A few mornings ago, Carter was lying in bed by himself (it is a mattress on the floor), and happened to unearth a paperback book hiding between the mattress and the wall. I could hear him in there playing, and I figured he was playing with Minnie Mouse, the love of his life, but when I heard ripping, I went in to investigate. My little bookworm had not only ripped the pages out, but had gnawed his way through about a third of the cover. Fortunately he had not choked or ruined any of the actual text, so I was able to still read it. I have been trying to instill a love of books, but this is a bit much.

The book was “Death in Summer” by William Trevor. I took a break from Katharine Graham’s autobiography and read this—it is a small little novel, at least in appearance, that ended up being both ridiculously tough to get through and riveting at the same time. You might find this hard to believe, but it is not a cheerful book. A very good book, but emotionally wrenching. And not in a hallmark sort of a way. More like in a ‘wow I am so lucky my life and the people in it are not this profoundly depressing and damaged’ sort of way. I had to flip through a magazine when I finished it just to be able to return to a normal state of mind.

Carter has found his own hair! Thank god. Perhaps now he will be less interested in mine. He pulls HARD.

The other day, Ava got out of the car at the grocery store, and in the loudest singsong voice she could muster said “I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE EATING BOOGERS!” to the tune of ‘nanny nanny boo boo’.

I came out of the bedroom today, and she was on the floor with a bunch of colored chalk, no paper or chalkboard in sight. “What are you using that chalk on?” I casually asked. “This” she said and pointed to her tights. “Your tights?” “Yes, I am making them nicer…” And she continued to color her right leg as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Carter had a bath in the big tub all by himself tonight! He is finally able to sit steadily enough that I can be on dry land while washing him. Thanks be to all that is good—my skin is so dry, the thought of crawling in a 2nd or 3rd bath at the end of the day just hurts. He found it to be pretty neat—he likes to splash.

I cannot figure him out. One day he hates the bottle, the next day he loves it. Today he would not nurse, so I made a bottle and his eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sight of it, and he sucked the whole thing down. Yesterday it was an affront to his gourmet palate. It makes no sense.

Whatever makes people think that standing 5 inches from a child while in line at the grocery store is a good idea is beyond me. Poor Ava was in the front part of the cart, politely waiting for me to unload the groceries onto the belt and then zoom her through to the other side where the bagger was waiting, and the next person in line was really standing right on top of her. So close that the groceries she was holding were basically in Ava’s lap. Ava was CLEARLY uncomfortable. She had edged her way as far as possible to the back of her little seat and was leaning her shoulders back over the cart and had her head turned as far around as it could go, tucking her chin into her shoulder. Her eyes were darting from me to this lady, and back again. HELLO! Body language anyone? BACK OFF AND STOP SCARING MY KID! Oooooh, this bugs me so much. She is a person. Albeit a little one, but a whole person nonetheless. Who deserves respect. I told her it was ok, loudly, and the woman moved a little bit away, and then I zoomed her through. Fortunately it was not one of the scary baggers—some of them also get in her face, and there is a lot of teenage related appearance modifications that scare her. She has not yet taken a shine to black lipstick. One time a very large and very loud man said hi to her when she was only 15 months or so, and she absolutely panicked, burst into tears, etc, and he would not stop—I had to literally yell at him that he was scaring my child, and he was the one that ended up offended. Oh, the adventures we have in that store.

We have begun the official countdown to Austin. Five days to go!