Daddy's screws and Who's Doin' What

"AAHHHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!" I just heard Eleanor's scream of instant frustration through the walls of the house.

She is outside with Cap, who is working on the boat, and I just sat down to type. Now I hear "Eleanor those are Daddy's screws, and you need to follow Daddy's RULES about Daddy's Screws." I can't help chuckling to myself.

Now Eleanor has been escorted inside and she is presenting me with a bag of screws "Those are Daddy's screws" she says in the sweetest voice.

Everything is extremes these days.

And now an update on "who's doin' what"

Rose is:

• gaining weight
• smiling the most charming little grin
  
• starting to hold her head up
• vocalizing with funny little meows and ahboos
  
• And, Cap and I both agree that our Rose, the newborn, is getting the best sleep in the house. Most nights she sleeps five to seven hours in a row. I told her "We just don't do that in this family, Rose!"
  

Eleanor is:

• persistently "two" and seemingly bipolar as a result
• sleeping much better! She has been falling asleep between 8:30 and 9:00pm and waking up around 11:00pm, and then again at 5:00am, when she comes in to sleep with me.
  
• She has discovered how to swim on her tummy in the bathtub, which is really fun.
  
• She is also singing complete songs now, like "I've been workin' on the railroad," "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" (which she calls the Dream song... you know, life is like a dream...) and "It's alright to cry" which nearly sends me to tears because it is so touching to hear her little voice make out the words.
• telling us when she pees in her diaper. She peed on the potty three times one morning, but then decided to wear diapers again after peeing on the carpet twice. I think the day of training is coming soon.
• telling us that she loves us "soooo much" which is really sweet, even if it is just a phrase phase.

Cap is:

• working on his boat... it is so close to being finished I can barely stand it!
• back to work this week after a week off. He is trying a new early schedule of getting to work at 7:00am and coming home at 3:30. It worked okay today, but we'll see how long he can keep it up...
• biking on his fantastic fold-up bike

And I am:

• continuing to have a bit of an identity crisis about being a suburban mother of two. How did this happen? How did I get here? Water flowing under ground...
• spending a lot of time finding daily diversions for Eleanor
• trying to get by during the day now that Eleanor won't nap unless we are driving in the car
• doing lots of laundry and dishes
• writing this blog
• doing small freelance design jobs for clients in New York
• Making ICE CREAM with the ice cream maker that we got 4 years ago for our wedding (I had never tried it until now!) So far I have made Lemon/Orange Sherbet and Vanilla Soymilk Ice Cream with Crushed Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzels. Mmm.
  
• secretly excited about the new Fall tv lineup... can't wait for Lost! Can't wait for the Amazing Race! Will there be a new Hell's Kitchen? I miss Chef Ramsay's foul mouth. What about So You Think You Can Dance?! I'm mortified to admit that I don't think it can get any better than Ivan and Allison.
• feeling tired and need to get to bed now.

But first, here is a video of Eleanor singing in the car.