she already knows about sarcasm too

A couple of years ago there was book published about EQ, or emotional intelligence. Personally, I don't doubt that there is something to this--whether you call it charisma or being a natural born leader, some people just manage other people better. Gia continually surprises me with her innate ability to "read" people. She figured out at age 3 that if she complimented a cashier, she would be assured a lollipop (My, those are beee-outiful earrings you have...i'll take a grape one thanks).

I expect her to read me, we spend quite a bit of time together--I can tell when she wants something that she is searching my face for the right angle to bargain with.

One skill that amazes me is that she always tries to meet people at their own level, seriously, I have watched her (in horror) talk "down" to people. Sometimes that person is me. Often that person is Bill. I know she does this because she wants to make a connection with whoever she is talking to and make them feel comfortable.

This scaling is impressive and rare in adults, but it floors me in such a little girl.

A quick example, on past Halloweens I have carved the pumpkins into whatever she wants--Jimmy Neutron, Jack Skellington, Spongebob, and, infamously, Eduardo.

After Eduardo, I am never allowed to carve a pumpkin again. If you don't know what happened, then you must not live in Millbury because they announced it on the local TV channel (Thanks Bill). So this year, Bill did the carving--and he did awesome! What was funny was that she asked him not for Dora or Kappa Mikey, but for....

a kitty face (top one)

a bat

when I asked what this was, she said it was "a good try"

and nobody went to the ER!

maybe I need to take jiu jitsu...or valium

What do you in November?
We love to jump in the leaves!

and get flu shots! Well, we don't love that, and I am not 100% sure that they are a good idea, but soapbox aside...

Mike has a check up tomorrow (18 months) and I am already having panic attacks. If you remember, the last time we were at the pediatrician's, we both had to go home immediately and change out clothes because they were covered in blood.


Long story short (ish), when they picked his finger to get a couple of drops of blood for a lead test he freaked out, I mean, FREAKED. He started flailing, and the nurse was holding his little finger tightly so the blood was just pouring out; but because he was flailing, it ended up on the nurse, the walls, me.

She finally got a band-aid on, which he immediately ripped off (why?!?!?) and he started screaming and failing again(think garden hose) and blood was everywhere--this time, all over him. We went through 4 band-aids this way.

I was using all of my best UFC moves to hold the little sucker down--I mean I was giving the kid a full sleeper-hold--he still slipped (naked and covered in carnage--i think the carnage made him extra slippery) out of my arms and MADE IT TO THE OPEN DOOR...he was about to run out into the waiting room and I caught him.

I can only imagine what the poor little kids in the waiting room would have thought if naked, bloody Mike had made it out there...I don't think a lollipop or free tattoo would have erased THAT particular image from their fragile little minds.

Dramatisation of Actual Events

I'm not religious, but pray for me anyway.