Vanna White

Look at the little model showing off her garden. The cool, wet weather doesn't make Mama happy, but the tomatoes sure seem to like it. They are up to the second rung on the tomato cage already.

Counting

CJ's been great at counting one to ten in English and Spanish for a long time. Recently she has learned to count up to twenty, although 95% of the time she skips 15. The funny thing is that when she counts out her potty reward of five jelly beans, she's been getting kind of sneaky. Sometimes one or two goes into the hand (and often the mouth) before she actually begins counting. This means that instead of getting five, she ends up with six or seven. Pretty tricky!

One more time

For Memorial Day, we decided to head to SW Community Center Pool. This is the pool where CJ first swam at 7 months, where we went on her first birthday and one that her cousins love. CJ's been getting more and more adventurous and loves to play in the shallow end, washing her hands and taking a shower in some of the leisure pool play features. She also loves the Big Blue slide, but never wants to head over there until she's had a sufficient amount of time to explore the shallow area. If you ask her, she'll say "not yet, not yet". Once you get her to take one ride down the slide, it's all "one more time" from there on.

Hood River = Fun in the Sun and Water

Packing list: Sun hat, sunglasses, juice, and ELEVEN bracelets!

Stop #1: Columbia River. Fetch with little B. Rolling in the sand and sunbathing for big B.

Stop #2: Dancing and spinning (with a belly full of pizza and the best gelato/sorbet we've had in a while) and more water fun in the fountain in town.

Growing up in the Northwest

Today's Ladybug Hike was a wet one. Of course, it was the first time Mama didn't pack boots and extra clothes. Westmoreland Park had lots to see: ducks, geese, a crayfish, squirrel and an empty play area. We had a nice small group to explore with.

Afterwards we stopped at Starbucks for a coffee to warm Mama up (we are still searching for a place close to home that serves Stumptown and also boxed milk for the little ones) and talked about the weather.

Mama: "I wish it was warm and sunny like last week."

CJ: "I like it because it is rainy."

Good news, Sweetie. You live in the Northwest.

***UPDATED***

Later in the day she had a change of heart. While talking to Grandma R, she said:

"I don't know why it rained today. It rains all the time here."

Long Run?

How long was my run? When I ran by the local Shell gas station, Plus was $4.01/gallon. On my way home, the price had risen to $4.07/gallon. Wow!

35 months!

Not quite 3 and she's already wearing heels. She loves these sparkly ones. You should see her dance...

Gone Camping

Well, not really. But as close to camping as we've been in years. A tent in the backyard can keep the little one busy and cool while you do yard work. I'm hoping we don't really have to bring the rocking chair if we ever do make it to a campsite...

A Glimpse of Summer

With the warm weather we've been experiencing, we decided to take a ride down to the fountain to cool off today. Daddy dusted off the bikes and CJ climbed right into her Burley trailer and was more than agreeable to don her helmet. She didn't even know a chocolate milk and ice cream awaited.

We were definitely not the only family with this idea today, but had fun nonetheless. You'd be amazed at how long an empty iced coffee cup can keep a toddler busy!

Grow Tomatoes Grow

We got the plants in the ground today (well actually the stock tank Daddy put together for our garden) and the little gardener gave them some water. Sunny weather is in the forecast so grow tomatoes, grow!

Daisy's Fall From Grace

The Easter Bunny scored big points this year. A great tea set in a picnic basket and the gift of all gifts - a set of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Figurines. Minnie and Daisy were quick favorites, but soon Daisy started going everywhere with us and Minnie was left behind.

Last week the call rang out "Mommy, Mommy. Fix it." And when CJ found me, Daisy looked like this:

There was no clear explanation of what happened, but since there was no quick cure for Daisy's leg she has now been forgotten and Minnie is experiencing all the adventures of our day to day life. Daisy may have even fallen below Goofy in popularity. For some reason he has never been allowed to hang out with the rest of group, let alone play with them.

Happy Mother's Day #2 - Five Jelly Beans!

I don't want to get too specific with the details and certainly won't post a picture, but CJ made major progress on the potty today. We've been doing some part-time underpants wearing when it has been convenient, but haven't pushed anything. CJ seemed happy to sit on her little potty and was proud of herself when she had success and received praise. The thought of no-diaper preschool in the fall caused us to up the ante a week or two ago with some jelly beans to reward her successes. At the time Mommy mentioned that it was 1 jelly bean for #1 and five jelly beans for #2.

Today Daddy took CJ to the potty while Mommy got ready for her run. CJ seemed happy to stay in the bathroom a while and finally called out "Daddy". He asked if she was done and she replied "I went. I did it. I did something else." This brought Daddy back to her side very quickly and he confirmed it. We were out our first five jelly beans! Our second five were passed out later in the day.

Oh, Happy Mother's Day! Let's hope this continues...

Happy Mother's Day #1 - I Heart Daddy

Thanks to Daddy, I can now throw away the pens and pencils I've been using to track my runs on a paper calendar for the last 10 years. Ever since I trained for the 98 Honolulu marathon with Team in Training, I have written down the total times of my runs. I've never really looked back at the calendar, but did feel a sense of satisfaction by logging them.

Today I received my very own Nike + SportBand. What a great Mother's Day gift idea - I wonder how Daddy came up with it?!? I was intrigued when Nike came out with the Ipod products, but since I am one of the six people in the world who don't own an Ipod, I never seriously considered it. About a month ago I received an email introducing the SportBand. Now I can track my runs online with pace, calories and distance along with the total time.

It appears I may need to investigate calibrating the band/sensor. I don't remember walking a 16 minute mile today and while I'd love to believe I can run a 7 minute mile, I seriously doubt that I could keep that speed up for half of the long run I did today.

Back Seat Driver

Earlier this week my back seat driver shouted out "Be careful, Mama". I assured her I was being careful. "Put two hands on the wheel". I guess this means I won't need to worry about her driving safely in 13 years?!?

Early Happy Mother's Day

My first homemade card! CJ made this with her nannyshare playgroup today. I picked her up and as soon as we drove away she started talking about her "art" and how she wanted to show it to me. I don't know how many times she said "Happy Mother's Day" and "I Love You". I love you, too, Sweetie.

We've Been Invaded...

Welcome to Spring. First, we found aphids on our helleborus out front and now we have a FLYER in the house.

Yup. An extra large fly has been buzzing around the house since the sunny weekend. CJ calls him a "flyer" and she is now deathly afraid of bugs. We've been doing Ladybug Nature Walks and she seems fine with the insects we've seen there, but apparently having one of these in your own house is much, much different. No more worries, Sweetie. Daddy took care of this guy tonight.

No Kids

Guess we won't be eating dinner here http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_050708_news_no_kids_restaurant.dafcd9e2.html anytime soon...

Vegetables

We have 6 "My Very First Look at" board books checked out from the library. The pages are full of pictures of items sorted based upon the topic of the book - colors, shapes, sizes, etc. Tonight we read one of CJ's current favorites, My Very First Look at Colors. When we got to the Orange page, the book asks "Which things can you eat?" She had no problem identifying the candies, nor the apricots or orange.

I asked "What about the carrots?"

"No, Mama. I don't eat those."

"Why don't you eat carrots?"

"Because they are VEGETABLES!"

Pink and purple

and blue and silver. These are her favorite colors. Sometimes even gold.

Sunny Sunday

Good thing the striped hat was in the wash today, because it was warm.