckets for candy! Try one today!)

Happy Halloween!!

Julia writes, and Madeleine plays dog

Today I found that Julia had gotten hold of my stack of note paper and had written several notes of her own, all of which looked something like this:



And in this one I think she was trying for "Mommy:"



Good thing she labeled my note paper for me so I would remember who it belongs to. (Although a few pages said "Julia" so perhaps she wants me to share??)

Madeleine, for some inexplicable reason, decided to crawl around for awhile with Julia's kitty in her mouth like this:




I guess the logic is that it keeps her hands free for crawling? Maybe if she remembered that she actually *is* capable of walking, she could hang onto the kitty with her hand and still get around...

The Dreaded Two-Naps-to-One Transition

Madeleine is definitely beginning the shift from two naps to one nap a day, and she's in the annoying in-between stage where one nap leaves her a cranky mess by late afternoon, but she's just not tired enough to fall asleep if I put her in her crib a second time during the day. I experimented with a variety of nap schedules this week to see what would work, and I definitely haven't found the proper solution yet. Here's an overview of what I tried and how successful we were:

Option A: Instead of a 10 am and 1pm nap, put her in her crib a little before noon so she can have one big power nap for several hours straight before we have to pick Julia up from school.

How it worked: She fell right asleep at 11:45, and was up and squealing by 1:15. Whoops. She apparently thought it was her morning nap and wasn't tired enough to zonk out for several hours straight. This resulted in her crawling around playing cheerfully until about 2:30pm, at which point she switched to whining miserably about everything. She was such a basket case by the time we picked Julia up from school that I had to stick her back in the crib at 3:15 and ask our baby-sitter not to let her sleep past 4 so that she wouldn't ruin her bedtime sleep.

Option B: Put her in the crib earlier for her morning nap and let her sleep just a half hour or so, then get her down for her afternoon nap at the usual time and hope she'll sleep a few hours.

How it worked: She just wasn't tired enough when I put her to bed around 9:30 so she wound up flopping around in her crib babbling to herself for over an hour before I gave up and got her up. She did sleep well for her afternoon nap, but unfortunately I had to wake her up to go pick Julia up from school, which meant she wasn't well-rested enough and was back to a cranky mess by late afternoon.

Option C: Put her in the crib for her usual morning nap and then try a short afternoon nap a half hour or so later than usual.

How it's working: This was today's plan. She slept for 2 hours this morning, and by 1:30 was starting to fall apart about everything. She is currently whooping delightedly from her crib, having not fallen asleep at all in the 45 minutes she's been up there. I tried going in at one point and rocking her in my arms while singing a lullaby, but instead of getting drowsy she decided to whack her cow taggie against my face over and over with her eyes twinkling and a smile forming around the edges of her pacifier. Looks like we'll have a non-nap for the afternoon, and probably a very cranky girl by 4pm or so today.

In other Madeleine news, today she walked from the middle of the living room over to the couch with no trouble. Probably about 6 steps or so. I now know that she is definitely capable of walking, so her refusal to do so is simply a preference for crawling. If only she had adopted Julia's gimp crawl, she would have realized walking is a much easier way to get around...

Gimme Five

Madeleine's latest trick has been giving a high five, although really it's more like we high five her. She likes to hold out her hand and wait for us to smack it, then giggle as if we've done something really unexpected and amusing. She's pretty good at giving a low five to us, though, but she still has a loooong way to go towards mastering the art of the fist bump (complete with "RESPECT!") Here's a little video of us high-fiving:

Johnny Appleseed

I begin this blog post with a picture of Julia in her bed last night. Can you spot her amidst her blanket?:



And moving on to this morning: she pointed out this picture of Johnny Appleseed on the back of her Apple Cinnamon Cheerios box. Not sure what you think of when you take a look at him, but I can probably safely bet you have a different impression than did Julia:



JULIA: Look Mommy, a badger!
ME: A badger? You think this guy looks like a badger? That's Johnny Appleseed.
JULIA: Well, you know how I know he's a badger? Because he stole a pan and a purse.
ME: Oh.... okay.
JULIA: (thoughtful for a minute.) Well, Mama, maybe he's a badger, OR a thief.

Wash, wash, wash your hands

JULIA: loudly singing from the bathroom over the sound of sink water running
ME: How ya doing, Julia?
JULIA: singing away blissfully
ME: Julia, finish up washing your hands and come eat your lunch, please.
JULIA: making singing and splashing sounds.
ME: Almost done in there, Jules?
JULIA: I'm washing my hands! (Resumes singing.)
ME: Okay, when you're done come on out and eat your lunch, please.
JULIA: continuing to splash around in the sink. Finally returns to the dining room.
ME: Okay, time to finish your lunch.
JULIA: Mommy, something was taking a long time in there.
ME: Oh yeah? What was it?
JULIA: Singing and enjoying washing my hands.

Do the Angry Chicken

While we were listening to "Free to be you and me" last night, Julia broke out a new dance move: the Angry Chicken. It's quite catchy; Ethan couldn't stop himself from joining in. Here's a video of the angry chicken dance, in case any of you want to learn the moves for your next appearance on the dance floor:

Uh-oh!

While drinking her milk, Madeleine decided to entertain her mommy, Nana and Gramps by doing the following sequence over and over again:

Just hanging out drinking her milk...


Followed by:

Deliberately throwing the cup on the ground and exclaiming, "Uh-oh!"

Can you guess what her current favorite word is?

Play-dates

The girls had a lot of play-dates this week, which was fun for them, and, on the occasions where the moms came along as well, nice for me too. Here is a synopsis of the highlights of this week's get-togethers:

*Monday's play-date with Baby Anja: watching the two babies standing in the middle of the living room, staring at each other in fascination, both bobbling around back and forth trying to keep their balance while still staring intently at each other.

*Wednesday's play date with Julia's school friend, Arianna: seeing two kids with gaping mouths watching Dora Saves the Snow Princess, yelling out the answers together. Especially funny was the point in which Dora asked (yelled) "DO YOU SEE THE PURPLE BERRIES?" and Julia pointed and said, "There!" followed by Arianna believing her pointing aim was better by correcting Julia: "No, right there!" I also discovered during this play-date that Julia is not the only one with irrational fears:
ME: Why don't you girls go play up in Julia's room for a little while?
ARIANNA: Uh, no, because there might be a werewolf up there.
JULIA: Yeah, and I'm scared of the blue tarantula up there.

So they stayed downstairs to play, where there were no werewolves OR blue tarantulas.

*Friday's play-date with Ben and Adriana: every time Adriana (who is a year and a half) and Madeleine crossed paths, they felt the need to have this exchange:

ADRIANA: (pointing at Madeleine) Baby.
MADELEINE: (pointing at Adriana) Baby.

Then they would crawl/toddle off on their separate ways.

Julia and Ben had a lot of fun doing imaginary play together. First they did "Shoe By Shoe" to the beach, wearing their high heels, fancy lace hats, and carrying their purses over their arms. Following their trip to the beach was a trip up into space, on which two of Julia's babies (Baby Julia and Baby Dashiell) accompanied them. Baby Julia and Baby Dashiell are really good floaters in space, according to Julia. She "floated" them around as if she were in slow motion, and at one point Baby Julia fell to the ground head-first. It was okay, though. She just fell onto the moon. (I guess the moon's gravity must have drawn her down out of her floating state.) They finished the imaginary play off by pretending to be two mommies having a play-date with their babies, which, given the fact that my friend Emily and I were two mommies having a play-date with our kids, made for four mommies and a whole slew of babies having a grand old time together.

Sun storms

JULIA: Mama, is today the day that my Chipmunk friends are going to kindergarten?
ME: No, that won't happen until after the summer. So after you do swim lessons again and it's summer time, they'll go to kindergarten. You still have a long time to be in class together.
JULIA: And after the THUNDERSTORMS come?
ME: Well, yeah, we might have some thunderstorms in the summer.
JULIA: And sun storms?
ME: Sun storms? What are sun storms?
JULIA: A sun storm is when another sun crashes into the other sun, and the sun explodes, and there's rain coming down from the sun, and there's all gray clouds and thunder and lightning. And after that, the sun wears away and becomes fossils like dinosaurs.

Wow. In this case, it actually seems science and religion have been collaborating. Between hearing us read the books on dinosaur extinction and the Bible stories like Noah's Ark, this kid sure has developed a knack for inventing some eerily apocalyptic tales...

Bedtime behavior

Last night after hearing some excited squeals, I went into Madeleine's room to check on her, and found her not only awake, but like this:


Hi, Mom. I'm just hangin' out.

I had decided to forgo zipping her into her Sleep Sack, since it's getting pretty snug on her, and it seems she was delighted at the opportunity to see what cool things she could do once her legs were free.

Julia has not been goofing around in her bed at night, although she has woken us up a few times in the middle of the night this week. Two nights ago, I awoke to hear her sobbing hysterically in the stairwell outside our door. I bolted out of bed and ran into the hallway to find her making her way up to our room. "Julia! What's the matter?" I cried in alarm. "I'm coughing like I have a stomach bug!" she wailed. Uh-oh. I was afraid to know what "coughing" meant. THANKFULLY, it was not like the time she "spit up" in her bed (which really meant she vomited ALL OVER her room.) She had simply been coughing, nothing more. Phew. I think the stomach bug part referred to the fact that when she had croup really badly, she had a few coughing fits that were so violent that they triggered her gag reflex and made her throw up. Either that, or she was half asleep and her jumbled sleep-addled mind thought that it makes perfect sense for one to cough as if they have a stomach bug. Who knows? As long as there wasn't vomit for me to clean up, I can't say I really care.

Robots

This is the game the girls were playing today:



Can you find the children in this picture?

They were being robots. Robots who put their head in a dark box and got scared. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Katie, and a boy named Jack, and they were walking around until they saw a monster. And they looked around themselves and saw their daddy and mommy being robots. And then after all, their two babies, and mommy and daddy, and Katie and Jack all decided to be robots.

Got it?

One of the girls was not an actively willing participant in this game and kept tearing the box off her head. Can you guess which one?

Squirrels

After dropping Ethan off at the church he sings at, the girls and I were headed home when a squirrel came darting into the road right in front of my car. I swerved to avoid it, and it skittered around in the road right in my path, so I wound up weaving back and forth to keep from running it over. As this was happening, I declared in exasperation, "Oh, come on, squirrel!" Julia then pointed at the car in front of us and asked, "Mom? Did you call that guy a squirrel?" After I explained that there had been an actual squirrel in the road, she was contemplative for a minute, then asked, "Mom? In the fall, do squirrels change color?"

I'm beginning to doubt that she truly knows what a squirrel is.

Madeleine takes charge

I guess Madeleine must have gotten sick of me putting one or two Sesame Street crackers on her tray at a time, because after I got up for a minute to help Julia with something, I found her like this:

My Little Ponies fight, and other conversations

Julia was playing with her My Little Ponies today, who are named Sand, Elena, Samantha, Cathryn, Mia, Noelle, Meena, and Sinna. Sand is the mommy of all the little ponies. Today two of her daughters got into an argument and Sand had to intervene:

CATHRYN: (singing) And Flossie, and Flossie, and Flossie...
MIA: STOP singing that!
CATHRYN: But I'm singing "and Flossie."
MIA: I don't want to hear you singing "and Flossie" anymore. You have a TERRIBLE voice.
CATHRYN: I'm not going to talk to you EVER again.
SAND: Girls, girls. I'm a snow pony.

Good thing Sand was there to put an end to that one.

Aside from My Little Pony conversations, we've had a few other amusing conversations in the house today. This morning as we drank our coffee, Ethan and I heard Julia and Madeleine over by the piano in the living room, leading to the following:

JULIA: (pounding random notes on the piano and singing) More mustard, mooooore mustard, mooooore muuuustaaaaard...
ETHAN: I think she's really on to something with this one.
JULIA: Mooooore mustaaaard...
MADELEINE: Doh doh doh doh doh doh!

And finally, this lovely exchange between father and daughter:

ETHAN: (smiling at Madeleine) I love you, Madeleine.
MADELEINE: (pointing at Ethan and smiling back) Shit.

Sister pictures

"Mama, look, me and Madeleine are HUGGING each other!"
"Aww, how sweet. Let me take your picture!"



Guess that hug got a little too exuberant:


Wipe-out!


Speaking of sisters in a picture together, yesterday was picture day at Julia's school. I brought Madeleine along to take advantage of the "siblings welcome" offer from the photographer. The girls sat together on a bench in front of the school, and luckily the photographer knew exactly what to say to get a big smile out of Madeleine. All it took was an "Uh-oh!" to get a big grin and to at least get Julia looking at the camera. Good thing the first shot was passable, since immediately afterwards Madeleine began trying to crawl off the bench headfirst to produce her own "Uh-oh." Two kids looking at the camera, one smiling, the other looking faintly interested and amused. I'll take it. We set our bar very low these days...

More vocal warm-ups

You may remember some many months ago when I posted a video of Julia singing "Do-o-o-oh Do-o-o-oh Doh" along with my vocal warm-ups. It appears Madeleine has also picked up on our singing practice; she now pulls herself up on the piano and starts banging the keys, saying "Doh doh doh!" She also likes to join in with "Doh doh doh!" while we're singing our warm-ups, and even pointed at the piano today and said, "Doh doh." I held my video camera in one hand this evening while I warmed up for chorus rehearsal, and got her on camera "singing" along (as well as putting a fake plastic raspberry torte to her ear saying "O?") Here are 2 videos of our 2nd singer in the making:

Madeleine eating and talking

Now that she has a whopping four teeth, Madeleine has gotten a lot more skilled at self-feeding; she is now able to take bites out of various food items like bananas, bagels, and slices of bread, rather than having me cut them into tiny little pieces or mash them up and spoon-feed her. She occasionally still gets a little too carried away and stuffs way too big a chunk into her mouth though:




Her talking skills are increasing as well - she is now saying a variety of words, including "Mama," "Dada," "Joo-Wee" (Julia), "baby," "uh-oh," "ball," "Wa-wa" (Yia-yia), and, of course, "O?" I tried to get her saying some of these words on camera, but as usual, she was a little overly fascinated with the video camera and not as willing as I'd hoped to babble away. She did give me "uh-oh" and "Mama," but wouldn't repeat some of my other prompts. She did, however, say "shit" multiple times in a row while reaching for the camera (our latest theory is that this might mean "see it," but honestly, who really knows?):

Question of the Day

Question of the Day from Julia:

"Do fish have a vagina?"

Answer from Mommy: "Ummmm... I don't really know. Hang on. Let me look it up on my computer."

I then proceeded to google the exact question she had asked me, and in the process came across a lot of very inappropriate links that did not answer the question at hand. After re-directing myself to Wikipedia and searching for "fish anatomy" I was able to tell her that while they do have a spout for excreting liquid waste, they do not in fact have vaginas.

The entire question came about because Julia was playing in the bath tub with her little plastic fish, filling it up with water and then squirting the water out, which led her to wonder if fish go pee, which then led to the above-mentioned question. I'm telling you, having an almost-4-year-old is really giving me a chance to expand my knowledge of subjects I would never have thought nor cared about.

The poetic and the very unpoetic

Julia waxed poetic this morning as I came over to the breakfast table to give her a hug and kiss. In fact, were it not for the end of her statement, I would have thought she was reciting a poem she'd heard from either a book or movie. "Night is her hair," she told me, stroking my hair, "morning is her skin, and the stars in her eyes, and the wood on her head!" I asked her where she got that from, and she told me she just got it from herself. So I took my night hair, morning skin, starry eyes and wooden head and repeated it to Ethan, who got a pretty big kick out of it.

The poetic speech didn't last, unfortunately; by the time breakfast was done Julia had taken a turn for the contrary. For no obvious reason, except for the fact that she woke up extra early this morning, and she didn't want me doing a ponytail in her hair, despite the fact that her hair was "not cooperating! It KEEPS going in my face when I try and eat my breakfast!" Julia quite contrary lasted for much of the early morning; the various colored shapes on Madeleine's walker were ORANGE, they were NOT yellow, blue, red, etc. Julia's name is Mommy, she's going to call herself mommy, not me. She doesn't want to watch ANY shoes, she just wants to stay in her room FOREVER. Etc etc. Luckily, after being ignored for awhile, she got over her grouchiness and apologized for being contrary, and now she's back to playing with Little People who have pet wolves that they trained and who hear a sound out their window. They're timid to look out, but when they do, it is not a squirrel; they see all these creatures that were never there before. Also, if a thief tries to get into their house, they just cut up the thief. Then they heard another sound and they look out the window and they think it's the Big Bad Wolf, but it's NOT! - it's an OWL out there, not a Big Bad Wolf.

Phew! That was a close one.

Getting cozy, and new standing tricks

This morning while Julia was eating her breakfast, she wanted Ethan to read her a book. Since it was chilly in our house, Ethan got himself a blanket to wrap up in, and Julia asked him to wrap it around her as well. As soon as they were both snuggled together underneath the fleece blanket, Julia turned to Ethan and said, "Now we're as cozy as a whistle!" I myself, I must admit, have never experienced being cozy as a whistle, so it's hard for me to imagine what such coziness would feel like. Next time maybe I'll have to squeeze myself inside the blanket as well.

Madeleine is talking more and more, and did a full out "Doul-i-a" this morning while looking at her sister. She also mastered a new trick today: standing up directly from sitting down, without pulling up on anything. She looks extremely proud of herself as she does it, although she still proceeds to sit back down and crawl to her destination rather than attempt a step. I can't imagine it will be long before she tries, although she has been pretty stubborn about it so far. While not standing up from a seated position, she took some time to stand on her high chair tray like this:



Speaking of standing, I can hear her right now on the baby monitor; she's in her crib and is supposed to be napping, but all she wants to do is her new standing-up-from-sitting trick, followed by a flop down onto her bum, then standing up again, and so forth. This has been going on for the past 20 minutes, so I suppose that's my cue to end this post and release her from her jail cell before she figures out how to climb out over the railing.

Madeleine goes to the dr

Madeleine had her 1-year checkup today, and all in all she's doing well. In fact, she decided to work on some of her emerging skills while at the doctor's office, beginning with her newfound realization that she doesn't trust people she doesn't know. The poor medical assistant tried every trick in the book to get Madeleine to crack a smile, but she responded by staring warily at the woman, followed by a wail of indignation that this strange lady would dare to try and play peek-a-boo with her. Following the exit of the medical assistant, Madeleine decided to hone her pronunciation of "uh-oh" by evolving from "uh" to a full out "uh-oh." What helped her practice this word repeatedly was to drop everything I handed her, from the toys in her diaper bag to her sippy cup full of milk, onto the (probably germy) examining room floor, declaring "Uh-oh!" with each new item that clattered down to the ground. She does get major props, however, for her completely stoic reaction to getting her finger pricked to test her hemoglobin. The medical assistant even said she's never had a baby who didn't cry after the finger prick. So Madeleine has set a record for bravery.

Since returning home and the apprehension about the scary stranger medical assistant lady, Madeleine has been calling for me every second that I'm further than a few inches from her. "Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama!" I am thrilled that she has really learned to say my "name," but also somewhat jealous of the fact that Ethan gets the delighted "DADA!"s and I get all the desperate, needy "Mama! Mama!"s.

Finally, Madeleine decided to show off her eating skills - and her ability to save herself from choking - by shoving her face full of pretzel goldfish, gagging on them, and spitting them out. How many did she spit out? 6. 6 goldfish shoved into her mouth at once. I'm not quite sure why she doesn't finish chewing one before stuffing another into her mouth, but apparently I can only give her one at a time from now on.

Bedtime for Frances

It appears that nothing is more exciting for a nearly 4 year old child than a bunch of new 1-year old toys in the house. Julia has had her hands on Madeleine's new toys more than Madeleine herself has, even taking it upon herself to give Madeleine's new baby doll a name (Baby Nurky.) Madeleine, at least, has gotten the chance to enjoy her play phone and remote, putting both up to her ear and saying "O?"

Yia-yia was kind enough to bring a few gifts for Julia as well, and despite Julia's interest in her sister's loot, she is definitely excited about one of the books Yia-yia brought, Bedtime for Frances. The subject matter of this book is too appropriate, dealing with Frances's imagination running away with itself at night in her bedroom. At one point, Frances is scared that the crack in her ceiling might be harboring all kinds of bugs, which really hits home for Julia, who also has a crack in her ceiling. I guess she's tougher about it than Frances, though, as evidenced by this exchange we had:

JULIA: Mama, when Yia-yia comes over again, I'll tell her I'm not scared of my crack, and that I just named it Cracky.
ME: Yia-yia will be so proud that you're not scared of your crack.
JULIA: Yeah. I gave birth to my crack.
ME: You gave birth to your crack!?
JULIA: NOOOO! Just kidding!

Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

Today is Madeleine's 1st birthday! Yia-yia, Auntie Shannon, Auntie Caitlyn and Yia-yia Megali came to visit and celebrate with us Rowes. For her part, Madeleine seemed completely oblivious to the fact that it was her birthday, though she was overly delighted about Clara, Auntie Shannon's chihuahua, flapping her arms around and proclaiming, "Baby. Baby. Baby." I tried to teach her to say "doggie," which she imitated without difficulty, then proceded to label Clara a baby every time the dog trotted into the room. Madeleine also decided to skip her naps today, and then was so overstimulated from cake and presents that she has been flopping around in her crib squealing delightedly for the past half an hour. The cake was a big hit; she shoveled piece after piece into her mouth. The presents were a bit overwhelming and she spent much of the time looking around in confusion, wondering why we were handing her toy after toy when her usual post-dinner routine is to brush her teeth and go to bed. I think tomorrow when she actually gets a chance to play with her toys, rather than having one toy shoved in front of her, then grabbed away to be replaced by another toy, she will be more excited about the new loot.

Julia spent the day as typical Julia, starting with some contrary behavior during her bath (after getting soap in her eyes and then freaking out about it, she elected to respond to my question "How are your eyes doing??" with "They're NOT eyes, Mama. They're EARS.") She also fulfilled her random statement quota by telling Auntie Shannon, who offered to play "Dora Saves the Mermaids" on her computer so Julia could watch at the breakfast table, "You never know when you're going to do something that's PERFECT." She also told Auntie Caitlyn that she wants to have bunk beds with Madeleine when she's 8 and Madeleine's 7. After some careful reflection, she realized her counting error, and corrected herself: "Uh, Auntie Caitlyn, I think I made a mistake. I meant to say that I want to have bunk beds when Madeleine's 8 and I'm 7."

All in all, both girls had a fun day, and it was a great first birthday celebration for Madeleine!

Hodgepodge

Yesterday I had the girls with me while teaching piano lessons, and Madeleine was starting to fall apart about ten minutes before I ended for the day. In a desperate attempt to distract her so I could keep my student focused, I started pulling things out of my purse for her to play with, including a box of crayons and a pen, neither of which interested her. I then handed her my brush, which she promptly put up to hear ear, saying "O?" She does seem to understand the true function of a brush, however; today after her bath she grabbed her little baby brush and began brushing her own hair. So apparently only an adult-sized brush resembles a telephone, in her eyes.

Madeleine has also been attempting to pronounce some new words, which is exciting. My favorite new word is "Doul," which is Madeleine-ese for Julia. She also tried to say Cheerios yesterday, and got pretty close to the mark with something like "Chooeeeoo." And I may be speaking too soon, but we haven't heard the "s" word in a few days... perhaps it's being phased out as some new words are phased in.

Finally, on a completely unrelated note, I leave you with this picture: