Don't play in the plant!

we need to get going on a sandbox

I really want to make "You're going to sit in your crib!" a good enough threat/punishment that she will recognize that she did something wrong. Unfortunately she likes it in her crib.

She found a ring from the top of a milk jug and had been putting it around her neck/arms/wrist as jewelry. I don't think I've ever seen anyone do that.

always check the width of the curtains you're buying, even if the length is correct, you still might end up with a space between them.

Park Place

Anna got pushed down at a park/wading pond. It was only us and two slightly older boys, when she approached them (clad only in her sodden diaper) she showed hesitation at walking out into the water again, so one of them..he didn't really push, or shove, something a little less violent, nevertheless Anna fell down rather clumsily. She stayed upright and wasn't in any danger. During this whole event I stood back to see what would happen and the mother of the boys jumped up and got to her before I did, she apologized profusely and chastised her child (not as sternly as some would) Anna was obviously ready to go so I changed her diaper and gathered our things. They apologized again as I passed, but I was totally okay with the situation.

Then I started to worry that I was too okay about the situation. Aren't mother's supposed to be outraged when their child is bullied at the park? Shouldn't I be offended and miffed and fuming?

well, I'm none of those things. Maybe I just see getting pushed down at the park as a learning experience. "Life sucks Anna, get used to it" maybe I'm just not one of those "Helicopter" parents that's always hovering around to keep kids from doing anything. As we drove out of the parking lot I thought to tell Anna "Don't expect boys to change as they get older."

I don't think there is a point here, but you read it anyway.

PS. If you want the story to get a little deeper, when the boys first came in, the future offender ran over to me as he saw my little baggie of cereal treats. I gave him some. Three minutes later he came back for some more. His parents were embarrassed but I was totally ok with it. I will always buy the affection of children with candy and attention. Three minutes after that he pushed Anna over.

Post #277

The other day Ben commented that he liked Anna's hair down and natural, he thought she would look weird with clips and things making it point straight up. So while he was at the store I put many bobby pins in her hair to make a mowhawk.

This was just version 1.0, after I changed her clothes and had to do it again, it was much better. Ben was not a fan. This is what he decided would look better.

The "Newsie" look.


On an unrelated note, the flowers in our yard have started blooming. I had no concept, we moved in in August, so we have never seen this yard maxed out. The yard is thick with Irises of every color. They are everywhere, and apparently they are really easy to take care of, drought resistant and etc. which is good because we don't have a sprinkler system.
The Iris is named for the Goddess of the Rainbow, it is also what the Fleur de Lis is based on. So I think I will name our house "The Irises" (It's very "Thousand Oaks" isn't it?)

these rust ones are my favorite

beautiful clover flowers

Just Like the Good Old Days...sort of.

I have been remarkably happy all day. The obstacles to this were (in no particular order): A fussy baby (teething probably), no car, no phone in the afternoon, no Ben (school started again).

Nevertheless, I found joy in the little things. Like a generous naptime wherein I was able to shower, water the plants in the front yard, clean out a potential sandbox, and read "Zippy" while sitting in the sun and watering the grass. Later it was hanging Anna's laundry outside on a makeshift clothesline in the hot sun, watching little leaguers across the fence as I took down the laundry, not watching too much TV or spending too much time online. Actually getting things done.

Still, my house still looks like a baby tornado came through (which I think did) and Anna and I will probably split a box of Mac N Cheese for dinner. It just feels good to not be accountable for my time today, except to myself (and Anna to a lesser degree).

PS, if you are Dad and reading this, we need to call AT&T together, if you are not Dad, but know if and where I could find him tomorrow, please let me know - but not by phone (or text)

Catch!

So Ben left with Anna this morning, giving me 2 FREE HOURS! I can't even believe it. So I thought I would do something on this blog so that you might remember us.
I think I use this blog more as like a google reader, because it updates every time someone updates their blog, so I never update my own, I just check it 30 times a day to see if any of you have updated yours. and I always read them. but never comment. I'm sorry.

Looking back on the week, yesterday we planted our vegetables. You may remember that I covered the vegetable garden bed with chicken wire to deter cats. Well, that means we had to cut holes in the chicken wire for each plant. ouch. 6 tomatoes, 3 peppers, 2 zucchini. did you realize that zucchini has two c's? I didn't.

Monday was a fabulous day, and I am so grateful to everyone who helped make it so. I really enjoyed all of it.

Sunday was Mother's Day/Beetle's farewell. I was excited to see everyone show up and totally forget about Mother's Day.

In conclusion, and to mend any fences I may have injured in this post, I give you this totally legitimate commercial that Rainn Wilson linked to on twitter.

Withdrawal

I'm suffering from cellular withdrawal. My phone must have gotten swine flu because yesterday, it started acting funny and eventually we were unable to keep it away from the light. Ben even drove up to Salt Lake to the iphone store, but they said it was out of warranty, so we said good night.

Now I find myself instinctively grabbing at my pocket to turn on some music, or take a picture, or text someone. Alas, each time I am reminded of the departed. So we must move upward and onward.

Maybe Beetle will let me use her phone when she leaves.

WAYD/HDYDT update: spring cleaning edition

Welcome back to "What are you doing?/How did you do that? with Anna. Here are some general updates.
note: none of these pictures were set up or doctored in any way.
I looked up from weeding, and this is what I saw, Anna sitting in the wagon, ready to go.
In her toy crate, removing all unsavory tenants (lambies, I'm looking in your direction)
Here she is reading a weekly news magazine, kicking her feet casually in the air.

And now for our Top Stories.
Today we did an hour of cleaning before our visiting teaching appointment. While I was vacuuming, Anna helped out a bit.
Sure, she found the cleaning brush and was using it correctly, but to look even more effective she got some trash from the garbage can and threw it in there first.
While I cleaned up the bathroom mess, she went to the open closet and got out the broom. So helpful. I let her hold the dustpan for me while I swept.

Thank you for your time, stay classy blogstalkers.

PS happy anniversary Ben, I love you.

No Cigar

She was so close. I have never actually seen her eat an entire bowl, plate, bottle or cup of food, never seen a clean, empty dish-bottom (except for bottles of milk. or if she dumped the dish of food onto the floor/her high chair tray/seat, but that obviously isn't what I'm trying to convey). Today we tried half a cup of reheated macncheese while watching the "Happy Monster Band" on the internet. They are her favorite band. While she was mesmerized I was able to stuff in spoonful after spoonful successfully. She probably didn't even notice how close we were. Down to the last spoonful, and "Monster Hoe Down" was on, a favorite for all ages. Perhaps it was too stimulating, the impulse to 'claw left, claw right' took over and she was suddenly alert and aware that I was so close to my goal. The last spoonful never made it. As she knocked it into her lap, I halfheartedly declared it a victory, at least the bowl was empty, and if that's all that ends up on her lap, it was still better than most days.taken a few weeks ago

we'll try again tomorrow.

Bryce and Zion

Here are some pics from Bryce and Zion, I finally found some with Rachel in them.


We hiked down into the shadows

All the way at the bottom
on the way up
Temple of Sinawava
staying sane in the museum

Communication

When Anna woke up crying last night it occurred to me that she still uses crying as one of her main channels of communication. This could have been one of those middle of the night brainstorms that doesn't make any sense once you woke up (electric toilets, make everybody twins, UPS should deliver at night so that when you wake up you have presents), but I hadn't been asleep yet, so I'm not counting it.
My point is that Anna does still use crying to communicate, but she also whines, babbles, uses hand and body signals and laughter to tell us what she's thinking, so I guess I just kind of forgot about the crying.
Today she start repeating "Oh wow!" and I thought it was cute so I devised this blog post and made her do it on video so you could experience it and tell me how cute it is.

busy week, busy girl

We have had a busy week with a visit from Grandma Lynne and Aunt Rachel.
We played often and hard. These are just a few pictures, we also spent 2 days down at Bryce Canyon and Zion...but I don't have those pictures.
playing on the slide with Grandma Lynne


New Shoes! (size 6-9 months)
Eat Something! You're nothing but skin and bones!
I think you can pull that look off.

This was a giant puppy we found in the cabin where we stayed on our trip, she kept giving it big hugs and kisses, it was too adorable to capture on film.
Apparently I don't have any pictures of her with Rachel, maybe on the other camera we can find some.

worth a thousand words

So here is a picture, can you guess what it is trying to convey?

yes we got a lot of snow, but that is only part of the puzzle.

Here is the answer -

This snow that we got MID APRIL was heavy enough to take down one of the biggest sumac trees in our yard. so not only is this not bringing may flowers, this snow is taking out major landscape elements in our yard.

boooooooo!

The video I promised

Here's a video, since I spoke of one earlier but could not deliver, I vowed to make it right and now I have.

Happy Easter

We didn't really celebrate Easter, it was nice enough weather though and we were grateful for that. Here are some pictures of Anna in her Easter duds.
Trying to climb into the wagon - as promised.

maoh.

I'm sorry that we aren't more interesting.
Anna loves climbing up and down and up and down and getting into things and sometimes eating plants. I had a video but blogger won't let me put it up, maybe later.

She knows how to nod "yes" and shake her head "no" - especially when we don't agree on an issue, like whether or not she should eat her dinner, throw food on the floor, or if we should change auto insurance.
She has started bringing me books to read to her, she will even sit still while I read them - except for "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" we generally do not get past page 3. She just thinks it's too silly.Here she is watching dogs walk through our yard, no doubt leaving some real gems for us to find later. (notice the pointed toe and the unbuttoned onesie - she's such a lady)

Potential Graveyard

When Anna woke up from her nap, we looked out the window - and what did we see? well, in addition to popcorn popping on our apricot tree, there were over a dozen robins in our trees and throughout our yard.
(No pictures turned out, but trust me, they were everywhere)

So this brings me to several questions -

Is my yard landscaped with plants (berry bushes and etc) that would attract birds on purpose?
Is my yard the only one on the block safe enough (no owned dogs or cats) for these birds to be playing in such numbers and with such abandon?
Are the birds hanging out more since I have taken some measures to keep cats and dogs out?
Is the proportion of live birds to dead birds just a natural percentage?
What happens to birds when they get old and die?

So what came first? The dead birds or the live birds?

How Did You Do That/What Are You Doing? vol. 1

Anna has reached an interesting stage, a curious stage, and I have found her in very interesting situations and I'm sure she didn't realize what she was doing.
Thus begins a new segment on my blog called

"How Did You Do That?/What Are You Doing?"

This first edition will be a catch up on all the things we have caught her doing in the last few months/weeks before I realized that this was going to be an ongoing trend.

This is classic Anna, she crawled into the dishwasher before she could walk, and she hasn't stopped since.

She is always getting into cupboards (we don't keep anything dangerous in there). Jan's house was very nicely babyproofed, maybe we should get on that.

She loved Clark's tricycle, though her legs didn't reach the pedals, she was kind enough to let me push her around. This picture is documenting that she actually got on it by herself, before and after it had tipped over on top of her. She's no wuss.

Ben brought home some Taffy from San Francisco, unfortunately Anna could reach it, once she had both of her hands full, she had no choice but to keep some in her mouth - how else could she carry it all?

This is her new thing, climbing into her laundry crate. It's pretty dangerous, she has fallen a few times, but she is not deterred. These are from 2 separate occasions.

While Ben was downstairs and I was in the front room, Anna climbed upstairs and got onto our bed, then just yelled until I came and lifted her down. Silly Baby

How Did You Do That?

What Are You Doing?

coming up next on HDYDT/WAYD - pictures of her climbing into her wagon (if it will ever stop snowing)