Fairy Princess

Last Halloween's fairy costume had an exciting resurgence last weekend when we all went to a gathering at Valley of the Moon. On Wednesday I found out about it and asked Evie if she wanted to go... being that Valley of the Moon is just about her favorite place in Tucson she eagerly agreed and then proceeded to ask me every single morning until Saturday when we were going.

For those of you who aren't in the know, Valley of the Moon is a random little park-type place in the middle of Tucson that was created in the 1920s as a magical land for kids. It has all sorts of little fairy houses, big and small, as well as little grottoes and other random stone structures. In the past year it has also acquired a number of structures from a now defunct goofy golf place that was a Tucson icon in the early 70s and 80s. Valley of the Moon is run today as a non-profit by volunteers so it is only open every now and again. On Saturday it was open to celebrate Tucson's birthday and there was live music, punch and general fun to be had. People were supposed to come dressed as fairies and later in the evening there was a contest for the best fairy. Evie and I (or really mostly me... I'll be honest) took the contest very seriously. We went out to target and picked up some glitter for her face and body, glittery shoes and some bobbles for her hair. She got all dolled up and was very excited to go.


Well let me tell you there were some pretty fabulous fairies there but just about nothing beats the cute 3 year old in pigtails wearing the costume her Mina made. Evie walked away with second place in the fairy contest and was beat only by the round about 7 year old girl on stilts (gotta love Tucson). Her prize was a Valley of the Moon shirt which is only about 5 sizes too big and as a result makes an awesome nightshirt.... which she has insisted on wearing every night for the past week.

Abstract art and other beauty

You just never know where in life you will find a little bit of art. Genevieve found it in her snacks last weekend and made this:


This was Evie's first week back at preschool and she was so very excited about it. She has a new classroom and got to see all of her friends that were off and about this summer. She was so excited that apparently it was nigh impossible to get her to nap on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday of course she was so exhausted that she reported to me on the ride home that she was still asleep when the lights came back on. In an attempt to get her relaxed and ready for bed we have started nightly bubble baths and Evie quickly discovered the beauty of the bubble beard.


Last night during her overly bubbled bathing experience Patrick called us outside for the most lovely rainbow... Evie was so excited she jumped out of the bath and slipped out the door totally naked (good thing we don't live on a busy street) before I could even get a towel on her....

Its the chemicals

Last Friday I had my first official Arizona-is-broke-as-hell-lets-"save"-money furlough day. As I see it I had two options... stay in my hot (and humid) house and bemoan for the umpteenth time the whacked tax structure of this state that led us to such measures OR head for the cool hills and streams of the Blue. Luckily for me, and those around me, I chose the Blue.

Patrick was preparing for a big trial on Friday and Monday so Evie, Kita and I left him to his own devices (always a dangerous proposition) and jumped in the car and headed north-east. My initial plan was to leave Friday morning but the sound of the gurgling creek (or was that the swamp cooler) called me and so I quickly loaded the car with a few things (including Evie and Kita) and headed out Thursday after work.

Evie is such a great car traveler and took the 5.5 hour drive in stride. So much so that really I had 5.5 hours to listen to music and think... both wonderfully neglected habits of mine. For most of the drive it was just me and the big stormy sky on the road, and it was glorious.

The long weekend (I decided to take Monday as a vacation day) was filled with trips down to the stream, bushwhacking hikes and Evie's first trip out on a lake. Interestingly enough I found that Evie and I did a lot of "science" on the trip, much more so than we ever do at home.

The highlight was on Saturday when after a big rain we went out to check on the stream and found it had jumped its banks, looked like Wonka's chocolate river, and was running really fast. My dad threw a stick in to show Evie how fast the current was. She wanted to participate too so she ran off and picked up a rock. When the first rock did not float down stream, she grabbed a second. The second rock also sank and so my dad asked her what the difference was between the wood he threw in and the rock she threw in. She looked at us both, thought for a second and proclaimed "Its the chemicals." We we both so taken aback by this perfectly correct response we both stood there for a beat looking at each other before we looked back at her and said, Evie that is exactly right. It was awesome.


The high note for me was a waterfall at the end of a bushwhack hike along Turkey Creek. I jumped/bouldered down to it and then had my parents hand Evie down to me. It was a cold and super pretty little waterfall. The only problem was that I wasn't prepared for wading and got rather wet and had to walk and then drive all the way back to the cabin with wet jeans... but it was worth it!


On Sunday we went down to Luna Lake and hiked around and took the paddle boats out for a spin. We didn't get in our full hours worth though because it started to storm and even though the paddle boat probably did not have an ounce of metal on it an extra 15 minutes on the lake just wasn't worth getting soaked (for the second day in a row) or worse. Evie enjoyed her first water-born adventure and did a good job navigating for me.

Yellow Rain Coat(ed)

This past weekend Patrick got a wild hair and decided that we should paint our living room. We have long contemplated undertaking this task but have never quite gotten ambitious enough to do it. We had decided long ago that we should paint the room yellow. (Our living room in our old house was yellow too... hmm I wonder what it says about people who always have to have orange kid's rooms and yellow living rooms?) So when he decided we should go for it I jumped at the opportunity. The task itself turned out not to be too onerous... although I did find myself painting away at midnight on Saturday night while Patrick sat on our couch in the middle of the room watching Battlestar Galactica on our TV (also pulled to the middle of the room... just to be clear, there was no expectation that he help me at that point, I was just neroding about getting it finished and couldn't relax until it was done) As it turns out, however, the build up to painting the room was by far the most issue fraught endeavor.

Before going into this there are two this that should be noted. One: Patrick and I, for all of our good planning and organization in our work activities, are woefully inadequate, for some unknown reason, in our ability to effectively pre-plan household chores and projects. Two: Our living room is, by our standards, really big.

So, we wake up on Saturday morning and I volunteer to go out and buy the paint. Patrick and I confer on the amount required, he suggests 7 gallons I feel like that is excessive and negotiate 5 gallons... umm yes I now realize that even 5 gallons is a lot of paint but at the time it seemed like a reasonable counter-offer to his initial proposal. Then, intent on acquiring 5 gallons of yellow raincoat colored paint, I head off to Ace. As the guy is mixing my last gallon of paint he notes that each gallon should cover about 400 square feet, which would be, oh say enough paint to cover my entire house in raincoat yellow. Oh well, too late at that point, and besides it never covers as much as they say it will (right?) and our living room is really big...

So I pack up the car with my 5 gallons of paint and head merrily on my way. About 1/2 way home I look back and realize that one gallon is leaking and, panic stricken, pull into a nearby parking lot and jump out of the car in the hopes that I can get to the can of paint before it gets to my seats. Well, in my panic and haste, I throw open the back door, which leads the can in question to go toppling out of the car, spilling all over my leg and the side of the car (don't worry Gerry it wasn't the Honda I was driving). So now I have paint all over me, the car and this parking lot (oh and it is already like 100+ degrees outside) Figuring liquids and some sort of mostly toxic solvent are really the only things that are going to solve this problem I jump back in the car, race home and run into the house all a dither about yellow paint in the car. Patrick and Evie rush out to help me... but upholstery and paint do not part so easily. Luckily, in the end, it was a pretty small patch of area that is now yellow and we never really intended to sell the car again anyway. Once the dust settled and we started to regroup and paint something other than my leg and the car, I realized that I felt quite guilty about the large yellow spot in this random parking lot. So I looked up the phone number for a business there and left a message confessing my sins... no word yet on whether or not I will pay dearly for my guilty conscience.

Once the excitement of getting the paint home subsided we all resigned ourselves to the rather large task of actually painting. Genevieve helped us out some but we rapidly realized that she is just far too artistic (not to mention hands on) to be a good painting partner. By the end of Saturday we were all pretty well painted: the living room, my feet (where the can fell), Patrick's arms, all of Genevieve, Oliver's face and left whiskers (I have no idea when or where that occurred) and Kita's leg (I think she decided to hide a toy in the sheet that we used to cover up the paint supplies when we went out on Saturday night). When it was all said and done we painted the whole living room with 2 gallons of paint... so subtracting the gallon that chose to paint my car instead of my wall, we have 2 unopened gallons of yellow raincoat left for when we decide to paint the rest of the house yellow... or something else (anyone want to buy 2 gallons of eco-yellow paint off me?) All told it was not the least traumatic painting experience I have ever had but that's OK because the end result is pretty darn awesome.

Friday nights

Just about every Friday night that we are in town (which, unfortunately this summer is pretty much every Friday) we pack up the swimsuits and head over to the racquet ball club for the Friday night bbq. It is a pretty fabulous little gathering... hoards of kids splashing in the pool, running wild on the grass, hiding in the trees, eating hot dogs and dancing to the live music. Patrick likes it because it has become his once a week chance to eat meat (aka burger) and I love it because we always meet at least two and sometimes as many as five families that we know there. The meetings are never pre-arranged, it is just one of the best places to be in Tucson on a Friday night... Even cooler, we have made some new friends there thanks to our gregarious daughter who is willing to cut a rug with just about any other girl she can find. The whole atmosphere is very reminiscent of what I imagine a bygone everyone meet at the social club time to be.. sort of Dirty-Dancing summer at family camp-esque... minus the saucy rumba.

This past week I decided to actually bring my camera but, I must admit, was too busy having fun and swimming to take too many photos. The highlight of this last week was the face painter, which Evie thought was very fun. The funny thing to me about it was that she was set up right by the pool so the kids would get these fancy face paintings and then either proceed to get back in the pool and smear them or get wet in some other way and smear them. The end result was a bunch of kids running around looking like the have black eyes or some other form of facial malady... our daughter was no exception. Any guesses as to what the face painting was supposed to be?

What do you do on a hot day?

Ahh the most important question in July... What on earth do you for fun when it is over 100 degrees outside and your house is humid as all heck and not terribly cool because the swamp cooler isn't working very well anymore as a result of the monsoon that just will not produce any visible precipitation? Well unless we want to spend the whole weekend at the pool or the mall; the answer is not much... but just laying around doesn't go over very well with a three-year old, so I decided this weekend to build her a fort. (Hearkening back to what I did as a kid during the summer.) She had a ton of fun with it and it was such a hit that we left it up until today. Hopefully it will start raining soon and we can add puddle jumping to our repertoire.

Now, if only I could figure out an equally pleasant way to survive during the workday at home...I am thinking about resorting to working in my bathing suit. I would still be getting out of my pajamas every day right?

4th of July

We spent a fabulous long 4th of July weekend up at the cabin with my folks. We didn't see any fireworks, except for the poppers that I brought up from Tucson, but we did manage to see a pretty awesome little parade in Alpine on July 3rd. Evie was pretty impressed by it too, especially the candy throwing part. (Gotta love people throwing candy out to children, who then proceed to run into the road in front of moving, albeit slowly, vehicles to fetch it)

Aside from the parade we mostly stuck around home, with an all important trip down to the stream every afternoon for wading and exploring. Evie discovered that she is a bit intimidated by large fish (thankfully, for her, there are not too many of those in the Blue) but that overall stream walking is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. One very notable event of the trip was that we actually managed to get Evie in pants! (As we were leaving Friday morning she walked up to me with about 6 dresses, still on their hangers, in her arms and informed me that I needed to pack them for the trip... she burned through those six dresses in the first day and a half)



On the way home yesterday we stopped at the catwalk hike in New Mexico. Evie hiked almost the whole mile in and out. We made it as far as the waterfall/swimming hole and because it was over 90 degrees decided to go for a dip. The water was utterly frigid, around 50 degrees I would guess, but in a you only live once moment I (queen of the its-too-cold-no-way-in-hell swimming) decided to almost get under the water
fall.


I also spent some quality time with my favorite flowers, which only really bloom for a few weeks in July, the monument plant. This is one of the better (of scads) of shots I captured.

Mt Lemmon

Well it is the time of year suitable only for the most hardened of the southern Arizonans... these are the late-June-uber-hot-no-rains-yet days. Last Saturday we decided to take a break from the 105+ degree temps and drive an hour up Mt. Lemmon (actually it was a co-worker's bright idea and we were more than happy to tag along). I am sad to admit that this was Evie's first hike in quite a while so I expected a regular 2.5 year old routine out of her: AKA walk for 100 yards and then either be so distracted or pooped that she would no longer hike. Imagine my shock then when she hiked at least two miles with us! (With only the occasional distracted stop... the hardest for her was the dirt with mica in it... sparkles...are...too...tempting... she only stopped stooping when her pockets were so full of dirt that her skirt was almost falling off from the weight)


You see from the pictures that not only was she a great hiker but she was also quite enthusiastic about the outing (feet 100% off the ground in one shot) You may also notice in the pictures that her shirt looks a little funny... just before we were leaving she found that shirt in my goodwill pile and proclaimed it still fit her (which I guess it kind of does) and proceeded to put it on backwards. Two lessons learned there 1) if its going to goodwill get it out asap and 2) backward/too small shirts are not a battle worth fighting... who knows maybe she is a fashion maven.

Abstract art...

When I came to pick up Evie from preschool on Monday she had created the following:


I asked her what it was and her teacher told her to show me... so she started running around and around it. Any guesses as to what it is supposed to be? For the answer, click on the image, the image title will let you know. (She was so proud of her creation that taking the picture with my phone turned out to be the only way I could get her to clean it up)

Happy Father's Day!

Storyteller

Evie has become quite the storyteller/grand master of pretend lately. She creates these elaborate scenarios and then plays them out with whatever materials she can find. Sometimes its legos doubling as princesses sometimes its spoons constituting a cat family on vacation.

On Monday night after her bath she decided that she wanted to pretend she was a Barbie. Apparently the first step toward Barbie-dom is a fancy hair-do... so for the first time ever she actually sat still while I attempted to do a "fancy" hair do for her (you can see in the pictures that it didn't work out so well for me but she was happy so that's all that really matters) Evie-barbie then needed to get dressed "fancy" and then she wanted to get into a Barbie Box. We didn't have any large pink boxes handy so a split open file box would have to do. She then wanted to see what she looked like as a Barbie In A Box so we took pictures...


I then told her that I could make it really look like she was a Barbie in the box so while she painted in the other room I put together this for her (Yes it is Skipper, not Barbie but Evie can't read yet and I just couldn't bring myself to put her head on the top of a real Barbie...)

Finally after playing like Barbie in a box for awhile she ran out of the room proclaiming that she had a good idea, and came back like this:


In case you can't tell that is Evie pretending she is Daddy :)

Little Ballerina

Although it is incredibly difficult to make myself sit down and write right now (I am 400 pages into an incredibly engrossing 800 page book... why do I do this to myself?) Write I must because Evie had a pretty big weekend last weekend.

Starting last Wednesday she rehearsed every evening from 5-8 at the theater for the big dance performance for her dance studio. She was (briefly) in two numbers, ballet and tap. She vacillated between being very excited to be on stage and a little bit nervous about it (I learned the hard way that me being backstage was a bad idea) In the end though she gave two stellar performances on Saturday and then again on Sunday. (And in case you are interested the thumb turns out to be an important accessory to dancing... she sucked it for part of her tap routine one night, until she realized that she was supposed to be using both hands) I am afraid my low light photography leaves something to be desired so I don't really have any good pics of her dancing but I do have a few of the before and aftermath. The first is from her dance studio (Evie is the little one on the far right) and is of all of the dancers after the have practiced their "run for the rose" the second is from our friend Kwan whose daughter was also in Evie's dance class...




The highlight though was at the very end getting to run out and bow and get a rose from the head of the studio Miss Cecily. We have been treating that rose like royalty ever since...

Grand Canyon

Last weekend for our anniversary Patrick and I left Evie for four nights (and five days) with my parents. We both were a little sad to go camping without her but I must say we maximized our childless time with lots of hiking and almost sleeping in...


We spend three nights on the north rim of the Grand Canyon (an 8 hour drive from Tucson) at the most amazing camp site, pretty literally on the edge of the canyon. The first night was wicked windy and cold (well below freezing) and the next morning my fingers got so cold I was shoving them in the air vents of the subaru on our way to the trail head just to try to regain feeling in them. Our first day we decided to hike a little over 4.5 miles down into the canyon to a place called Roaring Spring. The over 9 mile round trip hike turned out to be a real butt-kicker, over 3,000 feet elevation change both up and then down. The next day we thought we would keep our legs from getting too sore (whose bright idea was that?) and did another 10 mile hike along the rim. Needless to say, by Monday we both could hardly walk but were darn happy with our lot in life.


On Monday we drove around to the South Rim and stayed at the El Tovar. The coolest part about that was being at the park both late at night and early in the morning. We took a walk at around 10:30 pm and came out of the hotel to see a huge 8-point buck grazing on the grass in front of the hotel. Tuesday morning, while Patrick slept in a little, I took a walk along the rim and saw maybe two or three other people. Compared to the throngs of folks that are there during normal hours it was glorious. All in all we both decided that taking trips on our own are great, even if every little kid we saw made us miss ours....

Goldfish

For a little over a month now Genevieve has been enrolled in swimming lessons. Given that the most important activity for an Arizona kid during the summer is swimming at the pool (really the only way to survive the heat) we figured it was essential for her to learn as soon as possible. The way kids pick up new skills is really cool to watch and swimming certainly falls into that category. Just this week she graduated from pollywog level to goldfish level. (We celebrated this achievement with a box of jelly beans, which Evie shared with me only after I promised her that, "yes, when I was a little girl I took swimming lessons and graduated too.") As a graduate of pollywog Evie can now: do 5 popcorns with help, superman glide, 5 second back float without help, froggie dive, swim 8 feet without help, and my personal favorite, jump in and swim back to the side without help. I realize that many would need a separate dictionary for learn to swim speak but suffice to say she is doing a great job and will be hanging out poolside with the 4 year and older set before we know it!

Five things

Five things I love about being Genevieve's Mom right now:

1) The feeling of her warm little body when she cuddles up to me while we are taking a nap.
2) The way she is all about dirt and how she encourages me to play in it with her.
3) Her incredible imagination and the way she likes to reenact stories and movies she sees for days afterward. I had no idea that so many different variations of finding nemo could be found.
4) Her fierce loyalty to those who are kind to her. She is so kind and considerate to those she considers friends (fortunately for now I am among them. :) Just this afternoon when I laid down to take a nap with her she went and got me an extra pillow to sleep with because she knows I like two and pat, patted me to "sleep".
5) Her bravery never ceases to amaze me and gives me such a warm feeling whenever I see it. She demonstrates it almost daily now from anything from getting up and singing at her school's exhibition to just diving into the pool at swim lessons to going up to any kid she meets and asking to play.

Turn of events

Gotta love the little surprises in life. So here I am, Monday morning, gearing up for my last two days of work, I'm deleting files getting last bits of work finished, tying up all the loose ends. Around noon I receive a call from the HR person a my agency asking me if I would like to stay with the agency, move into a different division (Hydrology) and work on nothing but the project that I have been wanting/waiting to work on for four years.... oh, and all from the comfort of my home. (Maybe there really is such a thing as karma?) The only problem of course is that I had no intention of staying past August anyway because not only am I committed to going back to school I am really very excited about it. But gosh wouldn't it be nice if I could keep my job (and benefits!) part time while I go to school. I figure heck I've got nothing to loose at this point and so I propose this to the deputy director of my agency and she says, terrific... uhh what? Did I just go from unemployed to employed and working (again) on exactly what I want where I want? Go figure.

IST Exhibition

Tonight was Evie's third exhibition at her preschool. Every 6 weeks (aka unit) the kids put on a little show that is based on what they have been learning. This unit was all about animals, in particular pets. They got to go on a field trip to handi-dogs to meet dogs who help people and even had a visit from a vet who brought a real live dog to the class. (This was a highlight for Genevieve) Anyway, the past two exhibitions Evie has been too scared to go up and preform with her class. On a whim I got out the video camera before we left and asked her to sing the song she had been practicing... I was pretty amazed when she sang this:



The actual performance was awesome as well... but I won't subject you to 5 minutes of video (not to mention the fact that I can't imagine how long that would take to upload...) Suffice to say Genevieve did a great job of both staying up in front and preforming and showing off her budding french skills!

Balalaika daddy

Patrick, in a wise attempt to cultivate a little sanity through music, has joined the Tucson Balalaika Orchestra. It is a pretty random little hobby, but he seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself. Last weekend was the annual folk festival and Patrick's debut as a balalaika bass player. It was also Evie's first appearance as a balalaika orchestra groupie. From where I sit it appears that they are both well on their way to greatness :)

Glass Half Full

We have had a bit of a rough week or so. I was thinking about this as I walked home from the movie store this afternoon when I noticed my (our) shadow. Something about this god-like shadow made me very happy, and I realized that although there have been a series of unfortunate events really we are very lucky. The glass is truly half full.

So as some might know, I was forced to resign my job last week. Its a bit of a long story, one I'd be happy to tell you about if you'd really like to know, but won't go into here. Suffice to say it was a very sad ending to what was, unequivocally, my dream job. That's the half empty. The half full is that back in November I worried that it could all end badly and made the decision to apply to go back to school and get a PhD; something I have always wanted to do. Not only have I been accepted to the program, but I also have received funding for my studies. That pretty much fills that glass... but to bring it to the brim, I now have almost 4 months to hang out and play with Genevieve, a once in a lifetime chance to spend a summer playing and having fun with my favorite three-year old.

So that is how the week started. On Wednesday I was up at my former bosses house working from there (they closed our Tucson office and moved our computers up to Phoenix on Monday, so I have been trying to figure out how best to work until my last day, next Tuesday, all week...) when I get a call from Kelley (our babysitter) informing me that she has just called the fire department because an electrical line failed and there is a fire in the alleyway. That is the half empty. The half full is that the fire trucks arrived quickly, no one or thing (including chickens) was really harmed and thank goodness someone was at our house to call them!

But wait that's not all. (And this is where you may want to stop reading Gerard) On Thursday night around 9 pm I get a call from Patrick informing me that he has been in a car accident. Thank goodness he is all right... the S2000, not so much. I wake Evie up and we drive to go get him, round about midnight we are back at home, a one car (plus scooter) family again. That's the half empty. The half full is that Patrick is totally fine, even though he had the top down when the accident occurred and ended up with bits of the other car in the cabin, the accident was not his fault and who knows, maybe they can fix the whole front end of the car up like new...

Here's to good (better?!) luck and new beginnings.

Eye Roll

This past week Evie looked at me, closed an eye, put her fingers on her eyelid, rolled her eye around in circles and said "Mommy, I am rolling my eyes at you." Awesome.