HOORAY!

My baby sister, who applied to very tough colleges and didn't get into any except the University of Cincinnati (her local default), has been accepted off the wait list to Smith.

This will change her life. She's led a fairly sheltered nearly-anti-intellectual suburban experience so far. Her horizons will be broadened and she will figure herself out away from her parents and in an atmosphere where she can become anyone she wants to be. I am so pleased.

She reports that our mutual father looked proud, but the first thing he said was how he'd have to go back to work (out of retirement) to pay for it. He's very predictable, sigh.

neurotic parent natter

1. Casper really likes salty things. She eats slices of feta cheese plain and says "more cheese." (By the way, did you know that 'feta' in Greek means 'slice'? Hee.) She loves canned black olives. Tonight she sucked on the salt shaker. When she spilled some salt, she ate it using her wet fingertip as a tool. I am, of course, covinced that this desire for salty things is a) pathological and b) my fault.

2. The nights still suck. Up 2-3 times every night. We've also gotten into a very bad bedtime dynamic - she cries when we put her down, then quiets, but stays awake playing in the dark for a considerable time - up to half an hour. Is this normal? I'm worried it's a sign of Something Bad. We're talking about re-night weaning/re-Ferberizing this weekend when we can nap to give ourselves a break. The sleep deprivation is really getting to me again. But Casper seems so fragile right now - she woke up from her nap at 4 and cried for me for half an hour, until I got home. Conflicting needs. I thought listening to a baby cry was hard, but listening to a toddler sob, "mommy, mommy, up" is, if anything, worse.

In things that I am not angstifying about, tonight in the space of 15 minutes Casper colored on the wall with 3 different colored crayons and spilled sparkly pink paint on one of our nice maple dining room chairs. Hooray for soap-and-water-washable children's art supplies! Oh, and she licked the paintbrush - hooray for non-toxic ditto!