Coyote Notes

My Fabulous First Grader

2010-08-12T09:42:00.003-05:00

First Grade. Impossible. And yet, it's true. Little M is a great big fabulous first grader.

Not surprisingly, she took the first day right in stride. New school, new teacher, new friends and a handful of old ones. Such an adaptable girl. At the door, after getting directions to her class (we'd been there the day before, but you know me and directions), she said, "I know where I'm going", and insisted on going by herself. *sigh*

And her mom did okay, too. That's despite the mess of traffic and construction at the school, and multiple misdirections, both at open house and upon our arrival the morning of the first day as to just which door exactly we were supposed to go to. And the situation was even more confusing at the end of the day, as cars followed instructions to line up for pick-up quite unfortunately in the same place the buses were supposed to come in. I think the phrase, "someone should lose their job over this" was probably fairly appropriate. Made me very glad I stuck to my guns and *gasp* parked my car in the neighborhood and walked to the school building to meet my sweet girl in person, rather than sitting in my idling car for who knows how long waiting in the pick-up line (wherever it's supposed to be!) or following the strong recommendation to put her on a stiflingly hot school bus. Unfortunately, next week she'll start riding the bus on Fridays only, as I will have a long class in Tulsa this semester. The temperatures are supposed to be much cooler by then. Let's cross our fingers.

So, the day went off better than I expected, and meeting her at the building with a nice cold bottle of pink lemonade topped it off nicely, as did the smore I left in the car to melt for her in anticipation of her being starving. After all, they don't get snacks in first grade! My inquiries into how her day went and what she did were even answered with happy chattering instead of the usual "I don't know". Looks like we're off to a great start!

Summer Vacation

2010-07-25T00:17:00.006-05:00

To my great relief, and perhaps some small surprise, we pulled off a last-minute Colorado vacation with huge success. As the school year loomed closer and closer the thought of letting the summer pass with no trip whatsoever became unbearable, so we quickly reviewed our options and set off on a Colorado adventure of camping, fishing and canoeing, with some short family visits tucked in.

Our first stop was Loveland where we grilled at a nice little park, and then went boating on Horsetooth Reservoir with my sister Cindy, niece Tiffany, and her new husband, Gary. Great start to our end-of-summer fun!

After that we went over to Golden and took a nice walk along Clear Creek with my brother, Matt, Mysti, and my niece Shayla. Matt pointed out all the best fishing spots, and Madison worked hard at being just like her awesome Cousin Shayla. She may have even been convinced that the Jonas Brothers are NOT cool, after all.

Next was a quick visit with Grandma MaryAnn, then on to the mountains. We found the perfect spot at Peak One campsite, outside Frisco. Restrooms close by, right on the lake, good spot to put the tent in some trees. The area has been pretty hard-hit by beetle kill, and they've done a lot of work clearing out the dead stuff. Madison claims to love fishing, and the action was good enough to supply the first night's delicious fresh trout dinner. Of course, her idea of fishing is having her dad do everything except reel in the fish while she plays in the water and sand, then gets the excitement of bringing in the prize. Brilliant! We went canoeing the second day, which was super fun.

After two nights of camping, we packed up and headed on to Leadville for a hotel room, showers, and some touring of Jay's childhood memories. On the way there, we tried to ride the gondola in Vail, but were stormed out. A nice train ride up the mountain, and somewhat underwhelming tour of an old mine finished off that leg of our adventure, then back through Vail to make another, more successful stab at the gondola ride. Gorgeous views from the top!

A last chunk of quality time with Grandma Mary Ann and a lovely drive around Indian and Elkhorn Mtns rounded out our whirlwind trip. It was quite possibly the smoothest and most relaxing, yet fun-filled trip ever. Perhaps we should do these last minute things more often!

Safari Zoological Park

2010-07-23T07:24:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, in an effort to squeeze as much fun as possible into the last few weeks of summer vacation, we headed north to the Safari Zoological Park in Caney, KS. It's one of those places I've been meaning to take M, but never seemed to do, and was proud of myself for finally getting it off the list and on the schedule. As much as she loves critters and creatures, I was hoping she'd really enjoy it. And she did!

Of course, the alligators, tigers, bears, leopards and other fantastic animals couldn't quite compare with the thrill of the pond full of regular ol' turtles (even the beautiful white tiger getting hand-fed a whole chicken couldn't compete), but luckily the turtles were at the end and made a wonderful capstone to the tour. I asked M what her favorite thing BESIDES the turtles was, and she emphatically said it was the Lemurs. We were allowed to put our hands up to the cages and they would hold our hands. They have the coolest little padded fingers.

The owners are super nice, and I enjoyed talking with them and hearing their future plans. Jay and I had been to the Safari years ago, but it's really changed since then, and it sounds like more improvements are on the way. I can't wait for the new tree houses to be built for overnight stays. Can you imagine how the place must come to life at night? Sign me up!

And now M wants to have a zoo when she grows up.

Back to the Blog!

2010-07-14T07:48:00.007-05:00

Okay, so it's been over a year since I last blogged. What's up with that? Well, I think facebook may have distracted me a little... but that's no excuse. So it's time to get back to the blog!

The past year has been full of great stuff. Since my last post, Little M has had two birthday parties, lost 5 more teeth, and graduated from kindergarten. She's gone from princesses and ponies to... well, more princesses and ponies. But also Star Wars and plenty of other fun stuff. Of course she's still crazy about bunnies and all sorts of other little critters. This summer she's made lots of new friends in our back yard, including Mr. Frog and Crickety, The Staghorn Beetle. She has a very tender heart for creatures, and was devastated when a boy stomped on a bug on the school playground. It was great consolation that she got to take home the butterfly cocoons on the last day of school, since they hadn't emerged yet. She was so excited when they emerged, one by one, and then had a great time releasing them in our backyard.

Let's see. She's also reading very well, and actually enjoys it, to my great delight. To see her sitting quietly absorbed in a chapter book is one of my favorite things. Her latest reads are the Magic Tree House books. Very cool. She's definitely her mom's daughter in her love of books. Of course, she's got plenty of her dad going on. She's adding and subtracting like crazy, and has a pretty good start on the basics of fractions. Is it just me, or are kids smarter now than they used to be? I didn't know how to do any of that when I got out of kindergarten. I wasn't writing awesome stories about pretty poodles (she'll tell you that's an alliteration). I don't think I could even write my full name.

But don't let all the reading and writing and arithmetic fool you. She's still the active, almost never stops moving bundle of energy. Yay! And I think we've talked her into taking soccer this Fall (I told her they have snacks), so we'll get to see some of that energy at work on the field. Can't wait!

Disney Magic!

2009-06-14T10:04:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I'm finally posting about our Disney World trip. First, I'll say WHEW! What a trip! Totally exhausting, but totally fun and worth it. It rained much of the time, so we were pretty soggy, but it kept us from being too hot, and the lines were shorter! Luckily, our little coyote is pretty durable, so slogging through the rain wasn't a big deal.

I think we chose the perfect time to take M for her first DW visit. Young enough to feel the "magic", and old enough to remember it. Hopefully. My favorite part was watching her with the characters. She was so enchanted with them, especially the princesses. She knew they were just people in costume, but she was delighted all the same. She was very quiet, shy and sweet with them. She looked, listened, hugged... and didn't say a word! Just looked at them adoringly and gave them her sweet smile. So cute! Surprising to us, Eeyore turned out to be one of her favorites. We had no idea.

She was big enough for most of the rides, and was quite brave. Her favorite was Splash Mountain, but she liked all of them. She even liked the Tower of Terror! I wouldn't have expected her to do as well as she did on that one. It basically "free-fall" drops you several stories, brings you back up, and drops you again several times.

One of the biggest hits of all the parks was the "wildlife". There were bunnies and ducks wandering around here and there, and she got very excited about them. "Mom! Dad! Look! A DUCK!!!" Hm. I guess it's the simple things in life. Also, she was particularly impressed with the jello at dinner. Yep. The jello.

Another big hit was getting to play on the various playgrounds scattered around the parks. One was a "Honey, I shrunk the kids" playground, where you could climb around a big net "spiderweb", and go through ant tunnels. Definitely a nice break from all the walking and standing in line.

On Day 4 of our DW trip, M lost her very first tooth. Much excitement! The one next to it is also loose, and should be out soon. We thought it would be gone by her birthday, but it's still hanging in there... just barely and mostly sideways. :o)

The last few days of our vacation we stayed with Jay's Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy in Titusville (near Cape Canaveral), and got to see some of the area. M was REALLY excited about the beach. She collected "sea treasures", played in the sand, and splashed in the waves. We saw alligators, wild pigs, an armadillo, manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, and lots of crazy birds. Unfortunately, we weren't there during a shuttle launch. I think M would have liked that. Well, there's always next year...

Here are the links to our vacation pictures:

Day 1 - Epcot

Day 2 - Disney Hollywood Studios

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom

Day 5 - Epcot - Too rainy. Didn't take the camera out. But we had fun. Trust us!

Day 6 - Magic Kingdom

Day 7 - Magic Kingdom

Day 8 - Beach

Day 9 - Beach

Like Mother, Like Daughter.

2009-06-01T13:07:00.003-05:00

M: I wish I could just start my whole life over!

G: Why? Are you dissatisfied with something in your life?

M: Yes.

G: Well, what would you go back and change?

M: I just wish I didn't ever get these stitches! It's in my head and I can't stop thinking about it.

*sigh* My little girl is a worrier and obsessor... just like her mom. How will I teach her not to dwell in the past? Perhaps we can learn together to be present in the now and not worry about what's already happened.

And yes, I'm quite behind in my blog. I've got tons to post from the last few months, including pics from Disney World... stay tuned.

They grow up so fast... so pay attention!

2009-03-14T07:14:00.010-05:00

I finally got around to getting the online album of M's pictures for 2008 put together. What a year it's been! And while I was looking back at the little girl she used to be, and how much she's grown, it occurred to me that she's already a quarter of the way through her childhood. Oh!!! This can't be! It's all going by way too fast. How do we slow this train down? I actually enrolled her last week for Kindergarten in the Fall. Kindergarten! Full day, everyday, public school Kindergarten. She could even ride the bus if I were of a mind to let her. Which I'm not. I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for her to be ready for that.

So, I'm reminding myself again to be present each day, and pay attention to each moment, and not let the day-to-day distract me from the wonder that is all around me every day, in my growing, learning, ever-changing child.

Her latest big thing is that she's reading. She still doesn't quite admit to it, but she is definitely reading. Full sentences, full paragraphs, whole pages... reading! She is completely underwhelmed by it as far as I can tell, but I am super excited! I made her promise to still let me read to her every day, even though she can read on her own. I think she was a bit concerned that we'd stop that, for some reason.

And now it's Spring Break, and we're off to OKC to visit some friends and their brand new baby, which will remind me even more how quickly they grow from "little bitty brand new life" to "big girl almost heading off to kindergarten". *sigh*

If you'd like to check out M's 2008 album, you can see it here.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-10T22:33:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year. I'm pretty pleased with 2009 so far. And we're already 10 days in, so surely the rest should be cake, right? Well, I'm sure this year will come with it's own challenges and triumphs, but in my overall optimistic attitude, I think it's going to be a GREAT year. I even managed to stay awake to ring it in! I don't think I've done that for a while.

For the big celebration, we stayed home. We decided to do family movie night, and rented Chicken Little, which M has gone absolutely crazy over. I think she watched it about 6 times before we had to return it. Her Chicken Little plush, that she's had for quite a while, is now getting LOTS of face time. After little M was in bed, we watched The Dark Knight, which was good, but not nearly as creepy/freaky as all the hype made it out to be. I was glad about that, actually. I don't like to be creeped/freaked out.

Just before midnight, I woke M up to go outside and bang pots and pans and yell "Happy New Year!", just like we did when I was a kid. She was very much asleep. I finally got her up and asked her if she wanted to go out and bang pots and pans, and she said yes. We got about two steps away from the bed, and she said, "Actually, I don't", and went back to bed. Well, so much for that. We'll try again next year.

Home for the Holidays

2008-12-27T09:12:00.004-06:00

Well, we finally got ourselves into a place, and just in time for Christmas. We looked at probably 80 houses, and I think we did well to be patient and wait for the right thing to come along. We absolutely love the new house. It has just the right space and layout for the way we live, and the yard has plenty of potential for landscape and gardening. Yes! We will be canning salsa in 2009! We still have some boxes to unpack and some organizing to do, but we're mostly settled and even put the Christmas tree and some decorations up. And we're finally home!

Little M took the chaos of moving again all in stride, with her usual good nature. What a great girl. She didn't seem at all sad to leave the rental. It helped that she had 12 days of gifts to open all the way up to Christmas to distract her. Mookie and LouLou rock! Very well done! And she loves the new place as much as I do, I think. Wait until it warms up and she gets to play in the gazebo in the back yard! I'm seeing endless tea parties out there. And, of course, having her best friend within walking distance is a huge bonus.

Santa was good to us this year. He left M a note thanking her for the snacks and telling her she's been very good, and reminding her to listen to her mom and dad. He also left her books and a bunny, as she requested. One of the books was a pop-up that opens 360° to create a wonderful fairy garden/village thing, and comes with little stand-up paper fairies. I imagine it is exactly what her Grandma Tory would have given her if she were with us.

So, 2008 is ending on a high note, and we're well set up for a Happy New Year. I'll get M's 2008 photo album online soon, so check back for the link in January. We're plenty ready for guests at the new abode, and we're already booked for January, so make your reservations soon! We look forward to seeing you!

Don't say quack around ducks.

2008-12-23T10:34:00.002-06:00

Another great conversation with Little M this week:

M: Sometimes ducks get confused if you say quack. That's why you should never say quack around them.

G: Why do they get confused if you say quack?

M: Because they have a tiny brain!!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T19:50:00.004-06:00

I'll admit, I wasn't expecting much from Thanksgiving this year. The big get-together with the Aunts/Uncles/Cousins was the Sunday before, and then I figured it would just be the three of us for the actual holiday. I was gearing up for a low key, uninteresting, and possibly slightly depressing holiday in The Rental. But happily, Brandi (our niece on Jay's side) and David decided it might be fun to drive the 6 hours from Nebraska, so we had them and their two super great boys with us for the whole break. It was really cool to have them here and have enough time to really hang out. I, for one, ate way too much, stayed up way past my bedtime, and had just way too much fun.

Lincoln is an extrodinary, smart, handsome boy with a sweet and gentle heart. I love his enthusiasm. I love the way his eyes light up when he gets excited. I love his love of bowling :o). I loved watching he and M play together, especially when Brandi was setting off alkaseltzer rockets in the driveway! Lots of running and screaming involved. I'm looking forward to the two of them seeing more of each other and being excellent cousins (once removed, right? or something like that). Sweet Lincoln, I'm sorry you're allergic to Kali's kisses. Thank you for loving her, anyway.

Henry is quite possibly the best baby ever. He pretty much never fusses, and seems quite content most of the time. He's one of those aware babies, that you can just see is thinking about things. Really thinking about things. Probably mostly about that he's going to start walking... like quite possibly tomorrow! He's also dangerously cute. Dangerously. Yes, I believe I'm more than a bit smitten with little baby Louie.

Brandi and David, aside from being excellent house guests and very cool people, are also highly skilled players of Hoopla (Jay's game of choice for our evening entertainment). I learned much from them. I learned that if we really work together as a team, we can make a 15 minute game go into double overtime. And that fuzzy dice are smaller than soft, and bigger than seven. Thank you, David, for helping my husband fix the dishwasher door, and for all the great pictures and info. Thank you, Brandi, for showing me how to make tutus, for bringing Pin the Hat on the Turkey, and all the great conversation.

Meeting "the kinfolk" in Tulsa for dinner on Saturday was a must, and there were about 30 of us. It happens that Dan and Tina decided to drive up to stay with Uncle Louis and Aunt Cindy for Thanksgiving, so we met them at a bowling alley at noon and got to spend some extra time with them, which was lots of fun.

So, a fun, family-filled holiday, after all! And now I think we've had more company in our three and a half months at the rental than we had in a full year at any of our more permanent residents. I hope we can keep up the momentum after we move into our new place. Yes, that's right! We close on a house in mid-December. Woo-hoo! Bring on Christmas!

Sick Day

2008-11-21T22:31:00.005-06:00

Our little coyote stayed home Thursday for her first sick day of the school year. Wednesday her teacher said she just hadn't been herself all day, and seemed very tired; almost falling out her chair, tired! I kept an eye on her, but she seemed well enough, if a bit extra sassy. She had fought going to sleep the night before, so I chalked it up to less sleep. I was disabused of that notion around midnight, when she woke us up with hysterical crying and being quite ill... all over her bed. I took sicky girl duty, and my most impressive husband took bed clean-up duty. This is the usual arrangement. I am a LUCKY girl! Especially since he had to catch a 6:40a.m. flight in the morning. What a guy. Our sweet girl was miserable for about an hour, then was back to sleep in the living room with me. In the morning, she was pretty much over it. No fever or anything. I kept her home anyway. Turns out something is making the rounds of her classroom, and even the teacher got hit. She's been out two days now. Sounds like we got off pretty easy. Plus, we got it out of the way before Thanksgiving! Yay!

Anyway, the point of this post was to show off the fun projects we did during our sick day at home. Since one of M's best buddies was scheduled to get his tonsils out, we decided to make him a bouquet of flowers to take over when he's up and around a bit. And I finally got around to making a skirt out of a pair of M's jeans that had a blown out knee. I saw the project in a magazine some time ago (probably FamilyFun) and thought it would be cool.

For most of the day we were also playing "Spy Girl" (or sometimes "Spy Pet"). M decided she needed some spy goggles, so we whipped up a pair, and she wore them all day. I admit, I really miss having a few "stay at home with Mommy days", now that she goes to school 5 days a week. And I know it's only going to get worse. Dang this whole growing up thing, anyway!

Surprise!

2008-11-06T23:33:00.007-06:00

Okay, I know this post is out of order, but with all the jet lag and then being slammed with Halloween festivities, I put it off. So!

About two weeks ago we flew to Seattle for my sister-in-law's birthday. A total SURPRISE! It was so fun! We hid around corners, ready to jump out at her about 4 or 5 times thinking we heard her driving up before she actually got home. We were a bit excited! Of course, I didn't know until after we surprised her that she actually hates surprises. But she didn't make us leave immediately, so I think we're forgiven. Her husband was in cahoots (is that how you spell it?) and probably took most of the blame. :o)

After she finally took in the fact that we were actually there, and there wasn't some tragic reason for our appearance, we had a really great weekend. Great company, great food, great weather. It was one of those perfect trips where everything went well, and the only bad thing was that it was too short.

The best part for me was seeing Little M just basking in the love from her Aunt and Uncle. What a wonderful thing! She got plenty of storytime with Aunt D, and was pleased to surpervise LouLou in the proper preparation and assembly of a peanut butter-banana-apple snack (it's important to spread the peanut butter smoothly on the apple, not leave it in a pile on the plate, apparently). Not having any family in town can be tough sometimes, and watching the little moments of M connecting with them was really important to me. Even though she doesn't see them much, they've made a big impression on her, and she loves them a ton.

Did I mention great food yet? Because trips are almost always about food, in my book. I love food. Aside from great meals out, we had some awesome bbq ribs, and Aunt M even made some amazing homemade cinnamon rolls. I didn't ask for the recipe or pay too close attention, because I really CAN'T afford to know how to make those! Besides, I'm completely confused by dough that gets kneeded or needs to be left to rise. They usually require instructions like, "let it rise until it doubles, then punch down" or "kneed it until if feels silky". Confusing! What if I stop when it feels like polyester, or flannel? Does it ever feel like a cotton/poly blend? How will I tell the difference? Well, anyway, I'm glad other people have this real baking stuff down. Someday I'll get adventurous and give it a shot.

Also, while we were there, we spent some time with our friend, Martha. Not enough time, as usual, but it was great to see her. We wandered around a Japanese garden after a stop at a coffee shop and a picnic lunch. The Fall leaves were gorgeous. It really was a wonderful, though way too short, vacation. Just what we needed!

If you want to see more pictures from the trip, they're here.

Our Little Princess

2008-11-01T23:51:00.015-05:00

So Halloween is finally done. Is it just me, or did it last for weeks this year? It seems like we did a ton of fun Halloween stuff before we even got to the real night of trick-or-treating. We got plenty of use out of M's costume this year, for sure. She was a princess riding a unicorn. The first unicorn was a wearable thing with suspenders. It was cute, but a bit cumbersome. M decided to buy, with her very own money, an alternate stick unicorn we found the other day at Dollar Tree, which makes a galloping sound and neighs. Pretty cool.

Two weeks ago we went to Spookarama, which is the yearly event at the Kiddie Park. Very fun, since the Kiddie Park is only open during the summer, except for Spookarama, so the kids are very excited. It's packed, though, and the lines are crazy. Still, tons of cute little ones in great costumes. We met up with the H boys there, who were dressed conveniently as her knights in shining armor. At least, we liked to think so.

Thursday we went to the "Pumpkin Party" at FUMC, and M played lots of games. They gave out little toys as prizes instead of candy, which was excellent, since we were already overdosed, and it wasn't even Halloween yet. They did have a cookie decorating center, so we still got plenty of sugar...

Friday was the class party, and this year is the last time she'll get to have a costume party at school, since they don't do those in public school anymore. They have "Fall" parties instead. The moms in charge of the party did a great job, and made these fabulous spider in a web cookies. Way to start the bar high for the rest of us! I didn't get a picture of it, but one of the girls in M's class was Little Bo Peep, and her little twin brothers were sheep. Super cute!

In the evening, we went to the H boys' grandparents' house for pizza and chili dogs, then "Nanna" took the kids around the block for some early trick-or-treating. Then we headed over to the other H Family's neighborhood and ran around a few streets with the girls, and then visited at their house for a while. So, we had quite a busy day, got lots of candy, lots of good company, and then finally found our way home. It was odd not being home and giving out candy at all, but we don't live in one of the "good candy" neighborhoods, so it would have been a slow night anyway.

My favorite part of the day was hearing M singing "Feliz Navidad" in the back seat as we were traveling between trick-or-treating venues.

So, now it's November, and the weather was so nice today that we decided to have a cookout at the park again for dinner. Very enjoyable. It still seems odd to have such warm weather this time of year, but it's nice. Makes it hard to believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner, though!

Fall Break

2008-10-15T08:54:00.007-05:00

Monday was M's class fieldtrip to the Pumpkin Patch, which her dad and I were both happy to get to join her for. We took a hayride out to the field, where she picked her own pumpkin. Usually you pick them off the vine, but they didn't actually plant any pumpkins this year for some reason. They bought some and put them out in the field, though. Weird. But still fun. Our M had a fun time hanging out with her buddy, Busy. They also had a few hay bale mazes, and the kids spent a little time on their playground before heading back to school.

Today is the first day of Fall break, and we're starting it off with another first. Our Little Coyote got her first stitches yesterday. Apparently she was getting a bit animated in explaining something at school and fell out of her chair... onto her face. I'm not sure what she hit, but she cut her face about an inch from her eye. Everyone was very calm when I got there, including M, and it sounds like the teachers and students handled it all very well, despite a fair amount of blood. Robbie (her insistent suitor) was given the job of keeping the other kids away (crowd control), and by all accounts he did a great job and took it very seriously.

On the way to the doctor I asked M what the worst part was, the hurting or the scary blood. She said the scary part. Then we saw the doctor and she said the cut was too close to the eye to use glue, and that they'd give her a shot to numb it and then stitch it. It took twice on the shot to get it numbed, and I had to hold her down while she screamed, "NO MORE SHOTS NO MORE SHOTS PLEASE NO MORE SHOTS!" After that the stitches were easy, but I have to wonder if it wouldn't have been quicker and less traumatic to just give her the three little stitches and be done.

So now our brave little coyote is sporting three stitches and a shiner. Poor little girl. She was very brave, though. So were her mom and dad, who managed to not cry where she could see. She'll get the stitches out Monday after school, so her classmates will get to see them. I'm sure they'll all be very impressed.

Meanwhile, I have the next three days with M all to myself, and I'm pretty excited. I do wish it wasn't rainy today so we could go to the zoo, but it looks like we might get a chance tomorrow or the next day.

Autumn Rocks!

2008-10-12T21:39:00.009-05:00

Autumn rocks! [Brandi, you put it beautifully when you wrote your tribute to Fall] I've always loved this time of year, with it's brisk mornings and turning leaves. Now that I live in a part of the country with ridiculously hot summers, I have an extra appreciation for Fall, in that it's actually cool enough to do stuff outside. It's more like what summers used to be when I was kid, living further north. Last weekend Madison and I truck-camped at Copan Lake (poor hubby had to go back and take care of the dogs because we were dog sitting for friends). A lovely thunderstorm rolled in around 4am, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but M slept through. I hope we manage to fit in another camping night or two before it gets too cold, but with the whole family!

Some of this weekend's by-and-large spontaneous highlights included an outdoor art festival, a cookout at the park, kite flying, and bike riding. We forgot to bring cooking utensils for the cookout, so we improvised with a stick.

A highly successful weekend, despite a communication error which resulted in The Hubster not getting to watch the big game at his buddy's house. Oops. Totally unintentional, I assure you. Really!

Not Bhaven

2008-10-05T09:47:00.008-05:00

Our sweet little coyote is starting to write. Yes, write! Not just her name, but other words, and even sentences. I love it! She hasn't shown a lot of enthusiasm for reading on her own, though she can do it if she tries, but she does like writing. This morning she got into some trouble for being willfully disobedient to her father multiple times. She knew her dad was a bit upset with her, and I asked her to think of something she could do to make him feel better. She decided to draw him a picture, and I suggested she could also write that she was sorry. This is what she came up with. She said she messed up and started over, so the first line is there twice. I could hear her at the table sounding the words out and coming up with some great logical spelling.

She loves to add cute little swirls at the ends of her letters, especially the letter S. Beautiful! Aside from the rainbow, the picture is just what she calls "decoration", which means she wasn't drawing any specific objects, just making it pretty.

Flitter Glitter, the Fabulous Flamingo

2008-10-02T22:59:00.003-05:00

Today my most imaginative Coyote was pretending to be "Flitter Glitter, the Fabulous Flamingo". This happens to be an entirely original character from her own wonderfully creative mind. The main gist of Flitter's story is that she went hiking with her mom and dad, and they got ahead of her and she became lost. Then I find her (I'm some human, not her mom), and adopt her. In some of our renditions she stays with me forever, and in others I help her find her parents. I just love this game. She insisted that I feed her shrimp , since that's what makes flamingos pink, so I made her a peanut butter and shrimp jelly sandwhich for lunch. We've played similar versions with M as a goat, a unicorn, and various other little animals. Too fun!

Golfing

2008-09-29T07:49:00.005-05:00

I love this time of year, when the weather is sunny, but cool enough to actually get outside and enjoy it. Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, so after taking the dogs and our lunch to the park, we decided we'd all go golfing. I'm not a golfer, myself, but I used to go (years ago) with the husband and drive the cart around, enjoy the scenery, read a book. This was the first time we've taken Little M, and we had a great time! I didn't get any reading in, of course, but I did drive the cart around, and M even did some putting at the greens. We saw three super cute baby squirrels that were, in M's words, "too adorable!" We had a hard time shooing them away so we could drive on without running them over, though. Very friendly little rascals. And the husband got to play 9 holes and be with us at the same time. Perfection!

What I Did on My Summer Vacation, Part II

2008-09-15T07:41:00.009-05:00

Well, since I labeled the other post as part I, I feel somewhat obligated to update with a part II, even though the information is woefully old. It will at least give me the opportunity to post some mediocre photos of some spectacular scenery. Our camera died right before the trip, so we bought a cheap one at the last minute. We are NOT impressed with it.

At the end of July, just after selling our old house, not buying the new house, and becoming homeless, we went on vacation. Brilliant! Well, the plans had been in place for months for us to go with some friends on a backcountry hiking/camping trip in Rocky Mountain National Park. Little M went with us as far as Loveland and had a great time staying with her Aunt Cindy, Uncle Kurt and Cousin Tiffany, while we spent 4 days and 3 nights roughing it in some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. We started at the Dunraven Trailhead, just outside the park (northeast), and hiked with Steve to our first campsite, Border Creek. The next morning Brent and Nancy met up with us and we hiked up to our other campsite, Lost Falls. We stayed two nights there and day-hiked up to Stormy Peaks Pass and up past Lost Lake. A fantastic trip. If I were to do it again, I'd like to camp up at the Stormy Peaks campsite... That would be quite a trek with a fully loaded pack, but worth it.

If you'd like to see more pictures from the trip, they're online here.

Lowe's Rocks!

2008-09-14T21:30:00.012-05:00

We take our little coyote to Lowe's every other Saturday for their Build and Grow clinics. They are so cool! This week she built a pirate ship. Arrrrrrrgh! In case you don't know about it, the Build and Grow clinics are twice a month, free, and totally cool. The kids get a little Lowe's apron, and they get a patch for each project they complete. The projects are prepackaged, so you show up, sign in, grab a project and a hammer, and get to work. My girl has mad skills with a hammer.

And we went to another birthday party at the gymnastics center over the weekend. Excellent choice for the location, since it rained all day. Leftover from Hurricane Ike, I think. I helped make the craziest cake for the party. I like to call it "Skeleton Pirate Hideout". Or just "Three Crazy Ladies Make a Cake". The boys loved it, though. I was sure the birthday boy's mom was being overly ambitious when she told me her idea for the cake, especially since it was all out of her head and she didn't have any instructions or examples or anything to work from. But I think she pulled her vision off quite well! Love the crushed oreos, cocoa crispies and rice crispies for the sand and rock. And my friend Bon is a cakespert and told me how to do the water. Way cool. I could definitely see me enjoying decorating more cakes. Maybe I'll pick up a new hobby.

Too Young for Wedding Bells!

2008-08-28T15:35:00.005-05:00

After school yesterday, while M and I were catching up over a little snack, she informed me that Robbie (the little boy who chases her on the playground all the time, much to her dismay) told her he wants to marry her. I asked her what she told him, and she said, "I said he doesn't treat me nice, and I won't marry someone who doesn't treat me nice", or something like that.

That's my girl!

And then I told her she's a bit young to be worrying about getting married, since she still needs to finish preschool. I suggested she wait and see what nice boys she meets in college.

This morning when I dropped her off at her classroom, Robbie tried to give her a flower he had picked. She wouldn't take it or even look at him. Poor Robbie! We're going to have to talk about being gracious but firm with unwanted suitors. I wasn't expecting the conversation to come so soon!

I Want to Go Home

2008-08-28T07:36:00.004-05:00

Well, we've really been testing our Little Coyote's resiliency these days. After months of dragging her around to look at tile, fixtures, and other sundry house items, we ended up not buying the new house. It was a tough decision, but the right one. There were just too many quality issues and mistakes that couldn't or wouldn't be fixed. The exterior paint was already peeling because they didn't power wash first, for example. They actually painted over whole clods of mud. Whaaaaa? And the stone on the upper part of the chimney is a mess. I have little confidence it will hold together. And there's so much more...

Anyway, we went ahead with the sale of the old house, since we had issues with it as well. We put our stuff in storage, and spent some time being "between homes", staying with some friends, with our dogs staying at some other friends' house. We're now in a rental house with a short-term lease, which is pretty lucky, and looking for a house to buy. All the new construction is junk, so we're looking for something older that doesn't need too much work.

Needless to say, M's world has been a bit topsy-turvy, but she's handling it all very well. Aside from a few, "I want to go home" comments, she's taking it all in stride. It probably helped that we were staying with a family that had two boys that she has a great time with. I think she was actually disappointed when we got the rental.

Also working in our favor is the fact that school has started up again. Now I'm doubly glad I kept her at the same school instead of switching her to public preschool. A nice piece of stability, with kids and teachers and a location she already knows, and a shorter school day, instead of tossing her into another all new thing. And I dropped my figure drawing class this semester, rather than be away those two evenings a week. I think M could use the extra mom time. I'm bummed about missing it, but there will be other semesters.

So! That's what's going on here. Probably sounds worse than it is. Really, things are going pretty well. We're all healthy, with a roof over our heads and food on the table. What more could we wish for? Life is good!! And if nothing else, we've had the opportunity to really appreciate what great friends we have, who really came through for us when we needed it. That's an awesome thing!

Time Travel

2008-07-20T09:28:00.005-05:00

Maybe Little M hasn't quite got a handle on the fact that time only moves forward. Or maybe she knows something we don't. I really enjoyed this little bit from her the other day. I had just told her a story of "back when I was a little girl..."

M: "Maybe when you're a kid you can visit me again.
...pause...
I wish the world would start over".

So, I think she was pretty much saying she'd like to hang out with me when I'm 4 years old. How cool would that be? I wish someone would invent a machine for that!

In other news, our Little Mermaid Coyote has finally passed her "starfish" swimming class and will be moving on to "seahorse". I think the big motivator was that her good friend, Ember moved up in the last session, and she wants to be in with her again. Anyway, she just all of a sudden decided she could do all the required skills, and did them. Yay!

What I Did on my Summer Vacation, Part 1

2008-07-08T15:59:00.021-05:00

Well, that was one FABULOUS vacation. I do love road trips! And despite a little extra orneriness (okay, a LOT), Little M seemed to have a great time, too. We drove to West Yellowstone for the Eagle's Store 100th anniversary celebration (Go, Pioneer Family Business!). We stayed in a condo with the family for several days, which was super fun. Finally got to meet baby MaryEllen, and Little M had a great time being the bigger cousin. She decided her official job was amusing her little cousin, and everytime MaryEllen cried, M was there with funny antics to distract her.

Among the highlights of the 100th were several family dinners, with lots of people I didn't know (well, I haven't exactly overcome that anti-social thing yet, have I?), a ribbon cutting ceremony to usher in the next 100 years, and an exciting team effort (Dad, Sally and I) selling commerative envelopes with cancelled vintage stamps, honoring the years my Great-Grandpa Sam Eagle was postmaster. I guess I can now say I've officially worked at the family store. Woo-hoo!

The coolest thing for me was riding through the park, and back to I.F., in Dad's '23 White touring bus. Other fun highlights of our stay in West include playing Pop 5, and checking out the old Fountain Hotel site (where great-grandparents, Sam and Ida worked and met), and wearing silly hats. Seeing a young grizzly on our way up through Teton was cool, too.

M especially enjoyed learning to crack eggs with Grandma Joy and Aunt Amanda, exploring arts and crafts with Aunt Sally, and playing video games with Uncle Oliver. She's much better at the games than her mom. They make me nervous, but she's a natural. She also delighted in receiving a new Barbie and horse, that her very own Aunt Sally helped design. Way cool! M is definitely ready for Barbie, and off to a good start on her collection. And she also got some fabulous red cowgirl boots from Eagle's Store. Dang, that girl is stylin'!

After our time in West, we rode the bus back to I.F. and spent several days there. We had tea in the playhouse, played with the color castle, went to the Tauphus Zoo, fed the ducks at the river, played on Aunt Sally's new Wii, watched a Chuckers game, and saw the Fireworks. All around, a fun-filled, yet thoroughly relaxing vacation!

As always, it was also good to get home again. The drive was long, but we were happy to be able to break it up both ways with a stop at Grandma Mary Ann's, and some leg-stretching time with Aunt Cindy. Our little coyote does love going to school, and was excited to see her friends again. Now we've got about 3 weeks to feel normal before the next trip. Now THAT'S summer!

Oh, plus, we sold the old house while we were gone. How cool is that? No more hustling to clean for showings! The new house is now slated to be done on 7/29, and we have to be out of here 7/31. And we leave 8/1. This might be interesting...

BTW, if you want to see more vacation pics, you can find them here.

Little Coyote turns 4!

2008-06-15T08:31:00.032-05:00

Well, our little coyote is less little. She's now officially a big girl of 4, and we did lots of things to celebrate. Her birthday was Wednesday, so we made cupcakes to take to school (well, it's really more of a mom's-day-out thing in the summer). Strawberry, with chocolate frosting and lots of pink, red and white sprinkles.

That evening we met some friends at the Kiddie Park. LOVE the Kiddie Park. Lots of fun rides, just for the little kids, and they're 25 to 50 cents each. Plus, they have the best cotton candy; a big bag for only a dollar. They have other wonderful treats, of course. Ice cream, popcorn, snowcones. But we usually just stick to the rides and the cotton candy. It's a sad rite of passage here, the day a kid is too big for the rides at Kiddie Park. One of our friends' boys was sadly turned away from one of the rides because he was too tall.

The official "Disney Princess" birthday party was Saturday, and we had it at the Gymnastics Center. Not at our house... smart move! We had 11 kids, plus the birthday girl (dang, that's a lot of kids!), and they had a blast running around the obstacle course, jumping into the foam block pit, and playing parachute games. Lots of parents chose to stay and hang out, which was great. Kelsey, the Official Gymnastics Girl In Charge, was fantastic at keeping the kids busy and having fun. Yay, Kelsey! We had pizza, cake and ice-cream, lots of fun, then a Princess Piñata at the end, because M just LOVES piñatas. We did the "pull the strings" kind, not the "hit it with a stick" kind. It's really just about the candy raining down on them, like sugar from heaven, I think.

M did a great job thanking all the kids for coming to her party and handed out party-favor bags (a.k.a. "thanks for leaving" bags!). We opted to not open presents there, since it's way more fun for the kids to be playing. We opened them at home, and she got some really fun stuff. Her first Barbie is the Ariel doll. She loves it. She is definitely ready for Barbie!!

I admit, I suffered an undue amount stress in planning this party, and I've already told M that this one was special because it was her first real party, and that the others will be much smaller. I'm not so much a planner, and I obsessively worried over little details and ridiculous "what if" scenerios. But the husband was an awesome planning partner, and I was relieved that several parents jumped in and assisted wherever they saw an opportunity. I couldn't have done it alone, that's for sure! Jo was awesome, especially at assuring me that all was going well, and making sure I had thought of everything. Her husband dubbed himself "security officer" to ensure no kids got out the door without a parent. Jason opted to come along and helped set up and take down and helped wrangle kids, while his wife was officiating at a wedding. I'm pretty sure the Harris Duo helped with the clean-up while I was thanking guests and seeing them out the door.

So, that's done. Successfully, even. Yay! Next drama... moving. Thankfully, not until after a much needed vacation, coming up in less than two weeks. We are SO looking forward to seeing family and enjoying some cooler weather. Woo-hoo!

Chalk Art

2008-06-08T09:40:00.007-05:00

I love watching M be creative. Her drawings have really been getting fun lately, and I especially enjoyed this chalk drawing she did of a girl in a rainbow skirt, with her cat on a leash. Yes, it's a cat. I asked. Note the high-heeled shoes. She's been asking for "shoes with heels" lately. Probably because all the Disney Princesses have shoes with heels. Certainly she doesn't see her mom wearing them very often! Running shoes are more my style. Or flip-flops.

We've been going through an interesting phase where M will ask me to draw things for her because she can't draw them "perfect". I distinctly remember having similar conversations with my mom when I was little. So we're working on "there's no such thing as perfect", and "you get better with practice", and we've started looking for examples of things she wants to draw, so she can see how to do it. It seems to be helping, and she's getting frustrated less. And her work is quite outstanding, of course!

You Know Everything

2008-06-08T09:16:00.005-05:00

So we're hanging out the other day, and M and her Dad are kind-of watching sports on the tube, and the following conversation takes place:

Dad: "Madison, what are they playing?"
M: "Tennis... no, baseball."
Dad: "They're actually playing softball"
...long pause...
M: "You know everything."

What are the chances we'll ever hear that from her again?

She's always saying the funniest things. We were all enjoying some Frozen Dots at Sunfest Friday evening. She ordered rainbow flavored, and thought they were fabulous, until she tasted my strawberry dots. Then she declared that hers were too "colory" and asked to trade. When she'd had enough altogether, she said she was done because they were too "freezy". I love her reasoning!

"I'm Never Going to Be a Kid Again"

2008-05-19T21:36:00.009-05:00

Yesterday we went to a come-and-go retirement party for M's teacher. Although I'm not sure M understands retirement, she does know the year is over and she's not going to be in that class anymore. As we were walking back to our car, M says, "It's the end of Mrs. Esser's class for me. I'm never going to be a kid again."

Wow.

We talked about it, and I think she's okay with things, but I still don't know how she decided Mrs. Esser's retirement signalled the end of her childhood. She loves school, but really! She's only been out since last Wednesday! This morning she asked how much longer before it's a school day. I told her two weeks, and she said (most pathetically), "But that's soooooooo loooooooong. It's too hard to wait!"

I'm glad she loves school, and I'll try not to take it personally that she's not perfectly content to spend all day, everyday with her mom. :o)

Speaking of moms, Mother's Day was lovely. I slept in, of course. Then the husband packed a lunch for us and we went to the park. It was a bit chilly and windy, so we hid away on the playground equipment to eat. Fun! Then we ran errands and bought fabric for a quilt I want to make.

Packing a lunch and heading out somewhere is one of my favorite things to do this time of year. It's going to start getting too hot for the playground at that time of day, but the trail is nice and shady. Today we took the dogs out and had our mid-morning snack on one of the benches along the way.

End of the School Year

2008-05-03T08:22:00.006-05:00

We went to Little M's end-of-the-year school program yesterday, and their first annual "Spring Fling" family carnival in the evening. Is there anything more fun than a bunch of little kids standing on a stage, singing off-time and out of tune? It was delightful! The shy ones, the hams, the ones posing and playing to the crowd. I admit, I got a little sentimental about the whole thing, even though it's only the end of 3's preschool... not high school graduation, for pity's sake! Her teacher made a scrapbook for each student with photos through the year. Very cool!

The carnival was way more fun than I was expecting. There was bbq, of course, and lots of other things to eat. Turn out was great, and included some of my favorite other parents. We got a little rowdy during the chicken dance, and I'm surprised there wasn't more trouble during the water balloon toss, but mostly we behaved. M wasn't too interested in the games, though she played the beanbag toss, since Miss E was running it. On parents night out, M chooses to hang in the 2's room, just so she can be with Miss E.

Her favorites were the two different blow-up jumpy things, which everyone loves. The kids have a blast, and the parents enjoy that kids burn lots of energy. And believe me, our little coyote has a LOT of energy to burn. She had no trouble keeping up with the two H boys, and they were quite the trio.

All-in-all, it's been a great school year. Only two weeks left, and then she's off for two weeks. Then it's time for Summer School!

New Set of Wheels

2008-04-27T21:12:00.005-05:00

We got our little coyote a new set of wheels this weekend. Wow! Is she really big enough already for a bicycle, even one with training wheels? Well, that's a resounding YES! She road at least a half mile this evening before dinner; over to the new house, and then part-way back. She's just too cool in her helmet, knee and elbow pads. The bike is purple with the Disney princesses on it, of course. I'm very excited to start going on family bike rides on the trail, and she's already asked if she can bring her bike when we go to grandma and grandpa's.

I love you!

2008-04-22T21:30:00.025-05:00

Hey, look at me keeping this recent blog momentum going!

Our little coyote is in a real "I love you" phase these days. It's great! When the washing machine repair guy was over she just chatted him right up, and then tossed in "I love you", quite comfortably. She also said "I love you" to the appliance salesman, our lumberyard guy, and my art teacher, Betsy. It's really quite sweet. Of course, we've had several talks now about strangers, to be sure. Scary stuff, but she's actually a bit excited that there is a circumstance, even if only theoretical (hopefully!), in which it would be perfectly acceptable, and even preferred, that she bite. But as long as she's with a parent, she loves everyone. What a wonderful world!

She's also developing a real enjoyment for dressing up. If allowed, she will wear a dress every single day, preferably her fanciest dress... and then run, climb, and roll in the dirt in that dress. Not exactly a girly-girl, my little coyote. She's a little bit of everything, which is FABULOUS, in my opinion. Of course, I'm biased. And she is definitely exploring her own sense of style, as evidenced by her "Backpacking Cowgirl Princess" look she was sporting earlier this Spring...

Although, now that I think about it, she's been showing this penchant for costuming for quite some time. Last summer, her dad brought her to my karate class on a sparring night. She definitely thought that was cool. A few days later she said she wanted to spar. I told her we have to have gear on to spar. She came back a little later with her own improvised gear, including an easter basket for her head, fabric scraps for her hands, and dad's socks pulled up over her knees for shin guards. Brilliant!

The Baby Powder Incident

2008-04-21T23:12:00.003-05:00

Well, the trouble makers really went all out today! Little M and her best friend Busy had a playdate today while we moms were painting Busy's family room. We should have known something was up when they were getting along so well and being quiet in Busy's room. The smell of baby powder in the stairway didn't bode well. The dense fog and triumphant giggles of something that sounded like "magic fairy dust!" cinched it. A few too many unsupervised minutes and a large container of baby powder can result in quite a mess. Combine two little girls, who happen to be running around completely naked and covered in white powder, with two exhausted moms who have been painting for two days, and this scene had the potential to go very bad very fast. Of course, we're both Super Moms, so we shut the door again while we briefly controlled our own fits of giggles. When we finally had our "serious" faces on again, we directed the girls in helping wipe off toys while we vacuumed and cleaned. I'm sure Busy's mom will still be dusting and vacuuming that stuff up for months. Both girls will have to give a dollar each of their own money to pay for the powder they've wasted, and they are restricted from playing with each other for a week, except at school. I'll also be helping Madison write an apology note. Excellent letter practice! Ooooooooh, Sneaky Mom!

Even with the extra diversion of The Baby Powder Incident, we finished up the family room, and even had time and paint left to hit the entry way. I have to credit that in great part to my husband, who got us off to a running start yesterday. Otherwise, we'd still have another day of work, I think. Now let's just keep our fingers crossed that it looks good tomorrow in daylight!

Random updates:

I won talentships on both drawings I submitted to the student art show. Yay!
The house is coming along, though it's looking like a June move-in is unlikely. Shall we hope for July?
The Spring Break trip went VERY well. M is still talking about it. She got lots of quality time with Grandma.
Looks like we're driving up to I.F. and Yellowstone and doing at least a week there with family stuff, instead of flying in for the weekend for the Eagle Store's 100th. Yay!

That was a fast year...

2008-03-02T09:35:00.003-06:00

It's simply not possible that I haven't had an entry in almost a year. We'll just have to assume there was some sort of entry-eating monster out there that chomped up all my witty and terribly informative blog entries that I was surely posting. And now that I've slain that dragon, here's a quick update:

Little M is now 3.7 years old. She loves animals, especially zebras and giraffes, and Ariel is her new favorite Princess. She loves going to school 2 1/2 days a week, playing with her friends, and playing computer games at the Disney website. When asked what her favorite color is, she'll tell you "all the colors in the rainbow". Her online album for 2007 can be seen here.

I've been taking art classes one at a time for 3 semesters now, and I absolutely LOVE it. I can't imagine why it took me so long to do this. I even enjoy the 40 minute drive each way, two evenings a week, though I don't like using all that gas. The original plan was to get a degree in graphic art or graphic design, but I may just get a straight art degree. I pretty much want to just take every single art class they have (at least once!) and who cares about what degree I end up with. I'm sure that's no surprise to anyone. I love school! This semester is Drawing I, and I've spent the last few weeks drawing 4 poses of an egg, which I found incredibly enjoyable. Especially when we cracked it open onto a plate. Very challenging! I'm also doing a small bit of web design/graphics work here and there when the opportunity arises and I'm in the mood. I'm currently putting together a website for my instructor from last semester to showcase her art.

The husband is enjoying his own challenges, now that he's manager of the PTC. I think he's happy with his new position, and is learning quite a bit. He's also staying very busy keeping an eye on the builders as they construct our new house. We're expecting it to be finished in June, and it would be really great if we could be moved in by M's 4th birthday. I'm especially excited about the undeveloped land behind us, which is a much nicer view than our current neighbors' houses. I'm also super excited to put in a garden again, which we didn't do at our current house. You can follow the house progress here.

The family reunion last year was at Lake Ten Killer, which turned out to be a fun change. I think most people really enjoyed the location. As always, it was great to see everyone. I'm always amazed at the turnout, and how well everyone gets along. The husband's Dad's side of the family is sooooo different from what I grew up with, and I'm so glad M gets to have them. Especially all those cousins! You can see the reunion pics here.

We learned our lesson last year, and planned a trip for the fast approaching Spring Break. M kept saying she wanted to visit her grandma and go to the children's museum, so we'll be driving to Colorado. And we're taking the dogs, so it's going to be extra fun! I hope the weather is warm so they can ride in the back of the truck. The shell helps, but it can still get pretty cold back there. We'll see my brother and sister and whoever else we can fit in while we're there, too. My friend Bon just had her second baby, and I haven't even see the first, so they are definitely on the list.

It should be an exciting summer. The new house in June, as well as the family store in West having their 100th year celebration. We'll fly out for the weekend and see M's other grandma and grandpa, and hopefully her aunts and uncles and a new baby cousin. And lots of other random relatives, I'm sure, along with a tour in Yellowstone. Then in August we're planning on a group hiking trip SOMEWHERE. If we can get the plan made! There are lots of wonderful options to choose from. Last summer we accepted our friends' invititation to hike Pikes Peak and it was really awesome. You can check out the pics here.

That's all I've got at the moment. I'll really try to post more often. Really!

Spring Break

2007-03-18T15:18:00.000-05:00

Okay, so it's Spring Break. That kind of hit me out of nowhere. Why in the world did I not plan some sort of family get-away? Maybe I can last-minute put something together, or atleast come up with some fun things to keep Little M and I occupied, since she's home from school all week. Allllll weeeeeek. Did I mention we switched her schedule around again and ended up getting Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays? So we're back with 2 1/2 days/week again. Woo-hoo! I think they drop the Friday over summer, so it'll just be Mon/Wed then until Fall. I really love this schedule. Anyway, it's only Sunday, and she already mentioned this morning that she misses her friends. And she didn't get her 1/2 day last Friday because the public schools had conferences, and M's school follows the public school calendar. Which reminds me... I'm still mad that I missed out on the make-up-snow-day nobody told me about. How was I suppose to guess that, without any older kids in public school? I suppose I should consider getting over it already, but that would be so out of character.

And, as seems typical for Spring Break, the weather is going to suck the whole time, so we'll be stuck indoors. Or maybe we'll hang out on the covered patio and watch the rain... that could be fun. It figures, though. It was sunny all last week. We walked the dogs on the trail last week and saw 2 deer, which was pretty cool. Yesterday we planted some seeds in containers and put them out on the patio. A salad mix and several basils. We're not quite ready to put in a full-fledged garden here yet, but I'm also going to try to get some patio tomatoes to work, at least. I really missed having fresh vegetables last year, particularly tomatoes that taste like tomatoes.

And now that naptime is over, it's time to get out into that sunshiny day... what could be our last for some time.

Stole this from Chemmom

2007-03-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

Saw this on Chemmom's blog and thought it was cool. Things I've done are in yellow.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa.
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured an ancient site
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played Dungeons & Dragons for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently well enough to have a decent conversation
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children (in progress)
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions (so far!)
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life
151. Finished a marathon

Almost Spring

2007-03-12T13:20:00.000-05:00

Well, that was a quick 6 months. Winter came and went. We had several good storms, so we were able to get some sledding in. Not sure who had more fun with that; Little M or me. I'm a sledding nut. But she definitely had some fun and was a real trooper, even when her dad sent her sailing into a drainage ditch. She got to experience even more "real winter" when we went to see family at Christmas time. I think she'd be perfectly happy to live in a snow state. Me, too!

Now we're gearing up for Spring, and a few months of nice temperatures and good thunderstorms. Hopefully no tornadoes. The grass is starting to green up and a few early leaves are coming out. M has been talking about the trees making more leaves and seems pretty excited about the whole process. My budding little horticulturist! We're enjoying getting out more and taking the dogs for walks, packing a lunch and eating out on the trail. It's so great to be able to spend time at the playground again!

Pretending to be cartoon characters is a favorite pasttime these days, and we're all required to join in. Usually M wants to be Diago, I get to be Dora, and her daddy gets to be Boots the monkey. Another regular is the cast of Little Einsteins, with her being June (which usually requires a skirt so she can dance). Pretty much any time we put her in a dress or skirt, she says she's June.

Vocabulary is getting pretty entertaining. She uses absolutely and actually in her sentences now, which is fun. She also likes awesome. Whatever is one word we're trying to discourage her from, usually preceded by a large sigh and followed by eye rolling or a similarly disgusted expression. The girl can really give a look these days! I don't know where she gets that attitude from...

It seems we can teach her just about anything if we make it into a song. Pretty cool. She can spell her full name (even middle), and is working on days of the week, now that we've started singing the Happy Days theme. She's also counting to 10 in English, Spanish, German, French, and Japanese. We met a little Russian girl last week, so maybe we'll pick that one up next. She likes it, so we're going with it. Now if we can just figure out the trick to getting her potty trained. She does well at school, but fights using the potty at home for some reason.

Catch-up Post

2006-09-07T07:57:00.000-05:00

Holy Guacomole! It's been a while since I posted. Perhaps I'd better get my blog up to speed. Oh, where to start, where to start...

Well, M is now 2 yrs and almost 3 months old, and the terrible twos are nowhere in sight. She is so much fun! And quite the talker. I don't know where she gets it from *wink*. It's so cool hearing full sentences come out of that little mouth. If I'm tired and rub my eyes she reassuringly says, "You be awright, Mommy." And somewhere she picked up, "Be quiet! You making my crazy!". Yikes. She's working on her teens for counting and says 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20. And she counts objects pretty well, too. She's only leaving out m and n when she sings the alphabet, and has many other cute songs in her repertoire. The Itsy Bitsy Spider is endless because instead of finishing with "...so the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again", she sings "...so the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout", which leads her right back through the song again. She does the same with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

The Fall Semester has started up where M goes to "school". I had signed her up for 2 full days of the Mommy's Day Out program, but unfortunately they overfilled one of the days, and I was last to sign up, so we had to settle for the full day Tuesday and the Friday 1/2 day. I really miss that second full day! They are hoping to open another 2 year old class if they can find a suitable teacher. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! I really love their program, and only briefly considered moving M somewhere else to get the 2 full days.

Let's see. What else.

We took a road trip to Houston over the Labor Day weekend. The Husband had to be there for meetings Thur and Fri, and it seemed like a good chance to take the family. He has taken a new position at work and now travels almost never, by the way. Anyway, it turned out to be a pretty fun time. M traveled very well, as usual, and enjoyed stopping at many new and interesting playgrounds along the way. She also very much enjoyed playing with Little A, a 3 yr old boy of some friends of ours. She was so impressed with him that for several days she was saying, "I'm a boy!". She's now back to informing everyone that she's a girl.

Oh, some big news for me. I will be doing some part-time contract design work for a few months for the Dallas company I used to work for. I'm really looking forward to it. I was starting to scout around for some part-time work here and had even interviewed for a job that turned out to be way too full-time, and not enough money to make it worth it, so the timing on this opportunity couldn't have been better. And I'll be working from home, so it's the best of both worlds, in that I'll be doing something non-mommyish, but will still be around for M. I think it'll work out pretty well. And if it doesn't, it's only a few months.

The weather has finally cooled down here. Now that it's September, it finally feels like we're in summer, instead of like we're burning for all of eternity in the fiery depths of hell. A nice change. I actually had the AC off and the windows open for part of yesterday. Can I get a Hallelujah?

Well, that probably catches us up. I'll try to post again sooner than 4 months from now.

Wow, what a tantrum

2006-05-23T21:03:00.000-05:00

Our little coyote had a most impressive tantrum in the store today. It was the first time I actually had to leave my cart full of stuff and haul her out to the car and go home. Truly outstanding work on her part, I must say. All because she couldn't sit in the basket part of the cart. I have to commend her persistence. Little does she know that her mommy can and will outstubborn her. Hopefully she'll figure that out sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately, I still need to go shopping, and Jay is out of town. Fortunately, he gets home late tonight, so I can try again tomorrow with the little dickens, and if things go similarly, she'll have another golden learning opportunity, and I can go back by myself after dinner.

Where are the medals of honor for keeping my cool while she was having her meltdown in public? I swear to you, I even had a small, pleasant smile as I wrangled my wiggly-squiggly-screaming girl through the store toward the doors. I was kind of trying not to laugh, though I can't say now why I thought it was funny. I will say, there were relatively few folks giving me the evil eye for having such an "unruly and loud" child. Most people seemed somewhat amused by the free show. Or maybe that was my imagination.

Anyway, I guess she's ready to be 2!

What's so funny about that?

2006-05-17T22:45:00.000-05:00

What's better than a little girl laughing hysterically? Nothing, I say! We took M and the dogs to the park the other evening for a family stroll, and the drive over there was even more fun than the walking. The black dog was in the back with M and she (the dog) had her head out the window. For some reason, and I really wish I knew why, M thought this was fantastically funny. Thank goodness she's still in diapers because I'm certain she must've peed herself, she was laughing so much. We were quite perplexed. What's so funny about a dog with it's head out the window? But you know how contagious laughing is. So there we all were, driving down the road, laughing. Well, the white dog wasn't laughing. She hardly seemed amused at all. But she did seem pleased that she got to ride on my lap instead of in the back with that pesky black dog and crazy little girl.

First Day

2006-05-06T08:52:00.000-05:00

I took our little coyote in for a drop-in half day at the daycare on Friday. Kind of a trial, "ease me into it" thing. It was only for 2 1/2 hours and it went very well. She barely acknowledged that I left, and when it was time to pick her up, she threw a fit because she wanted to stay longer. She pulled one of her favorite tricks during painting time by getting a good swipe of blue all over her face, so I see she isn't holding back. Looks like this will all go pretty well. I'm curious to see how she does with naptime during a full day, though. Maybe I'll try a full day drop-in next week.

I did it!

2006-05-01T16:17:00.000-05:00

Yes, I really did. I did it. I signed our little coyote up for daycare. She is officially registered for a Parents Day Out program two days a week for the summer session (starting June 5, which feels like a million years away), and I even have a place reserved for her in the Fall. I will really and truly be leaving my little M in someone else's care all day twice a week. I'm getting to be such a big girl!

One of the days she will be in class with her little friend "Busy", which I know she'll enjoy. I'm looking forward to her having the opportunity to make lots of new little friends, and to be away from me more. This will be much harder on me, but I'm also looking forward to having some time on my own. I haven't been great at finding time for myself in the last two years, and I think I'm overdue. So wish me luck!

Big news

2006-04-18T08:11:00.000-05:00

Our little one went pee in the big potty for the first time yesterday! Yeeeeeeaaaaah! She's been a little interested lately, but I think the turning point was having a 4-year old over the other day. She was pretty impressed with her older friend's big potty skills. So a big thanks to Big, our little M's potty mentor!

Now we'll see just how into the whole thing she is. Hopefully the novelty won't wear off before she gets used to it. Let the games begin!

Only a mom

2006-03-07T19:04:00.000-06:00

I have a new "only a mom will do that" feather for my cap. I actually tried to catch my child's vomit in my hands. Can you say "Eeeeeew, ick"? Not only is that disgusting, it's just not very effective. And I'll tell you, it's also not terribly effective to use a very small bowl, especially if you are laughing at your own absurdity, because a little kid's aim isn't very precise to start with, even if you're lucky enough to have one cooperative enough to try, which I don't.

So, now that we've established how not to behave when your child is throwing up, let me tell you a few helpful do's. Do hold and comfort your child, even though she stinks to high heaven. Do cover your furniture with a thick towel, or better yet, a waterproof sheet thingy, to avoid upholstery cleaning. Do keep your sense of humor. Do wake up your husband to help.

For further explanation, last week was quite something. Our little coyote caught a bug and was quite ill on Wednesday. I woke early to the sound of her retching all over her crib. Ugh. Conveniently, she had blueberries the night before, so it was easy to see. Double ugh. She was busy yucking every 20 to 30 minutes the rest of the morning, and then saved the hurling for the middle of the night for the next several days. Thankfully I have a totally awesome husband who completely handled crib clean-up duty.

Unfortunately I caught the bug Thursday, and experienced her misery first-hand. Again, thankfully, I have a totally awesome husband who came right back home from work after my desperate phone call so that I could spend the day being pathetic in bed.

Most unfortunately, this just happened to be the same week my Dad was in town, so we really didn't capitalize on our visiting time. He seemed to take it all in stride, though. And we did manage to have a good visit, even so. Little M thought he was great fun, especially his "Hello Kitty" bit, which she requested several times. I don't quite have the knack, so she has since stopped asking for it, but is still asking for "Papa". And on the bright side, we have plenty of fun things left that we can do the next time he comes to visit, if we haven't scared him off completely with our Linda Blair impressions.

NO bath!

2006-02-24T10:00:00.000-06:00

Help! My little Coyote has decided baths are evil. What do you do with a 20 month old that refuses to bathe? And I mean refuses! Kicking and screaming and tears just doesn't begin to describe the scene that we've been witnessing at the mention of the dreaded bath.

Now, I'm okay with skipping a bath every day or two. No biggie. But two days in a row, plus the little one's desire to rub her sandwich in her hair BOTH days, has resulted in a very smelly little girl. I've tried every trick I can think of to get her in the tub. Today I'm hoping something works. Suggestions would be much appreciated!

My favorite thing

2006-01-31T18:19:00.000-06:00

Today I am so lucky. I got to enjoy my favorite thing. Peacefully rocking in my comfy chair, holding my sleeping girl. Sun shining through the window onto my dog sleeping on the floor. Not a sound in the room. A perfect afternoon.

I don't get to enjoy this very often. My little coyote isn't usually one for long snuggles. But today she decided she wasn't quite done with her nap, and fell back asleep on my lap. She slept there for another 30 minutes. And I actually had the sense to sit and enjoy it, rather than think about other things I needed to be doing. I am so lucky.

This was way better than the other night, when she decided to wake up many times, then simply would NOT go back to sleep after 4:00am. So I rocked her for a while, and every time I tried to put her back in her crib she freaked. We ended up on the couch, her happily zonked out, me with a crick in my neck, afraid to move. Not as lucky that time.

Today, very lucky.

Lost photo op

2006-01-30T15:25:00.000-06:00

Oh, I wish, I wish, I wish. I wish I had taken a picture. We bought a potty seat for little M the other day, just so she can become familiar with it. We bought her the kind that fits on top of the regular toilet, though we might end up using the little potty chair type that sits on the floor. Keeping those options open. Anyway, I put it in her room so she can play with it until she's ready to actually use it. Maybe that's weird. But she did, indeed, decide to play with it, and I probably should have seen this coming, but was still surprised when she came out of her room crying because she had fit it over her head, but couldn't get it back off. A simple matter of turning it around, and no harm was done. But, oh, how I wish I had taken a picture first.

And later, after much protesting of "hoop! hoop! hoop!" (the girl loves basketball) I decided to make a basketball hoop out of some very thick cardboard left over from our new dryer (grrrr! to the old dryer!). I found out that very thick cardboard doesn't cut with my lousy cheap scissors. But the serrated Henckels knife works very well. I told little M not to tell Daddy I was using our good knives to make her hoop, because he would kick my *ss, and she promptly agreed with me by saying, "*ss". So I taught our bundle of joy her first swear word today. Do they make V chips for Mommy? Guess I'd better get serious about cleaning up my potty mouth. Though, it does go along with the theme for the day.

Another Tag

2006-01-30T08:44:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged again.

Four jobs I've had in my life:
1. Stay-at-home-mom
2. Creative Director (a.k.a. Web Designer)
3. Student worker
4. Taco Slinger at Taco Bell (where I met my husband some *gasp* 18 years ago!)

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Twister
2. Shakespear in Love
3. Any of the Star Wars movies
4. Terms of Endearment

Four places I have lived: (only four?)
1. Martin City, Montana
2. Colburg, Oregon
3. Loveland, Colorado
4. College Station, Texas

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1. Survivor
2. House
3. Good Eats
4. The Biggest Loser (why?)

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Japan
2. Banff Natl. Park, Alberta, Canada
3. Teton Natl. Park, WY (a favorite hiking place!)
4. Jamaica

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. Pad See Eaw, specifically from Lanna Thai
2. Red or Green curry chicken
3. Vietnamese Springrolls
4. Wings, extra hot, extra wet, specifically from Wings N More (NO Substitute!). This is the only time I like to eat chicken on the bone.

Four websites I visit daily: (okay, not every day, but these are my most frequent stops)
1. Google
2. Coyote Notes (Does anyone even read my blog?)
3. ChemMom
4. um... drawing a blank here.

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Running
2. Hiking somewhere in the mountains
3. Hiking somewhere in the mountains
4. did I mention hiking somewhere in the mountains?

Four bloggers I'm tagging:
As I mentioned previously, I don't know many bloggers, so I'm sorry to say I'm a dead end.

I've leaped the childcare hurdle

2006-01-19T22:22:00.000-06:00

Okay, so my husband and I are taking this parenting class. A friend of mine in Idaho (Hi, RoxAnne!) recently told me about it, and it just happened to show up at another friend's church here, so I signed us up. My husband wasn't too hard to drag along, and admits he's actually having fun. We've never taken a class together, and it's just a little weird, but mostly cool. So far I'm on board with most of what they've been teaching, and I'm catching a few good techniques that make sense and are actually working pretty well with little M.

The biggest thing about all of this is not the class material, but the fact that while we are in the class, little M is upstairs partaking of the complimentary childcare. Yes, that's right, folks! I actually take her there and leave! For two whole hours! Every Wednesday! Are you amazed? Are you astounded? She's 19 months old, and before this I have left her with someone other than her father exactly two times. And one of those was with the grandparents and Aunt Sally, which probably shouldn't count because they're family, but it was for like ALL DAY, and just about killed me. Well, and there was that one time I went running for about 20 minutes while the other grandmother was visiting. But little M was taking her nap, so that REALLY shouldn't count. Oh, and I left her with Chemmom while I went to an appointment or two, but we have playdates with her and her girls all the time, and she's totally capable and familiar and lives in the neighborhood. Okay, so I guess exactly two equals more like five. But still!

Regardless, I've finally jumped the hurdle. I am well on my way to seriously looking into a "Mommy's Day Out" program, where I will take my child and then actually leave the building! Absolutely incredible. This would be quite convenient in the near future, as I have just this week been solicited to do a web design project for my old boss/mentor at TAMU. After some slight hesitancy, I've accepted. Now all I need is time without distraction to do the work. Hence the hesitancy. Well, and a little self-doubt. I've been away for a while. But I'm over that, and looking forward to the project. It's actually a site I worked on when I was a student worker for Dr. Dan. Cool! And wow, does it need a redesign.

Anyway, so three cheers for me and my newfound ability to entrust my daughter to others for very short periods of time in very controlled situations. Yay, me!

Tag, I'm it!

2006-01-19T20:40:00.000-06:00

Tag, I'm it! Apparently there's a game afoot in the world of blogs that I was unaware of. The first player of this game starts with the topic "five weird habits I have" and people who get tagged then write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says you have been tagged (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours.

So, Chemmom tagged me, and I'm willing to play along, but it saddens me to admit that I don't know five other bloggers to tag. How sad is that? I know exactly two other admitted bloggers (you know who you are!) so how about we just assume anyone reading this has been tagged, and if you have a blog and feel like playing, go for it.

Anyway, five weird habits I have:

1. When I'm standing in one place to do a task (cooking, waiting at the post office, whatever), I tend to stand on the outside edge of my feet, usually with my big toes curled in. I have NO idea why I do this, and I'm usually completely unaware of it until I hear my husband chuckle. He thinks it's cute. Go figure.

2. I am addicted to reading, and if I'm in the middle of a good book I will utilize each and every spare moment possible to read, no matter how short. Even if I only get half a paragraph read. Even if I end up opening the book twenty times before getting through one page. Really.

3. I am compelled to have the last word. The first person to ever point this out to me was my friend, Jodi, back in grade school. I was all, "bye", and she was all, "bye", and I was all, "bye", and she was all, "bye", and I was all, "bye", and she was all, "OKAY. I got it. Bye. Do you have to have the last word ALWAYS? God, Gretchen!" She's frickin' hilarious. Hi, Jodi! I share this habit with Chemmom, though I hadn't noticed her doing it, and we do manage to end conversations with one another somehow, so one of us is hiding our compulsion well. I'm guessing it's her.

4. I fiddle with my eyelashes when I wear mascara. As a teenager I actually pulled them out, resulting in a very odd eyelashlessness (new word!) that finally convinced me to make a real effort not to fiddle. Now I can usually (mostly) refrain until evening, at which time I will notice the fiddling and (hopefully) go wash my face. As a kid I also bit my nails, pulled my eyebrows, and chewed on the ends of my hair. Gee, do you think I was stressed or something?

5. I must be allowed to choose which side of the bed I will sleep on, wherever we go, based on how the room "feels". I haven't figured out what magic criteria I use to make this decision, but there is always a definite right and wrong side for me. Sometimes the left, sometimes the right, sometimes near the door, sometimes away from the door. Lucky for me, my husband couldn't care less which side he gets.

That's five of my weird habits. I'm sure there are others, but we'll follow the rules and stick with five. You're welcome.

'Tis the Season

2005-12-21T09:50:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that I'm the mother of a year and half old toddler, but that's what the calendar says. And observation of the little person that keeps running around this place confirms it. Despite watching what I'm sure is too much television, she seems to be coming along just fine. She pretty much knows her shapes, colors, letters and numbers (not in order yet), and can count to 3 or 5, depending on her mood. She loves books, and will sit through 1 to 3 decent length stories at a time, or more if they're small. She's also mastered buckling her highchair straps, but hasn't figured out the unbuckling thing.

Last year little M was too young to fully appreciate the gift opening experience, but I think she'll enjoy it much more this year. I suspect next year will be the really big one, though. Santa might even become more than a random stranger. I'm hoping to fill the season with lots of fun things for her to remember and look forward to every year, rather than having it be all about getting presents. Tricky.

I absolutely love Christmas time, and I shamelessly admit that for me, it's really all about the decorations. My favorite tradition as a kid was when we would all pile into the car and drive around looking at the lights. They seemed so magical and beautiful to me, especially when there was a good blanket of snow to set them off. And so far, our little one seems to share my joy in the twinkling festivity of the holiday. She has been very helpful in reminding me to turn on our tree and mantle lights as soon as she gets up in the morning, and any time we are out and about in the evening, she points out the most spectacular displays with a sincere, "Ohhhhhhhhh!" It's a wonderful thing.

Thanksgiving from my soap box

2005-11-15T08:23:00.000-06:00

This is a mushy post to say how totally, incredibly, and completely in love I am with my little coyote. So maybe this should be a thanksgiving post. I am boundlessly thankful to be a mother, and to have the opportunity to experience such limitless joy. Sometimes I let the day-to-day distract me from the miracle that is motherhood, but lately I've been trying to live more in the moment, especially those moments that catch my breath and make me feel like my heart could just explode. It's amazing how many of those there are when you pay attention, rather than just go through the motions.

I am convinced that women have the better deal in this life. Sure, it's a man's world. They make more money, get better promotions, work half as hard for twice the recognition, and all the rest (jab jab!). But in the things that matter on a deeper level, women have the true advantage. There's the spiritual compensation of love that women have the capacity to receive in quantities I believe well surpass that of men. It is our nature to love, and the love a mother has for her child is unlike any other. It is more than fair payment for the work required to raise and nurture that child, if you let it be. It's a labor of love, which means it's paid with the highest currency available.

Of course, I'm not blind to the reality that this is a mortal world, with mortal needs. Food, shelter and clothing aren't optional (well, maybe clothing is, if you're one of THOSE), and women have as much right as men to expect opportunity and compensation with which to provide those things for themselves and their families. Especially in a country that has some 12 million single mothers. You can't pay the rent with love, and you can't put it on the dinner table for the kids. And that's the beauty of the women's movement, which has given us more choices, if not entirely equal ones... yet. Had to put that in, just to be sure no one could misconstrue my rambling comments as some sort of statement against women's rights. Not that anyone who knows me could possibly make that mistake.

This is all really just a reminder to myself to focus on the important things, and to not allow resentment or insecurity steal the joy and sense of accomplishment from my role as the most important person in the life of my little girl. I'm as guilty as anyone of taking things for granted, and that "grass is always greener" thing still crops up occassionally. I do miss the "working world" at times, but I have no doubt I'd miss the time with my little coyote tons more if I weren't one of the lucky mothers able and willing to be a stay-at-home mom.

At least during these early years. As soon as she starts school, I'm getting the heck outta this house!

Boo!

2005-11-02T11:23:00.000-06:00

Well, Halloween has come and gone. When I was a kid it was always a really big deal to make our costumes, and I enjoyed putting together a fairy princess costume for M this year. We took her to a little Halloween thing downtown on Saturday, where the downtown businesses set up booths and the kids were able to trick-or-treat there. She was either overwhelmed, or underwhelmed, as she mostly just seemed daze. She did enjoy seeing a few dogs walking around on leashes, but the costumes and kids didn't really phase her.

We didn't take her trick-or-treating on Halloween, but she wore her costume and had fun seeing all the kids come to our door. Our new house gets a much better turn out, and we ran out of candy long before we ran out of trick-or-treaters. We let her have a little bit of candy, but she's oblivious to the fact that we ate or gave away most of it. I bet it won't be so easy next year.

Our first trip to the ER

2005-10-10T10:31:00.000-05:00

We made our first trip to the ER last night. After dinner, our little monkey girl stood up on a kitchen chair and took a tumble, managing to hit both the front of her head on the table and the back of her head on the hard tile floor. At least, I think that's what happened. I was in the other room, and Daddy had turned his back for a split second. That girl is quick! She's had plenty of head knocks before, but shortly after this one, she had an exorcist-style stomach purge. We thought that warranted a trip to the ER for a check-over. So first I jumped into the shower with her to hose her off while Jay cleaned up the mess, then she proceeded to pee all over me, so I jumped back into the shower. Then it was off to the circus!

As you can probably guess, the ER was more traumatic for her than the actual injury. But after a mere two hours, we got a thumbs up and were sent home, totally exhausted from trying to keep her out of trouble in the tiny space of our room that contained way too many interesting and dangerous and/or expensive objects. Of course, the best part was when we were told to wait so they could send someone to take "pictures". We both assumed this was some sort of child abuse protocol, to go on file just in case. Perhaps we watch too much TV. After about 30 minutes Jay went asking when the photographer would be coming around. After some blank looks of confusion, it was revealed that "pictures" were actually xrays. And let me tell you, it isn't easy pinning a 16 month old to a table and holding her still for those! But everything looked fine, according to the doctor. Jay had a moment of serious guilt/fear when he thought he saw two fracture marks from across the room, but it all turned out well. We're hoping to not repeat that little trip again any time soon.

Coyote turned monkey

2005-10-05T18:50:00.000-05:00

Today our little coyote is more like a little monkey. She climbed out of her crib for the first time in protest of taking her afternoon nap. After much crying (just hers today, though I was tired enough to join her), I went into her dark room to tuck her back in, and was quite surprised to not find her in her crib. I looked around and there she was, sitting on the floor. I was simultaneously concerned that she may have hurt herself in her daring escape, and annoyed that I could no longer count on her remaining safely enclosed after being placed in her crib. I knew it was inevitable, but I was hoping we had a little more time. We'll definitely be shutting her bedroom door at night now, to at least keep her from wandering around the house while we sleep, should she decide to pull her Houdini in the wee hours.

We're completely moved into the new house, though nowhere near completely unpacked. My big sister was such a big help. There is no way I could've done it on my own with child in tow. It was also nice just to have her here. We keep in touch pretty well, but it's not the same as spending time together. And getting to watch her with our little girl was great for my heart. It makes me sad when I think about how little Madison gets to see her extended family. With my sister's impending move to Hawaii, the frequency of visits will certainly thin down. On the up side, it gives us a good reason to consider taking a trip to the Big Island. As much as the husband is traveling for work these days, surely we'll rack up the frequent flyer miles in no time. The long flight is still somewhat daunting, though. Our last lengthy car ride was challenge enough, and we could at least pull over when needed. Not to mention we were only torturing ourselves, not a bunch of strangers forced to sit in close proximity. Something to think about.

Happy days are here again

2005-09-16T07:24:00.000-05:00

My sweet little girl is back. Whatever was bothering her has passed, and she is once again a happy little wild coyote. Yay! I'm glad she's feeling better. The world is a brighter place!

We had a play date at our place yesterday. It's great to have someone close to my little one's age around. Busy, as she's known, is an adorable little girl, and I love watching them interact. They both appeared to be sharing quite well, although I've read that they really don't understand the concept yet. Whatever. They played quite nicely, and seemed to enjoy each other's company. The older sister, Big, was also quite entertaining. She has the most wonderful imagination, and comes up with lots of fun stuff. A good glimpse at what it'll be like when mine is about 3 years older.

So far, my little coyote seems quite sociable. At the park over the weekend she caught the eye of several little boys, and even received a kiss. It was terribly cute, seeing them follow her around, though I'm really not ready for her to enter the dating scene just yet! It was also wonderful to see her and her daddy running around the playground. He let her go down the big slide, which was a little scary for me, but she loved it. He and I have different definitions of "safe". I'm learning to look away and trust him not to let her get hurt. Very difficult! But he's an intelligent guy, and logically I know he can handle it.

The big move is only a week away. Or the beginning of the big move. We'll have a week and a half to get it done and get the old place cleaned up and ready for the new owners. And with the husband traveling for the first 5 business days of that, I know it won't be nearly long enough. We're flying my sister out to help, which is a big relief. She's an expert mover, plus she will be more than happy to play with little coyote as much as possible, leaving us free to get the work done. Since we haven't even started packing yet, it's probably time for me to start panicking.

I spoke too soon

2005-09-08T16:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's relatively decent morning turned into a pretty crappy afternoon and evening, though the night's sleep was mostly uninterrupted. Today has been one long melt-down, except for the blessed relief during our play date. I decided to take her to the doctor to make sure there wasn't something medically wrong. She screamed (and I mean screamed!) through the entire exam, but got a clean bill of health. No ear infection or other apparent malady. Could be that she's just having a very bad teething experience (I think she's working on a molar and 2 eyeteeth at once). Could be that aliens replaced my sweet happy child with a less pleasantly natured replica. The only thing I'm pretty certain of is that this too shall pass (at least that's what they tell me). I gave her some tylenol. Didn't cure her, but it seems to have helped. Or that could be my imagination. She still had some crying fits for no obvious reason this evening, but went to bed pretty easy. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

It's really quite alarming to see your little angel in total distress, crying, screaming and rolling on the floor, and no amount of comforting or attempts at distraction even make a dent. The past few days, none of my usual tricks seem to work, or at least not for long. Kali was somewhat more successful today. Seeing that pooch jump and catch her toys managed to momentarily turn the tears to giggles. Good dog! Even Luna started looking concerned about the little one's wailing and actually put up with some petting and finger-poking.

To preserve what's left of my sanity, I left my husband in charge for about 45 minutes after dinner and secluded myself in our room and took a little nap. Put in earplugs. It was fabulous.

Tuesday Night Fever (or Staying Awake)

2005-09-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Our little coyote had a rough night last night. She was running a pretty good fever and didn't sleep well, waking up every few hours. This after a day of not taking her naps, despite a 45 minute drive in a desperate attempt to get her to sleep in the afternoon. Perhaps the trip wore her out more than I thought, and maybe she ran across some evil out-of-state bug along the way. Or maybe someone who looked at the house while we were gone left their cooties everywhere for her to catch.

This morning she seems to be doing much better. Fever is down, she ate her breakfast well. Isn't particularly cranky. She's happily playing with her blocks right now. Hopefully the fever did it's job and fought off whatever was in her system. I'm really looking forward to her getting her naps today, and being her usual happy self. And 24 hours of a normal temperature means she's not contagious and she can have her playdate tomorrow. Oh yeah!

It's good luck on my husband's part that he always seems to be out of town when the little one is sick. I'm pretty sure he got a really good sleep last night. I probably should be happy for him, instead of insanely jealous, and somewhat resentful. Maybe next time.

Home again, home again

2005-09-06T09:33:00.000-05:00

We survived the road trip to CO relatively unscathed, though it was certainly a bigger undertaking than past trips have been. Toddlers are not meant to sit in car seats for hours at a time. But all in all, the little one was quite a trooper, and tolerated the ordeal fairly well. She didn't get as much sleep as she needed most of the time, which resulted in several melt-downs, and was a little crankier than usual in general, but some of that can be chalked up to teething and diaper rash. It's unfortunate that they had to coincide with the trip (again!), making it that much harder on her.

One thing in particular to note: concentrating on driving while a toddler is happily, and sometimes not so happily, screaming at the top of her lungs in the back seat is not so easy. Add earplugs to the list of things to pack next time. Not that I consulted my list anyway. Totally forgot the outlet covers, and those would have been very handy!

Another note: when expecting a crib for your late arrival to a hotel room, it's a good idea to call an hour or so before your arrival just to double check on it. The 30 minute wait resulted in a completely awake (formerly asleep in the truck) girl that wouldn't go back to sleep.

The wedding was wonderful. Everything was beautiful, especially the bride! It's so nice to see two people that really belong together get married. Bon and Steve are a great couple, and I know they'll be good to each other. Our little angel looked particularly cute in her new dress, thanks to Jo and eBay. My procrastination almost left her with nothing to wear!

We spent several days in the mountains, which was fantastic. Aside from the time in Pine, we also took a day and drove around the Indian Mtn. and Elk Horn Ranch areas looking at properties for sale. It's a hobby of ours to pretend were in the market. The landscape was breathtaking. It was very peaceful, and I think the dogs and the munchkin really enjoyed running around and discovering things. The altitude didn't seem to slow them down any, though I was short of breath after a little hiking. I enjoyed pretending I could build a cabin here or there and spend weeks at a time living the quiet life, watching the clouds traipse across the huge sky, contemplating the not-so-distant mountains. I can't help wonder how I ended up in OK after a trip back to CO. While I love our town, the people, our life here, the mountains call to me. However, a day or two in amongst the press of humanity and traffic in the city (and a look at real estate prices!) reminds me that it's not all good, and then I'm thankful to return home again.

As much as I love going somewhere, I do love coming home. It's nice to get back to our routine, especially for the little one. She seems happy to be home with all her toys and the familiar surroundings. Luckily, we sold the house while we were gone, so we won't have the disruption of leaving while the place is shown. What a relief! A few weeks of "normalcy" before the move. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we all adjust quickly to the new house, which we'll be moving into in about 2 1/2 weeks.

Hitting the road

2005-08-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon for our trek to Colorado. The last time we made the drive was about 9 months ago. I'm expecting the trip to be a little more challenging this time, as the little coyote is much more active and used to being able to run and climb all day. Being confined to her carseat that long is really pushing it. We're dividing it into two days, though, which should help.

I'm really looking forward to the trip, for myself. I've been getting the travel urge pretty bad lately. I do love road trips! And I'm especially looking forward to being in that part of the country again. I miss the mountains, the pines, and the dry air.

Mental note: remember to pack outlet covers for the hotels/etc.! Good tip, Jo.

Moving on up

2005-08-23T12:03:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally found a house we both (supposedly) agree on, and we close on 9/23. I say supposedly, because we both have been having the "big purchase jitters". I'm sure once we get moved in and settled we'll be perfectly happy with the decision. I hope. Otherwise that's a pretty big oops. It's got a sprinkler system, so it's worth the move right there, really. But most importantly, it has an extra bedroom, which hopefully we'll be filling in another year or so. Pretty much the whole point of finding a new house.

So we're getting the current abode tidied and spruced up to be shown to prospective buyers. Not an easy task with the little one hanging on me. I'm trying desperately to spend quality time with her AND get things done. Very tricky. Not sure I'm succeeding at either.

I hope the little one does well with the move. She's a pretty easy going girl, and I don't expect her to be too upset by it. She seemed to like the new place when we looked at it, especially crawling into the cupboards and sitting on the low hearth. We'll see how it goes. The next month or so will be pretty chaotic, as we're taking a road trip to Colorado for a friend's wedding and to see family, then we'll be packing for the next few weeks, then the big move. I'm going to try to keep as much of her regular schedule during all of this as possible, so it hopefully won't be as hard on her.

Sleepless nights

2005-08-16T17:21:00.000-05:00

I had one of those horrible "something bad is going to happen to my baby" dreams the other night. Madison was about to walk out into traffic in the middle of the highway. Thankfully it was a very short dream, and I woke up before anything actually happened. Of course, I was up for another hour and a half after that.

I think the hardest thing to get used to about being a mother is the fear. Has anyone else noticed that the staggering amount of fear is directly proportional to the staggering amount of love we feel? I admit, I could probably be classified as a worrier anyway, but having a child steps it up quite a few notches. First, I was afraid that I just wasn't qualified to be somebody's mother. What were they thinking, sending me home with something so precious? I had almost no experience with babies. There were a million things I didn't know. But eventually I realized that I could figure out the details as I went. After all, the baby didn't know I wasn't already a professional diaperer. And I was lucky enough to have a husband that was happy to take on the complicated task of bathing that squirmy little girl for the first few months. She broke us in slowly by being a mostly agreeable, healthy baby.

But now she's getting older, and toddling is surely much more dangerous than lying there looking cute. The big bad world is scary enough when it's You against Them. Now it's Them against My Baby. Horrifying! And even though you can keep them out of the big bad world for a while, there are enough scary scenerios in the home to keep a Mom from ever sleeping--or blinking! again. From falling bookcases to choking hazards, from dog bites to house fires, the possibility of tragedy striking is always lurking, always hovering just over my shoulder. In the light of day it's possible to go about life, vigilent, but calm. At night sometimes the possibilities are simply too overwhelming. So I check on the baby and put that hand down and feel the reassuring rise and fall that tells me she is asleep and safe.

I suppose this fear is helpful in keeping us watchful, keeping us from letting down our guard right when danger looms, but that doesn't make it any more enjoyable. Especially at 3 o'clock in the morning. The good news is that most of the fear and worry is just fear and worry, and the bad things we imagine happening to our precious child don't. The bad news is that I've been told it doesn't go away...ever. Well, I guess I can get some reading done in those wee hours, since I'm up anyway.

Do you like my hat?

2005-08-10T13:09:00.000-05:00

Like most parents, I realize that my toddler can be either a constant source of frustration or amusement. I choose to be amused. I can't count the times a day I think, "Why does she do that?", but it helps to have a sense of humor about everything, and keep it all in perspective.

What makes her think blueberries will make a nice hat? That was the question today at lunch, when I turned around from doing some dishes to see her accessorizing with fruit, several of the little blue things (halved to avoid that scary choking hazard!) perched atop her head, at least one well mashed into her hair (later I would find that quite a few had already fallen behind her and left fun purple stains on the back of her shirt). After a bit of puzzlement, I thought, "well, what's the harm" and finished my task before stepping over and removing the largest chunks.

I guess I'm starting to loosen up a little. Toddlers can do that to you.

Just tickled

2005-08-08T10:56:00.000-05:00

Madison did the cutest thing last night. We put her to bed, and after a while we thought we heard her fussing. After listening closer, we realized she was laughing. We peeked in on her, and there she was, just lying in her crib giggling away at who-knows-what. Something had really tickled her funny bone. Oh, to be able to crawl into that little mind and find out what was going on in there! Jay and I both really got a kick out of the whole thing. It was definitely one of those "Oh my God! She is so great!" moments.

I'm going to hang on to that little moment this week, as she and I are both dealing with a cold, and Jay is out of town until Thursday. I have a feeling I'm going to be a little worn out by the time he gets home.

A hunger for knowledge

2005-08-07T20:32:00.000-05:00

At almost 14 months, our toddler has a real hunger for knowledge. Or maybe just hunger. She's eaten all the corners off her board books. They're supposedly non-toxic. Happily, she also loves to be read to. For about a month now she has been bringing me her little books and climbing into my lap. I can't get enough of that! I really hope she continues with this love of books. I have fond memories of my own mother reading to us at night, and I'm sure that's why I love to read so much. We have made it a nightly ritual with our little girl as well, and it seems to be making an impression.

Oral habits

2005-08-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

Is there anything sweeter than toddler kisses? Our little coyote has finally mastered the closed-mouth smacker kiss. Not that the open mouthed kiss wasn't sweet, but it always reminded me of baby birds waiting for tasty tidbits to be delivered.

Unfortunately, she's started biting again. My shoulder is carrying teeth marks from last night's tired baby chomping. Most of the resources I've read say a firm "No biting!" and putting the child away from you is the best response. She laughs when I tell her no, but the being set aside appears to make a statement. Her tears hurt me worse than the teeth, but then, it's not about me.

Speaking of oral habits, the teeth brushing thing is quite a challenge. I remember when I used to try to brush my dogs' teeth. Eventually I gave that up and decided various tarter bone treats would be good enough. I guess that's not going to work on our little girl. Luckily, her Daddy seems to be having better luck with it than me. Guess who's job that's going to be from now on?

A beginning...

2005-08-04T17:30:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine started calling my little girl Coyote when she was a few months old. Now that she's one year, she has her share of wild moments. I think the nickname Coyote might turn out to be more appropriate than I expected.

Though I'm trying to keep up with my traditional journaling, I think an online format might be a good way to record some of my daily adventures in parenting and share them. I'm going to give this blog thing a try. Wish me luck!