Sunday, November 12, 2006

Grrr . . . I a LION!


Grrr . . . I a LION!
Originally uploaded by Ryan Claycomb
Yes, here she is, the Queen of the World in her "King of the Jungle" attire. Don't be fooled by the illusion of humility implied by the lion costume. She just likes to put on the trappings of lesser beings sometimes.

The Halloween-Birthday extravaganza was a bit much for Lilah, who burst into tears at one point and sobbed, "I don't want to open any more presents!" Poor kid. Never fear, though. She recovered to enjoy her presents quite thoroughly, and is already anticipating getting more for Christmas.

Lilah's current favorite things, for those interested:

Nakey-time, the precious 5-10 minutes in the morning when she strips off all her clothes and gets to either run around naked or wrap herself in her beloved purple blanket before Mommy or Daddy insists that she gets dressed.

Her purple boots with chiffon-ribbon laces. Enough said.

Show-and-tell at school, during which time she insists on bringing a different "soft, tiny, baby" stuffed animal each week, no matter how much Ryan and I encourage other items. The best part is that the animals names change minute to minute, so pay attention or you'll accidentally refer to Bloop-Bloop as Hunga-Munga. "Honestly, Mommy," her tone of voice will clearly suggest, "try to keep up."

Posted by claycomb at November 12, 2006 1:19 PM

The cutest triceratops in the west

So . . . readers of this rather occasional, haphazard record of Collin and Lilah's adventures in life know that I like to blog about them separately. Here's the report on Collin, who is, as I assure him daily, "still three" as of October 30. Collin had a VERY exciting birthday weekend, since Mom-Mom and Pappy arrived on Friday night, our friend Nathalie came over to decorate cupcakes on Saturday afternoon ("BIG HUGE CHOCOLATE ONES!!!), and then he went trick-or-treating for the very first time. And this is all BEFORE the big party on Sunday.

So, here are some recent highlights from life with Collin:

Upon seeing Johnny, the sweet, long-suffering six-year-old who is Collin's greatest idol, coming down the stairs into our basement, Collin rushed over to me with a look of ecstatic panic on his face, rather like those girls clutching at bits of John and Paul's clothes through the fence. "Mommy!!! Johnny HERE!!!"

On trick-or-treat night, Collin wanted to give out candy (after he'd finished collecting and sampling his own). So he rushed to the door when the bell rang, only to fall back in terror at the sight of two WVU college students, both at least 6' tall and wearing truly grisly werewolf masks. Poor little guy. After that he let his daddy give out the candy.

The other day, coming home from a rather stressful grocery store trip, I forgot to lock Collin into his carseat (!!!) Fortunately, it was a short trip home on no major roads, and he did not get out of his seat at all. In fact, I wouldn't have known of my fault if he hadn't suddenly announced it from the back seat: "Mommy! You forgot-- strap me in!"
I thanked him for telling me and assured him that at this point (three blocks from home) we were better off just letting it be than anything else.

He was quiet for a minute, then he said, "Mommy, when I see my daddy, I'm going to tell him, I'm going to say, 'Daddy, Mommy forgot -- strap me in!!"

And yes, as soon as he saw Ryan, FOUR HOURS LATER, that is the first thing he told him. Sigh.

Posted by claycomb at November 12, 2006 1:09 PM