Journal Excerpt

I tell her all the time that her butt is like super-tender tofu and I want to take a big bite of it. This sounds much more charming in Chinese.

She has recovered from an ear infection and is disgustingly adorable these days. So far my favorite period of her life has been about the six to thirteen-month window, but this must be another honeymoon period. She follows commands, tells us when she poops and when she’s hungry, laughs easily, kisses and hugs on command, and sleeps effortlessly for long periods of time. If I repeated that last sentence to myself when she was a month old, I wouldn’t have believed it. I can see the Discipline and Toilet Training thing looming up ahead, but so far she hasn’t really required the former and we feel okay procrastinating the latter.

The best example of this is how she’ll throw things into the trash for me. I’ll point to a piece of trash on the ground, ask her to throw it away, and she’ll pick it up, get all excited speed-walking to the kitchen, pull out the trash can drawer, put it in, close the drawer, patter back quickly and say, “more?” She sticks out her belly and swings her arms while she’s walking like she’s real pleased with herself.