braids

My first try braiding her hair, while she ate a pop-tart. It was cute for a little while. One of the braids came out during the tooth-brushing-wrestling-match and she wouldn't stand still long enough for me to put it back.

Sorry it's a large file. Usually I reduce the photo file size to make them load quicker, but this morning I'm working from my work laptop and I don't have Acrobat on this machine (the software for editing photos). David installed wireless Internet in our house after he bought a laptop, and now we both spend a lot more time on the couch instead of at our desks.

Today I'm supposed to go read a story for everyone at E's preschool, but I woke up with a drippy nose and now I'm not sure they'll want me to.

latest game

E: "Mommy you say you play with me toy, and I say no."

I do what she says and she gleefully denies me the toy.

Then she says, "You sad!"

I pretend to be sad. (I taught her the next part of the game because I couldn't stand leaving it at that.)

E: "You can play with me toy! You happy!"

I exaggerate my happiness. Lather, rinse, repeat.

sick computer

We think the video card is dying in my home computer, so I'm not getting on email as much at home right now and will be limited in my blogging time too. Here are a couple of E pictures that were on my work computer.




Doesn't she look mad???

off to see the wizard

E saw The Wizard of Oz dvd the other day and asked to watch it. I wasn't sure because I remember being scared watching it even as a second-grader. I hemmed and hawed and said "What if it's scary?"

She said, "It'll be okay, Mommy."

I decided it can't be more scary than Sid's room in Toy Story, and I put it on. Several times she called out in a maternal tone, "It'll be okay, Mommy. It'll be okay." She was trying to keep ME from being scared!

By the way, "it'll be okay" is apparently, in her mind, what both Mommys and Kings tend to say.

playmates

Hiding under blankets is one of E's favorite games these days.



Here are two "monkeys in the zoo"!

what we did this weekend

Today: went to the water park, napped, grocery shopped, finally put the batteries in E's toy castle she got for Christmas.

Yesterday: Chik Fil A lunch, played at Victor's house, and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to archive old photos on cd to free up disk space

Friday: stayed home, watched Wizard of Oz, don't remember what else

birthdays

Yesterday was David's birthday. E and I got him an ice cream cake and he shared it with us. In the car talking about it beforehand E said something along these lines: "Me gon share Daddy's cake." "Mommy gon share Daddy's cake." "We a family!"

I said Daddy got to pick what we have for dinner because it's his birthday, and she said, "It's we birthday." I said "No, today is just Daddy's birthday. You and I have birthdays on different days. Later." She said, "Oh."

Before I go, here is a tribute to another birthday boy, Uncle Calvin. Hope it's a good day!

more mountain house pics

nik-nik at the mountain house

In honor of my mom's birthday today (even though she's not at home to read this), here are some pictures from our May trip to the mountain house, which E still talks about a lot.

a little dinner music

playing dentist

Posing in the dentist's chair at the children's museum weeks ago.

monday

E keeps asking to go to the dentist and the beach. She has a dentist appointment this week, her second one ever. I hope she won't be scared again. She looks forward to getting to pick a toy from the treasure chest at the end of the visit. I don't know when we'll get to the beach.

Last night I took E to a Mexican restaurant because I was craving a quesadilla. I told her to expect a quesadilla (which she has never wanted to try before), trying to think of a way to explain it without putting her off. I said it's like a pancake, but with cheese in it. Her eyes lit up. She did try it, sort of, but spit it out before chewing anything, deciding that she didn't like the white cheese. Luckily it came with French fries. I tried her on some fancy chicken nuggets the other day that included broccoli and cheese ground up so small you couldn't see it. She put one in her mouth, didn't even bite into it, pulled it out and said, "What these things called?" She was puzzled when I said chicken nuggets. She asked, "What they taste like?" I was determined not to tell her about the broccoli so I just said "chicken" but acknowledged that they were different ones than usual and I just ate them myself. *sigh* I hope she grows out of this.

noisemaker

fathers day

In honor of David coming home tomorrow, here are pictures from Fathers' Day. That morning I took E to the coffee shop and explained to her that Fathers' Day is a day when children buy presents for their daddies. Her eyes lit up at the word "presents" and she said, "Yeah!" So, after our pumpkin muffin, we went to buy him a present. I gave her a choice of the grocery store or the drug store, as this was a Sunday morning last-minute thing. She said "drug store!" and once there I let her roam to pick something out. I didn't know if it would be toothpaste, panti-liners, batteries, or what. She was in the vicinity of the toy aisle and went there, zooming in straight-away on some Crayola no-mess modeling clay. "What's that?" she asked. "That's perfect!" I said. "Let's buy it for Daddy." She said "Yeah! My want to play with it." I tried to explain what would happen, that it was for Daddy and he would play with it with her. She picked out birthday wrapping paper and talked about cutting it with her scissors.

At home she happily cut the wrapping paper but cried when I covered the present with it. Luckily it didn't have to stay wrapped for long. David seemed to like it, and before long the two of them were sitting on the kitchen floor squeezing clay.



It was E's idea what they should make: balls. David helped her decorate them.


This is the longest I remember E being absorbed in doing something without talking to me or trying to get me involved. I forgot to look at my watch but I'm guessing it was at least 15 minutes of focused attention.



Then they watched Toy Story while I made lunch.