The whole family loves to swim...

Evie is having a rough yucky-here-comes-a-tooth-I-just-know-it day so she needs constant mommy attention so I don’t have time to write a full blog… too busy wrapping the next ice filled washcloth and dancing to take her mind off her mouth. These are a few pictures from this weekend up in Phoenix at my folks’ house. We sure do have fun when we go swimming!!!

Super Dad!

Patrick in his second and first honest to goodness full week as stay-at-home dad has been a hoot! On Monday he proclaimed that staying at home with Evie is great and all but honestly he was pretty bored. So in order to spice it up a little he started looking for exciting activities during the day. The first was to go out to lunch with a colleague, OK pretty normal, mundane. Then he decided it would be fun to take Evie down to visit with his soon to be employer. Sounds reasonable to me. Home depot was on the list too. But by far the best boredom-beater of the week was signing Evie up for scientific experiments at the U of A. I kid you not; he took her in to a “language lab” that where they flashed all sorts of images at her a la Clockwork Orange (sans the scary eye contraptions thank goodness) to see how she would respond. I must admit if it took such lengths this week to keep our super dad occupied I fear for the rest of the month!!

Patrick the super dad spends his days (when not facilitating and furthering science through our progeny) encouraging Genevieve’s development. I call every now and again to make sure all is well at home and as such get a good window into the days activities. As I understand it the schedule goes something like this

8 am – snack
8:15 am – tripod training
8:30 am – nap
9:30 am – snack
9:45 am – change diaper
9:50 am - laugh inducement (i.e., Patrick tries to be a silly as possible in order to get Evie to laugh)
10:00 am – explore the latest Cooking Light for good pictures
10:15 am – tripod training
10:30 am – zurburt lesson (a zurburt for those of you who don’t know is a belly raspberry)
10:45 am – puts Evie in her chair for a break
10:50 am – decides Evie doesn’t want to be in her chair
11:00 am – lunch
11:15 am – change diaper
11:20 am – nap
Noon – hand-eye coordination training with colorful objects

Well you get the idea. Lots of activity, very structured all for the benefit of little miss Evie ☺

The highlight of my week, however, was on Wednesday when Patrick called me at lunchtime. I was away from my desk and when I got back I had a very excited message from Patrick that involved zurburts but was otherwise totally intelligible (I think most of what he said was not in English but baby-speak) Well I called him back and he said that he had just called to let me know that Evie, intentionally or accidentally, while on his tummy and gave him a zurburt. What a brilliant child we have!

Baby Party II

What fun! Our centering (pregnancy) class got together again this weekend for a pool party baby style. It is so much fun to see so many other little ones that are almost exactly (some of them within days of) Evie’s age. They are all so similar in so many ways…. The best was the nearly across the board obsession with sticking all or most of both fists in their mouth. Every time I looked around another tot was going full gusto at their hand… sooo cute! Of course they all share the same tribulations as well as triumphs, namely the whole back to belly but no belly to back as of yet…. I guess it is good to know that misery loves company eh?

Evie's big adventure!

Last Monday night Patrick, Evie, Kita and I left Tucson for what was to be Evie’s greatest adventure yet! Unfortunately the adventure was not so adventurous for Kita who made it only as far as my parent’s house that night… no dogs allowed where we were going....

Months ago Patrick and I decided to take a trip to Havasupai as a post-bar/ anniversary excursion. The idea was to relax and have fun… well for poor Patrick even the best laid plans run awry… this whole parenting thing is a learning process is it not and learning is not always fun? Anyway a few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to combine my vacation with a work trip through the Arizona Strip and because it was OK to bring babe and husband I jumped at the opportunity!! So for the first few days of the great adventure Patrick and Evie tagged along as I helped my boss and co-workers do some fieldwork in this very remote area of Arizona.

We almost handed in the towel on the second night, when I met up with Patrick and Evie after a day of work and the poor pumpkin had given her dad a terrible afternoon of inconsolable crying. Fortunately (or so I think, maybe Patrick feels differently ☺ ) we pushed ahead!

Ohh the sights we saw… agricultural fields, MIA wells, plateaus, flooding rivers, huge (is there any other kind) gorges, polygamist housing, dairy farms, sand and gravel pits, dams…. Yes all in a days work for the adventure-water nerd.



On Friday my “work week” (god I love my work!) was over and Patrick, Evie and I headed for Grand Canyon Caverns for the night. Evie had her first cave tour and I am sorry to say that she is not an aficionado of caves like her mom. We think the dry air (it was a dead cave) down there and/or the elevation change was just too much for her. OK so I admit defeat on this one… no more caves for my baby until she is at least 2 years old.


At 4 am on Saturday we set out for Hualapai Hilltop, the beginning of our 8-mile trek into the canyon that is home to Havasu Creek and the town of Supai. We got a super early start so that all (but especially the babe) would be cool for the hike. That part of the plan seemed to work quite well. The whole baby big enough for the pack part… umm not so much. Patrick felt like little one was bouncing too much in the pack (I couldn’t see because my role was as mommy mule) so poor guy was all stressed out the whole hike down that we were going to end up with a shaken baby. Fortunately she made it unscathed but Patrick did not and was so worried about her both in terms of heat and bobbley head that he really seemed to be bummed.

Ahh but all was not lost in the vacation department. On Sunday morning I found out that Evie and I could take the helicopter out of the canyon thus saving 8 miles of heat and bobbing! Hooray! So with a much-improved familial mood we set out to see these wonderful waterfalls we had come to see. We spent the day at Havasupai Falls…. There was even a little baby pool/travertine deposit just for Evie. She took a couple of good naps on the red sand and seemed to be pleased as pie.

The next morning Patrick set out hiking for the top in the wee morning hours (although not too wee for fear of mountain lions) and I got up a 6 am to wait for the first-come-first served helicopter ride. Well things don’t always work so smoothly and it ended up taking until noon for Evie and I to take that copter ride… I think the tot would have preferred to wait forever for that life first. She decidedly did not like that horrible old helicopter… quite frankly it made me pretty queasy too! Good thing we stopped in Seligman, AZ at the Road Kill Café on the way home…..

But I am happy to say we all made it back safe and sound from our “relaxing” vacation and are all hoping that sometime in the next week or so we can get some rest ☺