lump

Did some babysitting this afternoon. While my sister took S. to her first dance class, I took care of my 10-month old niece A.. She's well out of "lump" phase and into "adorable baby" phase, complete with gurgling and chubby cheeks, grabbing everything in sight. She tried to eat my harmony ball necklace but fortunately the string held. Quite the little power struggle there for a few minutes, though, me trying to convince her to open her mouth so I could shove some more pablum into it; her chomping down hard on my harmony ball and refusing to let go. I won, but only because I cleverly distracted her with a plastic Barney doll (which she was unable to fit into her mouth despite heroic efforts). Afterwards I "put her down" for a nap. Do you like that phrase? I've heard so many mothers use it, but to me it sounds too much like "putting down" a pet. Have you noticed that mothers have their own language? Today I gave A. her "solids", for example, which means "solid food" (as opposed to "goopy mush"), but to me it always sounds like I'm trying to feed her pyramids and cubes. Anyway, she fell asleep only moments after I put her down and fell asleep so soundly that I was compelled twice to poke her to make sure she was still alive (I'm absolutely serious...it didn't look like she was breathing!!!).
End of today's blather.

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