Sometimes, Life is Like That.

...sometimes, you're talking to a co-worker and she makes a comment that she's missing a toe and you remember, because she told you once, that she and her sister fled the Khmer Rouge as children.

...sometimes, you're talking to another co-worker, all happy and nervous because she and her husband have decided to have a family and she's talking to you because you're the voice of experience...and you remember, four years ago, that you knew nothing. Experience doesn't make you an expert...but you tell her what you know and what you'd wanted someone to tell you four years ago.

...sometimes, you're having That Kind of day, and then your email goes off with emails from insanely funny friends all over the country and you start laughing because in all the inside jokes and mangled words are people who truly Get It, linked by something we can't explain. And things seem...lighter, somehow.

Sometimes, in the course of one day, life is like that. :)

And Our New Word for the Day is....

..."No." Or, "NO!!!!" Thus sayith the toddler.

Yeah. Everything we ask the toddler these days is met with a "No." (Or, if she's particularly in a snit---stomped feet, folded arms, lower lip out and the inevitable, "It's not FAIRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!" Yes, someone discovered the joys of Time Out after that episode, how did you know? :-D)

And yes, I know this is all normal for her age and stage, that she's acting like she's supposed to and it's our job as parents to make sure she knows what behaviors we will (and won't) allow. And I'm okay with that---the best piece of parenting advice I ever got was, "Don't become a parent if you're afraid of being the bad guy." (Personally, I think that advice should be handed out with birth control, but that's just me :-P)

But I'm getting awfully tired of "No." And don't get me started on "fair" :-)