"She HAS to pick!"

Over the past few weeks, the following conversation has taken place between us and Cubby almost daily:

[Cubby puts her finger in her nose, otherwise known as the "finger holster"]

Me or Bear: "Sweetie, no picking."

Cubby: "She HAS to pick!"

At first, she would say this tearfully, puckered lip and all, which made it even funnier, but now it's just matter-of-fact or borderline defiant. Sometimes, it continues:

Me or Bear: "It's not nice to pick your nose."

Cubby: "She NEEDS to pick!!"

The fact that she still refers to herself as "she" makes it even funnier, and "She NEEDS to pick!" is quickly becoming a catch phrase in the family. The child is compelled to pick--what more can we say?

I, on the other hand, am compelled to gloat. Today was my last day of work until after Thanksgiving! Of course, I'm only allowed to be 50% as happy about it as teachers who work full-time, but it's still pretty cool. I'm aiming to finish the other wall mural in the playroom (Skittles rainbow in progress!) and get Cubby Two's room painted before I go back on-track. Our plan is to paint it green and then add girly or boyish accents after we find out whether it's Pixley or Tokay in there...now we just need to decide what those accents might be. Ladybugs? Dinosaurs?

Secondly [WARNING: POLITICS AHEAD!], I feel compelled to announce to the voters of California--as if I have such a readership!--that contrary to what the Yes on Prop. 8 ads claim, teachers do not, in fact, teach anything about marriage in school. We have oodles of standards to teach in 8 months' time, followed by 2 straight weeks of hardcore standardized testing (in upper grades, at least) and the last thing we have time to do is try to recruit the children to Gayness. Trust me. Or, don't trust me...read over the standards for yourself right here, and tell me if you see anything remotely related to marriage or sexuality. It's not there. Not even when we do so-called "sex ed" in 5th/6th grades, which is essentially just "puberty ed" and forbids discussion of all Controversial Topics (abortion, homosexuality, etc.).

Personally, I don't get what exactly we're supposed to be "protecting marriage" from or how allowing same-sex marriage would affect Bear and me one iota (since same-sex marriage was legalized, he has never once tossed his wedding ring aside and declared, "The sanctity of our union has been destroyed; I'm off to the whorehouse!"), but at the very least, I hope that if people ARE voting Yes on 8, it's not because they believe I'll be teaching their kindergartener how to be gay if they don't!

Finally, I felt the "NEED to pick" some cute photos of Puppers and Cub from the past week:























Is it just me, or does this look like a moment between Cindy Lou Who and the dog from the Grinch cartoon? I think that's what this pic reminds me of:


















"Extra pepperoni on that, please!"