My girl, early spring

Do you ever stop and really look at your kids? It's funny how Pynchon and I can be with her so much, talk about her so much, and still I sometimes miss the big picture. I get caught up in the details, caught up in the moment. I see her in snapshots and glances. Think about how I write here, even: do you have a sense of Munchkin the girl?

My girl, early spring, 2009.

She's a silly kid, and what we hear most from daycare is how she's always cracking up the teachers. We also hear a lot about how she can be very stubborn and a little wily. Overall, I think she's a joker, a strong-willed girl, whip-smart, curious, full of hugs, imaginative. Like lots of kids, but still to us she seems to be so fully herself. How do you write that?

She likes raisins. She likes cranberries. She can't tell them apart.

She narrates a lot, which probably comes from reading a million books every day, thus: "The baby pony said, 'WAAAA, Momma, I WANT you,' and the mommy pony said, 'Go back to sleep,' to the baby pony." She can name all the books on her shelf, and knows most of them by heart. She knows a million nursery rhymes and likes to singsong them with me. She likes us to leave her "door open a little bit" when she goes to bed, so she can read her book. She prefers to lie in bed in the morning, and to get us in there with her, rather than get up.


Every night after her bath she pulls the plug out, puts it on the head of her toy seal, and says, "Mommy seal is a baker and she is baking muffins, said Munchkin". Every night after her bath she barks ("Yarf, b-barf ... AROOOO") and I wrap her up like a puppy and dry her off. Usually, I have to ask her to use her "inside puppy voice." She streaks down the long hallway to her room, laughing, a steamy naked thumping toddler in full flight.

She loves: Dora, Toupie and Binou, My Little Pony, some tiny cat toys shaped like mice. She loves: jumping in puddles, climbing Mount Daddy, creating snuggly 'puppy nests' in the living room and in the guest room bed. She likes pretending all her animals are sick and need to go to the doctor. She likes to comfort them and wrap them up and scold them for making noise.

She can: look at upheld fingers, cheerios on the floor, or a scattering of books and tell you, without counting out loud, how many are there. She can: do 'yoga' and dance like crazy, put her own pants on, get her jacket on, her own boots. She negotiates her outfits every day. She is always asking if it is the weekend, if she can stay in her pajamas all day. She likes to play in the yard, and she likes to putter around the house. Upstairs for a while. Downstairs for a while.

She gets out of bed, out of her room, stands at the top of the stairs and shouts down, tentatively, "Moooommmmeeeeeee .... pick up my book ..... it fellllll on the flooooooor."

She stands on the stepstool and helps me make toast every morning. She carries it to the table, and puts it on the placemat she has arranged all by herself. Pushes up her own sleeves and asks for her bib. She interrupts the grownup conversation whenever she feels it applies to her. And sometimes when it doesn't.

She has a wicked temper that, once set off, will not be quelled until it has run its course. She is very very attached to me and can be very stubborn about being near me. She is also a very sweet, affectionate girl, full of "I love you" and "Would you like a kiss-o?" She surprises us with compliments: "Daddy, you look very handsome!" and "Mommy, you look like a princess!"

She hums to herself whenever she walks down the stairs. She pauses at the top before descending, trying to figure how to carry a doudou and a 'friend' but still hold the railing. This process can sometimes take awhile.

Her favorite food is grilled cheese. She would prefer if we served it to her, also, with "cheese on the side of the plate, too."

Just a kid, but my kid, as I'm always telling her. "Mommy loves you!" I remind her, a hundred times a day, "because you are .... ?"

She tucks her chin into her chest and states, sure as anything " ... your precious daughter."

Yes, she is.