Random

So we are in Boston, staying with Ben's mom who has been very generous and we are very grateful and having a great time.

Here's the random part.
Last night Ben and I watched "State of Play" about a journalist working for the 'Washington Globe' (not a real newspaper) who solves a crime.
Anna sleeps in a pack and play at the end of our bed in the guest room. Around midnight I got up and woke her up. Which woke Ben up. I told him I couldn't find the pacifier to get Anna to stop crying. So he turned on the light and found it under the chair. Now I couldn't put her back in the pack and play because we were right there and she would just cry until we either left the room or let her sleep with me in the bed. So she and I cuddled up and Ben was, unfortunately, sent to the couch.
So you might be asking yourself, "Why did Toni wake her up in the first place?"
here's my answer. "I'm not quite sure"
It could be because I had a dream that she was the editor for the 'People' section of the Washington Globe and was getting paid either too much or too little, and for that reason, I had to wake her up.
But that answer doesn't make sense, does it?

No, it doesn't.

OkBye

Shoe

(from the bedroom) "Who's shoes are these?"

"Oh, those are mine"

"Since when?"

"Since today at Target when Anna hid behind a tree and I had to walk through a pit of gravel, only to find that cleverly hidden amongst the gravel was an enormous wad of bright red chewing gum, which I tried to wipe off using the top of my other shoe which obviously only led me to spread the gum all over both shoes, at which point I decided that these shoes were the pits anyway and the universe finally pushed me into buying a new pair of shoes. Immediately."

ugh

Follow up: As soon as I had successfully wiped gum all over both my shoes, I placed Anna in a shopping cart just outside the store. Little did I know that for no justifiable or explained reason, the automatic doors were broken. If you haven't seen someone try to open heavy doors while pushing or pulling a large stroller or shopping cart, you should know that it is extremely awkward and aggravating. Especially when you know there is bright red gum all over your shoes.
Then I walked around the store, sticking with each step.

I don't like shoe shopping much - hence the reason these last shoes have been around well before Anna and have the distinct look of potatoes - I hate the possibility that for the first 3-4 days, new shoes may kill your feet. They don't have your arch perfectly ground into them or give in just the right ways. Additionally, I somehow always end up thinking about it in the fall, when the winter snows are just around the corner, and the memory of wet feet makes all fashionable shoes look silly. It's such a frustrating thought that I just give my old shoes a pep talk to get them through another month. And up until now, it has worked.

In the end however, the new converse I bought aren't too bad, although they did rub the back of my heels a bit (someone tell me this is temporary!) and I only had to look for 2 hours to find a store that sold recipe cards. Additionally, Anna had refused to eat lunch and was thus an extreme fussbudget for the entire, frustrating, gum-ridden adventure.

It's Politics people.

My tweet from earlier today: I am outraged that schools and PTA's refused to show Obama's speech. Can we really be that polarized? He is the elected President, right?

The Tribune article that got me started (please notice the misspelled 2nd word)

My GChat Conversation with Ben later on:

Husben: i re-tweeted your tweet

i liked it a lot

me: thanks

I just talked to the kids coming back from elementary school - they didn't watch it

What do people think he is going to make ridiculous socialist statements without thinking of the consequences?

Husben: apparently

what's stupid is that you don't talk to kids about policy, you talk to them about values. and liberals and conservatives do have the same values at heart, they just disagree on how to bring those values to pass.
me: yeah, and these are exactly the kinds of speeches that president's should be giving - addressing the entire nation of young people to encourage them to do their best

would this happen to any other president?

ALSO - he released the text of the speech on MONDAY so that parents and teachers would know there was nothing bad in it

ARG
Husben: and what if he did say something to forward the liberal agenda? wouldn't this give parents an opportunity to discuss the future of the nation with their kids?

me: Then some 5th graders told me "it's ok if you voted for Obama, it doesn't make you a bad person
me: and I totally agree with your point about values. What conservative doesn't want their kid to learn about working hard and staying in school?

In Summation: When the President addresses the nation, it's a lot like General Conference. He might introduce a new way of looking at things, but he has to keep it pretty vague to catch everyone who's watching and retain his approval ratings. So he can't really fly off the handle in those situations.

A new one

I have now twice seen a new kitty in our backyard, s/he is not one of the regulars.

What is so attractive about my house that makes every cat in the neighborhood want to poop there?

Time to bust out the moth balls.

Anna's Tiger only eats Toes

Is there anything else in this world that is better than a cold glass of apple juice?


I'm pretty sure there isn't.

18 Months

This Anna is 18 months old now.
She is a big girl.


Stats: 20 lbs (!) 3rd percentile
height - 31.3" 37th percentile
head - 18" 27th percentile

fun facts:

• As I sat down to write this post, a blue crayon fell out of the couch. She loves to draw and color (especially on my coffee table) and does it all with great concentration and zeal.
• She is learning to say so many words. Yesterday, I sat on the bed folding laundry, she sidled up next to me, patted the bed and for the first time said "bed". Then she looked at me very knowingly until she got a hug. Today it is "belt" because she loves to play with Ben's belt while he gets dressed and "bum" because she was walking around with some diaper rash cream mimicking putting it on her lips like chapstick. I told her it was for her bum and pointed to her diaper. She spent the next 3 minutes shouting "BUM" and unfortunately pointing to the front of her diaper because I didn't think it would really stick. Hopefully we have remedied the situation.

• She loves to put little things away. I converted an old wipes box into a "Magic Box" she put stickers all over it and colored it some. She pushes the little button to make the top pop open then puts her crayons inside. Then she tells me it's "tuck" and I open it so she can get the "cayns" out, and then we start over again. Yesterday she sat at the table for 20 minutes putting small paperclips in a paperclip holder with a magnet around the rim. In and out.
• Today she said "me maos" (Mickey Mouse) instead of "gika" so she got to watch a "show". but when it came down to it, she picked a Pooh Bear episode over Mickey Mouse Playhouse. Go figure.
  
• It turns out that "Gika" means a lot more than I thought. At first it referred only to Mickey Mouse, but she has been using it for just about anything that she doesn't know the word for. We will work on eliminating it from her vocab over time.

• Every time she hangs out with her cousin Lincoln (6 months older) she learns at least one new word.
• I really like hanging out with her everyday. It is amazing how much she picks up from observing the world. Plus she's just stinking adorable.
• I have way too many pictures of her reaching out for the camera.
  

no subject

We played with toys downstairs without turning on the TV!

No matter what, this day will be counted a success.

Midsummer Photo Dump

I have no excuse for being such a bad blogger. I can haz forgiveness?

Here is a quick rundown of probably the least important (but most camera-handy) things we have done in the last month or so.
(in no particular order, i'm too lazy)

Coloring up a storm!

helping mommy can apricots (not)

Canning apricots

Watching Mickey Mouse. (Gika? Schow?)

Finding our pockets, acting casual.

Big sucker from Uncle Dave. So messy.

Looking precocious in a poorly homemade dress (yeah, that's all you get to see)

Come chill out with us, k?

Recipes That Don't Work, Visual Aids

Pancakes that don't work.

Ingredients:
Pancake mix
Egg
Oil
Water
Screaming baby

Start with the screaming baby, that won't let you put her down without screaming (example 1.1)

Then get out a bowl and crack the egg into the bottom (example 1.2)

Then get out a pan, spray it and place it on the stove next to the bowl.

Don't forget about the screaming child.

Scoop one cup of pancake mix out and accidentally pour it in the pan instead of the bowl (example 1.3)

laugh, get out the camera, and give the baby a hug.

Congratulations! You tried to make pancakes and it didn't work!

Recognition

I would just like to recognize my mom for hosting such a fabulous and friendly family reunion last week. It was a lot of fun (despite no Ben, no cell phone and no internet). Anna had a blast playing and getting into trouble. Unfortunately, my camera had some problems, so the only pictures I got were from the first day, before anyone else got there.



We stayed in Junction, Utah. If you've never heard of it, there is a reason. We rented out the old county courthouse, which is advertised as the place for family reunions. It was big and spacious with a fully stocked kitchen, bathrooms, toy room and toy shed. We had about 35 Aunts, Uncles and Cousins come and spend a few days together and I think everyone had a great time.

Thanks Aunt Soup!

Photo Dump, gotta love them.

This is a mish mash of the last month or so, in no particular order.

yum, spaghetti sauce...

"hi!"

Grumma and Sophie at the baseball game

Jethro and Linc at the baseball game. (can you guess where the game is?)

Pool time after softball

At the Zoo (This was within the first 30 minutes, when she was still willing to hold still)

Penguins.

First Quilt

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check this link and participate if you want.

I am such a beginner, that I have only finished one quilt that I am really proud of, so here is a picture. I called it my patience quilt, I bet you can guess why. And actually, this is only a picture of it laid out before I started sewing or anything.
It definitely shouldn't be viewed up close, especially by anyone who knows anything about quilting. In fact, my neighbor offered to help me finish the quilting, but I wasn't about to let her see it after admiring all the quilts she has made for her baby, so I screened her calls and finished it before she could come help.
and yet, it is on my bed.

hopefully I will at least keep pictures of all my quilts so that someday I can have a parade of quilts to look back on.

Hit 'Resume'

I apologize to any faithful readers out there for my recent lull in activity. My hard-drive crashed some 20 days ago and I was unable to access any pictures &etc. for blogging. But Ben (myhero!) has fixed the computer (for free!) and so I am back.
It's a 4th of July miracle.

Here are the Father's day pictures I was going to post

Aren't they cute?

In conclusion...we're playing softball at 3:00 today, so I hope you can come.

character story

If there was one moment today that epitomized the entire day it was during snack time.

I got up out of my chair to get the raisins (because what is snack time without them?) then tripped over(trying not to smash), and subsequently smashed, a small paper cup shaped like a cheetah that I had saved in case Anna wanted to play with it. I felt bad for about an instant, then realized that Anna had showed no interest whatsoever for this cup that claimed to be an animal but did not make a recognizable animal sound (to her). Then I felt much stupider that I was willing to fall over to keep from smashing a paper cup.
I then realized the futility of my efforts to give her a piece of garbage to play with. She's much too clever for that. If she wanted to play with garbage, she would get it out of the trash can, like a respectable baby.
So as I returned the raisins to their shelf, I tossed the cheetahCup, hopefully it has taught me a lesson...I'll let you know what it is when I figure it out.

So far it has only given me fodder for a new blog post.

New Segment

Now that we've given up on WAYD/HDYDT, we are moving on Stuff Anna Fell Off of Recently (SAFOR, that's easier to remember)
In the last 16 hours Anna has

• fallen off of a couch at our friends house, I think she was mostly scared but she might have hit her face on an empty glass.
• fallen off of our bed, gravity, however was foiled as her face hit the night table and all downward motion was halted. Resulting in a scar on her chin
• gotten pushed down cement stairs in nursery by a boy who had only minutes before been giving her kisses. (some of us are still a little traumatized by this one.)
  

When we were in Cedar, Anna fell down in a parking lot and got some scratches on one side of her face. It's that time that my mother-in-law declares that children would die if given half a chance.

Soda

I wish I had her metabolism.

Best Vacation Ever

When I say that I went on the best/most relaxing vacation ever, that doesn't mean that I didn't like any vacations I've taken with you personally. Except for some. But the point is that I never knew how nice it was to take a vacation by yourself. Anna and I road tripped down to Cedar City on Wednesday morning, stayed with family and played/hiked/swam and partied in such a pleasant, unhurried, well-paced manner as to maximize enjoyment and minimize frustration - despite the very relevant fact that I had forgotten my toothbrush, pajamas and reading materials.

We stayed with my Aunt, the greatest of hostesses, who entreated me to feel at home so convincingly, that it wasn't long before Anna walked around like she owned the place. They kept us well fed and rested and even rescheduled a 4 year-old granddaughters birthday party so that we could attend.
We were basically an autonomous little unit, Anna and I, though we spent time with various cousins and such - changing company several times a day even - we were always productive and happy. Whatever scheduled events (most of which were conveniently pre-determined and kept us from having to entertain ourselves) we did have never overlapped or suffered from miscommunication. Anna napped in the car and slept through the night. I didn't take pictures, nor did I feel like I needed to, we were in such a natural state of calm distraction.

I think my favorite aspect (aside from the food and family which were both excellent) was the autonomy - I didn't have to consult with others in my party about where we should go, what we should do/eat/buy, I don't think I have ever done that, it was liberating not having to make decisions in general. Unfortunately, i can't really share that joy with anyone because that would obviously ruin it. But if you need a good trip, go somewhere familiar with lots of wholesome recreational activity, and see what it can do for you.

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.