Late for work and...

Funny what you find yourself doing, sometimes. Lenna and I are racing around, late for work / school. I just about have her out the door and she announces frantically "squirrel needs to go potty!" Lately it takes longer to engage her in logical negotiations than it does to just play along, and so there I am, putting the lunch boxes and backpacks and coffee down, to hold a stuffed squirrel over the toilet so he can go potty.

Some photos from Thanksgiving in Door Co.

Disney Halloween

We went to Walt Disney World's Magic kingdom to celebrate Lenna's third birthday. Lenna wore her "princess mermaid" costume all day (we had a lot of fun with glitter and glue), and she got to personally meet Arial, in all her glittery glory. Overall, I think she really enjoyed the Disney experience. There were some highs (riding the carousel, seeing Cinderella and other princesses on stage), and some lows (Tigger scared the crap out of her), followed by some redemption (Piglet was not so bad). The pool at the hotel was also thoroughly enjoyed. Here are a few more photos:

End to a busy summer

Hi Everyone,

Long hiatus again, sorry, got pretty busy there with fieldwork. So now we are coming into autumn, my favorite time of year. I love watching the days get shorter each day, anticipating that first real cold front, that crisp refreshing smell in the air...

Anyway, here are a few photos from our trip to Rado... Norah is just a little gem, so beautiful. Lenna says (eyes squinting, really high pitched voice) "she's so tiny..." (demonstrating with pincer and thumb about a cm apart) "she's this big."





Some funny Lenna quotes as of late:

Mommy: Lenna want some avacado? I like avacado, Ada likes avacado, I'm sure you'd like avacado.

Lenna: No, 'cado is yucky Mommy food.

In the bath: "I can't talk right now, Mommy, I have water in my ears!"

Door County

Lenna and I had a great time up North last week. Ada, Da, Bumpa, and Lane-a were all there, and we spent a good five days up at the Door Co. house. We went out in the boat (after much effort by Lane-a and Da), and went to a farm one day to pet animals, but mostly we just hung out on the lake, my most favorite spot. Lots of water color painting, fossil hunting, wildflower gathering, and doll house building, too. We had spectacular low 70's weather at the house, even though it was 90's in town... thanks to the lake being about 59 degrees at most. Great kayaking, only hardy Pacific northwesterner Elin went swimming in it, but Lenna loved swimming in the hot tub.

At the farm with Ada:


What is Da doing??


Painting:


Bumpa and Lane-a on the boat:

Lenna starts gymnastics

Lenna was climbing the furniture and wanting to do handstands (wheel-barrel style) all the time, so I looked in to the local gyms. Just so happens that the best place in town is less than a mile from our house, so I signed her up. It is really strange being in a gym again, I have to say. It seems like yesterday. She is really enjoying it so far; beam is her favorite I think. The staff does a great job keeping it fun, with obstacle courses and creative activities. She loves watching "the big girls"... they are pretty good: I see giants and double-backs on bars, and the coaches aren't smelly and constantly picking their nose, so already a vast improvement from the good ole days. Nice equipment, very clean, even the pit... you can actually purchase foam cubes now instead of cutting up old couch cushions! Let's see if I can post a short video of Lenna on the beam:


And just as a quick footnote, Lenna is completely potty-trained. She asked me if she could wear her "meowie pants" to bed about three weeks ago, and that was that. No more over-night pull-ups.

I spy an Ibis

This past weekend at the beach, Lenna and I were looking at some birds wading near the intercoastal. I explained to her how to identify White Ibis (long, curved bill, red face, white feathers), figuring that this was mostly going over her head but that she might file it away somewhere in her little brain. Well today, we're getting out of the car after school, and she points and says "mommy, look at the ibis." As I finish collecting all of our bags out of the car, I'm thinking she must have mixed up what I told her about the birds, because very rarely are there White Ibis hanging around our neighborhood, and when they are here, they're usually picking around for bugs in someone's yard, not up on the telephone wire where she was pointing... Well, sure enough, there were two White Ibis standing on top of a street lamp...

Some good shots from "Adda Da Rado house:"

Thanks, Karen and Kuffy, for a great week. Here's a cute one:

Lenna and Da, and the furthest we got Lenna with the skis this time around:

Lenna and Adda:

Potty-mania!

I am so proud of Lenna today... we've been working on the potty training thing for a little while, but not pushing too hard. We were at target the other day, and she went over to the underwear section by herself and picked out a packet of underwear with cats on them, totally on her own accord. So, I thought, okay may be she's ready. Ever since purchasing the "meowie pants" as she calls them, she is very excited about going to the potty because she gets to wear them for about an hour after she goes. Today was the first morning I was able to convince her to go; it's been a nighttime activity up until now. So, since she went, I brought her to school in her "meowie pants" as I had promised, assuming the teachers would deal with an accident and then put the pull-ups on. Well much to my amazement, I went to pick her up after school and she was still in her meowie pants! The teachers said they couldn't believe it, she just went in the bathroom by herself whenever she need to go, didn't have any accidents, and seemed totally comfortable with the whole transition! We'll see if it sticks, but for now she's totally into it. I was telling her how proud of her I was on the way home, and listing all the other people that were proud of her, and then she said "Lenna proud." ... and that just made me melt.

I thought about posting a cute photo of her on the potty, but I decided to spare her the embarrassing visual archive.

Happy 2009

I'm afraid being on facebook has taken away from the blogging... it's been a while since I updated. Here are some recent photos of Lenna. She's doing really well. Talking in sentences, sometimes I can see her train of thought so clearly it takes me by surprise. Tonight we came in the house and she said "my bike" "Da" (what she calls Grandpa Kuff), "reach", "pedals"... she was telling me about the blocks that my Dad put on her tricycle so that she could reach the pedals. The level of communication seems to jump up a notch every week, it is truly amazing to experience.