Little neuroses

In her newly needy mode, Natalie has taken to doing more than just blather on incessantly, sing at the dinner table, lean on you , and make that annoying noise with her tongue and lips that Mary's good at but I'm not. More recently, she's taken to clearing her throat with an almost pathological frequency.

More disturbingly and poignantly, she's developed a tick: she gently lets out a little "yippy," most often while reading stories. Last night while we were reading Billy and Blaze, she let out seven or eight of these "yippies." It clearly involuntary, a reflex against something. But what? Is she freaking out in advance at the onset of Kindergarten? Have we begun to displace too much frustration with other stuff (Graham, career) onto her? Is she just sick of Graham climbing all over her?

How did her parent-teacher conference go today? Crap, have a 1 pm call to get on before I can check in with Mary on that.