Monday, December 11, 2006

Meeting the new member of the family

As an early Christmas present and with an eye to easing the housework load, Grandma Linda got us a "Roomba," the vacuuming robot. She's been an immediate success, tootling around and picking up crumbs from Fern's new favorite food (toast), cat hair, and all those bits of paper that Fern loves to shred.

So how have the family taken to it? Mostly, all of us (Fern and Carson included) just love to watch it make its merry and random way around the floors, going around (or over!) obstacles and poking under furniture. Sometimes, if it seems to be heading her direction, Fern will scurry to the high ground of our laps (and Carson finds a perch on a chair or sofa). Generally, though, she just watches, mesmerized by her new little friend!

There is one bone of contention: Kristin uses a male pronoun for Roomba, and I use a female one. I suppose, then, we need to pick a gender-neutral name for it! Any suggestions?