Ing and I were home alone the other night, and I was making Cream of Wheat on the stovetop when the phone rang. I knew the phone was somewhere accessible in the living room, so I asked Ingrid to go get it for me, and she headed off to do that, but never found it. She came back OUT of the living room, though, holding her partially eate graham cracker to her head. I looked at her and sort of gave the “WTF?” look, and she said “Graham Cracker Telephone! Hello?! Hi Grammy. It dinnertine. blah blah blah” and had this whole conversation with my mom on her graham cracker telephone. Of course, she won’t talk to my mother on the ACTUAL telephone, but whatever.

She also likes going for walks after dinner, and now it’s dark at that hour, so walks are predicated with “Is it dark out dere? (yes) Is it cold out dere? (yes)” and then making sure her little baby has a blanket, we all have hats, and she has mittens. We see almost no one on our walks these days, probably because of the dark and cold, but I almost love it more that way. While I’m distanced quite a bit from public school right now, and NCLB bitching, etc, I have seen the No Child Left Inside phrase bandied about, and I just love it. Love Love Love. I was recommending the anti-homework book to someone last week, and talking about how kids with homework have so few opportunities to be with their families. Ingrid is learning on these walks — whether it’s investigating a slug on the garden edging by the steps, or looking for the moon or stars and talking about whether it’s full or not, or noticing the evolution of the beech tree on our path, as it ripens, drops its nuts, and then totally clutters up the sidewalk — that’s all way more important than some busywork word-search-for-science crap.

I am totally going to be That Parent, and refusing homework and raising a bigass stink about it if it’s pushed. Seriously.

Happier note: Ing will either be a peacock or a turtle at Halloween. I’ll keep you posted.