I just discovered that I can make Jackson take a nap whenever I feel like it because he doesn't know what time it is. This morning he woke up at 7:00 (God bless him) and at 9:15 I said, "Gee, it's about your naptime," which was a total lie, he doesn't normally go down until 10:30 or 11:00. But all he did was grumble a little bit until I put his llama in the crib with him (LOVE THE LLAMA, whom we have cleverly named "Dolly"), and ten minutes later he was was sawing toothpicks.

Tch. Babies. Can't tell time.

We recently joined a play group and I have discovered that playing nicely with other children is Jackson's specialty. There's a two-and-a-half-year-old boy in the group named Zach who was playing with two empty yogurt cups at the edge of the baby pool today. (It is a brilliant mother who brings empty yogurt cups to the baby pool.) Jackson went right over and reached for one of the cups, but Zach shouted, "No!" (Now, if you were sitting in a bar with two drinks in front of you and some guy came over and reached for one, you'd shout NO, too, wouldn't you? So you can't really fault a two-year-old.) Well, Zach's mom waded over to see what was going on, and then we started chatting, and then the next thing I know Jackson is giving a yogurt cup back to a taken-aback Zach, who holds it for a few seconds and then gives it back to Jackson. They went back and forth in such a civilized manner that I was reminded of one night in a bar long ago with my then-boyfriend and his brother. I didn't know his brother very well. It was too loud to talk so to break the ice in a mime sort of way I finally just started giving him (the brother) stuff out of my pockets. He caught on and started giving me stuff out of his pockets until we had traded everything in our pockets. I think I ended up with some rubber bands, less than a dollar in spare change, and some weird little tools that you use to change a tire on a bicycle.

Well, I mean, how do you get to know people?