Sunday, June 29, 2008

. . . We All Fall Down!

Poor baby. Claire had her first official "face plant" today. She just loves to go outside and is completely fearless when it comes to running around on the pavement. Today she slipped and her hands weren't ready to stop her face from slamming into the driveway. She did a pretty good job of skinning her face up. She even managed to get some blood from the scrape on the side of her nose. Lovely. Gotta love the rough and tumble stage that is ALL of childhood.

I am guessing this is just a preview of things to come.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Before and After

I keep forgetting to post updated pictures of our guest bathroom overhaul. Sadly, it is tough to get a good picture of it all since it is such a cramped space, but here is my best attempt.

Before:
After:


Far less like a dungeon. Glad it's done!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Inequality in Toy Accessibility

Guest Poster: Pixel
Dear blogging community:

I am so very confused. Toys are meant to be played with, right? Not looked at, not left in the packages, but played with. Just wanted to make that clear. I adore toys. All types. And I am very good at playing with them.

Now here is the confusing part. I am staying with some friends for awhile and they have this really cool miniature version of themselves they call "Claire". She seems to like playing with me, which I appreciate. I have even reluctantly shared my toys with her.

Keeping in mind my love for toys, imagine my glee when I saw that this "Claire" has an entire room dedicated to . . . . yep that's right . . . . TOYS!! She has more toys than I've ever seen before. The only problem is that they keep them all locked away behind a gate. It is SO cruel to me. I can see right through the gate to the toys, I just can't get to them. Oh how I long to sink my little doggie teeth into at least one of those toys. I just can't figure out how to get in. But one afternoon a miracle happened . . . . the gate was left open!! They must know how very badly I needed to get my paws on one of those toys. They must really love me! Boy did I have fun too. Check out what I managed to do in just 5 minutes:
Now that is some fine quality chewing, folks.

Sadly the bliss was short lived. I was quickly ushered back to the other side of the gate to simply observe the toys. Sigh . . . I wish someone could explain this to me.

A very perplexed,
Pixel

Friday, June 20, 2008

Long Over-Due Update

Head hung in shame.

Has it really been over two weeks since I posted? Yikes! I was reading Pigs' blog this morning--which she is writing from the hospital after giving birth--and felt even more shame. I figure if she can blog from the hospital, surely I can muster up some sort of blog.

So hmmmm . . . . what's been going on . . . let's see . . . Oh! I spent a week teaching 3rd graders at VBS at my church. That was fun. It was neat to get to get to use my teaching skills again. However, it just reminded me of how much work it is to plan lessons. I was just so grateful I didn't have paper grading, faculty meetings and parent conferences on top of it all. Yep, that fun, yet exhausting week sure made me grateful to be staying at home.

Claire is really mastering the art of walking. She is at the point where she no longer cares to crawl at all. I am loving every minute of it. She has become so much more independent since starting to walk. She will now play happily on her own and is content to just check in with me from time to time to make sure I am still near. This is a major improvement over the child who needed me at her side for each and every moment of the day.

Also we are dog sitting at the moment. Our friends are stuck in the hospital right now doing their best to prevent their twin baby girls from making an early appearance into this world. So their dog, Pixel, is hanging out with us for now. It has really been fun because Claire is IN LOVE with Pixel. It almost makes me want to get a dog of our own. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Wait, don't you already have a dog? What about Padme?" Yeah, yeah, but Padme is a dog in name only. She sits around all day. She doesn't play AT ALL. She really is more of a cat than anything else. Pixel, on the other hand, actually chases a ball when you throw it. Imagine that. Claire has had hours of fun picking up Pixel's toys and playing keep away with her. Quite fun to watch. I may have to try to capture it on video to share on here.

Okay, that's all for now. I promise to keep the posting more regular. I've got many-a grandparent requesting updated Claire pictures. I am working on that too!!

Later!!