Athena's Top Ten Right Now

It's bitter cold here and there is not much going on. We've had a handful of very uneventful days. Athena got a funny haircut, Zoe is constantly surprising us with her language skills, I've got a big project at work and Chris is teaching Athena about calendars and the meaning of days with all his travels.

After the mania of the holidays, this peace is welcome. But there isn't much to say lately. Just a handful of little stories that I don't want to forget. So, to help preserve this time, I thought I would write an Athena's Top Ten Right Now Stories (and next I'll write Zoe's).

1. Athena has named her newest two-year molar "FaLa". Every night, when we are "making Happy Teeth" (aka brushing) Chris (who makes voices for all her teeth as they are getting brushed) has to make a particular point of brushing FaLa and make the other teeth welcome him.

2. She's started cleaning up her toys by herself. Without any prompting, she'll just begin to put her toys away at random moments. There is no organization at all, everything is just thrown in the toy chest in a big heap. But, we are amazed nonetheless.

3. She thinks that there are monsters in my mother's house that they can be chased away by saying "Meow." (This may be due to the fact that we told her that monsters live in the rooms where Mom keeps the kitty litter and only cats can go in there because the monsters are scared of them).

4. Athena has a crush on a boy called Nick. He's at her school and I hear her talk about him all the time. When I dropped her off at school the other day, she saw him and chased after him and said something compelling like "Nick, Nick...I watch Dora before school today..." Nick, who is at least five, just dismissed her with a "Hrmph" and ran into the classroom. (Must they learn so early?)

5. Her favorite movie is Cinderella. I worry that this is a very slippery slope and soon I will have a house full of Disney Princesses. But the original movie, which I have not seen in some thirty-odd years, is actually quite charming. I don't mind watching it all the time as most of the film is about the birds and the wee mice and the evil cat and the dog. I just pray it does not lead to Belle and Ariel and Jasmine (ugh)...

6. See photo above. Her latest trick is to say "Lookit dis" and strike a pose like the one above. Each one sillier than the next. I laugh and tell her she's crazy, and she says "Unca Stuart is the craziest!"

7. She often makes her belly talk. Mostly this is in response to the Daddy belly that talks to her. (How much of weird behavior is learned?)

8. We can get her to do just about anything by giving it a voice or personality. For instance, if she eats her dinner with her fingers we tell her that it makes her fork sad. She will eat her green beans if they suddenly take on life and ask her to please let them live in her belly. It is an awesome power.

9. She can recognize instruments by sound. This is totally Chris' teaching as I cannot recognize a guitar from a whatever. But it's Athena and Chris' special game and she gets it right more often than I would.

10. We think, for the most part, Athena would prefer to be an only child. Zoe is a bother except when she is sleeping, then Athena can't live without her and must wake her up immediately. She is allowed to wake her up from her naps as a special treat and then she bursts into the room and says "ZOE!" like it's been years.