ella is blossoming into her own little person. sometimes that can be a scary sight. lately it’s taken the shape of flexing the power of her put-upon pseudo-anger.

it’s quite entertaining. her favorite thing in the entire world right now is to grab my hands and forcing me to walk around the house, up the stairs, to the front door, then the back, over to the chair, while she’s holding on to my fingers. it was sooooo incredibly cute. and then once the lower back pain sets in, not so much. she’s so close to walking on her own, but she doesn’t want to forgo the safety cushion of mom and dad’s safety net.

so now when we try to make her stand on her own two feet, she drops herself down on the floor in a sitting position, and VERY carefully lays herself down on her back. then she closes her eyes and yells the FAKEST yell/cry she can muster, stopping every three or four seconds to see if we’re looking at her. if we are paying attention it’s to laugh. it’s so funny. the fact that she quite gingerly lays herself down is a hoot. “okay, leg there, elbow there. my head can go…..here. now make eye-contact. good, good. now commence screaming!” i can just imagine her going through her practiced routine in her head.

unfortunately for her it doesn’t get the desired effect. i don’t think she counted on us laughing and then walking out of the room. eventually laying on the floor and yelling lost its appeal and she got distracted, sat up and moved on to something else. hopefully this isn’t a stage that lasts too long.

so if you have any sage parenting advice or other psy-ops info you can give us, just let me know.

i keep having to write these short blurbs because i don’t have the time or attention span these days to do much else. i have the end of the school year brain melt. unfortunately, this coincides neatly with the end of the year paper grading mountain i have on my desk. my brain goes on auto-pilot and my eyes get very droopy and then i start to drool. it’s not very attractive.

and then this morning was yet another reason to stay in bed and not go outside. while sitting at the light, a stupid trash truck, very much in a hurry, managed to scrape the side of my bumper while rushing off to save lives. oh, wait a minute. it was a TRASH truck, not an ambulance. why was he in such a hurry? to leave the scene? undoubtably. but like most stupid drivers in the whole of st. louis, sitting patiently behind a brief line of cars was beyond his capacity for patience. instead it made much more sense in his tiny little brain to scrape his way to the front of the line, other drivers be damned. so, of course this means a police report, a sanitation department report, and maybe some day before never their insurance will fix my freshly maimed bumper. bastard.

all to get at the front of the line. five cars ahead. a race to be first to the next red light. my faith in humanity runs thin with these types.

i know them well. the streets run slick with their wear. nothing is too fast. no light is too yellow or red. no lane is sacred.

if you’re one of them, beware. i’m out there. driving slow in the fast lane. with my blinker flashing for miles for no other reason than because it can.