She used to be the Jellybean. Then she was Sheena, SqueakyBird, and Spaghetti Girl. Now please welcome the Banana Baby! :)

This morning we awoke nearly simultaneously at 8:30. We slept downstairs so that Geoff could have one last night alone with his headcold -- he kicked it out of the house this morning. I nursed Jacqui and then played with her for a while, and then Geoff watched her while I showered. (Yay! A shower! I don't think I've mentioned to you the joy of showering, of knowing that she's okay while I'm showering, of coming out of the shower sparkly and naked, without having to listen for her cry or rush to see why she isn't. Geoff rocks, and when very soon he has to start working in the office again, I am sincerely going to miss showering.)

Then Geoff had a conference call and I had a baby whose sleepy eyes looked at me and whose mouth proclaimed very loudly (to make up for the lack of English) "I am NOT sleepy!" Note that I was not arguing with her; she was arguing with herself. So I dressed myself and then I smooshed sunblock all over her and put her adorable little sunsuit on her, and we went for a Very Long Walk.

About halfway to Victor's Pizza (Justa Lika Mama Usta Make), she fell asleep. It's about fifteen minutes from here to there, but today we detoured to walk past the elementary school, past the mothers waiting for their half-day kindergarten kids to appear -- some of them had babies in strollers, too. As I walked up to the school my heart did a funny little skip; I had to remind it that it's still got at least 4 years to keep beating, 'cause I don't have to leave her there until at least 2008.

Victor's had a lunch crowd, and apparently they offer table service at lunchtime. Who knew? I pulled the stroller inside to place my order, and a woman who's never there in the evening took my money and brought out my slice of cheese pizza to the table where I was already sitting with an Awake Baby. Jacqui played very happily and quietly with her Bug (Annette, I cannot thank you enough for that toy. I gotta get a picture of her with it -- it's just her favorite thing ever) while I nibbled pizza and drank Snapple's Mango Madness and read part of Geoff's newest library book: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

Cory Doctorow reminds me of William Gibson, in a much less technical, more beach-reading sort of way. I'm enjoying the book a lot, and if I were still a bookstore employee it would be on my recommended list.

We only left Victor's because a group of Very Stinky Men sat at the table right behind me. It took a few minutes for the smell to waft over; I think my abrupt departure probably surprised them. Obviously they have no Geoffrey, so they could not shower.

When we got home, Jacqui made the face which translates roughly to, "That was a long walk! I'm famished! Got any bananas, ma?" So I heated up a little pureed banana, and she was very happy! She was so happy that she grabbed the spoon with both hands to hold it in her mouth and then YELLED at it because it did not immediately produce more banana -- I had to wrestle it away from her to refill it. We started out with two spoons of banana in the bowl, and then Geoff warmed more while I distracted her with a washcloth, and then she finished THAT so Geoff dumped the rest of the jar into the bowl, and she finished THAT!

She ate about half a jar of bananas! She was the happiest banana girl ever; she was talking to the spoon (the same way she talks to the breast when she's very pleased) in a sort of "mmm-num-num" way, so I said that back to her and she laughed at me without spitting banana everywhere. :)

Then she had a lovely nap, after nursing a bit, and now she's awake in her play-yard talking to Turtle.

And that's the end of my story.