She walks like John Wayne

I have discovered something. My kid walks like John Wayne.

This morning she looked at me from the doorway of my office. She smiled and began to come toward me. And then she started this swagger, this rolling gait that made her head move from side to side. The coy, flirtatious look on her face really was the clincher though.

“Low dat” is not quite “howdy” but I get the idea.

The part that gets me is that she’s never watched a John Wayne movie in her life. What is it that creates this persona? Nana calls it her drunk walk. And though this is a possible culprit in John’s case, Luci is a bit young. She can open the cabinet, she can lift the bottle, but I don’t think she can unscrew the cap yet.

Is there a loaded diaper involved? A case of vertigo? Too many blows to the head? Perhaps she has decided that this is the consumate way to win me over with her charisma. Or maybe, like spinning in circles it just feels funny.

Nana and Grandpa have also given her an oversized stuffed horse and a pink straw hat. I am beginning to wonder if they don’t have a secret agenda.

Crazy Towhead’s List of "Do’s"

A friend of ours, Eryn, was used to saying, “Not for babies,” whenever her daughter Hannah would get into things she wasn’t supposed to. The first time Eryn tried this saying on Lucine, Luci totally ignored her. We joked that perhaps Luci didn’t think of herself as a baby. After all she decided pretty early that she wanted to be upright with the rest of the grown-ups! What would she respond to if “baby” was not acceptable? We decided after much joking that “crazy towhead” might be a more apt descriptor.

Since then “not for crazy towheads” has been on repeat around the house. “No, no Luci. Not for crazy towheads.” So to balance the “dont’s,” I thought I’d make up a list of things for Luci that she can do (and has done this first year).

• Give kisses to people (and animals) you love
• Camp in Eastern Nevada and along the Oregon coast
• Measure vegetation plots with Dad
• Eat Lamb
• Track in on Sage grouse and her chicks
• Watch birds all over the Oregon coast, the Truckee river, Eastern Nevada, and Lake Tahoe with Mama and Dad
• Laugh and smile a lot
• Sit next to campfires
• Feel the rain and wind on your face (but avoid windstorms in the Roberts Mountains!)
• Go swimming with family, and get dunked!
• Kick your feet in cold mountain streams
• Play tug o’ war with Scout
• Raft down small rapids in Wingfield Park
• Sit on the testing board for a second degree black belt test
• Go train Aikido (or at least watch and roll on the mat sometimes)
• Put your feet in the Pacific Ocean
• Visit Powell’s and Saturday Market in Portland
• Chase Dad out the door when he tries to leave for campus in the morning
• Cheer when the Bears make it to the Superbowl (but not when they lose)
• Hike, hike, hike (attached to Mama or Dad)
• Play in the snow
• and the one I’ve been working on for months . . . Snuggle