Not All Who Wander Are Lost

A Blast From The Past

A repackaged childhood

After a full day of cleaning with a cranky, snotty, and finally-asleep baby, and in the midst of a nostalgia kick prompted by an impending course in Modern American Popular Culture, fed by an interest in the workings of memory both personal and cultural, and substantiated by a mind prone towards kitsch and memorabilia, following a last minute cancellation due to illness last week, we finally managed to host my best-friend-from-third-to-ninth-grade and his live-in girlfriend this evening.

Tonight was our first official try at friendship reclamation after ten years of a total lack of communication (throughout which, every few months, my mother continued to ask so, do you ever hear from Eric?): pastries and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the kitchen over reminiscence and catch-up while our ladyfriends looked on, a look at the eerie total lunar eclipse from the precarious fire escape in the finally freezing cold, and finally a few hours of chat over an excellent red wine they brought from the Brattleboro Food Coop. They're both teachers too, so we had plenty to talk about; things clicked; and I look forward to doing it again.

In other news, Willow's language development has transcended the noun, moving on to the phrase. She asks before sharing her cookie with the dog (Willow cookie? Zellie cookie?), and sings the entire alphabet song, albeit in gibberish after the first five or six letters; she even knows the difference between the alphabet song, Twinkle Twinkle Litlle Star, and Baa Baa Black Sheep, which seems pretty mature to me, given that all three songs have the same tune. Today she even said "thank you, Mommy" when Darcie gave her juice. Of course, when I gave her a coop-brand cheese puff later in the afternoon, she said "thank you, Mommy" to me, too, so she doesn't seem to have separated the name from the concept yet for some of those longer idea-chains. But it's a start.

Oh, and when shopping for the possibly feverish baby the other day, Darcie chose to buy one ear thermometer over another because it came with a CD of Sesame Street alphabet songs she knew I'd like. Now I have this lovely tune stuck in my head:

Would you like to buy an "O",
Circular and sweet?
"O" looks just like a donut
Really good enough to eat
It'll cost you just a nickel
(A nickel!)
Shhh! (A nickel?) Riiiight...
So buy the O and
Take it home tonight

Other fave and now newly-recovered songs from my childhood include C is for Cookie, Bert and Ernie fave La La La (recently covered by Barenaked Ladies on the highly-recommended For the Kids) and that Bert-led song from The National Association of "W" Lovers, though the Elmo version of ABC-DEF-GHI isn't as strong as the Big Bird version I remember. Have I mentioned that I love my wife very much?