Family

Mama and Daddy didn't think we were gonna go anywhere for Christmas, so they let me open my presents one a night.



They changed their minds, though, when they realized all the great photo ops they'd miss. So, Mama and I ran around town getting nutty bars for the long drive up North and doing some last minute gift shopping. Mama let me pick out gifts for all the folks on Daddy's side of the family. I found some really great stuff at Family Dollar! Mama re-wrapped all my presents, so I'd have some to open. Silly Mama!

After Daddy came home from work, we hopped in the car and drove and drove all the way to Grandma Diane's house. We slept a long time and then woke up and opened LOTS of presents! The paparazzi was there, and they took lots of pictures. Most of them were of me, of course.

I was really bummed 'cause Daddy told me there would be lots of snow, and we brought my snowsuit, but there was just RAIN. Hmfp. We still had fun, but one day I do want to see those mountains of snow Daddy told me about.

On the way home, we stopped at this thing called an "Outlet Mall." Mama and Daddy were giggling with glee and bought some more FiestaWare (cereal bowls), and they also seemed pretty happy about the new glass storage containers they got to replace those icky plastic ones.

Whew. It was a long trip, but pretty neato. Here are some pictures the paparazzi were going to sell to the tabloids, but apparently the tabloids aren't interested in babies unless they have two heads or movie star parents. Oh well.


"They make BREAD out of BEER?!?!"


"I don't know why they are called clothespins. They should be called cookiebagpins."


"Hey, Mama! Isn't Santa awesome? He brought me this really neat ball that makes lots of noise and blinks!"


"Yeah, I only take a bath once a week. I don't think deodorant is gonna do much for me."


"I think you must be mistaken; these pearls are mine."


"Daddy, Daddy! It's going to eat my toes!!"


"HA HA HA HA! It's a sander!"

We finally managed to have Anya in her diaper when the sun was out and the camera was near by, so we took her 18 month photo. I'm not sure how much longer the changing pad thingy will last, or how much longer she will fit on it.



We all had a busy day today getting the house ready for Grammy and Grampy to visit. I mopped, Andy tidied the driveway, and Anya did some laundry



and washed dishes.

Anya helped us scoop the guts of the pumpkin, and then Andy carved it. Yeah, okay, so it's the day after Halloween, but she doesn't know! She wasn't too interested in the carving and just wanted to gnaw on the eyeball cutout parts. Nom nom!

Last week, Anya had her 18 month checkup. She's about 22.5 lbs and about 30.5 inches. She's leettle. We've also decided to take her to a speech person because she doesn't really talk yet. Well, she talks but not in English (or Spanish or French or....I suppose it could be Klingon).

In other news, two more ducks got eaten. Only two left. I'm gonna breed a new kind of duck. One that has teeth and claws. Bye bye foxes!

Thanks, Mom, for telling the rest of the trip story in a comment on the previous post! Here are a few more pictures from the trip.

Here's Anya chilling in her new chair from Grammy and Grampy:



Grampy rollers acorns:



Anya scrub-a-dub-dubbin':



Time to feed the puppy:

Anya and I are visiting my family this week. Here's a short log of the trip so far:

Day 1: Drive a little bit. Get stuck in the state's largest annual garage sale / flea market. Drive a long way. Get lost in the middle of nowhere. Drive some more. Baby farts. Arrive. Baby proof house.

Day 2: Wake up at 5:30. Baby poops two times before anyone else wakes up. Cook breakfast. Baby poops. Go to lunch at Sonny's. Go to commissary and buy diapers and oreos. Baby poops.



Day 3: Go to The Goodwill Emporiumiumiumium and buy lots of very cheap baby clothes. Baby poops. Go to lunch/dinner. Baby knocks sippy cup into bowl of salsa. Baby poops. Watch four hours of Project Runway.



Day 4: Sleep until 6:30. Dad makes breakfast of french toast. Learn how to roll up acorns with the acorn picker-upper. Realize forgot to apply anti-stink to armpits. Go into room to get anti-pit-stink. Baby wakes up from nap in cage. Snuggle baby to get her to sleep. Fall asleep. Get hair cut by a real hair cut person for the first time in three years. Eat wings. Baby poops.

To be continued...

It was my birthday last weekend, and it was the best birthday in a long time. Andy made me an awesome cake floating in a lake of chocolate:



And then he (mostly) finished our bathroom!!!!!!! The toilet got a clog in it before anyone could even use it, but we had a plunger so no worries.



Here's what we did....errrrr...what Andy did.

Before:



During:


After:


We (and again, by "we" I mean "Andy")

+ removed the old, nasty wallpaper (okay, I did a lot of that)
+ removed the little shelf that was over the sink and toilet and the trim on the opposite wall that topped off the wallpaper
+ removed the old, nasty medicine cabinet, sink, and vanity
+ removed a light switch that was in the middle of the wall for the medicine cabinet light and patched the hole
+ painted the upper parts of the walls and the ceiling blue, and painted the trim we weren't messing with white
+ replaced the old, nasty shower curtain rod with a new, groovy one
+ replaced the old, nasty light in the ceiling with a light/fan combo (thanks, Pops, for climbing on the roof to help with that!)
+ added beadboard and trim to the lower part of the walls and painted white
+ removed the old, nasty stick on floor tiles and replaced the rotting plywood under the toilet
+ did something with the toilet plumbing to move the toilet hole out from the wall so the new toilet would fit
+ installed concrete backer board on the floor
+ installed awesome hex tiles
+ installed baseboard trim and quarter round and a threshold at the doorway and painted white
+ framed the old mirror and painted the trim white
+ installed new, super-low-flow toilet
+ installed new vanity, sink, faucet, and mirror we got at the Habitat store about two years ago (!)
+ replaced the door handle, the outlets and light switch and their covers, and the towel racks

There are just a wee few things left to do:

+ install the tp holder
+ hook up the plumping for the sink
+ buy and install cabinet over the toilet

Andy is a rockin' renovator!

Anya is sleeping in her brand new Little Anya bed this very moment. (At least I hope she is. I suppose she could be out partying with the sheep or on her way to town for a beer.) Up until now she's crashed with us, but ever since she learned how to sit up on her own and also at the same time decided not to cry the instant she woke up we haven't been able to leave her in the bed alone for fear of Baby Go Thud. This basically means I have to go to bed when she does, and while I really do like to sleep, I don't always want to sleep quite as much as she does. So, this weekend I bought a little teeny Anya mattress and put it on the floor at the foot of our bed. Eventually we'll get her bedroom cleared out, but eventually is probably a long ways away.

In other news, there was first a raccoon and then a possum on our porch the other night. They were digging through the "compost trash can" looking for goodies. Too bad for them all they found was carpet lint and cat hair from the vacuum (okay, and probably a few orphaned cheerios).

I know I said I wasn't going to use months for Anya's age after she hit 1, but that doesn't encourage me to make little monthly posts. I suppose I could say she is 1.2, but then I would have to do complex fractiony-algebra-type stuff, and I do enough of that at work.

Anya's first birthday was pretty low key and a few weeks after the fact. My parents were going to come up for Anya's real birthday, but my Mom got sick so we waited a bit. When my folks made it up, we baked some pink cupcakes topped with pink frosting, cheerios, and a candle (or something that looked like a candle). I was going to make her a giant cheerio cake, but someone informed me that wouldn't that just be a bundt cake or a donut? and it didn't seem so cool. Plus I am lazy.

It took a little coaxing to get the birthday girl started on her cake, but once she discovered the pink goodness, Anya could not be stopped.



Here are some things Anya has been up to the last two months. She:

+ Finally sits up on her own. Before that she would just flop around on the floor like a fish on the bottom of a boat until we'd give her a finger to pull on to sit up.

+ Mastered the scoot. Some babies wear out the knees in their pants; she's gonna wear out the butts.

+ Correctly placed the cow puzzle piece into the cow puzzle spot.

+ Threw a temper tantrum in the grocery store. Mean Mama for taking away the bag of frozen lima beans so we could check out!

+ Started drinking cow's milk.

+ Started drinking out of a sippy straw cup. When she's not banging it on the floor. Or waving it around. Or tossing it over her shoulder.

+ Somersaulted. A gymnastic feat or what happens when a baby tries to scoot down a hill quickly?

+ Began wearing clothes without snaps in the crotch. She does still have snappy clothes, but she has "regular people clothes" now, too.

+ Swung.

Anya is now officially an old fart. She has learned lots of new tricks this last month in preparation for being this many: 1.

List of Anya's New Tricks:

+ Loves to play peek-a-boo.
+ Does that wah-wah-wah thing you did as a kid to pretend to be an indian.
+ Claps at the end of the birthday song.
+ Plays the xylophone.
+ Found her first electrical outlet.
+ Commands Andy to dance.
+ Continues to eat everything she is offered (except plain or vanilla yogurt).
+ Gives smoochies.
+ Waves. Sort of. Sometimes.
+ Shares her food with others (human and feline).