Haircut and other excitement

A quick update while Evie and Patrick are in the bath....


While my parents are in Switzerland we are watching their awesome dog (aka my littlest brother) Quanook (sp?!). I promised Mom I'd post some pictures of the pup so that she would know he is okey dokey while they are away.

In other news we finally gave in a cut bangs for Evie... I think they suit her well....

Finally, and possibly most exciting is Genevieve's new kitchen area! We went to Ikea this weekend for bookshelves and came home with all sorts of exciting Evie things, but the most exciting is the table and chairs! They fit perfectly with the super awesome baby stove that I bought last Friday for her. Its great, we now can get her to stay in the kitchen with us for at least 10 minutes at a time :)

Anxiety

It lurks in the corners of all baby’s psyches. It is dark, dreaded and decidedly disruptive. No, it is not the boogieman, at least not so far as I can tell. Oh no, this monster of late is of the separation-anxiety genus, a little beast I call Mommoth. The Mommoth is a fearful creature, able only to keep her terribly tragic tears at bay when Mommy is near. Should the Mommy leave the Mommoth erupts in to a fit of howls loud and persistent enough to break even the most stone-cold heart. Poor Mommoth, her request seems so simple to her, Mommy must, at all times, be by her side. (Except of course when the Mommoth is totally occupied with something soo fun as to not matter what company she keeps… but that is totally beside the point) Why is it, the Mommoth wonders, must the Mommy sometimes go? Because the Mommoth knows, just knows, that the Mommy shall never return and then who, I ask you who, will read Pajama Time to her?!

Our little Evie Mommoth had a particularly hard week this week. So bad that on Wednesday I received a call at work from Nicole saying that Genevieve had just spent the last hour standing at the door, weeping and saying Mommy. I had no idea how to help our little distressed Mommoth… so I thought maybe talking to her would aid her in her sorrow. Ohh ho not so, this just angered the poor Mommoth even more! After she got off the phone she redoubled her wailing and cast the Evil Phone That Just Pretends to be Mommy aside. In the end, the only thing that put her back in the happy camp was for Nicole to fill up her baby pool and let her go for a swim (just about one of the best activities ever, enough to brighten any cloudy day).

And just think only a few months ago I found myself wishing and hoping that she would utter just one single mommy for her Mommy. I guess the old adage is true. Be careful what you wish for...

Anatomy Lesson

We may just have another physician in the family. Genevieve is very into identifying body parts (and bodily functions… but I don’t think you want to hear about that) these days. Practically every morning when I pick her up her first word is either head, nose or eye; accompanied of course with a good pat to my head, pull on my ear or finger in my eye.

This newfound anatomy acquaintance has become yet another tool in our control/distract/entertain arsenal. For example, if she is running off in a direction we don’t want her to all it takes to stop her dead in her tracks is to ask her where her head is. She will come to a screeching halt pat her head, say “head” emphatically and then go back to running. Frequently, this brief pat pause is the split-second advantage we needed to catch up with her. Now, there are, of course, situations where a mere split second just will not do. But oh ho not to worry, the erudite Evie can be stopped for at least 5 seconds if you ask her where her toes are. Given such a challenge she must stop, squat and point to her little piggies... and this process give you at least 5 seconds with which to gain on her!

Identification of body parts is not limited to just human-types. She also likes to point to Kita’s nose and ears just to let us know that doggies too have these features. This week she took it even a step further and, while taking a break from other backyard play, she trotted over to our statue of Saint Francis and started pointing at his eyes, head and nose (the toes were too hard to find I am afraid and with those long robes you can forget about a belly). Saint Francis was a very good sport in all of this and Genevieve, being the loving tot she is, gave him a nice big hug to say "thanks for letting me demo on you" once she was finished.

Weekend o' fun

It was a laid-back but fun-filled weekend in our little clan. We spent most of Saturday bumming around the house; too hot to do anything else. And then around 2 pm the clouds gathered, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped enough to warrant a trip to the zoo. It was Patrick's first time... I think the anteaters were his favorite :)

Then Saturday night we decided to be crazy and give the drive-in a whirl. We threw a bunch of pillows, chairs and (just in case) toys in the jeep and headed out to see Dark Knight. Evie did great. Although she stayed awake for about an hour of the movie so I think next time we'll be sticking to G and maybe PG flicks. Patrick and I were both just so excited to see a movie at a theater of sorts we really would have gone to see anything (I think the last movie I saw was Harry Potter when Evie was like two months old and perpetually stashed in the baby sling).

Today we took a morning dip at the pool. I sat in the shade and read my book while Patrick and Genevieve frolicked. Then, after a nice long nap was had by all, we went to our second Baby Club Congress and listened to the rockin' kids-music rock band, drank juice till we were all wired (well really Patrick and I also had a beer) and ate too many cheese fish to count. Ahh the excess :)

Peaches!

So those of you who talk to me regularly know that I have been on a bit of a local food crusade (I know, I know, how very trendy of me) these days. Well in my never-ending search for local fruit today Genevieve and I journeyed just a little north of Tucson to Catalina to pick peaches and apples from Howard’s Farm (an article from the Daily Star this week inspired me). I must confess I have never (at least not that I remember) gone to a u-pick-it farm before so I didn’t really know what to expect. We drove for about a ½ hour and then up a dirt road to a little plot of land in a rural, large lot, area of Catalina. We were greeted by Howard himself, who loaned me a wagon for Evie and told us any tree with a pink ribbon was fair game.

Genevieve and I spent about an hour there wandering through the orchard. I let her walk for most of that hour and she became quite adept at plucking peaches. I tried to direct her to the ripe looking ones, but given we both have the same amount of expertise in peach picking I mostly just let her take whichever peaches tickled her fancy. At one point she was a ways ahead of me and found an apple on the ground and just started chomping away at it… hey they are organic anyway so I just let her go crazy… plus something about her eating an apple essentially fresh from the tree warmed the heart cockles. Well that apple became a prized possession, and stayed in her hot little hands for the next three hours while I ran some errands and then around and about the house. I finally wrenched it from her hands just as she was going down for a nap… lucky for her we have a nice big bag of more!