Finnegan the LOLdog sez...

Finnegan the LOLdog
Originally uploaded by squeakyweasels.

IM IN UR GARDUN

EETIN UR PLANTZ

I don't think of myself as a judgmental person, but I am a label collector. I tend to collect interesting bits I might hear or discover about a person I don't really know, and then every time I see them I think to myself, "Oh! You're the _____!"

For example.

There's a woman who works in my building who, according to rumor, sneaks into supply closets of other departments and takes things. Just random things like post-its. This is funny because she's also apparently very religious. And a little too handsy with other female coworkers, leading further rumor to suggest she might lean that way but be too religious to admit it.

So I bumped into her coming out of the bathroom this morning. "Hello," she said.

"Hello!" I replied.

In my head, I said, "Hello, Clepto-lesbian!"

Then I started thinking of all the other people I've labeled in the building.

There's Shifty Grate Jumper, the fellow on crutches who parks in a makeshift handicapped space over a grate in the parking lot, and every morning I see him shifting his way carefully around the bars of the grate.

There's PoopJoke. This woman has actually never told me a joke involving poop or anything else, but I've heard they're her favorite. I don't know why that's stuck with me.

And Poncho Maria, who can often been seen walking the halls in a Clint Eastwood-esque blanket, complete with fringe, no matter what the season.

So, kindergarten?

Kindergarten is no problem for Gert, who suddenly seems so much older and more confident. Yesterday she rode the bus home with a new friend, shared a snack ("We're not supposed to eat or drink on the bus... but we were careful."), and cracked out her first Serious Homework last night.

Serious homework is the kind of homework they don't give you in preschool. This was not coloring or drawing a picture of your family pet. This was taking a serious pencil and a serious sheet of white, lined looseleaf paper, and writing your name with utmost care three (3) times. And then she had to think of and write down three (3) things that began with the same letter as her name.

Matilda spent the evening on her own serious homework, reading the first three chapters of Little Women and working through several pages of algebra.

Apparently, though, it's easier to concentrate on all of this with High School Musical Two (2) merrily replaying in the background. Wild-Cats-Every-Where...

Growing up, I guess

Gert starts kindergarten in two days, and it's really weighing on me. A couple of years ago we had bright, perky, mischievous baby human:



And now we have a kid who loves to swim in deep water, ride a two-wheeler, read books and cuddle together, and find new and creative ways of cornering the cat to administer massive doses of love:



What am I going to do? I don't want her to get on the bus, but I have to want her to get on the bus. But I don't.

She's more and more adorable every day, but every day I miss the little Gert she was before.

Gert lost a tooth!

Lost a tooth!
Originally uploaded by squeakyweasels.

I don't know why she's looking like I'm about to whack her in the face with the camera. I guess when you've had a tooth fall out you stop trusting so much.

Actually, since this photo was taken, she's also parted with another bottom tooth, giving her a distinctly whacked-in-the-face appearance.

But now she can suck through a straw and bite at the same time. That is the best.