Entertaining.

Been having a super fun summer with this guy...

And with this girl...

Been going to movies...

Two thumbs up for Ratatouille!
Have you all seen it? We found the "little chef" to be quite entertaining. Laughed and laughed (only it felt like we were the only ones in the whole theater laughing. That ever happened to you? Huh. Either everyone was having a bad day or Wes and I REALLY needed some humorous diversion!)

And a surprising two thumbs up forHarry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! We attribute our positive experience to the fact that we hadn't read the book very recently. Curious about every ones opinions! Did you like it? Favorite scenes? effects? characters? Do tell!! I really loved the "Dumbledore's Army" scenes! Totally got teared up when Neville mastered his expelliamous! curse! Ahem.

Also been reading books...

Lucy's favorites this week are:

David Shannon's Alice the Fairy. "What should we read today?" "Alice! An-a-frog!"

Right now I can hear her in her bedroom reading Holly Hobbie's Puddle's ABC. Everything that comes out of her mouth is followed by peels and squeels of laughter "Inchworm! he he he he he "Kink -sized Kiss! haa ha ha ha ha" "L: that spellls me! THAT SPELLS ME! ho ho ho ho ho" "Doggy-digging! HA! Digging, digging! HA ha! He's dirty!"

(And the Toot and Puddle ABC illustrations? Fabulous!)

I just finished Susan Patron's The Higher Power of Lucky in conjunction with Mrs. Cropper's Book club . Interesting book. Check out the discussion if you're interested!

Personal reading happens sporadically for me these days. Always we begin well: Lucy sits by me with her own pile of books and acknowledges: "Mommy read a spesh-al book. Lucy read-ese book," but we never quite continue as we commence. I don't complain - it's more reading than I've done in the last two years of Lucy's life - but it's nice to have made it through a book! (Maybe if I continue to stick with less-than-two-hundred-page-children's-books, I'll have more successes!)

Wes has been reading nothing worth writing about in a post entitled "Entertaining." His books all have the word GRE smeared on the cover. Bless his studious heart. And yet his efforts have equipped me with a new word! Let see if you can define it in context:

Lucy has been perfecting and implementing a new dilatory tactic during her bedtime routine. When we remove her from her evening bath, carry her into the bedroom, and lay her on the floor to proceed with her diapering (yeah, still procrastinating that potty training. Drat!) and jammies, she immediately writhes, wiggles, and hops up. But she doesn't throw a fit, as was once common when we tried to lay her down for such rituals. No, no. Now she wraps her cool little cherubic self around me and says, "we need a hug!!!"

Pretty good, eh? And we're not talking "quick hug" - we're talking multiple tight squeezes, kisses, "mmmmm"ing: the whole nine yards. I mean, she really goes the distance. Calculating as she is, I figure I have to at least reward her creativity by allowing the schmoozing to continue for just a minute or so. When we finally do get her properly attired for bed, she employs the plain old "drink of milk!" tactic. Not quite so charming. We're trying to nip that one in the bud. We've made a little progress.

And...although she manages to delay the inevitable reality of her bedtime by a few minutes, we still manage to get her penned in her pack-n-play- and on good days, at a decent hour.

Tonight after putting her in bed I walked to her bedroom door, and then turned to say something like "see you in the morning!" "No," responds Lucy, "ga-night princess!" OH! Of course! Please pardon me, your grace! "Good night, princess" I repeat dutifully. But a dose of real sincerity smiles in my heart. Good night, little darling princess!

We've concluded officially that Lucy - daily walking, talking, sleeping, and eating here within the walls of our own home, is really all the entertainment we've ever needed!