The Week in Headlines

MeiMei's Vocabulary Doubles; Adds 'Yeah' and 'Uh-Oh' to Repertoire

Daddy Makes Morning Coffee Sans Basket

TV Audio Dies; Mom Reads Caillou Captions Aloud

First Sister Portrait Ends in Failure: Dueling Sibs Elude Pro

MeiMei Puts Seltzer in Mom's File Cabinet

More Overnight Guests Expected

Cats Pee in Guest Room

Dad Gets Second Warning on Pending Grand Jury Duty

Moral Crisis: JieJie Wears Bracelet Home From Sitter's, Calls Action 'Mistake'

MeiMei Tries Yogurt Painting on Clothing, Cats

What's Better Than Turkey?

Well, lots of things, actually.

But we have something extra to be thankful for this year. Joyce the cat is back a week after she disappeared. JieJie is thrilled, even though Joyce loved to wait around for her to drop scrambled eggs at breakfast. Mei Mei is thrilled, just because five cats are better than four and she is thrilled most of the time when animals are anywhere in the vicinity.

I went out to the garden pick some mint for minted peas, then strolled over to the remains of the tomato plants, wishing I had come out before the frost to get those last few tomatoes.

I heard a tiny meow coming form the storage shed. I opened it. No cat. I called Joyce. The tiny meow became very insistent. I kicked over weeders and cultivators and a trash can and some tomato cages. Still no Joyce.
JieJie came out. I told her to get Daddy. She ran to the door but couldn't open it. She started screaming into the open kitchen window.

Daddy came out into the dusk. JieJie said she was scared. We finally deduced Joyce was in a crawl space that had a hinge but did not seem to have an actual way in.

Daddy said, "I need a screw driver."
Mommy said, with her usual excellent grammar and a few expletives, ' There's a shovel, bust the thing open!"
And there was Joyce. Thinner, quieter, but appparently safe from the elements and the rottweilers and the speeding cars and the rabid raccoons.

Joyce drank lots of water, ate lots of baby food, and tried to hijack the turkey. She's sitting at the side of the keyboard right now, getting in the way.

A Visit to the Poopy Doctor...

...previously known as the lady who helps little girls who worry too much about using the potty, but who prefers to be known as the poopy doctor.

JieJie deftly evaded most of the doctor's questions, and avoided the tiny dollhouse toilet, as she and the doctor played with dolls on the floor. MeiMei made lots of noise enjoying the poopy doctor's kiddie cash register and will not be joining us on future visits. JieJie managed to convey that doing anything in the toilet was abhorrent. Mostly, when the doctor asked questions to get to know her, JieJie's answers began: "My sister..."

JieJie designated one of the little plastic men with the pop-on hats as the evil guy and installed him on the roof of the dollhouse. She never revealed what evil he had done. I hope the poopy doctor doesn't think there is an evil man on our roof. She and JieJie did conspire to put a wall behind the evil guy so he would not fall off the roof. Ahem.

When the sesson was nearly over, MeiMei began to make poopy faces, then poopy fragrances. Always prepared, Mommy had left the diaper bag in the car.

By the time we got to the car, MeiMei, wearing the Brand X diaper Daddy had put on her, was leaking onto her onesie. I changed her in the car, no small feat in a Jetta with two car seats in the back. The onesie had to go, but just a 2-minute drive away, our turkey was waiting for us. Super slacker mom, of course had no change of clothes for MeiMei in either of the fashionable diaper bags, so we zipped up her mini parka over her bare chest. Then JieJie announced she would not sit in her car seat because she had to poop. The meter had run out about 5 minutes before we came out of the poopy suite. Nevertheless, we made it to get the turkey, (with MeiMei gnawing on French bread as we waited in line) then a baking pan (with JieJie sampling mulled cider), then some wine (2 lollipops) and got home by dark. People at all the stores went gaga over the girls. No one knew MeiMei was shirtless. MeiMei did kick JieJie and pull her hair, but it would be fair to say she put herself in harm's way despite repeated instructions to the contrary.

And by the way, the feast at school was a success. JieJie reported that not only did she eat vegetables, but she also peeled some. And she shared this bit of wisdom from the feast: when you bake a chicken it turns into a turkey.

Junella Takes Her Medicine

JieJie was walking around last night in red polka-dot rainboots, with the black bowtie from an old Halloween cat costume on her head, wearing her doll sling with Junella the peeing doll nestled naked inside. Clare had Junella's bottle (empty! yay! no Junella accidents!) and a plastic spoon. JieJie was giving demonstrations on how to administer gripe water to Junella, who apparently gets the hiccups a lot, just like JieJie and MeiMei do. JieJie showed me three times how to spoon out the imaginary liquid shecarried in Junella's bottle. Perhaps she has forgotten who has been spooning it out to her.

She was wearing the rainboots in case it snowed again. We woke up to a surprise snow, much to the delight of both girls, who come from a place where snow rarely if ever is seen.

JieJie is fretting a lot. She does not want to go to the Thanksgiving feast she and her classmates are preparing at school, even though she relishes using the word feast as often as she can. "I'm afraid," she said. "Because there are vegetables.'' She also is worried about our visit tomorrow to the lady who helps girls who worry too much about using the potty. That's my girl.

MeiMei remains serene and hilarious, not quite walking, sleeping better, still eating everything. We did manage to stop the blue play-doh on its way to her mouth.

A Yawn at Dawn

The alarm will be going off at 7. I have been up since 5. Daddy just went to bed (for half an hour) after catching up on some work. The girls are -- blissfully -- sleeping.

MeiMei seems to have taken one or two lunging steps unassisted this weekend. Each day she understands more of what we say and demonstrates that she understands. So far she is saying only "Mama" and "cat,'' although JieJie is sure that when they were watching Dora, MeiMei said "map" and "backpack."

Uhoh. Someone is crying.















The cats peed on the bedrails.

Creeping Toward Normal

MeiMei has such a sweet, warm round head. I love to kiss it. I despair of ever styling her wee bit of hair, though, as its main features are the amazing top cowlick (her peach stem, as we call it) and the little duck tail in back. But now I know the secret of her sparse but significant hair.

JieJie and MeiMei were supposed to spend the parents' meeting in the babysitting room at JieJie'sschool, MeiMei's first time without Mom or Dad. When I arrived atthe meeting half an hour after Daddy, MeiMei's cries could be heard from the next room. I could stand it for about 5 heartbreaking minutes. Daddy brought her out, and she was perfectly behaved through the rest of the meeting, and quite attentive to the poor teacher who had to demonstrate building blocks and making a Montessori maze and walking through the small spaces in stocking feet.

After the meeting a Chinese mom of an adorable little girl came up to us and asked if we knew the meaning of MeiMei's "double whorls." Both her daughters have the twin cowlicks, she said, and Chinese folklore holds them to signify a headstrong personality. No surprises there!

MeiMei is making strides as a communicator, Daddy is feeling a little better but not well enough, JieJie is coming up with some interesting topics of conversation, and the cats, well, they are up to their old tricks, I'm afraid.

The Wheezing House

Everyone is sick! MeiMei has a wretched cold or flu and is whiny but has not lost her appetite and remains ever helpful and independent, trying to put the nasal aspirator into her own tiny nostrils. Talk about cooperative.

Daddy has been home from work for three days, coughing, wheezing, aching and miserable and possibly delirious. I thought he was doing a Bing Crosby impression is his sleep, He said he was awake and singing the Israeli national anthem. Either way, it sounds like the fever was getting to him. I know it's getting to me.

JieJie got a tummy ache and was not well enough for trick-or-treating, possibly because there were too many treats at the school party. She marched in the Halloween parade, around the parking lot of the office building that houses her school. She was the saddest-looking Hershey kiss I have ever seen. Her pointy hat was flopping over her eyes and she was blindly following the partner who was holding her hand. Finally I dodged the video cameras and dashed up to fix her hat, probably embarrassing her completely. She has not revealed any details of the day at school, but I imagine there was some pressure involved in getting her into the line. She said before school that she would be "a little shy" about the parade.

Mommy, as a result of all the sickness, has gotten even less sleep than before. Even when everyone else is asleep, the symphony of snoring and coughing seems deafening.

Since she got sick, MeiMei has been a bit more mommycentric. But aside from a bit of clinginess and buckets of secretions, she continues to be quick, sharp and curious and loves to practice her new skill, kissing (the air, mostly) with great noise and alacrity.