Saturday, March 11, 2006
Pancake breakfast
We started off the morning at the high school for a pancake breakfast. They serve regular or buckwheat pancakes, sausage gravy, sausage or ham and pure maple syrup. I packed. Emma was not very interested in any breakfast. Which didn't turn out to be a big deal because Noni and Popi ended up going back again with a friend around 2:00 p.m. That time she ate plenty of pancakes.

The only thing I ended up buying from the crafts area was a wooden putter for Emma. I figure it's better than the glow-in-the-dark dinosaur skeleton leg.

One of the treats of the festival
Fresh kettle corn. It's actually made by a local couple that travel all over selling it. The guy stirring the pot is a registered sex offender, nice huh? But his wife and son are nice and I've known them for years. But you can bet if he looks at my daughter twice I'm prepared to scratch his eyes out.



Emma enjoying the corn.
Afternoon in the sun
This time Emma's cheeks are rosy because they're sunkissed. One of the hazards of that first beautiful sunny day of the season.


Noni and Popi took Emma to the playground for a second time this afternoon. She's really enjoyed swinging, but Noni feared she was going to fall asleep on it.


By the end of the day she was so incredibly tired. She had played hard and walked half the town. She'd had only one short nap. We had to make a beeline home from Grandma G's after dinner, even abandoning Noni and Popi there to their coffee. Emma went straight to bath and straight to bed.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Big weekend
It's festival time again. That means I'll be working in the store all day Saturday and Sunday. I'll be on my feet all day, which is pretty exhausting when you're not used to it. Noni and Popi are coming over and spending Saturday night so that they can take care of Emma while we're working. The weather forecast is looking pretty good; 65 degrees with possible occasional showers. We're meeting them for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. so we'll be getting an early start tomorrow. I hope we'll have some good pictures to share with you tomorrow night!
Yay for Pepperoni!
Emma loves it! Cooked or out of the bag. We had pizza tonight and she was all done, but Daddy gave her one last pepperoni from his slice. Do you think she was happy?

Peek a Boo!
She enjoys playing peek-a-boo, holding up her own hands now. But you know toddlers, they peek between their fingers. So I have to take her hands and really cover her eyes for maximum giggles.

Playing with her doggies
I'm touching you!


The tiniest sticks are worth her attention. Think Beaker will like it?

Thursday, March 09, 2006
Stick supplier
It got to the point that every stick she picked up went to Beaker. He was puzzled, but he took them.

Photo of the Day
Blogger is having problems tonight. Not sure how much I'll be able to post.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006
92 degrees again
Except this time he meant to do it. He said around 5:00 p.m. he got the chills. When he came home he went straight to the woodstove and pumped it up. Right now he's on his knees by the couch squeezed as close to the woodstove as he can get, wearing his sweatshirt and his coat. Sigh. Men are kind of dramatic when they get sick.
The stick again
Temperatures were hanging around 50 today so when we got home I let her run around outside for a little while. She was happy, except she kept slipping and falling down in the little bit of snow we had left on the north side of the house.

Hrumph!
You know, when she's doing something forbidden the least she can do is not look so pleased with herself.

Wow, Elmo works from here too!
Don't worry, she hasn't forsaken her chair. But she now realizes that she can sit in the big chairs and watch it too.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Hello, my name is Highlandgal...
and I'm a gadget freak. I admit it. If you swiped my purse you'd get $1000 in electronics, easily. We have the cell phone, which is the cheapest item. It was $29 with a two year plan. Then the Palm Pilot, Zire 71, which I use every day because I have a Weight Watchers Journal on it to keep track of what I eat. I also have points lists, restaurant lists, and other useful WW items. I have all my DVDs listed on there so I can check if I've already bought something. And then there's the address book, date book, etc. Next we have my digital camera, which you all should have an appreciation for. It's the reason you get to see pictures every day. God forbid I should slack and miss a day. You are stern taskmasters. Finally I have the iPod. I carry it in hopes of having a spare moment to enjoy my tunes. And to have it in the car when I'm traveling.

This doesn't even take into account all the plug and play crap in my house. It's an affliction. Do you reckon there's a 12 step program for me?
Pack and hide
This was Emma this morning. She's been burying her toys under the mattress for months. Not she's decided to join the toys.

Tuesday outfit
The velvety pants were really cute all day until she got home. Then they were like a comb for dog hair. She was wearing hairpants.

A solitary activity
Now that she can climb into the big chairs herself she'll climb up there with a book. Then she'll sit quietly lifting the flaps as she flips back and forth through the book. Needless to say, Mommy finds this adorable.

Monday, March 06, 2006
Shots today
Emma had shots today. Daddy picked her up at Mary's and took her to the Health Department. Just a reminder, our Medical Center doesn't give childhood immunizations. You have to go the Health Dept. Which breaks my heart so badly cause it's free. Hee hee. I guess since the population is so small here the Health Dept. has to justify it's existence somehow.

He said she never cried or hollered. One shot in each leg. He said you could read on her face that she was thinking about it, but she kept quiet this time. Mommy's so proud of her trouper.

Daddy also said she was awfully dopey from being sleep deprived. Mary kept her up from her normal naptime so she'd be ready to go. She slept the rest of the afternoon.
1980's Music Heaven
Last night I spent hours working on a playlists for my iPod. I've mentioned that I own a ton of 80's music, but the iPod doesn't collect them nicely together and play them for you. You have to make playlists. So last night I printed out America's Top 40 year end lists of the Top 100 songs of the year, from 1980-1986. Then I went down each list and added every song I already had from that year's top 100. Here's how I did:

1980 - 47
1981 - 42
1982 - 48
1983 - 73
1984 - 78
1985 - 64
1986 - 47

Later I'll go back through my collection and add in other songs I have for each year. I just thought this would be a good starting point. I love the idea of picking a year and essentially stepping back in time. As I was compiling the list I was enjoying many memories associated with each song.
Obsolete Equipment
Emma's holding Mommy's CD Case that she got for Christmas last year. Twenty-four hours earlier she had dropped it in the (clean) toilet. It had been sitting near the woodstove drying since then. The casual fact is that now that my entire CD collection is on my iPod I won't be needing the case that much anymore. I still have a use for CD's, but not quite as often.

What the heck?
Can anyone tell me what my child is doing during the first part of this video? You do get to hear a few clear "uh oh's" in this one.

Sunday, March 05, 2006
Walk the Line
I saw the movie at Noni's Friday night. We all enjoyed it. It's one of those morally ambiguous movies of redemption. I didn't care for the way they portrayed Cash's first wife so one dimensionally. She obviously had some winning qualities or he wouldn't have married her and reproduced with her several times. But you'd never know it from the movie. Reese Witherspoon did a fine job as June Carter. Although everyone in the room commented that she outsang the real June by a country mile. It was funny because after those comments you hear June in movie explaining to John that she does comedy because she doesn't have much of a voice. She knew it too. Joaquin Phoenix was good as Johnny, a man in serious need of redemption. Other than having a gift for music, he didn't seem to have all that much to offer the world. It would have been nice at the end of the movie if they could have conveyed somehow that Johnny and June were devoted to each other for 35 years of marriage after that.

The song "Ring of Fire" has been burning in my head for two days now. I finally went to iTunes and bought it. Noni and Popi sent me home with a copy of their Johnny Cash album for music appreciation purposes.
*sigh*
She does this by herself. Believe me, we wouldn't sanction such craziness. So if you want a recommendation on the Leap Frog Activity Table, there ya go.

M. has also made the observation that her chair is now a double threat. Not only does she climb on it. She now pushes it to other locations to aim her climbing adventures.

Bedtime
We've added a pillow to her crib and a blanket, finally. I'm trying to see if she will stop moving all around her crib at night. She seems to prefer being wedged against the bars at each end of the crib. When we move her to a big girl's bed that won't be possible. This is a first baby step.