Forbidden Careers, part I

Lest we laugh too hard, she won folks. No pagents for my daughter.

E-vah!

(Late update: She came in third actually. I didn't get the responses for the two women that beat her out though)

18 months

It's been awhile since we've posted some pictures, as the devoted among you are no doubt aware. Giving serious thought to simply turning this site into a depository for cute shots of her as she grows up since the well of profundity seems to have dried. We've learned to spare you all the mysteries of what a baby's digestive system can do to your average meal, there are only so many times we can rave about teaching her to hug the dog, and most importantly, we've been parents now for over a year and a half. It might be time to start shedding the guise of amused befuddlement. It's probably long past time to admit to ourselves that while we're still having a blast watching her grow and change, we are in every sense PARENTS now. Not just people playing house winking at each other now and then, breaking charector onlylong enough to disbelieve that somebody let us have a kid.

Nope it's time to bite the bullet. We're those people now and proud of it. Doesn't mean we have to get a minvan, but you may hear less, "can you believe..." stories going forward. That being said and off my parental chest, let's get with the pictures.

Mia is at babysitting coop, Ben is at work, and I am cozily ensconced at our new local cafe, settling in for a long morning of dissertation revision and writing. I have been reading and reading but have done very little writing; it's finally time to turn the ideas into words on paper.

We haven't written much recently, mostly because there seems to be little of interest to report. Our days are filled with playgrounds and water sprinklers, long summer naps and lazy summer evenings. Mia is learning to love the water after much initial trepidation. We're enjoying the long days of summer, even without air conditioning.

This is Mia's last month before she begins school in September. We are ending our time with the babysitting coop so we can have extra time to spend together. Even though the hours pretty much work out the same (she'll only be at school 16 hours a week), it somehow feels different. I know she'll thrive in the new environment, and I'm sure my own productivity will increase with the regularity of the hours, but it feels like a seismic shift in our lives. We're releasing her into the world, to hold her own at school, to make new friends, to learn new skills, to figure out how to get help and make her needs known. Even though she's almost 18 months old, she's still our little baby girl.