Minky & Me

In the last week or so, if I ask Coco to do something, like feed the dog or go to the potty, she bellows, “if you say that again, I am NOT going to be your friend.”

Coco is visiting Mainey this weekend. Tonight they talked politics.

Mainey: “Coco, are you voting for Obama?”

Coco: “Mommy.”

Mainey: “You’re voting for Mommy for president?”

Coco: “Yes, Mommy.”

Mainey: “I think she’d do a good job.”

Dad wrote this diary entry dictated by Cokie last weekend. Since Larry’s handwriting might be hard to read, it says “I am a person and today I did gymnastics. I did a possum hang. A possum hang looks a little like a sloth. I saw Savannah. Me and Savannah jumped in the circle thing, then my teacher said I had to get out but I didn’t.” Then she drew herself. This is one of the first real self-portraits we have. Coco doesn’t do much portraiture.

I am surprised that three months have gone by since my last post. The winter was very busy in terms of my school work. In May, I graduate from my program. Woo hoo.

I cannot wait until the last day of school on June 20th. In addition to being finished with my degree, we have two exciting trips planned: one to the Azores and one to Quebec.

In February, Coco turned four. I still can’t believe it. She is so big now, much more like a little girl than the baby she was just a little while ago. I still carry her around but not easily. I wonder sometimes how old she will be when I can’t really pick her up anymore.

She remains quite the wordsmith and I am regretting that I wasn’t better about writing down some of the funnier things she said this winter. One of the things I haven’t forgotten happened a few weeks ago. Layr took her out on her bike. As they rode away from the house, she said she was sad that I was staying inside. Layr said, you love your mommy a lot, don’t you? Oh, yes, she replied, I love mommy so, so much. Then, so daddy wouldn’t feel bad, she told him that she liked him.

On Easter, she got some gum in her basket. She loves gum, or, rather, she loves the idea of gum since she never has it. Tristan happened to walk by right after she popped a piece in her mouth. She looked up at him and said, “by the way, I’m chewing kid-gum.”

Coco got a fish tank for her birthday. We have six fish now. Three of them were born in the tank and escaped being eaten by the molly (or vacuumed by Layr). It’s an aquatic miracle.

Papa and Gigi sent Coco three presents this week. The other night I opened them up and put them under the tree. It just so happened that right after I had done that, the Minkster started down the stairs for one of her nightly apres-bed visits. Daddy told her to go right back upstairs but I said, oh, no can’t she just look under the tree (consistency in parenting is something I need to work harder on). He gave me a you-are-crazy look and the rest of the way down she came.

She was very excited to see presents–and they were addressed to her! She has taken to carrying the smallest of the three gifts around. She carried it up to her room last night against my wishes….and this morning when she came into our bedroom, as she does every day, she was carrying it along with Willard.

Going to bed has been somewhat of a trial lately. We say goodnight, tuck Coco in and leave the room. Not too many minutes later, a combination of things happen in a different order each night. There’s the “I’m firsty!” Or the I-had-come-down-and-see-you-once-more. The “I’m hungry!” And the “Rocky, come!”

Tonight Cokie came downstairs while Daddy was showing me some short movies on his computer (did I ever write that she used to call it a “puter?”). She climbed into my lap and started watching too. We demanded–after 15 minutes–that she go back upstairs. Once there she started throwing a ball around. After she heard the printer across the hall, she fetched my papers and delivered them to me in the dining room. Then she complained that her tummy hurt and she needed someone to rub it, which Daddy did. When she finally went back upstairs again it was quiet for a few minutes–always a suspicious sign. Then I heard her say “hello.” It wasn’t an indoor hello, in fact, it sounded exactly like what saying hello out an open window would sound like. I went running up like a lunatic, scared she might fall out before I got there. I slid into the room like Scooby Doo. She heard me arrive and calmly turned away from the window and told me she was talking to “that boy,” pointing to our new adult neighbor next door. He had obviously just gotten home from work and was kind enough to say hello back. I closed up the window and looked down at her bed. There was the New Yorker magazine lying open. She excitedly picked it up to show me what she had been reading.

Good God, Gerty!

A lovely trip to Québec for Thanksgiving. It was very cold and snowy but we had a ball. We strolled the streets of Vieux-Québec. We swam in the heated outdoor pool. We marveled at the sumptuousness of the Chateau Frontenac. We rode the Funiculaire.

Coco proclaimed swimming in the pool her favorite thing. She jumped out of the water once or twice to jump in the snow. As you swim, you can look up at hotel rooms. People saw us and waved from their windows.

Most people spoke French with us. Larry did really well. I was rusty and, hours after checking in, wondered if I had said, “I am a reservation” to the front desk clerk instead of “I have a reservation.” I realized I mustn’t have because the front desk person would have switched immediately to English and she hadn’t.

We tried the Québecois delicacy “poutine” french fries smothered with gravy, cheese and a meat of your choosing: chicken ou hot dog, par example. O la la.

We traveled to the Ile d’Orleans and stopped at an orchard to buy cidre–an alcoholic apple cider–and the gentleman who sold it to us was so nice. As we were leaving, he loaded us up with some free apples.

Once we were back in les Étas-Unis, shocked to hear English instead of French, some guys who pulled into the Vermont gas station we had stopped at, told us there was a moose in a field a mile away. Off we went to see it. By the time we arrived, it had sat down but we could see it looking all around.

See us in the motherland here. Click on Québec!

Today Daddy coined a new phrase, “funnoying.” It is only a few hours later but I can’t recall exactly what incident prompt it. During dinner, though, Coco asked to put more gravy on her plate, I made a turkey dinner for us since we’ll be in Canada for Thanksgiving and instead of using a spoon, she wanted to pour it. We knew that was a bad idea but she’s fast. A second later, with a huge pool of gravy on her plate, I said, “that was funnoying.” Both Daddy, who looked angry, and Coco, who looked worried, started laughing. Me too.

Coco loves looking at a frame filled with honeymoon photos that sits next to the TV in the den. The glass that covers each photo slides out; there is no closure. Coco is always fiddling with the glass, much to my dismay. Just now, she slid a piece of glass out and it fell onto the stand. When I heard it, I looked over. She quickly explained. “I was trying to find me,” she said. “Am I there?” she asked, pointing to a picture of Larry swimming. “Or there?” she said, pointing to a photo of a St Maarten street sign. “No,” I told her. “Was I in your belly?” “No.” “Where was I?” It was a funny moment, explaining that she wasn’t anywhere yet, though in some ways, it seems she’s been here with us all the time.