carter wanted to get out of the tub the other day, and i told him to stand up so that i could pick him up. i went to put my hands under his armpits and hoist him out (it is a very deep tub), and he suddenly scrunchd his shoulders up and urgently said "babi! babi! babi!" -- this is either baby or bambi, i have not discerned which since he says it when looking at bambi and he also refers to himself as such when he needs a snuggle in mom's lap--i loked at him and said "do you need your baby? bambi? and he shook his head, bent down, scooped up an imaginary baby or fawn, and held it in his arms, looked at me and said "BAAAAAAAbi."

then he handed me the precious cargo. i took it, and then proceeded to follow his verty strict instructions as to how to dry it and where to put it. when he was satisfied that i had taken care of it to his specifications, then and only then would he get out of the tub. after he was dry, he said "babi" and went to where it was resting in a chair, picked it up again, rocked it a little, bent over and gave it a kiss and then said "aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwww." then he put it to bed.

earlier today, ava asked if we could look at dolly the dolphin from seaworld online. this lead us to youtube, which - as an aside- is great for entertaining kids provided there is strict adult supervision, and this of course led us to shamu, which triggered carter's memory, and suddenly created an obsession of monumental proportions. he wanted shamu RIGHT NOW. he would go to the window and say "shamu?" and then he picked up my cell phone and said "shamu?" -- what i wouldn't give for a phone call from 'shamu." and all day long, SHAMU SHAMU SHAMU SHAMU...even ava got exasperated and finally said "carter! we have to take a PLANE to see shamu. we cannot see him today...maybe in 6 days."

ava has been using colored pencils these days, and suddenly started chanelling marc chagall. it is really weird. and if she is not doing that, she is insisting on taking a perfectly square (this is where i come in) piece of paper and completely coloring it in with one color. the squares are large--6 x 6 for example--and it takes her a long time. and she usually has to do one for each person in the family, based on their favorite color. once it was circles--these were the flat inner circle of a paper plate that i had to cut out perfectly. and of course, the 3-dimensional obsession continues. the other day she wanted a bag made out of paper. or a basket--can't remember which. so, she asked me to help her construct one. i thought about it, then cut a cross out of a piece of 8x11 paper, sort of like the american red cross shape--then i folded the arms of the cross up to form a cube-ish shape without a top. then we stapled it and put a handle on it. she was ok with it, but she finally said "mom, i want it made like this--with this piece of paper here, and this here..." and she basically figured out how to construct a much larger bag with a piece of paper for each side. we were on our way out the door to go visit nana, so i told her that we would do it later. turns out, she recruited and directed nana in the effort, and she made a very large 8x8x11 bag/basket.

and the funniest part of all of this is that after spending HOURS completely absorbed in these art projects, when she is at school, she makes no effort--the teachers set up projects and she puts a gratuitous scribble or glues a token button on something and signs her name. i have no idea why, but i know they all think she has no interest in art.

the only thing that she clearly was interested in was a beading project in which she strung blue-dyed pasta on a string for a necklace. she told me on the way home that the teacher told her that she needed to use all of the colors, but that she only wanted blue. i can just imagine the standoff. since she came home with an all-blue necklace, i'm guessing the teacher backed down.

thanksgiving was a hit--relatively chaotic and in no way elegant, but we have established that ava really does like turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. so, i can add those to her repertoire. hallelujah. carter likes turkey and whipped cream. not together, but i'm sure he would not decline whipped cream no matter what it was paired with. his irish roots are emerging.

(i swear they passed an urn of whipped cream with the roast beef when i was in dublin. i think it was meant for the fruit salad, but it was on the same table.)