Saturday, June 16, 2007
Unconventional
Emma will wear her necklace however she wants to wear it, thank you very much.

Our Friday night...
I had plans to read a book. Which I actually did accomplish in the midst of another project. M came home and said that someone was coming Saturday to bring us water for the pool. He'd been putting out feelers around town and his bank teller "girlfriend" said her husband would bring us a tank of water Saturday. Great! Except...we still needed to level the ground and install the pool.

This meant we had to remove all the sod in a nine foot radius and level the ground where there was a difference of eight inches. First we moved dirt around and then we dumped most of a truckload of sand. We were actually able to achieve a level circle. M ran back to the store at 11:00 p.m. to get a more suitable sized tarp to lay over the sand and under the pool.

Next we laid out the pool and filled the ring with air. Thankfully the air compressor wasn't all that loud in the still night. We filled pool with about an inch of water, as recommended in the directions, and began the painstaking process of smoothing out the wrinkles in the bottom. After that M filled the pool with about eight inches of water from our well. While the pool filled I finished my book. We went to bed around 1:00 a.m.

This morning the dude arrived with a tank of water from his spring. He parked on the hill and it took almost two hours for the tank to empty into our pool. They just used the hose to set up a gravity fed system. His tank about topped off the pool. I'll let M make the final decision, but I think it's full enough.

After the dude left I pulled out the solar cover we had bought so we could start the process of warming up the water. It's probably about 57 or 58 degrees now, so we have a ways to go.

Not bad for two hacks.


Anyone need some sod?


This was where we were near 1:00 a.m.


You can see the truck up the hill with the water tank full of spring water.


Emma inspects her new pool with the solar cover on it.

Overheard...
Hey biddle biddle,
The cat's in the middle,
The cow...

That's as far as she gets.
Reasons I don't miss the paci...
1. Not worrying all the time about her causing herself buck teeth.

2. Glad to be freed of the burden of schlepping that stuff everywhere and having it available at a moments notice.

3. She's talking a lot more and is terribly entertaining. I'm enjoying it immensely.
Big Girl Bed
Emma's move to her big girl bed is now official. We got rid of the Snoopy sheets she's had since incubation and replaced them with Dora sheets. Yeah, Dora. Whatever.

"Oooooooh, Doraaaa!"


Last day at the pool
She had a great time and she was a good girl that day. We stayed there a long time.




Emma's $1 kite
When we told her we were going to fly her kite she became alarmed. She didn't want to go high into the sky. We couldn't convince her that it was the kite going in the sky, not her.

File Under: Things that defy explanation...
UPDATED: M reminded me that there was an explanation. She put one foot in each box and declared them "boots."


Monday, June 11, 2007
I hate to jinx myself...
But I did it anyway. I actually mentioned on my mommy board today that we had been paci and Tigger free for ten days. When we arrived at the beach house she never asked for it. She did naps, bedtimes, everything without paci or Tigger. How could we pass up the opportunity to make it permanent?

On the way home from the beach was the first test. We turned off her show and asked her to close her eyes and take a nap. She asked for paci and Tigger. We told her they were in the trunk and we couldn't get them. She went into hysterics. She now does full blown tantrums with shrieks. She tenses up her whole body, and if she's throwing the fit over paci or food, she'll slap her open mouth too. It's a sight to behold. We cut off that fit by turning her show back on to distract her. She fell asleep watching it twenty minutes later.

When we got home Saturday she never asked for paci at bedtime. We've been trying to add books to her bedtime routine to distract her from the fact that there's no paci and Tigger. She takes the books to bed with her. We also sprung the big girl bed on her too, while we were mixing things up. She thinks her bed is broken.

No mention of paci and Tigger Sunday.

I figured today would be the reckoning. We're back into her routine. She always wants her paci first thing when she gets in the car after being picked up at Mary's. Today was no exception. I told her there was no paci. She got upset. Then the shrieking started. Then the bucking in her seat and mouth beating. I felt bad for her, but this has to be done, there's no going back. She carried on for a long time, then she told me "Stop driving."
I was like, "whaaaaa?"
"Stop driving, stop driving, stop driving."
"Emma I'm driving us home."
"Stop driving."
"Emma, you're a big girl now, you don't need a paci."
"I'm not."
"You're a big girl in a big girl's bed now."
"I'm not, I'm not. I'm a baby, Mommy. I'm a baby. I'm a baby. I'm a baby. I'm a baby, Mommy!"

This went on and on and on and it was pretty pitiful. Until I remembered I had a present for her (God bless you, Leslie, and thank you). I handed her an envelope and she opened it to find a Dora coloring book and crayons. From then on she was quiet while she concentrated on coloring in her new book.

I'm telling you, I think distraction is our ticket to paci freedom. If it comes to it I'm amenable to giving her Tigger back, but paci is a goner.
What do you see?
When I said I was going to take a picture of a knot hole in the steps that looked like a bird I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy...


Some detail for you...

Sunset on Thursday
Most days we got to see the sun rise and set with Emma.

Mad Crabber
Emma commented on these big crabs whenever we drove by. Daddy decided to stop by and introduce ourselves to them.

Sunday, June 10, 2007
We're home
It was easy to tell when we woke up to 49 degree temperatures this morning.
Fearfulness
This is new. She's become afraid of things she's known since birth. She's been afraid of motorcycles that make loud noise since we went on our camping trip. Just seeing one will make her want to take the long way around.

She's afraid of cows now. She was playing on her play structure when we got home last night. The cows were moving toward the fence in front of us and she wanted to get away from them. She's been around cows forever, why this now?

Then there's the ocean. She never got over it. We never forced her to go back again. When she freaked out at seeing the sound, too, we gave up. Maybe next time. Her fear and aversion is so great that she has renamed items. Her beach shoes are now pool shoes. Her beach toys are pool toys. Even a beach ball is now a pool ball. You know she's got it bad when she argues vehemently that the piece of driftwood we gave her came from the pool.

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