British Cars

It just wouldn't be early March (well late February) without a British car show... thankfully this year, because my folks are down in Tucson now, we didn't have to drive all the way to Phoenix to see my Dad's cars on display. Evie and I agree that this year's venue was superior to the past two years... Instead of a courtyard in downtown Phoenix, Tucson's British car show is held at an old west touristy town place, called "Trail Dust Town" no less. All of the cars pull into, and are displayed around the town. Dad was very excited to park his cars by the covered wagons...


Evie didn't get too into the cars. What she did enjoy, however, were the cutouts to put your face in. Once I showed her a picture of her behind one she just had to have her picture taken at every one she could find. What a hoot!

Rodeo

Happy Fiesta de los Vaqueros! In Tucson every year the kids get two days off for Rodeo... and this year is the first year that Evie was in school and, thus, the first year we decided to head out to the parade. I took yesterday morning off (because the state of Arizona does not recognize this as an official holiday... what a shame) and took her over to the Rodeo parade. We got there a bit late, i.e., not 2 hours before the parade started, so it was really hard to find good seats. And then (of course) once we managed to find decent ones Evie looks at me and says "Mom, I have to pee!" (This being the only time in the past two months that I wished she was still in diapers) So off we went trudging through the throngs to find a port-a-potty, which miraculously she proclaimed not too stinky and took care of business. At this point the parade had started and a good place to sit was hopeless, so we were satisfied for a decent view (although Evie spent most of the parade on my shoulders so actually she had a pretty good seat)

For those of you not in the know, this parade is a rather long (although they shortened it this year) totally unmechanized parade and has been a Tucson tradition since 1925. Pretty cool. Anyway it involves a lot of horses and old classic carriages and wagons (which are, by in large, rented by groups each year from the Tucson Rodeo museum...) Evie's favorite entry was the "Cinderella carriage" aka stagecoach from Texas.


It was a good time to be sure, Evie even talked me into a pink cowgirl hat and two hot dogs... If you ask her she'll tell you her highlight of the parade was "When the horsey had an accident and peed all over the street." Not exactly my take away moment but hey to each their own.

Toddler Lessons Learned

I've learned a few things over the past year of toddlerhood... here are my top five:

1. A place for everything and everything in its place
Evie really likes to put things in places. Channeled correctly this could be an incredibly useful trait. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out how to persuade Evie toward the productive end of this rule, so it means that any number of odds and ends at any given time can be found in the stray paper bag, sock, purse, nook or drawer. I am afraid at this point we won’t find that extra set of keys to the Honda until Evie is old enough to drive it. (Yes Patrick I blame this on her) and who knew that the perfect spot for my library card was in Evie’s pink purse (we have since gotten Evie her very own card… one treasure to hide down, 1,000 to go)

Lesson Learned: If you don’t want it bagged, tagged and hidden you better keep it waaaay out of reach.

2. Shoes fit best on the wrong feet, and its closely related cousin PJs don’t really matter
For some reason Evie is hell-bent on always putting her shoes on the wrong feet and woe to the parent who tries to correct this error. She will swear up and down that they are more comfortable that way. I think she has a bit of her father’s stubbornness to her. Also in the stubbornness department, for a few weeks I fought a nightly battle with Evie to change out of her day clothes and into pajamas. I then took a step back and realized that I don’t even usually wear pajamas, so why the heck am I making her? (I do, however, make a habit of putting my shoes on the correct feet)

Lesson Learned: Some battles are just not worth fighting… Does it really matter if her shoes are on the wrong feet or if she wears today’s clothes to bed? Evie now goes to bed most nights in her day clothes (and I’ll admit to sending her to school once, OK maybe twice, in the same clothes as the day before… with clean underwear of course… even I am not that uncouth)

3. Mess is best, put your tile floors to the test
Evie is a Tasmanian mess-maker. One of her favorite activities du jour is to play with water… If left to her own devices for more than a few minutes we will inevitably find her filling up the bathroom sink and creating some sort of concoction with any, and all ingredients she can find. The most recent witches brew consisted of hand soap, lotion, toilet paper, q-tips and a painting of hers off the fridge… Of course as she makes trips around the house to collect her ingredients she drips water and other bits of the concoction. My kitchen floors, which bear the brunt of this traffic, look clean for maybe an hour max after mopping… awesome.

Lesson Learned: Not one to stifle creativity I only ask that she turn the water off after she gets a full bowl (When asked “Why?” I explained because the trees need water too.) and that she wipe up any stray water and or concoction bits up with a towel when she is finished.

4. Take notes
Evie says the most awesome things. For example, yesterday she told my mom, “Mina, you are really lucky to have a Mini, all we have is a Honda.” I swear she comes out with a zinger or two like this every day…

Lesson Learned: I am resolved, and I’ll admit I haven’t done it yet, to start carrying around a notebook with me so I can record them for posterity. After all, you never know when you may need a good laugh.

5. Always jump in puddles.

Red Rocks

For the second year in a row Evie and I went up to Sedona with Patrick for an annual conference of his. I must admit, I have been to Sedona so many times growing up and as an adult that it is almost a commonplace sort of place for me. I know where all the shops and restaurants are, where to park even when its crowded, etc. All this familiarity though ends whenever I look out and see those amazing red rocks. I was particularly lucky this trip because on Saturday night it snowed and we were blessed with a brief view of some snow dusted buttes and mesas...


Much fun was had with Patrick when he wasn't in the conference, including a pie snack on the bed....Evie and I also had a lot of fun spending some quality mother-daughter time. We partook in my two favorite things to do as a duo.. shopping and hiking. On Friday night Evie and I went out to dinner and then walked over to the Gap Outlet. For the first time ever we actually shopped together (now there is a milestone for ya :) She went around and picked out a couple of fancy dresses to try one and, of course, one fabulous pair of pink patent leather slippers with a large pink jewel on them. Piles of clothes in our hands, we headed to the dressing room to try them on. Evie was hilarious, trying on each dress and looking at herself in the mirror. I told her she had to pick two that she wanted and I would buy them. Unfortunately she is still to little to explain the whole concept of pick the dress that is cool and on sale, that will just have to be a lesson for another time.

On Saturday we woke up early and after a scrumptious breakfast went out to the bell rock area and did an awesome little 4.5 mile hike. Well, Evie only hiked about 1/2 mile of it but she did have a lot of fun collecting and redistributing berries that we found. After the hike we went into town and had a nice mexican food lunch. The whole time she was so great and so much fun to be around. It is really neat for me to see how our relationship changes as she gets older, I wonder what we'll do in Sedona next year?

Mornin' cuddles

For about a month now Evie has taken to joining us in bed every morning at around 6:30 am. It all started about a month ago when Evie asked if she could sleep with us for the night. The answer from Patrick and I was a resounding no... buuut being the conciliatory parents we are (and also real cuddle junkies) we told her that she was welcome to join us in the morning "once the sun came out" Of course everyone knows the sun does not come out at 6:30 am during the winter but she (almost never) comes in before that so we have let that part of the deal slide. (Kid is like an alarm clock, no matter when she goes to bed at 6:30 on the dot each morning she is pad, pad, padding down the hall to our room).

She started by essentially stalking us, hanging out at the bedroom door, breathing heavily and sniffing loudly, waiting, hoping that one of us would wake up and invite her into the room. After we made it clear to her that it was OK to come right in in the morning she then would come into the room and hang out at my side of the bed staring at me until I woke up. (The first time she did this I almost had a heart attack). At this point I asked her to go ahead and wake me up when she came in the room so I could help her into bed. So she then would come in, blankie sweater in hand, crawl into bed and then proceed to fight with us over our pillows. After about a week of pillow fights (so to speak) she started coming in with her own pillow (clever girl).

This whole arrangement works out pretty well on weekdays but on weekends, when we would like to sleep past 6:45 (15 minutes is about as long as she wants to cuddle) She starts chit-chatting with Patrick and I about any number of things... dreams she had, foods she would really like to eat, her most recent treatise on how much she loves her dog Kita. The other weekend Patrick implored her to stop talking... to which she obliged... and then started singing, "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go dowown medicine go down...."