Still more Sissyland photos:

[jrittenhouse]

Photos after the cut; the full list of the photos (the cut versions, I’ll have larger scale ones when Meredith Grace comes back this Thursday) are here at the Flickr site.

We really have not heard much from down there aside of what I’ve reported here from brief messages sent up with photos attached - basically, the kids are having a phenomenally

Comments

[winterwren]

When this little lady becomes a teenager, you are so doomed

[jrittenhouse]

Yes. Between the amount of temper and moods, and everything else. Susan's mom says that Susan was beyond impossible as a young teen, and has made noises on the 'you're going to reap what you sowed' half-jokingly.

[thatcrazycajun]

The age-old parent's curse: "I hope you grow up and have kids who act JUST LIKE YOU!!" :-)

[jrittenhouse]

Basically!

[quietdarkness]

Contrary to popular opinion, I think it's wonderful that Mere is attracted to intelligent boys. Most of these early crushes are harmless, but it does show you that Mere is no dummy in picking boys. I'd give her a fun, fatherly talk about how to pick'em and when to dump 'em, but I think the signs are there that she has some discrimination in her crush selection

[jrittenhouse]

My father was quite sure I was going to be a screaming, raging hippie monstrosity as a teenager and a college student. I was nothing like that...total bookish nerd, really, with no appreciable social skills. And with a belligerent bully for a father, you learn early on that he *understands* you being reactive back to him in an aggressive way. Then he feels justified in beating you to a pulp. I shut up and kept to myself and kept away from him.

Mere's approach to boys is that she wants one like Daddy - fun, wry sense of humor, smart, easy-going, and so on. She does have some discrimination, and it's more and more obvious on that point as she gets older that she's highly unlikely to want to deal with people she shouldn't be messing with.

[quietdarkness]

And that's the value of having a really good, involved, warm fuzzy father. As early as 4 years old, Sidra came home from preschool and told me, "Mom, in playing house at my school, there are two kinds of daddies. There's the working daddies, and then there's the cooking daddies. I like the cooking daddies."

This still strikes me as a profound assessment of men, out of the mouth of a 4 year old.

So those influences start early and last a lifetime.

[jrittenhouse]

That was the plan all along...

[tdanaher]

The eyebrows still seem to be a giveaway. Your Mere in the jacket on the back of the couch, their Mer on the couch itself in the long sleeved white shirt?

[jrittenhouse]

Very good!