Words?

Rebecca definitely knows who "mama" and "dada" are. She uses many exclamation points after she hollers at one or the other of us. And if she cries, it's "mama!" in a very pitiful voice. This morning, Ramy kissed her goodbye and went down the stairs like normal. She was standing on the landing (her lookout point) and peering down to him below. He waved and said, "Bye bye, baby" like he does every morning. She said, "ba ba, da da". We don't know if this was coincidence or if it was "bye, bye, daddy."

This afternoon, we had our holiday music class again. She made friends with a little girl named Amanda and got to spend more time with her friend Ryan (look out Jack and Will, another little boy is trying to make his move). Rebecca sang along with the music and loooooovvvvvves the jingle bells and the drum (in fact, she likes to bang the jingle bells on the drum). We are definitely signing up for the long "Kids Love Music" class that starts in February. They have even more activities and classes available for toddlers who are at least 18 months, so we'll do more of those next summer and fall. In the meantime, we may start going to Gymboree or Little Gym, just to have more socialization opportunities.

It was a crazy, crazy day at Chaffey College. The holidays can definitely bring out the kooks! Hopefully it won't be a zooey at Redlands on Thursday night, but I have my doubts about that. I sent my "breakup" letter to my old dissertation chair today. He was very nice about it, although I think he was surprised I was jumping ship. Oh well.

Yesterday, I made candy all day and packaged it all up to give as gifts to coworkers, our secretaries/receptionists, and other random people we feel the need to give something to at the holidays. My kitchen was covered in a fine mist of powdered sugar, cocoa, and candy cane dust. But fortunately, I got it all cleaned up last night, and Ramy took his boxes to work today, and I'm doling mine out at the various places I go during the week. Everyone likes Christmas candy! I have one suitcase packed and ready to go to Tennessee. Not sure when I'm going to pack the others, but hopefully most everything I need will make it to Tennessee! Pray for good weather and no flight delays (or worse, cancellations!) for our flight Friday night.