Saturday, October 22, 2005
Haiku (because I know you've been missing it)
Loving her mommy
Hugs and kisses all the time
Well worth waiting for.

Baby girl is one
What a year it's been for us
Where did the time go?
My daughter has a future in waste management
Apparently that's where her interests lie. When we're in the kitchen getting dinner ready her circuit goes from the toilet, to the dog water bowl, to the recycling can, to the trash can. She opens every lid. I've caught her dipping her finger and tasting the water from the dog bowl and the toilet. I can't tell you how that squicks me out. So, note to self, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER forget to flush the toilet.

Oh and on a related matter she ate a fly today. I'm pretty sure that's what it was. When I stuck a finger in to fish it out for identification purposes she bit me good. Bon appetit.
Protection from the woodstove
This year we decided that we needed to protect Emma from the woodstove. No matter how well we were able to train her to stay away from it, she would never fully understand until she was burned. On a woodstove that can be catastrophic. M. decided to build a fence around it. Even if Emma was careful, there is a chance the dogs could knock her against the stove, or she could trip and fall against it. Here is the fence M. is building (it's cedar):



This photo might give you an idea of how the fence is taking over the living room, we have about 2/3 of the room left to actually occupy.



The dowels will be chopped down and have nice knobs added to the top. M. still needs to complete the anchors to the wall. The whole front part swings out for access to stoke the stove. It looks really nice IRL.
Saturday Foliage Update
It's still overcast and raining, but at least you can see the colors today:


Friday, October 21, 2005
Friday Night Billy Idol
Just cause I feel like it.

Casual Friday outfit...
I thought we'd let her be comfortable today...

Dancin Fool
Sorry the video is dark. It's pretty cute just the same...

Thursday, October 20, 2005
Today's outfit ;)
This one was from Aunt Teresa. Dressing girls is so much fun!

New Display
Today Emma was back at the library to visit her friend Miss Angelika. They've changed the display in the glass case but it seemed to be just as interesting to Emma as the horseys.

Visiting Miss Angelika
Here Emma is perusing the graphic novels and flirting with Miss Angelika...

Foliage Update
Sadly, we had a heavy haze today so the vibrant colors of the changing leaves were obscured. I took the same location picture as last time...

And then a zoom shot...
This one is for Uncle B.
Emma loves cooked carrots. She will motor them down one by one until they are gone. And she eats a lot of them. Tonight on her tray she had cooked carrots and leftover macaroni and cheese that Noni sent over. Lets see, who do you think this child takes after?



A few minutes later...
Peak Update
The leaves here still haven't hit their peak of fall color. Last year it happened around the 13th or so. This year it's taking much longer. In this photo you can see a little color. I thought I'd go ahead and show you a picture today since we at least had blue sky. I may try to take a new picture each day to show you progress.

Climbing the front porch steps
Thankfully the main entrance is at the back of the house. Ignore the rotting steps; if they belonged to me I'd do something about it. Try to focus instead on the baby practicing her climbing.

Face plant #234
My child seems to walk around with no regard for anything happening below her waist. I can see she is going to trip over something from a mile away and she just keeps on going till she's down. She doesn't even look.

I love this Laugh and Learn House we got for her but in order for it to be stable it protrudes into the floor at four corners. For a walking child this is just a miserable, cruel joke. She can't walk around it to play without tripping at all four corners. You might think she'd learn...well sometimes she avoids one. But more often than not it's CRASH! She doesn't seem to mind so much, but it's hard for a mommy to watch.

And then all the toys on the floor trip her up continually. To her, playing IS littering the floor with toys. Those same toys trip her up every few steps.

I also wish my feet were retractable. I can't even count how many times she's tripped over my feet, walking in front of me when I'm sitting. I can't make the suckers disappear but she continues to fall over the same feet again and again.
Awwwwww...
Some recent developments give me hope for my little sweetheart. First, she now tolerates and even enjoys being hugged and cuddled. This isn't something you really feel inclined to advertise to the mommy world, but until now she's been a bit averse to affection. It's not that she didn't like it per se, it's more like she had places to go and people to see and...Get Off Me! Now she hugs back.

Not only that, but she'll walk over to us and put her head down on our laps. That's hard to miscontrue. I believe it's affection.

She's also showing cuddling behavior to her stuffed animals. She'll grab one, collapse to the floor and then bend over and bury her face it it. It's really cute to watch.

So, in conclusion, I have hope now that my child will learn to love. Silly that anyone might worry about such a thing? Not so much.

UPDATE: I need to amend this to acknowledge that she has been giving kisses for awhile, but hey, that might have been a defensive maneuver ;)
Every princess needs a throne...
So with her Toys R Us gift certificate from her Great Aunt Patty she'll be getting this:

Tuesday, October 18, 2005
It's been a week since I've posted video so...
She's showing off her outfit for today and making the acquaintance of the radiator heater in her room:

Mommy likes this outfit
Pants from Target, shirt from Jacques C. Penne. After all, my favorite color is purple. Plus I like the way the pants fit her. Not like clown pants, right Popi?

Monday, October 17, 2005
The Big Bag of Joy
This big yellow bag is at Noni's house. It contains, almost exclusively, fast food "happy meal" toys. Noni often gets happy meals for their smaller portions. She always asks for the toddler toy now. Emma loves to sit there and remove the toys one by one, tasting each one as she goes. This activity will entertain her for a long, long time.

 
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A pic to remind you where you are...
Since the navbar continues to obscure my title.

 
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The final gasp of birthday celebrating...
My MIL took us out for dinner tonight. We went to a buffet at a nice little restaurant that serves cuisine instead of food. It was good nonetheless. Emma was a good girl once again. She grew impatient a couple of times but distraction and redirection are my friend. I really love the booster seat we got for her and couldn't live without the tray now.

Unfortunately after the nice meal I had a board meeting to attend, and you should know by now how I feel about that...
Bloated Navbar
Please be patient with the Blogger navbar at the top of the page. It seems to be ganging up on my title and trying to swallow it whole. You are indeed at A Deviated Path. I've emailed Blogger for help but I'm not holding my breath. If anyone has any experience with renegade navbars please let me know.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Today's outfit
This outfit was a gift from a friend in Florida. It's not the first thing I would have picked, but I thought it was quite cute and feminine and I really liked the cherries. I thought Emma looked adorable in it. Popi pronounced them "clown pants."

 
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Outdoor life
Popi went down to his garden to pick some peppers and tomatos. She watched but didn't get too involved. Didn't want to give him any ideas ;) Actually, she'll have to overcome her distaste for grass before she's going to be able to have much fun outside.

 
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Birthday Bear
She's cuddling her 1st Birthday Bear given to her by her great grandmother. Cuddling stuffed animals is fairly new with her but endearing every time.

 
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See the world through my mouth
So you'd think letting her out on a deck that was closed off at the entrance would be safe. Well, here she found pots of dirt and is knawing on an unidentified piece of dried up plant life.

 
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She is Maaaaad!
...
She wanted to play in the dirt pots some more but we wouldn't let her:
 
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Mommy's Cake
It's a white cake with white confectioner's sugar icing which is then coated with bitter chocolate to counteract the super sweetness. Yum! My family calls it Pop's cake because is was my grandfather's favorite.