scarlett's hands

I have two weeks' worth of nephew and niece visits to catch up on but it's been a little chaotic at the McMansion and I can only do what I can do. That means I have a backlog. That means I feel some guilt for having let more than is balanced and comfortable for me go. That means it might slightly resemble a constipated digestion tract around these here parts for a bit, but I can promise that it will be neither horribly painful nor will it last long.

So please enjoy my youngest niece's hands while she learns the secrets of untying the knots on her momma's drum. She and I hung out together for a little while when her momma had an appointment (and a not-exactly-small need to get the heck outta dodge for some grownup time). Daddy had to work today too, so Scarlett and I flopped on pillows, played with stuffed animals, made noises like real animals, read books, and played music until The Momma(tm) returned.

Scarlett's parents encourage her to try nearly everything that won't outrightly hurt her. In that 'don't break the baby' category there are only a few no-nos and the few are mostly diet-related. She is life-threateningly and intensely allergic to tree and ground nuts, eggs and dairy so she eats nearly entirely from a whole food diet to avoid the hidden bombs that might be waiting for her in prepared foods.

She's got a somewhat frightening amount of language for an 18 month old. I don't remember my son speaking in sentences at that same age but Scarlett can string together 4-5 words that make grownup sense. She appropriately uses pronouns. She can ask questions. She can save and recall complicated multisyllabic words. Wow. As the parent of a boychild I never bothered getting my knickers in a knot over where he was on that imaginary bell curve; you know, the one that indicates the precise, the accurate and the earlybirds along with the dingbats, the slowpokes, and the late bloomers ... frankly, I had enough to contend with raising him on my own, so I was glad to have him however he developed. And he's done perfectly.

As for my sister, I tease her by telling her she's gotten exactly the child she was meant to have. And that her baby is a freak.