Happy St Paddy's Day

Manatee mania

A couple shots from New Year's when Adda, Da and Elin were here. We went to see the manatees that are taking refuge from the cold at the Appolo Beach power plant, and Lenna just loved them. She carries her baby and mommy manatee with her everywhere now, and when it gets cold out, she worries about them finding the warm water.

Driving to school the other day:
Lenna: Mommy, this is the highway, right?
Me: yep.
Lenna: so where is the low-way?

Eating breakfast, listening to NPR, the news person was talking about the Middle East, and Lenna thought it was the funniest thing in the world that there was a country named "Turkey."

Tomorrow is Today

Lenna's concept of time is fascinating. Anything that happened in the past happened "yesterday," and anything that is to come in the future will happen "tomorrow." The past she understands better than the future, but it is still just "yesterday." When we talk about the future though, she says "but Momma, tomorrow IS today!" And it's not like she has said this only once, she says it all the time, so she means it. And you know, I think she is absolutely spot on. What you do today shapes your tomorrow. Tomorrow IS today.

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: