You Never Told Me About Your Cat Milking Days In Motown

I'm so excited that my Nibblet has finally grown into her fancy fur coat with bunny ears. "Thank you, Aunt Jessie and Uncle Jeff! It's good to look divine and stay warm all at the same time."

Seeing The Precious in his flannel shirt makes me happy as well. I told him he was my Brawny Man and he was pleased, announcing several times that day that he really liked being "the brownie man." I think the face he's wearing here makes him look just like his daddy. Not that either of them wear this expression often ... there's just something about it that screams Phil to me.

There's something else that screams, "Phil!" around here. Andrew, when he's calling him from across the house. At all other times he's Daddy, but if Andrew is upstairs and daddy is downstairs, he'll stand at the top of the stairs and yell, "Phil! Come here!" I haven't the foggiest idea where that came from.

Other wacky Andrew-isms:

1. His favorite state is Nevada. He's never been, but we have a US map puzzle, he fell in love with the Nevada piece, and now it regularly comes up in conversation. Today I told him the capital of Nevada was Carson City, and he asked me what the lower case was. That question took me a minute.

2. His favorite time on the clock is 7:17. I have no explanation for this one.

3. This evening he asked me what holds his skin on. He asks a lot of great questions. I end up saying, "I have no idea" and "Jesus made it that way" a whole lot.

Andrew and I made quite a load of Christmas cookies last week (I guess I should have realized it would be a large batch when the recipe started with 3 sticks of butter).

I read that you could make cookie icing by simply mixing powdered sugar and milk. Seemed too easy, but it worked! We added a little food coloring and used paint brushes to decorate and Andrew loved it. It was way better than my old plan - having Andrew shake sprinkles on the cookies before they went into the oven. Oddly, few of the sprinkles actually stayed on the cookies with that method (I'm still finding them in various kitchen crevices).

Christmas shopping in a mall, an activity I once delighted in, has never sounded worse to me. Right now malls are for strolling when it's cold/rainy, train rides and Chick-Fil-A lunches, so I'm extremely grateful to the USPS, Fed Ex, and UPS for their role in my gift giving this year. We did do one mall run with Daddy to take in the lights and the crowds (and to avoid an exorbitant Macy's shipping fee). Andrew loved the decorations and begged to experience each elevator and escalator we passed while Elsbeth soaked up all the excitement from her little perch on my back - it was a great outing! Having Daddy around makes quite the difference.

I think the last thing I mentioned about my Nibblet and solid food was my hope that she was taking an interest in sweet potatoes. That was short-lived. The last couple times I tried to feed her anything (even applesauce!) resulted in her crying, spitting it out, and pushing the spoon away with considerable force, so my 8-month-old is still on a 100% milk diet. I'm not too worried about it. She's clearly keeping plenty of weight on, and frankly, it simplifies things. No messy bibs or trying to work clods of squash out of her nose or remembering to pack food when we leave the house. I'll just keep giving it a try every few weeks, and one of these days she's bound to take interest.

Oh - and speaking of surprising rejections, Els has also passionately rejected the pacifier that until now was a key part of her going to bed routine. She has instead opted for ...

... her sweet, wee thumb.