Mills Anatomy

Lately there has a been a certain preoccupation of sorts in our household with body parts. First, Hannah came home from school with a cut-out of a person she drew. Her people have become increasingly detailed. This one even had eyelashes. It also had breasts. "What are those?" I asked, pointing to the two semi-circles on the cut-out's torso. "Those are your, you know," she replied, pointing at my shirt. Oh. Of course. And here I thought they were barely noticeable.

Then, there's Jacob. His preoccupation is more of an obsession. And I'd be lying if I didn't say I find it a tad disturbing. At some point, on some day, he discovered his male part. Now, he can't stop talking about it or touching it. Every time his diaper comes off, he makes a comment. "I can see my pee pee." "It's giant!" "Hey, what's happening?" In fact, the other night during their bath, Hannah, driven to exasperation, told Jacob in no uncertain terms to "stop talking about it!" In the bath, drying on his towel, walking through the kitchen, you name it, he's aware of it. Even when he's dressed, half the time he has his hand down his pants. I'm assuming (hoping/praying/banking on it) that at some point the novelty will wear off...

It's one thing for him to discover and experiment. It's another to have a non-stop running commentary complete with detailed descriptions.

Snowman Guilt

It's March Break and the temperatures have been hovering around balmy. In fact, Jacob was outside playing in just a t-shirt the other day. And normally, this would be a very good thing. But right now, my enjoyment of the onset of Spring is being tempered by guilt. Snowman guilt.

All winter (what little we had of it), Hannah talked about building a snowman. Any time it snowed, even if just a dusting, she raised the possibility of a snowman. It's all she really wanted to do. First, there wasn't enough snow. Then, it wasn't packing snow. Other times, it was too cold (for me). Excuse after excuse. In the end, we never made a snowman. Ever. I'd like to blame the almost non-existent winter conditions and dearth of snow; however, a few facts remain. The people behind us built a snowman. Maybe even two. And the kids across the street built a whole family of snowmen. On more than one occasion.

Such a simple request. A snowman. Next year, I'm going to build that girl an igloo and a whole city of snowmen...