My observations on kids, especially my own

1) Kids like to sit on laps.  Let's say there are two kids and one adult reading.  If one of them is sitting on the adult's lap, the other kid feels like it is crucial for her to also sit on that lap.  The interesting thing is that "lap" can be loosely defined.  If the adult's legs are crossed pretzel style, then the lap is made up of any section of his legs.  If the adult's legs are spread out to form a v, the lap is constrained to the legs and any/all of the area between the legs.

2) Kids are tough.  We all know it - if you make a big deal out of a kid's fall, then the kid thinks it was a big terrible fall.  If you don't and haven't in the past, the kid is fine unless it was a terrible fall.  But really, have you ever thought about all the falls and bumps and hits they take?  Cement, pavement, table legs, doors, steps, metal floors, and so on.  And then have you thought about the number of all of those that they experience?  Really, if it were an adult who experienced that much in one day, I don't think that adult would get out of bed the next day.

3) Kids eat strange things.  As I've said before, Helena loves condiments.  If she has sour cream (or ketchup) on her plate, she will use her spoon to eat it.  She loves it.  Or if a kid's mouth is really full, he may spit out the food, look at it on his plate, and then pick it up and eat it.  It's like he had to make sure he wanted his mouth to be extremely full of that food.  (Now I haven't observed my kid doing this but...no, wait, this very accurately describes my child.)

4) Kids sometimes latch onto something and do it over and over and over again, and then suddenly never do it again.  One day Helena put her hand on her head and one of her parents said, "Oh no!"  Boy, did she dissolve into giggles.  She kept doing it all day long and when we said "Oh no", her laughter would ring through the apartment.  The next morning all fun & joy in that activity was gone.  She'd put her hand on her head, we'd say "Oh no" and she'd walk away.  It was over.

Now here's a video of a behavior she started doing yesterday and then didn't do again until she kissed us good night tonight.  Oh how I do hope she continues doing it!