Saturday, July 01, 2006
An unconventional view
It's kind of cool how tiny people know no boundaries and see the world from all sorts of perspectives that we never would. She'll have a lifetime to learn her boundaries, I'd like to let her range free while she can ;)



Lots of new words
We're hearing more every day. Some recent additions to her vocabulary:
tractor
pretty
Tigger
flower
thank you
deer
rock
cracker
strawberries
water (wa wa)
boat
ride
Ingenuity
After I packed the lunches yesterday I walked by Emma's pack n play to head upstairs to get dressed. I saw that she was sitting in her camp chair. I wondered how it got in there and made a mental note to ask M. if he'd given it to her. He hadn't. She had reached it all by herself and drug it in there and set it up. It gets her high enough to see Elmo on TV over the edge. Smart girl.


Working on her breakfast as she watches...


She looks pretty comfy...


When I came downstairs she had turned the chair around so it faced the right way...


We did not fail to notice that she has orchestrated the means for her escape. So far she hasn't tried it, but it's only a matter of time.
Shot Glass of the Day
This one was a gift from my brother. I'm not sure if it's from Korea or Thailand. He was in Korea for his first posting after becoming a Second Lieutenant. He left in 1996 and was gone for a full year. A year is a long time not to see your brother, especially when your family is pretty close. He was stationed at a camp close enough to the DMZ that it was men only. I think he was attached to a cavalry unit. His only real vacation during that time was to Thailand. I'm pretty sure he went to Phuket, which was one of the areas that was wiped out by the tsunami. If I recall correctly he even stayed in one of those huts over the water. Maybe I should check with him and see which country this thing even comes from. ;)

A New Look!
For the second half of the year. There was nothing wrong with my old look, it was the functionality that stunk. I didn't discover the problem until this week. I finally went to archive all my posts since October. Once I changed to the Cadillac template it buggered up how the blog looked when you printed a page or saved it to .pdf form. It made one narrow column down the middle and took a ridiculous amount of pages to print out. Not that I actually printed it, but anyway...

So we have a new look. I found an awesome template generator which is linked from the right hand column. I made my banner and scanned it and worked around it. It was fun. I hope you likey!
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Shot Glass of the Day
This shot glass is from Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. Early in our marriage M. and I rode our motorcycles there from Mom and Dad's to take the tour. We had a very nice visit there. Then we road into Charlottesville so M. could take me to The Hardware Store for lunch. I think it had a micro-brewery before they were cool. Anyway it was closed. But we found a nice little place downtown and had lunch. I remember the cheesecake, but then I would. We hit the interstate to head back and it started raining almost immediately. It was really pouring so we stopped at a rest stop and tried to wait it out. We didn't have much luck with that; we waited a long time and it never did quit. So we just gritted our teeth and hit the road again. I had the worst end of the deal. M's motorcycle had a windshield so the rain was blowing around him. I had no windshield so the rain was basically blowing in my crotch. Fun, fun! Nothing like riding down the interstate with a cold wet crotch.

Once again, I have no idea...
We had tacos for supper tonight. Usually I fix a little bowl with taco meat with cheese sprinkled on it for Emma to eat. She eats it with a fork, more or less. Tonight she ate maybe three bites and dumped the rest or otherwise made it disappear. After her bowl was completely empty of meat and cheese she decided to sprinkle water into it and then drink the water. Yummy!



Driveway Roses
These are naturalized roses, as M. calls them. There a row of bushes as you turn onto the road from our driveway. They're over the cattle guard so I can't go visit them with Emma unless I carry her across. Anyway, there is an explosion of roses around this time every year and it's quite beautiful. It's just getting started so when it reaches maximum blossom I'll take more pictures.


Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Shot Glass of the Day
Did anyone miss it yesterday? Yeah, I didn't think so. But screw it, I'm gonna finish this series. Here is the last glass of the Florida trip for Uncle B's graduation. M. and I decided we wanted to see the Gulf Coast so for the last couple of days we headed west. Amazingly we went without reservations set; we figured we'd pick a place when we got there. I think we ended up staying at a Holiday Inn on the water. Treasure Island ended up being our stopping point. We spent two nights there and saw the Don Cesar. We went out for Mexican food, and crab legs and I got sunburnt to a crisp. One vivid memory I have of that trip was the last night of our vacation The Wizard of Oz was on the tube as we were packing. M. thought we should stop and go out for a walk for a while. As we're walking along the beach we hear the sound of a solitary bagpipe playing tunes. We finally pass by where this guy, in a kilt, is practicing under the canopy of a closed food joint. Surreal and wonderful.

Mark your calendars
I read a book today. I'd have more time for reading if I didn't fritter away all my time on blogs and boards. But like watching a movie, sitting down with a book is a time commitment that I have a hard time making. It's weird, I know.

I read Janet Evanovich's "Twelve Sharp." I had low expectations going into this one. I mean, how much longer can Stephanie dither between Joe and Ranger and it still be interesting and plausible? I was pleasantly surprised. She managed to pull it off for one more book. And, this book focuses a lot on Ranger, which was good. It's always interesting to peel back the layers on a mystery man. All the familiar characters were present, except Stephanie's sister, which I counted as a blessing anyway. We meet a couple of new potential "regulars." I won't go on anymore because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I enjoyed the book. I may have to read another one someday ;)
Rock thrower
Look out Ernest T. Bass, there's a new kid in town!

M. took Emma to the culvert to enjoy the dwindling stream running underneath the driveway. The object of the game is to collect the best rocks and throw them into the water. He shot thirty pictures trying to catch a good throw in motion.


Cart games
M. said she was trying to release the cart so it would roll down the hill and sit back down so she could enjoy the show. Unfortunately there's no way she could sit down fast enough...



Playing on the slide
I love the long wisp of hair floating in this pic...


An unusual expression...

Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Unexpected pleasure for Emma
After four days of rain the water finally got high enough to rise in the culvert under the driveway. We had been at drought conditions so it took a lot of rain to get there. We've had over six inches in four days. This means we had a creek where there usually isn't one. Of course I had to take Emma to see it. She loved it. Wawa! Wawa! We start with the usual view looking quite unusual...


Here's the water flowing away from the culvert...


Here it is above the culvert...


Emma is so excited about all the wawa...


Even the little puddle...


And like all puddles it was just asking for a good stompin'



We threw the stick for Beakey into the water. Labs are water dogs so he was in heaven too. Emma and I threw rocks into the water and she thought that was a hoot. Beaker splashed her a good one and soaked her pants. She freaked out and we had to take them off then and there. Her shoes were saturated and her shirt front was muddy from collecting rocks against her chest. Just a great kid-playing adventure.
They're Heeeeeere...
Visitors. At this time of year their coats are really red and it's easy to pick them out. When autumn approaches their coats will turn greyer and they'll blend into the background more easily. Just in time for hunting season.

Nugget hound
I climbed down off of my high horse and finally bought a bag of frozen chicken nuggets. Costco had a sale. Dinosaur shaped. I'm such a MOM. Anyway, do you see how she stuffs her face sometimes? It's nuts. She'll sit there with a mouth full and be signing for more. We literally have to tell her to eat what's in her mouth and then she can have more.

She has actually choked four or five times. I don't have to tell the moms out there how horrifying that is. Once I went so far as to flip her upside down and beat her back. It worked. That time she was eating peanut butter filled pretzels. A few times I've gotten as far as unbuckling her chair before she puked or otherwise cleared her airway. The last time it happened was last week and it was a little piece of cut up chicken. She puked it into my hand and started crying. Makes me want to cry too.

I read something today or yesterday that said you should raise the left arm of a person who is choking because it provides for maximum opening of the airway. I hope to never have to use this knowledge.

Monday, June 26, 2006
The Courthouse
Again. It's straight across the street from the store so she likes to cross the street and check it out.


Daddy pulls a fast one
He was running errands and decided to pick Emma up and take her to the store so she could see Grandma and R. He popped his head in to my workplace at 2 minute till quitting time to tell me he had her. Surprise! It was kind of cool to skip that part of the routine for a change. We hung around at the store for a good while before Emma and I headed home.

Her own bottle
She handled the bottle really well, she never spilled it until she tripped off a step and fell. She loves it when you let her do it herself.

Shot Glass of the Day
This one is from the German neighborhood of Epcot. My ancestors came from Germany centuries ago, so we do have somewhat of a fascination for it. The back of the glass is etched with 1996.

Sunday, June 25, 2006
Camping In
At about 20 minutes till bed time Daddy set up the tent in the living room. I could hear the zipper being zipped about 100 times from another room. They played for awhile and then there was some Elmo related understanding. Hence the distressed look on her face.

Afternoon visitors
Grandma and Cousin R. stopped by to see us this afternoon. R. is staying with Grandma for the next week and she wanted to come and see Emma. It took a little while for Emma to warm up to her visitors, but once she did I think they were richly rewarded. Emma was being as cute as she could be. R. taught her the word "thunder." I'm not sure I remember exactly how it went but I think it was like "nuh nuh." They had a great time together. I'm sure we'll see more of R. this week.




Usurper
While Grandma and Cousin R. were visiting I set up the folding chair to sit in. Our "comfy" chairs are gross and disgusting because they are basically dog chairs. I usually direct guests to the clean couch (no dogs allowed) and set up a folding chair for myself. Emma came up and tried to take my finger to lead me away. I couldn't figure out what she wanted to do. I finally moved over to the couch where M. had just gotten up. This is all she wanted...my seat.

Boop
That's Emma's word for poop. She started using the word on our walks to the cattle guard. You have to keep your eyes open and look out for cow patties. Since we don't want her stepping in them we'd point them out and call them "poop." Here the cows make splatter instead of nice patties, so you really do have to watch. She'll walk along and point and say "boop." It's kind of cute, as long as she's not stepping in it.

Later after she'd mastered identifying the poop in the driveway she took a try in the yard. "Boop?" "No, that's a tree root sticking out of the ground." Pretty cute and shows she's looking out for it.

It was all fun and games till one night when I put her dinner in front of her. "Boop?"
Shot Glass of the Day
With graduation well behind us we left Melbourne, FL and headed for the interior, Orlando, FL. We were finding hotels as we went and we ended up in a serious Dog in Orlando. We consoled ourselves that we only needed to sleep there. We spent one day at Sea World and we had a fabulous time. It was the first time I ever got to touch a porpoise. And of course we saw Shamu.