Snow days?!

The whole crew headed up to the cabin on the Blue this past weekend. Only this year it was not to escape the heat… in fact in Tucson last weekend it was a gorgeous 70ish degrees… which meant it was downright cold and in fact SNOWY up in the mountains. We drove through honest to goodness snow for about 2 of the 5 hour trip up to the aptly named White Mountains. Originally Patrick and I had lofty plans of backpacking overnight sans Evie to celebrate our 6th anniversary which is this weekend. Well we are both pretty hard core, but neither of us are masochistic per se, so when we saw all the snow we decided to scrap the overnighter for a nice long 18 mile hike up a mountain (Mt. Baldy) as our anniversary date. By Sunday it had stopped snowing and in fact most snow (well really we thought all snow…ohh how wrong we were) had melted away.

Excited about the exertion we took off in our car just like the good old days, Kita was the only child again ☺ We, however, only got as far as Big Lake (about 20 miles from the foot of Mt. Baldy) where there was sooo much snow (like 5 ft) and the wind was whipping so hard I felt like I was back in Wisconsin. Now this didn’t deter us totally. What really put the kibosh on the climb was actually the fact that the road to the trailhead was closed, it hadn’t been plowed!! (I later found out that actually the road has been closed for a whole year now because they are doing work on it and only open it on the weekends during the summer)

Plan B now thwarted we moved on to C, which was to drive to Greer and get a big ole greasy breakfast (ohh yeah it is almost like hiking :) While in Greer we wandered into this great little gallery where I found a fabulous painting that I decided we had to have. The price was right and Patrick agreed it was beautiful so we decided to buy it. (Clearly hiking is more cost effective for us) Well the only problem with our beautiful art is that it is ohh about 5 ft by 4 ft large and we don’t have a terribly large car. Getting it back to the cabin was no problem because we didn’t have Genevieve with us… but getting it home was another story… one involving Kita riding home in the front seat, Patrick scrunched up into such a little ball that the normally steel stomached man got car sick and me driving a car with NO visibility whatsoever. Anyway to make an already long story not too much longer we arrived home safe and sound and the painted was unscathed. Woohoo adventures with the Lacroix clan.

On the baby front – Evie had a great time playing in the “wilderness” She mastered the not so easy task of walking on uneven ground with a only a few muddy nose dives, got to swing in her fancy new airplane swing, played along the Blue in the sand and even was allowed to stay up late and watch Indiana Jones with the big people!

The American Dream....

Ahh the American Dream: the car and the house with a shiny pool. Life is easy and you are living large. Friends come by and enjoy and celebrate your success... Well folks I am happy to say that at the ripe old age of 13 months Evie has achieved American-Dream Status. Yes, she worked hard to get here and is very grateful to those who helped her along the way: Nanny Nicole provided the sumptuous cottage, cousin Melissa the fast wheels and Nana Mary the luxurious baby-olympic-sized pool. (And of course a nod must be made to me, aka Mom, for turning a lovely shade of purple in my effort to blow up the gargantuan pool)

Now that her dream is complete she goes out everyday to survey and enjoy her kingdom. First she takes a ride in her car. So far she can only manage to propel it backwards on her own, a bit dangerous, but worry ye not she is very good about looking back over her shoulder to ensure she does not run over any residential cat or dog. If moving forward is required she must elicit the help of one of her big people; who are generally more than happy to oblige. Then, once the car is nice and warmed up, she “drives” herself home to her plush baby-mansion and does any number of domestic tasks: open and close the shutters and/or door, cook a meal at the sink or just sit inside and enjoy the tiny roof over her head with a nice snack (provided once again by her big people). Then she suits up and jumps into her aquarium pool. Splish splashing around without a care in the world one can hear the giggles of happiness, her squeals of joy and the sighs of content that can mean nothing but ahhh yesss I have arrived.

Finally. and this is the apex of her day, she gets to take the inhibiting swimsuit off (or at least mostly off… she insists that wearing the top as a hat sets off her eyes and who am I to argue). She then gets to enjoy the most important part of owning your own kingdom… running around in the buff without any reproachful roommates or nixing neigh sayers!

Hula!

My folks just got back from Hawaii this Friday... sounds like it was an awesome time! They brought back Evie this rockin' hula outfit which (much to my surprise) she loves to wear!!

Little Miss Bubble Mouth

I’ll admit it, Evie does not take a bath every day… or really most of the time even every other day. It is more like every two days or so, provided that there are no extenuating circumstances (most of which you really don’t want to know about, trust me). This lack of suds means that when she does take a bath she gets pretty excited about it. She splashes, squeals and generally has a good old time. Splashing and happy babble are welcome bath time activities. I am afraid, however, that not all of her bath happenings are quite so innocuous. One of her favorites is to “pretend” like she is drinking the shampoo bottle. Although we do not bathe her every night, we are not reckless parents. We always check to see that the bottle is closed before she begins her faux imbibing. Or so we thought….

Last week Patrick was giving her a bath while I was cleaning up from dinner (which Patrick proclaimed to be Space Food… but that is another story entirely). I went in to check on them and sat and watched while they played and noticed that, as is per usual, Genevieve was drinking the shampoo. I mentioned to Patrick that maybe we should take the bottle away from her because it isn’t exactly a desirable habit for her to have. He pooh-poohed me and proclaimed the bottle closed… no worries. We went one for a few more minutes talking while Evie splashed, and then, Evie looks right at me, smiles really big, opens her mouth and a HUGE bubble comes floating out as she begins to babble. Guess that bottle did have some soap in or around it eh? The look on her face was utter shock and disbelief at her ability to produce something she was sure only came from the magical little pink bubble stick and bottle. After her initial shock she realized the comedy in the situation and started giggling, the whole thing put Patrick and I in stitches too.

Needless to say that tonight during her bath duckies and cups were in abundance but shampoo bottles were decidedly not.

Nature girl....

Genevieve is a nature girl! Every morning the first thing she wants to do is go out back and play in the dewy grass. She will toddle over to the door, look longingly out the window and make her "I want that" noise (and of course say doggie if kita is outside too). The throughout the day whenever she disappears from sight it is always to go stand at the back door (or front door if it is open to the screen) and bang on it hoping she'll be let loose.

Her recent journeys into nature go beyond the backyard however. Two weeks ago, on my flex Friday, we went out to Sabino Canyon and went on a nice little hike. She rode on my back the whole time ohhing and aweing at the flowers, lizards, birds you name it. The highlight of that trip though was definitely the creek where she got all wet and messy. (She also learned that walking in a stream is no easy feat and would not let go of my hand because she was afraid to fall)

Another recent outdoor adventure was last weekend when my folks came down and we took them out to Tohono Chul park. (That is where the pictures are from) We had a great breakfast at their tea room and then walked around for a bit (not too long though because it is already getting hot!!) The park has a children's area that Evie thought was pretty cool... again the water feature/fountain was the biggest hit. (Ahh way into water, she must be my daughter :)

Then just today we went out to the zoo for the second time. She was much more into it this trip... pointing at all the animals and laughing at them. I even let her toddle around in one of the aviaries. She thought that was really cool until she came upon a bird with big eyes that kept squacking at her and clearly made her very nervous... she wouldn't walk past it and had me pick her up to go by it.... too cute.