Knickerbockers

Daisy

Joplin. (Homage not intentional.)

Witch ring

Buster has a witch ring and he says he kills witches by throwing water on them.(1)

Some people don't know that I'm a witch-killer.
Who doesn't know?
I don't know. Some grownups. And also some kids.
Why don't they know?
I don't know. Maybe they don't see me. But Dorothy(2) sees me all the time.
She sees you killing witches?
No. But sometimes Dorothy, she doesn't see me downstairs so she thought, maybe I'm upstairs somewhere. Maybe he's upstairs somewhere, getting his baby.
Getting his baby?
Yeah, me. I. That's why I say me, because that's me: I. So she goes upstairs and she goes to my baby's room. Well, I sleep in my baby's room, and she sleeps in my bed. And also Dorothy went upstairs, and she went up to my room, and she sees me in there getting my baby. She comes in the morning when I first wake up, and she sees me in there getting my baby.
Is Daisy your baby?
No, her name is Maliha Daisy Paris-Kaufman. Maliha(3) is her first name. Daisy is her middle name. And Paris-Kaufman is her last name. Like Paris-Kaufman is my last name. I call her Maliha Daisy Paris-Kaufman. That's what I call her. I think I should get another ring because this one hurts me too much. But I think this one's(4) fine. I think I should keep it. It's not hurting me too much.


Notes:
1. "The Wizard of Oz" is a big hit in our house.
2. Dorothy Gale. You know, blue dress, sings about rainbows. Yeah, she's Buster's cousin, apparently, and hangs around here a lot. Once in a while, we're informed that she's gone back to Kansas. She usually comes back within a day or so.
3. Maliha is the name of the baby elephant at the STL zoo. It's also the new name of Buster's stuffed white tiger, which is also known variously as Mouse, Deppard and Dike-Jobe and is sometimes referred to as his son, though since he became Maliha he's turned into a she. The tiger, that is, not Buster. Maliha the elephant is a she. It's not clear to me, by the way, that Buster was referring to the tiger when he was talking about his baby.
4. Same one.
(11/2)

Lambs

also gotta eat.

Batman

has gotta eat too.

And evidently bumblebees have gotta blow up basketballs.

An announcement

Alas, poor note taking. What Buster was saying here -- with a maraca standing in for the microphone -- was funny, but is now lost to history.

Here's a slightly older conversation instead.

I have a new restaurant.
You do? What's it called?
It's called Come to the New Restaurant and Eat Whenever You Can.

Well-rounded children

Study hall

Boogie break

Red tide?

No. Cardinals rally downtown before Game 3 of the Padres series. Only after publishing this did I notice that Daisy is mimicking the statue. Or vice-versa. (10/7)

Daisy is a punk rocker

Well New York City really has it all
Oh yeah, oh yeah

Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed is taking orders.
What would you like?
I'll have some apple pie.
I don't have pie. I only have drinks.
Oh, OK. I'll have some apple juice.
I don't have any apple juice.
Well, what do you have?
I only have apple cha-bapp.
[Very nearly passes coffee through nose.]

The hat is a pot, you see. Apparently a Johnny Appleseed thing.

Manoletdaisy

¡Olé!

Daisy: What Happened?

In the dressing room on the last night of the tour.

Writing

Buster's learning his letters. He can't sit down and write a word yet on his own, but he'll ask what the next letter is and write it. The actual question is "What comes after next?"

Crowns

Buster on Daisy

Sometimes we call her Daisy, and sometimes we call her Dais-eh.

Street fair

A familiar site. Daisy about to take an unscheduled seat.

Well she's trying to take one, but there's a window in the way.

The latest failed attempt to be quicker than Buster's "don't take my picture!" spin-away.

Helping out on a mural.

Soccer!

It's not that the kid on the left is unclear on the concept. He's just following his bliss, if you know what I mean. Buster's pretty clear on the concept. He's surprisingly good and getting better at kicking the ball and having some idea where it's going. He doesn't really care where it's going, but it usually goes more or less where he means it to. There are no matches at these weekly sessions, just drills and games to teach them the various skills. Buster has established a talent level that can best be described as "Somewhere between Ronaldinho and the kid on the left."

Turtle races. This teaches them how to crawl on the ground and push the ball with their heads. I'm pretty sure I've seen Zenadine Zidane do this.

The Mia Hamm of the No. 3 diaper set. (9/18)

Daisy and some pirates

(9/16)

Just ...

... I don't know.

This is a better use of those shorts.

Baloon Glow

Here's what we were looking at:

Buster became a little concerned that the balloons were going to fall over on him.

But he was OK eventually.

Saturday

New York

Tennessee

The Satchmo

of the milk bottle

Fire truck visit

Following in his father's footsteps, Buster has his picture taken with a giant costumed mascot, in this case the fire department's dalmation, which accompanied a fire truck on a visit to Daisy's day care.

Daisy, meanwhile, not following Dad's footsteps at all, just wanted to go to work. (9/6)

Welcome to the doll stroller

This ain't no Mudd Club

Ready

Just a few days before the start of school now, and rockin the new backpack. Oh hell yeah. That's how you wear a backpack. Uh-huh. When Buster wears a backpack, it stays worn, baby.

_chool

[Mom, on the way to school open house] I'm excited to see the learning carpet.
Yeah. I sit on the F.
I know, I want to see the F.
No, we don't have an S.
There's no S?
No.
I think there's an S. There's all the letters.
No. Remember? [Sings] A-B-C-D-E-F-G, H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P, Q-R-S-T-U-V --
There was an S in there.
Yeah. We don't have that.

- - - - -
Note: There is, in fact, an S on the learning carpet. This picture was taken on Aug. 19, at a welcome event a week before the start of the school year. It was Buster's first time seeing his new school. He immediately loved it.

Big day

They both face forward now! This was a couple of weeks after Daisy's first birthday, but you also have to be 20 pounds. We cheated by 7 ounces.

Yum

Still at the lake

Doodloodloodloo ... doodloodloodloo*

[On phone] Hello?

Oh, hi, Grandma Ann. Are you going to come and visit us again?

I don't know if you can.

Let me go and look at the clock, I'll see what time it is.

[Goes to kitchen, looks at clock.]

It's 40 o'clock.

I don't know if you can come, but it doesn't matter if you can't.

OK, see you later.

- - -
* - In falsetto, the sound of a phone ringing.

Lake

Fixer-upper

This was one of those "we'll fix up your bathroom" displays at the mall. The photo didn't really convey how cute it was when Daisy got in the bathtub and played around for a while, but cropped down to a close-up, even though it's a little blurry, she just looks too cute not to use it. I mean, look at that (blurry) mug.

Horse

This [points to ottoman] is my horse. And this [rocking chair] is my carriage.
First comes love, then comes marriage.
What?
Nothing. What's your horse's name?
His name is ... is ... is ... [etc.] ... Lulu.
Lulu! That's just like Daisy's nickname.
Yeah.
It's a boy horse named Lulu?
No, it's a girl horse.
Oh, so her name is Lulu.
Yeah. And she's pink. There's all different color horses.
I've never seen a pink horse before. I've seen a pink elephant a time or two.
[Inaudible hullabullabulla] pink elephant.
What?
I was talking to my horse.
Oh. What did you say to your horse?
I said, "Let's get going, horse, and maybe we can go and see some pink elephants."
That's a good idea. Or, well, it always kind of seems like a good idea at the time.
Or some green elephants.

Boots

Hiya doin' there

This is what you'd call a cookie-eatin' grin.

Hug

Bathing beauties

at the Cheshire Inn.