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Josh on V-Day

 I haven't written much about the love affair between my husband and my little toddler. It is what you might imagine. When Marc comes downstairs, there is literally always an elaborate game of peekaboo; Josh sometimes shrieks as he tries to track Marc's disappearing head. (The thrill!)

Parenthood can do strange things; for example, it you can give you superhuman levels of tolerance for a short film called "Five Little Ducks." This is a cartoon in which a mother loses her ducks--one by one--until five have disappeared. There is a verse for every missing duck. Every. Damn. Duck. And my husband actually returns to this movie--with glee--several times per day.

Both father and son like contact sports, so Josh will sometimes charge at Marc's legs--with his walker--and Marc will form a "human vee" at the last moment. Under the bridge!

This Valentine's Day, my family is of course spending a great deal of time with the hippos George and Martha, and specifically "The Secret Club." In any George and Martha volume, the two hippos are pretty consistently misunderstanding each other until the fifth story, when some kind of explicit truth pops up. In "The Secret Club," a fifth-of-five story, George wants Martha to avoid a clubhouse. Martha, impetuous, breaks in. George, embarrassed, reveals that the club is a fan-group devoted to the worship of Martha. "I hope you've learned your lesson," George says. Blushing, Martha makes a rare concession: "Yes. I certainly have."

Happy Valentine's Day to you.
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