Innards, Piths, Pips

I've learned how to bluetooth my phone to my computer, so I can get photos real real easy. Welcome to 2012. Maybe now I'll be able to make Baby Monkey (Going Backwards On A Pig) my ringtone for the midwives.

A sad day

Stellina and Space Monkey's grandfather died this morning. He'd been struggling with illness recently, but I didn't realize it would be so soon.

Stellina has talked a lot about Space Monkey's upcoming first birthday, and she's always said how happy she is that she'll be able to see her mom's parents. I don't know what it's like to be three and a half years old and lose someone who means so much. I do know that on occasion he and I met in person - the day Baby Space Monkey was born - he treated me immediately like family. He loved his children and grandchildren and he is missed by many.

H is for Helping

Today I watched a solid 25 minutes of Sesame Street while icing my sciatic nerve on the couch. At home. No children present.

I need no defense but if I did, it would be that Grover 2.0 is hilarious.

two thousand what now?

It's winter now all of a sudden and so I think it's time for a round up of the year. Here, read some stuff about somebody else's kids.

Stellina and Space Monkey
Stellina's in school three days a week, and looooves it. Loves wearing the shirt that has the name of her nursery school on it, and would probably wear it every day if her mom let her. So smart, loves her brother, very particular about ... everything. Eats a turkey sandwich for lunch every day, with dill havarti.

Baby Space Monkey, 9 months already! Crawling, drooling, says "mama" but is that just a thing that kids do without knowing?, has four teeth - bottom two central incisors and two top lateral incisors... he looks like he got in a fight. Would love to stand and walk, not quite there. His hair sticks straight up on top because he's got two cowlicks on the back of his head.

I went on a 5-day trip to Florida with these kids a few weeks ago, and it was much less work than I expected. Stellina loves the iPad so that made her portion of the flight really easy, and Mr. McDrool slept on the first flight, and kept the screaming to a minimum on the way back.


Big and Tiny
Tiny is about 14 months, walking, eating everything in sight, signing and talking also, still has barely any hair, and her mom wrote in their Christmas update that Tiny is sunshine in human form, which is all the way accurate. Not so tiny anymore, because of all the eating.

Big is still big and everything. I don't really see him very often because he goes to school.


Baby Bieber Bear
Turned two at the end of October, and talks all the time and is intelligible about 65% of the time. Has gotten to love playschool, and all he wants to do ever is "play cars and trucks and trains" which means sorting through his giant box of vehicles, and sometimes building tracks, sometimes just lining all the vehicles up on the table. We like to go to the library and also to Union Station to watch the MARC trains.


Three Horsechildren of the Apocalpyse
They moved to Alabama a few months ago, which makes me sad but I guess they are doing okay there. I saw them last week at their cousins' house so the parents could go out for dinner, which was hilarious and exhausting, but so nice to see them.

Zannah is 9, and is as string-beany as ever. Loves talking back and doing other delightful pre-teen things.

Prince Philip is 6, reads (!), wrote me a beautiful Christmas card that says he wants me to come visit them in Alabama. My heart grew three sizes that day. He's lost both top two front teeth, so he looks like an older bigger version of Baby Space Monkey, which is hilarious, because they share the same name in real life.

Captain Bananio is insane. He's 3 and a half, is only intelligible 50% of the time, and the rest of the time lives in his own little Bananilicious world. He stomps around and spits and jumps and yells and laughs maniacally and sometimes you just have to shake your head and walk away.

It's been three whole years now since I started watching those kids. Surprisingly, the one who I miss the most is Prince Philip. When Captain Bananio was a baby, he was sweet and docile and calm and all smiles, and Prince Philip was pouty, threw terrible tantrums, whined, and was just kind of a crappy 3 year old. Three years later I see that those tantrums were nothing, when compared to the havoc that Captain Bananio now wreaks on a daily basis. 6-year-old Prince Philip is happy, sweet, loving, and just wants to do things that he can be proud of, like reading and writing. He's still the silly little boy who loves to fight with pretend swords, and man, you should hear that kid recite the plot of Star Wars. I think I'll always have a special attachment to Captain Bananio because he was the first baby I ever watched, and I'll never be able to get over the wonder of watching kids grow up, but Prince Philip has surprised me the most by turning into not just someone I like to take care of, but a person I really like.


The Newest Charge
Now I watch a new baby, who I will call Small Fry, and I love her and she is so cute. She is three months old and what a three months it has been. Her parents are first-timers so they ask advice from me sometimes, which is pretty crazy to think about, that anyone would ask advice from me about anything, much less the rearing of a small infant. She's a good baby, very calm, very observant, very peaceful in the way she watches things. I hope I get to know her for a long time, because I think she will grow up well.

And now what I know about 2012 is that these kids will all get older and bigger, and new babies will come and they also will get older and bigger. For that is what the little ones do best.

November 18!

Here is a picture of a relatively new baby (7wks), whose name I cannot decide upon yet. She is sleeping in this photo, and she had my finger grasped really hard, so I could leave until she finally relaxed enough to let me go, which happened eventually. It was a difficult nap day that day, so it was good for her to sleep, and less desirable to accidentally wake her up. So, I took pictures of her and waited for her to let my finger go.

November 17!

Today I went to get a police background check and this is what I learned :


woooo!! They can't find any records of my copious arrests! or... something.

Background check and TB test are required for volunteering thing that's coming up.

Took some cute pictures of a cute baby today who doesn't have a blogname yet. I'm still thinking.

November 16!

Baby Space Monkey is getting very big. His first tooth is about halfway in his mouth! well, it's always been there... it's just visible now, or, whatever. He's getting really good at crawling and he really wants to stand and also really likes wiggling back and forth while he's sitting, as if he is learning how to dance. It is excellent. Anyway, these are his hands.

Oh also interesting story. I took that picture of my cat hiding on the stove because it was a new thing, he'd never been on the stove before (to my knowledge), and I thought it was very funny. I probably should have just shoved him off the stove instead of pausing to laugh and take a picture. Today I was cooking ramen and he jumped on the stove and, well, now he's missing a portion of some of his whiskers, and my downstairs smells strongly of singed cat. Funny, also sad, also funny.

November 13!

Surprise! Today we have a video of Bear learning how to count diapers.




Two! Six! He has all the animal sounds and all the colors (including silver and gold) down pat, so apparently next we'll work on counting.

November 8!

Ok, so I missed yesterday. Sue me! No, don't, because it would be a waste of your time and money.

This is what I did today!

The weather was lovely and I think it will be one of the last days to be so lovely until spring, so Bear and I went to the zoo! We saw this alpaca, which Baby Bear would have stared at all afternoon, but we had a very important meeting at nap o'clock, so I had to tear him away to get him home in time. We also saw lions, elephants, a hungry growling tiger, a napping tiger, a sloth bear (very close to the glass! so cool), and the sad sad emu that paces in its habitat next to the zebras.

I love the zoo.

November 4!

November 4 was a long day. A pretty good one, though!

It's rice, in the photo. A clever mother has improvised to make up for her lack of a sand table. It vacuums! Apparently you can put food coloring and make rainbow rice! I plan on stashing this one in the idea vault for FutureSpawn.

November 3!

Baby Space Monkey went to the doctor today so I went to Whole Foods, and he has RSV and bronchiolitis and I have some Tillamook cheese and likely a cold coming my way.

November 2!

Today started off not as much rough as ... well, it was as though I was being rubbed on a cheese grater.

But now I've almost finished cleaning up the havoc I wreaked this morning, and soon I won't remember that part, but the part I will remember is this:


Baby Space Monkey! He's 18 pounds and cut his first tooth yesterday. Which probably explains part of my morning. Also, he's crawling, and wishes that he could eat sammiches.

November Surprise! November 1 Picture!

Here it is, November again, and I almost forgot to do my post. I am trying to do Picture Month, because that is not one I have done yet!

here is what I did today:



Also, Bieber Bear finally has started saying my name! It sounds remarkably like "Wookoo" which I think is pretty good. His mom said "did he just call you Wookie?" and I said that I'd take it. His words are crazy out of control exploding.

Things For Which I am Eternally Grateful, episode IV

The bus driver who honked at the other cars to get them to stop while Bear and I were crossing the street today, so that we did not get hit when it was our turn to cross

That Baby Bear holds my hand EVERY TIME when we cross the street, 99% of the time without fighting

The sound a cow makes

Fresh peaches from the market

Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything, given to me by my sister, for whom I am also eternally grateful

The DC Public Library website, which has recently become much more user-friendly. Also the librarians there, who are abnormally and sometimes unsettlingly friendly and helpful, and

Otter Pops.

Trash fairies

Bear and I have some sort of hack routine for our weeks, because three days in a row with the same person can be tiring. Monday is eat snackylunch in a coffee shop (to practice being polite in public and also to try eating new foods), Tuesday is library day, and Wednesday is adventure day! Where we try new things, or go to a new place, or at least a fun place. Today we went to the new Playseum! It is brand new on Barracks Row and it is kind of expensive ($6 a person, even for the little ones) but holy wow it is so worth it on a hot day like today. Also I guess there is this other place called the Family Room where I have not been yet, because it has stairs that look intimidating. I am pretty sure these two places are making SO much money.

Baby Bear and I spent almost 2 hours there and went only to two rooms - the room with the bunnies and turtles and zebra finches, and then the room with the train table, and we pretty much spent the whole time in the train table room. Which means that if/when we go back, we still have the sand room, the painting room, the dress up room, the pizza-making room, the cupcake-making room, and the million other rooms to explore. it sucks that we could only be there for 2 hours, but, you know, lunch and naptime.

Big and Tiny were there, too! It was nice to see them because I haven't seen them for about a month and a half. Tiny is crawling! She's so cute. Tomorrow morning is when I get to hang out with Space Monkey! He's a winner.

The DC DPW fairies bestowed a lovely gift on us this morning - a trash can! We got a recycling can a few weeks ago. Now, hopefully no one will steal them again, or blow them up or put some stupid trash in them, and also hopefully the trash people will always take our trash! everyone that lives on our street puts their trash behind our house because we are at the mouth of the alley and the trash truck doesn't go down the alley, so there are always piles and piles of trash right behind the house. Sometimes the trash guys don't pick it up because it isn't always in cans, or other people put their stuff in our cans and, I dunno, maybe the trash people are all "man these people have so much trash I'm not gonna pick up all their stupid trash" when really it's the trash from, like, 4 or 5 houses at least. Anyway, thank you, DPW fairies!

that's not my blog!

Today is Stellina's 3rd birthday!! I went to the toy store today with BieberBear (who came out of the experience with a new toy helicopter, the lucky dog) and we got Stellina a card, Cloudette, and That's not my... coloring book! which I kind of want for myself. So she will get her presents on Thursday when I take her to camp and then I get to hang out with Space Monkey. I guess I am invited to her birthday party on Sunday but it is in Alexandria and it will have many 3-year-olds, so as much as I love Stellina I do not want to add to the chaos. I am thinking about it.

it is also Cleo's birthday (that's a link to Cleo's mom's blog which she hasn't updated in a while, because um... parenting is really hard work) and it is weird to me that I remember being so excited for Cleo's birth and I have seen lots of pictures of her and I still have never met her, but since Stellina is the exact same age, I actually remember the day of Stellina's birth long before I ever knew Stellina.

We had some squash plants but then I weeded around them and it turns out that the weeds were giving them shade and holding water in the soil, so now the squash plants are dead. RIP Squash plants. I do not think that this year we will have a water pipe burst to rescue the squashes, but ... who really knows. I am not super great at keeping plants alive. Over the span of my life, I have about a 75% success rate at keeping plants alive. I'm sorry, squash. Requiescat in pace.

As I surrender unto sleep

Thanks, Eric Whitacre, for the song stuck in my head this morning.

Yesterday I finished a four-day, three-night marathon with BiebzBear. His parents went on vacation, and his other babysitter had him one day, and grandma had him part of another day, but goodness. it is much different to not have a 5pm end-time in sight and instead know that you have three more days. Highly effective birth control. he only woke up once during the night on each of the first two nights, and then slept 11 hours the third night, which was preeeetty excellent.

Then I went straight from there to Stellina and Space Monkey's house! They are great. Space Monkey is huge already, but really he is still pretty tiny. Neither of them had napped, and Stellina had already gotten a bath by the time I got there, so both of them were super exhausted and ready for bed. Of course, bedtime still took an hour and a half, but that's not so bad. Stellina fell asleep either before I left her room, or just after, because when I checked the video monitor, she hadn't moved from the same position she was in when we were singing "Baa Baa, Black Sheep." Space Monkey was up for a little while longer, and we had some good sleep-on-the-shoulder time after he was done with his last bottle. He's just so warm and wiggly and perfect and if you grab his toes and smile at him he breaks into this ginormous grin and spits bubbles. Also as a side note, I really do love the Miracle Blanket. Space Monkey can kick out of the feet bucket but man it makes him calm.

I had a long conversation on Thursday with Stellina and Space Monkey's mama about how we don't know how to have normal, grown-up, intellectual conversations with people anymore. I can think critically about infant and child development, especially now that I am reading all the books, but it is getting harder for me to wrap my brain around certain things now, like explaining how all the things in that Alanis Morissette song aren't actually ironic, and also that race is not a real thing but is just a social construction. There is only so much room in brains! And mine is getting filled up with feeding times, nap coercion, and poop. So that's kind of what's happening with this blog. Sorry.

Remember that Stellina is blognamed Stellina because at 14 months when I met her she loved to walk around the kitchen in counter-clockwise circles? She will be 3 years in 2 weeks and when we went out in the backyard yesterday the first thing she started doing was walking big counter-clockwise circles. Also she can dress herself and speak in whole sentences and peel her own bananas, even though the way she says banana is more like the French word for pineapple (ananas), and I blinked and wonder when that all happened.

What to Expect

I've been reading a lot of toddler books lately, which has been really helpful in understanding how my various kids operate. I don't think I mentioned it, but around the time of my last blog post (I'm delinquent, I know), I looked at BiebzBear and told him "You're not eating any more baby food when I'm here," and he hasn't. It makes things a little more difficult, of course, because damn, those pouches are super convenient when he gets hungry and we're out. Also, it's basically his only source of vegetables and fruits. So, that's a thing we're working on together. We've been trying lots of new things when we go out, which is great. Last week we had a ham-and-scallion scone, and also a peach smoothie, and a little bit of turkey sammich.

The sleep thing is more of an issue than ever. He's been taking bottles of just water to go down for the past month or so, but getting him to go to sleep is almost impossible some days. Even if he is 150% exhausted (like he was on Wednesday, when we went to the Postal Museum, and then took the metro back, and then I got him out of the stroller and he walked the mile from the metro station home), if he knows his mom is home, he stands there in the middle of the crib crying and throwing out his blanket and screaming and falling asleep standing up and then crying more. For hours. And yet, on Tuesdays, when his mom isn't home, he lies down in the crib, and falls asleep within ten minutes. This past week on the screaming days, I gave up after an hour each day, dragged him to sit with me in the rocking chair to look at books, and he was asleep in three minutes. And I have to stay there with him until he falls asleep, because that's what his parents want, even though he screams whether I'm in the room or not.

So:
Crib not comfortable enough?
Hears his mom, who seems to pick the best time for her to noisily prepare her lunch in the kitchen right when I am putting him down, and knows if he cries long enough she'll come in?
Should have been sleep trained and doesn't know how to comfort himself?
Running around is too exciting and now he thinks he doesn't need to nap anymore?
Going down for a nap just a little too late and missing the "window of opportunity?"
All of the above?

Despite the massive battles that are naptime, Bear has become a complete angel all other times, especially when he is well-rested after a nap (SURPRISE). We've been eating outside at Peregrine once a week for a while, which has been great for getting him to try new foods. The other day when we were leaving Safeway, I unbuckled his stroller belt and asked if he wanted to walk home. and he trotted along calmly next to me and held my hand when he felt like it, and of course when we crossed the street, and didn't run in traffic and didn't dawdle all that much at all.

A couple weeks ago when we were getting ready to go out to the playground, I told him that I couldn't carry him up the stairs to go out the front door, because I had to carry the stroller and the stroller is very heavy. So, I would take the stroller up the stairs and then come back and help him walk. I got to the top of the stairs and Bear was halfway up behind me, and since then he's been doing the stairs himself, both up and down. Then the other day, we were leaving for a walk at the same time his mom was leaving for errands, and she said "We've been working on not carrying him up the stairs." and I said, "Oh. Huh. He's been doing the stairs for weeks." and then of course he refused to walk up them because he KNEW since he mom was there she'd carry him, which she eventually did.

I read this book recently called the No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers, which by the way is a huge bunch of bullshit, I feel, but the author mentioned that scientists say that most babies have the ability to put themselves to sleep by six months of age. She then said that since the majority of parents put their children to sleep up until the school years, it is perfectly normal and okay. She also said that kids all learn to walk and talk at different ages, so it's normal for kids to learn to put themselves to sleep at different ages. Two things with which I have major problems:

1) Most kids learn to walk around one year, give or take a few months. Most kids have a certain number of words and speaking skills by around their second birthday. Pediatricians use these milestones as indicators of healthy growth and development. So saying that a 5 year old in kindergarten that doesn't know how to put herself to sleep is just "falling in the normal spectrum of development, just like walking and talking" is not the same.

2) It's absolute nonsense to compare sleeping to walking and talking, if you're also saying that it's normal for parents to be putting their child to sleep long after pediatricians agree the child has the ability to put itself to sleep. Once a baby can walk, do the parents prevent him from walking? Once a toddler has the ability to talk, do the parents tell her she is not allowed to talk? It's not likely. So, once a child has the ability to put itself to sleep, why not let it?! I find it terribly frustrating.

Citations forthcoming. I let Bear's mom borrow the book and I have to get it back from her so I can return it to the library. Some of the stuff is really interesting, like the idea of making a bedtime chart, or a bedtime story with your child as the main character ("First Susie brushes her teeth! Then she gets her jammies on. Then she reads a story with Daddy, and then she gets in bed, closes her eyes, and goes to sleep until morning."), but not necessarily applicable to the younger toddler. But, a whole lot of her logic is complete garbage.

Anyway, this is all just a fancy way of saying I think that kids should be given the treatment that corresponds with their age, treatment that includes respecting autonomy, and also having certain expectations about actions (cleaning up toys, feeding self, walking instead of carrying). Having Bear an average of 4 times a week now and working really hard on those things has really helped him be better behaved and happier, and I'm much less frustrated, too. Easy for me to do all these things, I get to go home at the end of a day to a house filled with sharp table corners, gate-free stairs, and under-sink cabinets that are full of chemicals and have no locks on the doors.

a treatise on toddler sleep and helicopter parenting

It is May! Today I ate a banana. I learned that it is sad to ruin your fancy $4 delicious latte by accidentally dumping way too much sugar in it. I find the smell of carrot juice borderline revolting.

Okay, that's out of the way.

Tonight is my last night with Dave Jr, which is sad, but also great, because I am so tired of traipsing all the way across town for an hour for what usually ends up being $50 and then traipsing all the way back for an hour. Instead I am going to have Biebzbear all day Wednesdays from now on, in addition to all day Mondays and Tuesdays, and every other Sunday night, and the occasional date night. So really I am making more money and not going insane.

I am coming to understand Bear's parents, and therefore Bear, a little better. So, Bear still takes a bottle to go down for sleeping times, and is not putting himself to sleep. So, I have been giving him his bottle in the glider, and then putting him in his crib awake but drowsy, and then rubbing his back 'til he falls asleep for at least 5 months, and lately he's started actively trying to keep himself awake by wiggling his feet, even if his eyes are slamming shut like nobody's business. It took him until 9:30pm to go to sleep last Tuesday evening, so I kind of casually asked Bear's mom if they have a plan to teach him how to sleep on his own. She agreed that they need to do something differently, because he has been giving them trouble, too, both for naps and night time.

Sunday night they told me, "so we're not really spending much time rocking him after he finishes his bottle..." and then explained that they are giving him not 8oz that I have been giving him, but 16oz of whole milk, while in the glider, and then burping him, then standing up and rocking him in their arms until he falls asleep, then putting him in his crib, at which point he wakes up a little, so they rub his back until he falls back asleep. Yes, they are burping an 18-month-old. I understand that burping is totally a bonding thing, sure! go ahead, burp your baby as long as you want! but I genuinely believe that this is the parents not wanting their baby to grow up, and so unconsciously pretending that he isn't. He's not a baby anymore, he's a toddler. yes, he still wears a diaper, and he's not talking yet, but the dude is almost three feet tall, and is already 30+ pounds.

I don't want to tell his parents that they're doing anything wrong, because, well, they're not. they should raise Bear however they see fit, and if that means giving him a bottle and rubbing his back until he falls asleep on the night of his senior prom, go ahead (ohhh I'm a bitch). I'm worried that they don't realize that he doesn't need these things, like bottles and baby food, and that they don't realize that everyone's lives would be happier without those things. I'm not going to be the one to sleep train him, that is not my place or my job, and it's going to have to be his parents doing it anyway.

But I have started doing things that will hopefully make it easier when his parents are ready. Instead of giving him 8oz of whole milk to go down for his nap, I cut 2oz of whole milk with 6oz of water, which he has been drinking 3oz of (probably because he thinks it's disgusting) and then going to sleep just fine. My goal is to get him eventually to straight water in a bottle, then move to a sippy cup. We've been doing a routine of the same four books before every naptime, and I've been working on telling him "It's time to go to sleep now," which I know he understands.

People keep telling me "oh you're going to be the best mom ever because you know so much." Yes, I read parenting blogs and books and all that, and when it comes to things like sleep training, I will understand generally how to do it and when to do it and why to do it better than someone who has had no experience with babies ever. But I am afraid of putting FutureSpawn into a little box of "you have to be sleep trained by x month" and "you will not receive bottles after y week because this is what I read in a book and also my experience with z baby" and I don't think that's right either. Since I have never been an amateur parent (I joke that I am a professional parent), I think it is probably very difficult to find the perfect balance of advice vs trial and error. So, FutureSpawn, I'm sorry, but I'll try my best.

Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

So, seeing as how Lent is over, it's time to analyze how LP'oh11 went! The goal was to exercise at least a little bit every day, but since Lent doesn't include Sundays, that really means 6 days a week. If you count walking at least half a mile, which I think is legitimate, I probably averaged about 5 days a week, so that's pretty good!

I'm not going to lie, HealthMonth is probably the only reason I really did much of anything this month. It's amazing how motivated I am to do something just to get points that don't mean anything at all. It also helps me understand the appeal of 4square, I think. when I questioned its purpose one night about 11 months ago, someone told me "BUT YOU GET POINTS!" which I thought was dumb at the time, but now all I want is points points and fruits fruits.

Giant thunderstorm last night. The kind that sets off car alarms and pours down an Oregon week's worth of rain in 15 minutes.

Speaking of Oregon, in 3 weeks (so soon!) I am going there for 9 days. I am really getting excited even though it is going to be so chaotic - I don't really have anyone to take care of my cats, since last time I went home and left them in the care of my roommates, I came back a week later and they had no water, too much food, and their litterbox hadn't been cleaned the whole time I was gone. so I guess I might try to board them but that will be so expensive, on top of the $900 I am paying off on my credit card for the plane tickets.

For some reason I am really excited to go to Astoria this time. I am usually not at all excited because I don't really know anyone there anymore, but all I want to do is go see Peter Iredale and walk around in the rain and pick up earthworms and maybe even sneak out to Camp Kiwanilong and just kind of stare longingly at the locked gate. I was watching over Capital R's shoulder the other day while he was watching a YouTube about where is Chunk from the Goonies now (he's an entertainment lawyer because he couldn't act anymore once he grew up and got hot) and they of course showed clips of the Goonies and I got whiny looking at all the fog and trees.

Today is hot and muggy and started off miserably, but BiebzBear and I went to Peregrine and got a yummy brioche roll to share and a delicious latte for not sharing. Then we went to the park which I was dreading because in recent times Bear has been known to throw himself bodily into the mud, of which there is plenty, post-thunderstorm. But he did such a good job! This time all he wanted to do was go up and down the stairs on the play structure and play with the cars that some other kids brought, and he was fantastic at sharing and gave the cars back when I said it was time to go. Also he is starting to talk! He says "Haaww" when I am complaining about how hot it is, and I think he is determining when to say "more" versus when to say "again" and I swear I've heard him say "all done" and "blue" and "thank you." He does say "again" when he wants to read a book, I think for him it kind of means "please do this right now!" as well as "please do this one more time right now!" Anyway him talking is going to start making my life easier, I think.

I had the three horsechildren of the apocalypse for several hours on Friday, and while Captain Bananio napped, Zannah and Prince Phillip watched Sleeping Beauty so for a little bit it was just like old times. Captain Bananio, while the same age as Stellina, is much less comprehensible, but his clearest complete sentence is "HE PUNCHED ME" which I think says something about being the youngest of three.

I've just finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but haven't yet re-started Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so I am currently nursing a sore spot in my heart over the events on the astronomy tower.