Cats and dogs and frogs

I don't know if I feel this way as a mom or as a linguist, but Amelia's speech always seems to be a good topic of discussion for the blog. One of Amelia's cutest developments is her use of the pet name, "Honey." Amelia was calling her mom "Honey" all of the time for a few days and producing sentences like, "Could you come here, Honey?"

Of course, she also learns phrases that she over-uses to the very mild annoyance of her mother. One such phrase is, "I don't know." Whenever Amelia really wants to say, "No," she instead says, "I don't know." So if I ask her if she's ready for a bath or to eat some lunch, her reply will be an evasive, "I don't know."

After a couple of days Amelia's standard, "I don't know" response developed into "I don't know how to (fill-in-the-blank)." Sometimes this makes sense, but it just sounds silly and non-committal when Amelia says, "I don't know how to eat," or "I don't know how to sit down."

I assure you that although Amelia doesn't eat much or often, she knows how to eat.

Both Amelia and Diana are getting ready for Halloween, which is just around the corner. The girls may even get to go trick-or-treating for the first time this year. Although Amelia already has a couple of pricy outfits that fit her well, that didn't stop her from brousing costume accessories at Target. Her favorite Halloween item was a plastic double-headed ax. When I asked her if she planned on dressing like a princess for Halloween she said, "Yes." I explained to her that Cinderella might look a little funny with an ax, and she finally gave up on the idea of carrying one.

Amelia isn't sure if she wants to be a princess or a witch this year. Diana didn't own a costume of her own, so Amelia and I tried to decide what would be a good costume for her. Amelia thought that Diana should definately dress as Spiderman for Halloween. I didn't think this would be very feminine, but we checked a local store for a baby-sized Spiderman costume anyway. There were no Spiderman costumes in Diana's size...bummer.

Instead, Amelia and I decided that Diana could go out dressed as a cat. Here you can see her in her pink kitty outfit. I suspect she will need something warmer to wear at night, but we'll figure that out when the time comes. Notice also that Diana finally got the rocking frog she wanted for so long. While grandma and I were checking out the store that was the frog's home, we saw that the frog was on clearance. What better reason is there to buy a rocking toy frog?

Bet this is the first time you've seen a cat riding a frog.

Lisa

Amelia and the haunted quilt show

Yesterday, I made plans to go to a local quilt show at the county fairgrounds. Based on the show's description, I thought this might be something Amelia would enjoy. Mike didn't seem to have a lot of interest in looking at quilts - I'm not sure why not.

Anyway, I found my way to the fairgrounds without much trouble. The problems came when I tried to locate the quilt show on the fairground's grounds. The first thing I spotted was a flea market. I thought for a moment that this might be part of the quilt show, but it seemed a little tacky for that. I kept driving around the fairgrounds and located a back roadway that led to a parking area. The parking lot had a sign that read, "Show parking." I assumed they were referring to the quilt show and parked my car. Shortly after leaving the big red car I spotted a giant inflatable ship under attack by an octopus. I guessed that this had absolutely nothing to do with quilting, but walked a bit with Amelia in case the quilters were nearby.

It turned out that Amelia and I had stumbled upon a charity event that included a haunted house, a giant slide (within a giant ship) and a haunted train ride. I was fairly certain that Amelia was too young for the haunted house (even in the middle of the afternoon) and the ticket vendor (who had no idea where the quilt show might be) thought Amelia was too small for the giant slide. I started to lead Amelia back to the car, when she ran into an older boy who reminded both of us of a kid from our neighborhood. The boy was dressed in a black cape and wore a hockey mask on his head. He was also brandishing a fake dagger.

For a serial killer, the boy was very friendly. He told Amelia and I that the haunted house was "hecka scary" and suggested that Amelia visit a scary guy around the corner who would talk to her. She was a little hesitant, but off we went to see the scary guy.

Scary guy was pretty scary. He had a weird scarecrow-y looking pumpkin head and arms that waved about in an awkward mechanical sort of way. He spoke directly to Amelia and asked her what she was going to be for Halloween. Amelia responded by hiding behind her mother. Scary guy tried to be friendly and coax Amelia out from behind mommy's legs, but it was no use. Amelia had no interest in talking to the strange man/creature.

Taking Amelia's hand, I started again to lead her back to the car when she saw our friend the serial killer (and his mom and sister) board the haunted train. Of course, Amelia HAD to ride the train with mommy, so I spent $3 on a ticket. The train came back for us within a few short minutes and the conductor took our tickets. After ensuring that we were properly buckled in our seats, the conductor told us that should we see a giant spider or a dragon on our journey we would only have to scream to frighten the creature away.

This made me a little concerned, so I kept an arm around Amelia in case she got frightened. Sure enough, after passing by a few old horse stables we turned into a tunnel and there was a giant 8-foot spider. The spider's legs waved and shook while flashing red lights lit the spider's eyes. I screamed in order to protect us from the spider. It didn't get us - we were safe.

After the ride was over the conductor asked if we would like another trip through the tunnel. Amelia declined fairly strongly. When I strapped her in her car seat I took some time to explain that the spider was not real and that there are no real giant spiders. I think Amelia was more willing to believe her eyes than the word of her mother, but she reasoned that screaming was enough to keep giant spiders at bay.

Traveling around the fair once more I spotted a sign that read, "Quilt show ahead." Of course, the parking lot nearest the sign was right next to a dog show. I wondered if we would ever get to see quilts with the dogs jumping and playing in their Halloween costumes. I have to assume that Amelia did not see the dogs, because she seemed perfectly willing to follow me to the quilt show.

The quilt show was nice, and not at all scary. Some of the quilts were very clever, and I got a ballot to help select the best quilts in the show. Shortly after Amelia and I entered the first exhibition building I noticed a man carrying an exceptionally large and fancy camera. The man introduced himself as a photojournalist with a local freebie paper. He asked if it would be alright if he followed us around and snapped some pictures of Amelia with the quilts. Of course, I thought that would be perfectly fine.

It wasn't easy to get good photographs of Amelia in front of quilts. She flittered from one quilt to another like a butterfly. She seemed to like a lot of the quilts (which she called rugs) but was done looking at them in a matter of minutes. When the professional photographer had gotten some shots for the paper he asked me for some tag line information. He then asked Amelia what she liked about the quilts.

All Amelia would talk about was the giant spider. I suspect that none of her spider comments will make it into the local paper.

Lisa

What a surprise

Today was interesting. Things didn't always go as planned, and we encountered many surprises. The greatest surprise was the discovery that Diana likes hot fudge A LOT. (Actually, that may not be very surprising to anyone...)

But before I can report on today's events, let me tell you about Diana's most recent check up. As usual, Diana is doing great. Her 15 month appointment went swimmingly. These are Diana's most recent statistics: Diana weighs 23 pounds 1.5 ounces. This puts her at the 60th percentile for weight. Diana is 32 inches tall, which makes her within the tallest 20% of girls her age (in other words, Diana is in the 80th percentile for height). Diana also has a big noggin, which comes in at the 85th percentile for her age.

And of course, Diana is right on target developmentally.

Because it's late, I will share my adventures with Amelia tomorrow (hopefully). Until then, enjoy this photo of our little one at dinner.

Lisa

Diana gets into mischief

I stepped away for a moment to check my e-mail and heard crashing sounds. Of course, I hear crashing sounds every day, but these sounds were different. When I got up and moved ten feet into the family room I caught Diana and Amelia on top of the TV table. Diana has recently figured out that the bass speaker that accompanies the surround sound system makes a great step to reach the table.

Once I convinced Diana not to climb on the furniture, she was into the bathroom. I thought it was funny, seeing her standing in Amelia's almost never used potty, but I was less excited when she later walked out of the bathroom with the plunger.

One thing's for certain: the more mobile children become, the harder it is to keep them out of trouble.

Lisa

Finally, another new blog entry

Here are some of the pictures we took last Saturday at the pumpkin patch. The girls both had a lot of fun, though this establishment was certainly much more expensive than similar places we've visited before.
Amelia enjoyed riding a pony and seeing the farm animals, but the thing she was most excited about was the "cow train." (A set of black and white barrels made to look like cows pulled behind an ATV. At $4 a head, this had to be an incredibly profitable little venture.) We were curious to see what Amelia would do in the hay bale maze, but Amelia found the maze remarkably easy since she would just climb over any bale of hay between her and her destination.

Diana's favorite thing to do at the pumpkin patch was pulling the wagon. Daddy and I were both impressed that she could get the wagon moving when it was holding such large and heavy pumpkins.
All-in-all it was a really fun day, and I'm glad that the girls get to visit a farm (of sorts) in the fall and pick pumpkins just about every year.

Lisa

Finally, a new blog entry

I apologize for not having written earlier. As many of you know, I was out in the Mid West visiting "uncle Mike" who was hanging around between long deployments to Europe. I had a great time visiting Indiana again, even though I didn't do anything particularly unique or exciting. When you have two small children at home, it's almost impossible to do something as simple as going out to the movies. (I saw The Bourne Ultimatum in Indiana, which I thought was quite good.)

I didn't ruin my diet while I was away, but I didn't lose any additional weight either. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the "big ole brownie" at Texas Roadhouse, or the fried catfish I had with my Cracker Barrel breakfast. I guess there's no point in pointing fingers. The bottom line is that it's okay to cheat a little on your diet from time to time. And that's a good thing, because a lifestyle change that doesn't allow for the occasional (occasional) rich and chocolaty dessert is a change I do not want to make.

Now that I'm back in California I'm trying to come up with fun, outdoor activities to do with the girls. My plan for today was to bring Amelia to a local pumpkin patch for some fun. She was extremely excited about going, but when we got there we found that the hours posted on the farm's website were wrong. The pumpkin patch had just closed before we arrived.

We couldn't have been the only people who were confused. A number of other cars with children pulled into the same locked driveway as we prepared to leave.

Amelia did not take this turn of events very well, so I decided that we would go to a local park with a small vineyard instead. Amelia had a lot of fun running back and forth along the length of the park. Diana just had a great time walking. She started off in one direction and would not stop until she was physically re-directed by mommy.

On the way home, Amelia noticed how dark it had become. She followed this observation with another one of her classic and terribly funny lines: "I'm not bad, I just feel tired." Sometimes it's very difficult not to burst out laughing around that girl. Leaving gymnastics class Amelia reflected, "You have to listen to me," when I asked her for the third or fourth time to put on her shoes and get ready to go. At dinner, while she was refusing to eat her Parmesan, multi-colored noodles, she asked to get down from the table. I told her that I expected her to eat a small amount of dinner before she got down to which she replied factually, "I want to get down - you have to listen to me!"

I probably should have explained to her that little girls don't get to say such things to their mommies, but she was so cute I gave her a hug instead.

Lisa