Saturday, November 04, 2006
Dear Emma
Since I pretty much abandoned your baby book when I started this blog, I want to record this here for you...

Most of the things you say now come out in complete sentences. You are astounding us every day with the things that you say. Daddy was playing with you and you were playing with your Little People house. He said you had a running commentary of what was going on. You were playing with the mommy and you said "Mommy's going to park the car in the house." Sometimes we don't understand every word of a sentence, but you say it so confidently that we know it's just our ignorance preventing us from understanding ;)

Tonight as I was driving home you were watching your Little Einsteins DVD. You were giving me a running narrative of what was happening onscreen. Sometimes you'd even holler out the words to the program before the characters did. You are such a little sponge.

Oh, and the cutest thing happened today. First let me say that you've been driving me mad because when I say "I love you" to you, you never say anything. When Noni says it you reply "I wub you." I made a gripey comment about it the other night to M. The next night when he brought you up from the bath he held you in front of me and said "Now what were you going to tell Mommy." You smiled and said "I wub you."

So today we were sitting at Wendy's and Noni had just walked off to get drink refills. I looked across the table and said "I love you" and winked at you. You said, "I wub you" and scrunched your little face up to wink back. My heart swelled.
Recognize this face?


This is Emma at four days old. Hard to believe, isn't it?
Friday, November 03, 2006
TGIF
First, the obligatory picture of Emma. I asked her nicely if I could take a picture of her outfit and she was less than cooperative. So you go with what you've got.




We're headed to Noni and Popi's tonight, after bath and pajamas are put on. Tomorrow I promised to take Noni along to Sam's Club in Charlottesville. I joined online and need to pick up my card and have a look around. I also need to find a black pair of pants. Wish me luck!
Thursday, November 02, 2006
You do realize...?
That it's time to start thinking about Christmas shopping now. I've had two major ideas for M and he knows what both of them are. Feh. One should arrive via Amazon next week. The other I have yet to order. What else do you get for the man who has all the clothes and tools he needs?
Beaky Horner
This is what it looks like when Beaker tries to insinuate himself onto the couch. Real subtle, ain't he?

Adios, Emma!
She's taking her pumpkins and moving into her own studio apartment.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006
My favorite Halloween decoration
I don't know why I like it, but I do.

Halloween Candy
This is a one gallon bag, folks. Yikes. Guess who ends up eating it? Not her. Maybe it's the person whose ass seems to be expanding into the next state (that would be West Virginia). She'll probably never know she had chocolate. She does love the smarties and the suckers, so we'll ration those. But I had to move the candy from the pumpkin to this bag because she was moving furniture to climb up to reach her pumpkin. Oh yeah, she's all about the candy now.

I hate man-places
Women will know what I'm talking about. Man-places are places that sell man stuff and the environment is usually hostile to women. Service stations are the worst. First, they condescend to you. Secondly they take advantage of your ignorance and screw you on prices. Third, if you're actually stuck there waiting for your vehicle the waiting area is usually uncomfortable, if not downright gross. Crappy chairs, magazines from the last century and maybe a vending machine. Their actual costs always exceed their estimates by at least 30%. Having your car repaired is a hateful experience from start to finish.

Another man-place is the automotive store. Here I've found that the dudes who help you are usually pretty nice, but you don't want to step more than 10 feet away from the counter where they sit because you'll be forced to encounter other men shopping there. You know, the ones that give you that look that says "What the hell are you doing here? You couldn't possibly know what the hell you're up to. Where's your man, anyway?"

The farm and tractor store and the farm co-op are just as bad. Once again the people who help you treat you like a toddler, and if there's a man anywhere in the store they will help him before they will help you.

Car sales lots are man-places, even though they want to sell to women. And they're the worst liars.

In town there is one gas station I used to avoid like the plague because it was the hang-out for do-less men. Just to pay for your gas you had to run a gauntlet of men sitting on their asses staring at you as you made your every move. Ick. Fortunately for them they made a pay-at-the-pump upgrade so now I buy my gas at the pump and leave, skipping the whole gauntlet thing.

Honestly, it seems that wherever men congregate en mass the environment becomes hostile to women. Why is that?

I will acknowledge that there are woman-places too. I'm thinking hair salons, clothes stores, Bath and Body...But the women in those places aren't hostile to men. I might believe that they're condescending, but no hostility. So what's the deal? Am I projecting? Am I the only woman that feels this?

Are there any man-places I'm forgetting?
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Trunk or Treat Decorating
I've combined information from several posts and put them on a web page with photos. Click the link for Trunk or Treat Decorating.
The official Halloween day outfit
It required a little last minute surgery. This morning I put the shirt on her for the first time and discovered that the elastic was squeezing the stuffing out of her arms. She was highly upset. I got out my scissors and fixed it...fixed it good :)

Third and final trick or treating run
We stopped by the neighbors who live close to the store.


Then we went to throw a couple of rocks into the culvert. The fellow in the picture lives behind the store; his name is Bub. Every time he sees Emma he tries to slip her a dollar or a five-spot.


The library was giving out candy too, so we stopped by there. Just like in Noni-town she wanted to play with the toys. This time we kind of rushed her along because we wanted to stop by the sheriff's office for their goodie bag before it was time for Daddy to close the store.



After those five or six stops we went to Grandma's to watch the other costumed kids come to the door. The turnout was a big disappointment but Emma consoled herself by squirreling away Grandma's candy in her bag.

Then we headed down the road to see Sam. Sam is a 14 year-old who loves to decorate for Halloween and hand out candy to kids. Unfortunately for him he lives in the sticks, out past us. So he is doomed to frustration every year. Last year he called our house and asked us to bring our 1 year-old down to trick or treat, he was that desperate for visitors.

The one stop we made on the way to Sam's was at our neighbors across the road. Their kids used to always come trick or treat at our house till they outgrew it. We figured we owed them a few visits. That's where we'd disovered that we'd left Emma's bag of candy in town. Oops. The funny thing is that Emma went into the neighbor's house empty-handed and when she came out she was carrying a big plastic pumpkin with candy in it. Score!
Morning play
Daddy took these. She really likes hunkering down with her essentials.


Monday, October 30, 2006
Halloween (a year later)
Emma received this Halloween shirt from Holden and Heather last year. It is an 18 mo. so it was big then. She wore it some over the winter and she can still wear it.

(This will be it for pictures tonight. Blogger is acting up again)

Sunday, October 29, 2006
I'm embarrassed and ashamed of my alma mater right now...
W&M removes chapel cross to be inclusive
College officials cite chapel's use for many nonreligious events

WILLIAMSBURG -- Officials at the College of William and Mary have removed a 2-foot-high gold cross from a campus chapel they say is increasingly used for nonreligious events.

"In order to make the Wren Chapel less of a faith-specific space, and to make it more welcoming to students, faculty, staff and visitors of all faiths, the cross has been removed from the altar area," read a recent e-mail to Wren Building employees.


This was first brought to my attention at Michelle Malkin's blog. This is so wrong. This chapel has been a part of the campus for over 300 years. It's a sacred place when it warrants and secular place when allowed. My Circle K club had member inductions there. It was an honor to use the room and it added gravitas to the ceremonies. We knew we were in a sacred and holy place and we behaved appropriately. Why in the world would they banish the cross for even one minute? For the sake of "inclusiveness?" Give me a break! It's a CHAPEL, it has been for 300 years! Perhaps they should be more focused on preserving the dignity and integrity of the place instead of turning it into a general purpose romper room.

And how about people of other faiths "tolerating" a cross in a Chapel? Is that too much to ask? Why do Christians always get the short end of the tolerance stick. I'm tired of it.

Mind you, this is the same W&M administration that has been fighting the NCAA to keep feathers in the W&M athletic logo and Tribe as the team name. Hypocrisy anyone? They're not worried about the miniscule possibility of offending native Americans (the local Virginia tribes have no objections), but it's OK to toss a cross from the Chapel? I'm really disgusted by all of this.

I love my alma mater and will actually be visiting in two weeks. I honestly cannont imagine that this decision will hold. I'm sure I'm not the only alumnus disgusted by this administration's craven pandering to political correctness.

Trunk or Treat 2006
It was cold and super-windy, and every once in a while it would start sprinkling. Pretty miserable. Emma and I did stop by every trunk though. There was a wide variety of creative ideas on display.

Here she's taking shelter in the Patrol from the wind and rain.


This guy was set up straight across from Noni. Emma was fascinated, of course.


Here are cousin C and Noni passing out candy...


The cousins arrived just in time for the crowds to die down.


Uncle B playing with cousin M's hat.



If you would like to see more on the actual trunks that were on display click here to view a web page I set up this morning Trunk or Treat Decorating
Trick or Treating in Town
Saturday the downtown merchants were offering trick or treating around the court square. We took Emma. It was pretty cold and very windy. She walked the whole way and only complained at the end. She was tired so we didn't hold it against her.


Emma likes her Tiggers smaller than her.


We stopped by the library for a free book and treat. Emma wanted to play with the toys there so we let her. The day was supposed to be about fun for her, so why not?



Near the end, when she insisted on being carried. Let me tell you, at nearly 30 lbs. fully dressed, carrying her is work now.