Sunshine

Evie's new favorite song...



She usually ends with "oh please don't take Evie's sunshine away" but I couldn't get her to do that part on camera... In fact this video demonstrates perfectly the amount of time she is prepared to follow a request... fleeting at best :)

It is May and man is it Hot

Summer is here and the pool is out!

In other news, Evie was looking pretty raggedy and refused to keep a ponytail in her hair so she received her first honest-to-goodness haircut. All things considered, I think it turned out quite well. A nice little bob that barely needs to be brushed suits her much better than an attempt at long hair :)

We also had a bit of tragedy in our house last week... a coyote got two of our chickens, one of which was Evie's black fuzzy footed gal (and my personal favorite) All week the other hens haven't been laying very well.. I think it is PTSD, but the consensus among the other coop carers is that chickens are too dumb to be traumatized and it is more likely that it is just because it is so darn hot out. The villain was seen again on Monday and Tuesday but fortunately no other hens were taken...

Mother's Day Camping

Pretty much ever since we got back from our last camping trip with the Ericksons in February we had been planning to go camping again... Well it took a couple of months but was no less fabulous than the previous trip!

On Friday we all left work early and headed out toward Willcox. We decided to buy groceries there and decide where exactly we would camp (we are just crazy like that) In the end, a nice bumpy dirt road about 5 miles from a state prison sounded like just the spot, so we packed up the kids, brats and s'mores and headed up the road.

About 1/2 hour out of Willcox there it was, the Fort Grant prison, actually pretty nice as prisons go, given that it backed right up to the Pinaleno Mountains. We weaved our way through the prison guard housing and found a nice little dirt road to explore that looked, more or less, like it would take us to the mountains. Sure enough, just like topo map (kinda) said the road headed up into the hills and crossed a glorious little stream, Grant Creek. About 5 miles in the road got pretty rough but fortunately both cars were able to boulder climb enough to get us up into the oaks and junipers enough to find just about the most wonderful campsite I have ever stayed at. It was right near the creek and even had enough space for Garantor, aka, the Lacroix tent.


The next 30 some odd hours were spent playing in the freezing cold creek, getting dirty and the occasional quasi-walk up the road to explore. It was pretty hot during the day but the creek was super cold, which did not seem to deter Evie from spending time in it totally naked or Patrick, Issac and Eva from building a nice little pool to keep all of our beverages just right. The beverage pool also served as a handy place for Evie and Daddy to play. On Saturday night campfire brats and corn were made (and another failed attempt at cheesy potatoes) as well as the all important s'mores, which were pretty close to the highlight of the weekend for Evie.


We left Sunday morning for Tucson, where somehow miraculously (or not so depending on your opinion of heat) the brief spring had transformed itself into sweltering summer and it was 100 degrees...

Excelling

(To those of you who are not utter nerds, I have ask your forgiveness from the get go on this one.)

It is not very often that I see similarities between my two occupations (mom and water geek) but I tell you what, over the past month I have noticed a striking resemblance in one area: Evie reminds me of an excel spreadsheet.

1) Now maybe I am slow, but when I first started working in excel I’ll be dammed if I couldn’t figure out how to sort by column while keeping all of the rows together. (Don’t worry, after about a year of putting something in access and then re-exporting it to excel I took the time to figure this one out) Evie has presented a similar dilemma. Try as I might, I cannot get her to put away items (sort them) in the way I would like. I have been quite successful with getting her to put away her toys, but almost never will she put them in the receptacle that I ask her to. Thus, my whole idea of one chest for dolls, one for music instruments and one for blocks (which I thought was wonderful) has turned into three chests (and two kitchen cabinets) for whatever sort of toy Evie decides should go there on any given day (this, of course, includes the occasional stray pb&j sandwich).

2) When you are trying to write a formula in excel, if you don’t get it exactly right you receive a totally unhelpful error message, and a rather annoying tip-tap-tap from our friend the paperclip. You can search through the help file till your heart’s content but you won’t find exactly the answer for your situation. I swear, Evie is the same way! If the formula, i.e., situation, is just a little off she may just freak out on you, and you have little, if no, idea of what you did wrong. Going to the “help file” i.e., toddler self-help books (for you, not the toddler) rarely tell you how to deal with a tot who inexplicably is face down on the ground crying because she (by god) wanted the blue cup, not the green cup… when she doesn’t even know blue from green! How on earth do you come up with the right formula as to avoid that melt down next time? (well actually, although through no real help from a book, I have found at least a partial solution to this one… never let the belly go a-wanting for food)

3) Finally, and most similarly, is the error message you get in excel for “circular references.” Although sometimes this happens inexplicably, it is usually because you try to include the “question” as part of the answer when writing a formula. (Like defining a word with the word itself). Evie is a textbook example of the circular reference right now…. She intentionally spills her milk after we asked her not to. I ask “Evie why did you spill your milk?” She replies, “Because I spill my milk.” Or, “Evie, why are you afraid to sit in the bathtub with the water running?” Evie: “Because I am afraid to sit in the bathtub with the water running.” This little back and forth occurs ad nauseam in our house everyday. I guess rationale for actions is a developmental milestone we have yet to reach… go figure!

The Evie Show, Take I

It appears that our daughter has a penchant for dramatics. (Yes in that sense too but here I am talking about the type that occurs on stage) She is very fond of performing and will happily take any opportunity, with any audience, to do a little show.

Breakfast time now consists of the “Evie Show,” which always starts with Evie standing on her blue carpet and proclaiming “It’s the Evie Show!” and then doing a jig of some sort, ending, of course with an arm-flapping flourish. She then requests us to participate by announcing “It’s the Mommy Show” or “It’s the Daddy Show” and gets rather peeved if we don’t hop up and do a little dance of some sort. (Clearly she has more energy in the morning than either Patrick or myself.)

The performances are not limited to breakfast. She had been known to announce a show in her bedroom, run over to her piano start a song playing and then dance around, running over to the piano to restart the song every time it stops. The best performance to date, however, was last week during dinner. (Nothing quite like dinner and a show!)

In an attempt to enjoy the last of the nice weather before the heat we were eating dinner outside. Evie was naked, also frequent evening activity, and we were eating our minestrone soup. It all started out well enough with everyone peacefully eating the soup. But peaceful is just too darn boring for Evie so she decided to start smearing her soup all over her body, all the while proclaiming, “Look guys I am wearing my soup!” This, of course, made us laugh and she saw the opening for a grand performance, smeared more soup on herself and then ran into the grass and proceeded to do a little dance. It was quite a sight, naked, soup-covered toddler singing, jumping, spinning and running around the backyard. The finale was her running to the edge of the grass putting her hands on her lower back and yelling, “shake your booty” while wiggling her butt. Of course by this point we were in stitches which, I am afraid means that we are going to have to keep a close eye on her and soup so that this doesn’t become a repeat performance….

While the soup incident was not caught on film we did (sort of) catch her doing a show about a week or two ago. We have found now that when we take out the camera she is more interested in watching herself on it than creating new material :)