Dear Kids,
Here are some stories about you.
Livia lost her first tooth on 3/24. It had been loose for quite a while, and she had babied it. But that evening, she came downstairs to show it to me, and it was so loose, I said, “Why don’t you just pull it out?” And she did! It was a bloody thing to watch, but she was so pleased with herself afterwards. The tiny tooth was cute. Livia’s first gappy smile was even cuter.
An excerpt from an argument between Marshall and Livia:
Marshall: I love Mommy more than you love Daddy!
Livia: I love Daddy more than you love Mommy!
Because Livia has been crying a lot and throwing tantrums, the doctor recommended that she make a special bag of treasured items to look at when she’s in a bad mood. I asked Livia to think about which items she wants to put in the bag. She said, “But Mommy, how can I put Daddy in the bag?”
To help counter Marshall’s fear of ghosts, I offered my Buddha to keep you company at night. I told you that if you rubbed his belly it would bring you good luck. So you both rubbed his belly, and then you demanded some additional figurines and action figures. Ultimately you ended up with Buddha, Boba Fett and Hammerhead (from “Star Wars”), Ben Franklin, Johann Sebastian Bach, and a Chinese dragon. They’re all posed atop a Harry Potter book along with a little cup of grass that Marshall started growing as a project in school and beneath a lamp shaped like the bones of a dinosaur head. It’s like a garden party in some bizarre and irreverent sci-fi universe.
Garden Party
Is it just me, or does Bach look a little unsettled by his companions?
One day Livia was pretending to be a lion and Marshall was her prey. “Oh,” cried Marshall. “The lion caught me!” Then the lion picked up a box of tissues and replied in her raspy, menacing lion voice, “Here are some tissues if you need them.” What a terrifyingly kind lion she was!
Love,
Mom