When I dropped Mac off at school this morning, I noticed a new project on display. Last week had focused on dinosaurs, which Mac of course loved. For a group project, the kids took a giant cutout of a real dinosaur footprint, and then traced their own feet inside the dinosaur footprint. Their teachers asked them, "How many of our little feet can fit inside the dinosaur footprint?" and then wrote the answers on a big chart, after noting that the correct number was 28.

Most of the kids said, "2!" or "5!" or "2...um, lots!"

Mac apparently said, "Just green. I want a big dinosaur, actually."

Sigh. I'm starting to wonder if he may have the same issue that his dad and I both had as kids (and arguably as adults) of being really good at difficult things and bad at/bored by basic skills. It does boggle me slightly that a child who can cross-reference images of toys across different children's books ( "Look, Mommy, Curious George has toy plane like Little Blue Engine. But that plane really big. This just little plane.") can't remember the difference between green and blue, or that he can sing "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" but not count to 5. Toddler brains are strange and wondrous things; it will all work out in the end.

In other amusing verbal news, Mac has decided that "hammer" is a good all-purpose adjective, useful for phrases like "It's a big hammer train" and "I want big hammer pants." (Yes, we giggled.) I asked him what "hammer" meant, and this was more or less his response: "Hammer is...only one at school. Only. special. My hammer!" My current deduction is that "hammer" therefore means "special" or "unique" because, unlike the other toys at school, there's only one hammer. It's a working theory, at least.

Meanwhile, Eowyn is reacting to the advent of spring by trying to eat as much grass as possible, with predictable results. However, she's gotten into a much better relationship with Mac, thankfully, and will even happily let him brush her after she comes in wet from a rainy walk. I remain incredibly thankful that we have a dog gentle enough that, even when a overenthusiastic toddler accidentally pokes her in the eye, she'll just look at me imploringly rather than getting hostile or aggressive.

I mentioned to Mac the other day that Eowyn was going over to play with Finn, the Davis-Wilson's dog.
"I want to play with Finn!"
"Mac, you know Finn doesn't really play well with you. He's scared of you."
"I give Finn treats! Then he not scared! Then he not bark!"
Can't say Mac isn't learning the basics of dog training early on!

Reassuring a mom anxious about her daughter's precarious walking ability that I didn't walk until 16 months is, perhaps, slightly less comforting when wearing a large ankle brace.

"Well, it's great that you've worked all the kinks out" is the wrong metaphor to use when discussing a relationship, generally speaking.

Mac has been throwing temper tantrums entirely connected to our refusal to let him model all adult things. Example #1: Taking money out of my wallet, being very possessive out of it, and then, strangely, attempting to throw it out the window (luckily we have the aforementioned screens.) #2: Getting very upset when _he_ wasn't allowed to write checks in the checkbook.

He also got extremely angry yesterday when I failed to be appropriately appreciative of all his hard work in carrying over a piece of his playfence next to the stereo table, wedging it against the wall to form a ramp of sorts, and scrambling up it so he could stand on the stereo table and start throwing CDs around.

Of course, he got a big bump and Totally Insignificant cut on his eyebrow from running into the TV table two days before my mother-in-law arrives.

New word-phrase of the day: "Lion Roar!"

And what about Eowyn? Well, she was being a very barky dog for a long while while CP was the only one walking her. Since I've been doing some walking again, we've been working on the training and it's been getting better. However, there is one odd new behavior I can't curb. She used to totally ignore our babysitter, who's not really a dog person. For the past few weeks, since our babysitter advanced to the stage in her pregnancy when the baby started kicking, however, every time she arrives Eowyn runs up to her excitedly and insists on sniffing and pushing her head right up against Y's belly. She's particularly insistent on Tuesdays when she hasn't seen the sitter for four days - it's like a checkup. This isn't really thrilling Y, although she understands what's going on.

Sometimes I do feel a bit sad that Eowyn will never get to have her own puppies.

Tip of the Hat:
Insomnia Cookies: Fresh-baked warm cookies, brownies, and milk, now available from 14th St to Broome St in Manhattan and at a variety of college campus, delivered to your home between 8 PM and 3 AM for only 90 cents a cookie.

Wag of the Finger:
To the person who decided to scatter a dozen chocolate-glazed doughnuts and bagels with cream cheese across the alley at the beginning of the dog walk for all 50+ dogs in our apartment building. Thanks for the obstacle course. Vengeance shall strike you down eventually.

Dana Perino, the White House Press Secretary, yesterday:

Q: The American people are being asked to die and pay for this, and you’re saying they have no say in this war?

PERINO: I didn’t say that, Helen. But, Helen, this President was elected —

Q: Well, what it amounts to is you saying we have no input at all.

PERINO: You had input. The American people have input every four years, and that’s the way our system is set up.

I missed the bit where we had a regularly elected dictatorship somehow...

For Easter:
Cadbury Creme Egg Muffins

Yes, that's right, a cadbury creme egg embedded inside a vanilla muffin....it's calling your name.Eowyn

Also, a lazy hamantaschen recipe

Happy Dog Moment of the Day: Eowyn joyously outracing the other golden retriever at the dog run.

Sad-puzzling moment of the day: How exactly does someone lose a 125-lb Newfie? I mean, I'm sorry for the owners and I hope they find their dog soon, but really, it's not like they run very fast, or you can just steal one and tuck it in a handbag. And, um, not exactly inconspicuous.

That when I present her with a new empty 2-liter plastic seltzer bottle, even though it's identical to the last 10 seltzer bottles she's had, she acts like it's Christmas morning and I've just bought her a Playstation.

What I don't love about my puppy:
So, she's fine _with_ M - the worst problem we've had is an occasional attempt to steal his booties. (But the booties belong to God!) But in the last few weeks, she's reverted to a lot of old bad behaviors, like accidents inside, and jumping, and biting at clothes - but only when we're not paying her attention. We've yet to actually catch her eliminating indoors - we just go out into the hallway and find the mess. Amusingly, I was at exercise class on Tuesday, where virtually the only common denominator is dog ownership (well, and motherhood - but it's great cuz M. gets to meet diverse other babies), and several other mothers said their dogs were doing the exact same thing.


The difficult part is coming up with a solution. So far, we've gone back to crating her much of the time. Which I feel awful about, though she doesn't seem to mind too much - but right now I don't have the time to spend as much attention with her as I'd like. Still, yesterday morning we had a nice long cuddling and petting session while the baby napped, so I think that helped.