She asked me today when she's going to have a Baby. I told her not until she's a grown up lady like me. Then she said, "How long will I be a girl for, then?" "A long, lovely time," I told her.

These days you can just see the wheels cranking in her sweet head as she contemplates everything around her and she asks questions when she's just not sure why something is the way it is.

The other day she wanted to know if it hurts a skeleton when he gets stabbed in the ribs. I suppose she's been watching too much of The Corpse Bride again. Parenting FAIL.

The other day while playing with an old phone in the garage she told her dad, "Bob Marley's on the phone. He wants to know what color he should paint your walls." And here I never knew ol' Bob was a painter, nor that our walls needed painting.

It seems silly to say it but on the day she turned four she just seemed OLDER, more mature, even more inquisitive (is that possible?). I'm glimpsing, each day, the girl she'll grow into and, while I'm sad to see her baby-ness fade, it's thrilling to watch her blossom.

His vocabulary grows larger by the day. Favorite words include: juice, ball, plane, grapes, cookies, Daney (Delaney, of course!), Daddy, Mommy, dog, eyes, toes, trash, bird, kitty, splash, skeem (scream!).

He doesn't ever say the word "no" but he shakes his head vehemently. There's never any mistaking what he means. Waylon does not = ambivalence.

He was very, terribly sick last week and he had a hard time Nursing so he flat out avoided it for a few days. Now we're unexpectedly on the fast track to weaning which makes me both happy and sad. Happy because after two years of pregnancy and nursing I'll get my body back as well as my freedom to leave him with his dad or a sitter for longer periods. Sad because he is my last baby and the mother/baby bond while nursing is so special, so perfect and I'll really miss that. But he's ready and I am too. Just like every other aspect of parenting, this is bittersweet.