exchange today with sparklet:

sparklet: up!
daddy: what, i have to carry you now, too?!?
sparklet: yup.
daddy: dude, what the ….
sparklet: duuuuude.

duuude.

i got really bored — not much else to say. that, and the village (and the track) lasted about 30 seconds after sparklet woke up.

sparklet’s been falling down — a lot.

we’d been watching (with great concern) her developing a cocky “i get this whole walking thing” machismo, which has been quickly turning into a steady stream of bouncing off tables, getting thrown off playground equipment and falling down stairs.

this morning we hit our first major milestone of a two year old: she fell down a flight of stairs. fortunately, it was indoors (from the second floor to the first, and not the 27 concrete steps we have out front) and fortunately everything is fine (she was up and moving in seconds, with nary a scratch).

but it was #%&%$# horrible.

she was climbing, and must have made it up to the very top, because it sounded like she fell for a full 30 seconds. when she slid into the ground floor, she did so on he back — bouncing her head down the last three steps.

not good.

regardless, we’re counting our blessings — she’s fine, and she’s now (visibly) being more careful on stairs. no blood, no bump, no bruise, no foul.

that which does not kill us scares the bejeezus out of our parents.

this morning, our kitchen itunes found itself on the “80s/vintage” mix, and sparklet has some notes of commentary she couldn’t stop herself from sharing:

“take on me” from a-ha was perfect for spinning. abba was generally well received, although she dropped “i do, i do, i do” by the second chorus. we’ll never play “forever young” by alphaville ever again, ever (and my heart is absolutely crushed by her response to one of the top ten songs of my childhood).

the big hit of the morning (i’m going to hell) was belinda carlisle, but she made up for it with her love of dexy’s midnight runners and (eventually, after i was horrified by her response to “mad about you”) the go-go’s. oh, and she was thoroughly confused by madonna’s “like a prayer” but hey, aren’t we all.

but, she reserved her most poignent critique for biz markie.

she’s taken to yelling “song!” when she wants us to turn on some music, or (worse) in the 2 seconds between songs. a few seconds after “just a friend” came on she yelled “song!” and, when i said that it (technically) was a song, she yelled “song!” again.

this quickly escalated to a chant (never heard before) of “new song! new song!” — which didn’t abate until i kicked the music forward to “pretty in pink” instead.

everybody’s a critic.

sparklet had a bit of a meltdown today, because we took down the christmas tree without her permission.

she kept crying “my tree, my tree!” and was utterly inconsolable. so i did what any good father would do — i started quoting from eulogy scene for Tiny Tim from the muppet christmas carol:

It’s all right, children. Life is made up of meetings and partings. That is the way of it. I am sure that we shall never forget [our tree], or this first parting that there was among us.

father of the year.

no clue who the birthday girl is, but love that my daughter is taking el español caliente into the hallway to makeout. fwiw, i was hoping we’d had a couple years before worrying about this sort of thing.

sparklet’s new camera seems to have some kind of sticker function, and she seem’s to have figured out how to make it work. especially like the pirate bandana on the dog. creative.