Summer No Mas

There's no way to say this easily... Summer No Mas. I was totally punished this year for the last two nice summers that I had when we moved here. The rain this spring was torrential and then there were no days over 90 degrees. NONE! This is like saying "The sky is blue" but at least the last two years we had some sort of summer. I'm thinking it's just fate that I moved here to a couple nice summers to keep me here and then we get this. So what am I going to do about it?

GO TO HAWAII BABY! That's right, the ole 50th state. In honor of the weather we're going to see whilst we're up there, here's some of the crazy stuff we did in September while the weather was decent: The Zoo, The Fair, The Grandparents, The Mountain, The Wild Thing and The Fits. We'll talk about The Fits later.

We'll start with The Zoo and move onto the rest in some later posts. We went to the Woodland Park Zoo in downtown Seattle and it was a perfect day! The weather was nice, the animals were out and we saw some really cool stuff. Honestly, I think we took pictures of one animal the whole time but V was a Champ and endured the day with flying colors. Here's a recap:

V: Dad! Dad! What's that?
Dad: It's a tapir.
V: We went to the zoo and the only animal you took pictures of was a tapir?

V: Let's go! That tapir was boring!

V: Hey Dad! Look at this Bamboo! It's as interesting as a tapir!
Dad: Watch it!
V: This is SOOO cool! Just like the REALLY AWESOME tapir.

V: Mom was scared to get on the carousel so I had to let her ride with me.

V: Sssh... I'm totally grabbing this elephant's trunk.

V: Gammy's funny when she smells flowers! 

AMEN!

V sure does some crazy stuff every now and then. Just when you think it's not going to get any weirder, you say "Yooooooooo!" and she repeats it just about 47 times cuter. I'm always curious what goes on in her head. I'm actually not entirely sure what the processor speed is of her brain but it's always fun when she has to take 5-10 seconds to answer a question or react to some kind of stimuli.

Take yesterday for instance: We're sitting down to eat dinner after our 10 hour days have concluded. This usually entails an elaborate five course meal complete with mixed drinks and a mariachi band frozen pizza. V had already eaten her dinner because she gets antsy while we cook. We made spaghetti (the quick version) and sat down to eat while V was in the living room playing with her car. April & I prayed together and we started eating. V comes running into the room saying "Sit! Sit!" This is Toddler for "I want to get in my highchair and eat too." She'd just ate but we figure we'll give it the ole college try. We get her in the highchair and pull her up next to the table and she holds out her hands to her sides and says "AMEN."

This wasn't the first time she's said "Amen" but it was the first time she'd ever instigated a prayer so blatantly. April & I hold hands at our house when we pray so now it's customary for us to hold V's hands while we pray. I have to admit I had to hold back a tear. She knows that she's part of our family and that when we pray it's something that she wants to do with us. What else do you want? Pictures... yeah I know. All ya'll want pictures. Here's some good ones:

Dad let her eat some whipped cream in a cup unattended. Never again.

Puzzles are not exactly V's forte but we're working on it.

 

Dad doesn't go to the optometrist any more, we've got one in house.

Petting bunnies is just as cool as petting goats!

Aunt Karina is one of a select few that can make V smile.

But the biggest smiles always come from Mommy!

Best Weekend... Yet

Best Weekend... Yet™. It's Trademarked now so you can't take it. I know it's something that you all wanted but it's not like I didn't give you time to Trademark it yourself. It wasn't even this last weekend! It was in July so you had a whole lotta time to do it. Here's the deal, we went to the zoo with a one year old. Not exactly the greatest idea in the world but it worked. V was great! She had a great time with the animals, pointing at them or mimicking their sounds. She liked the goats because she can pet them and they smelled like her dirty diapers. I would imagine that she's already forgotten it but we'll remember it for a long time.

Then we went for a walk on the beach and she enjoyed that too. We walked along the shore, got popsicles and then played with the rocks on the beach. V was having a great time throwing rocks and running away from the water. We had a lot of fun. There's a lot of things that have happened since the last blog post so I'll probably do a couple more here in the next few days to catch up. Check these pictures out and get back to me.

Dad: Look at the monkey V! Do you see it V?
V: Yeah, Dad, I saw it the first 80 times you pointed at it.

V: This starfish is stuck to the tank so I can't eat it. Someone help me!

V: Are you telling me this is what a goat feels like? He needs to be brushed.

V: That's much better. We should get a goat for ourselves!
Mom: We've already got a Sophie and that's "goat" enough for me!

 V: At the beach with Mom is the coolest!

V: Our beach day is done. With the wind at our back... It's time for a nap!

Smorgasbord

Smorgasbord is a word that's not easily spelled. I tried twice until I just used the spell check. Have you ever used the word in a sentence? Well when you do, you usually have a few choice glances of bewilderment. Then you drop bewilderment on them and you are now smarter than 72% of people in your general circle. 72%! You better drop that action fast! The reason I use the word smorgasbord today is to tell you that the pictures that follow are a fine smorgasbord of pictures that have been our life over the past few weeks. We have had a wild last couple months and the summer is just starting around here with our first 80 degree day. Naturally, I was working. It's better that way because then I gets to party it up yo stay out of trouble. So here's our tribute to Smorgasbords:

We're selling our old grill in case anyone wants it.

Not even 2 years old and she's already got the fashion bug.

V's first ride on the Supermall Carousel! She loved it!

V: (in a British accent) So, when I sits here wif no clothing on... I... well it feels good.

V: When I want attention I just yell "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The annihilation of V's diapers continues unless her demands are met.

My New Best Friend

V's second Independence Day was an amazing success. She went to bed around 8:00 and woke up twice to independent blasts from various families around the community. When she woke up at 10:15 we decided to let her stay up and enjoy the festivities. There aren't many things that are more interesting than fireworks when you're 1 & 1/2. She stayed up the whole rest of the show and the whole way home after then zonked until 8:00 the next morning. (That's sleeping-in for her.)

Here's a shot of everyone on the roof watching fireworks:

Lately, we've noticed that V has started to get a little attached to a new friend. She's spending more and more time with her and we feel as though she gets continuously distracted by her newfound playmate. I'll let her tell you about it in her own words:

V: So I've got a new friend and I want to introduce her to you.

V: Here she is! Her name is BooBoo. Say "Hi" BooBoo!

V: Hey! Pay attention, I'm trying to introduce you!

V: She really is nice. She just gets shy in front of new people.

V: Wait! Don't run... Aw man, she went behind the wall again.

V: Phew! I thought I'd lost you. You're my bestest friend... besides Mommy.

Watch That Kid

What's the deal with kids when they have no sense of pain, gravity or value for human life, namely their own. Take today for instance: The kid is existing peacefully like any other night when all of a sudden she falls forward into a open door. Now normally when one falls into an open door it just swings away and everything's normal, but when you fall against the flat edge of the open door it doesn't move. BAM! The kid starts crying. BAM! Major goose egg gets going on her forehead. BAM! Mom & Dad are trying to ice the forehead which only makes her cry more. All seems like it's going down hill like a pack of lemmings towards the cliff edge when all of a sudden she's fine. She just quits crying. We're thinking we've got Defcon 4 on our hands when she just quits crying. Then she plays around for another hour like nothing happens, if anything she's even more cavalier about falling, jumping & whatever looks like it's going to cause massive amounts of pain. These pictures below are all about the same but their pretty dang funny:

Becoming Human

What does is take to become human? Kids aren't really human until about age 16. It happens in stages and you have to be patient. Right now V is striving to be human in anyway she can: She tries to eat what we eat, drink what we drink and do all the weird quirky things that we do on a daily basis. It's actually more funny when she fails because we have a good laugh when she tries to take on a task and completely annihilates herself.

For instance, she tries to hold onto a toy and then stick her hand into the "snack trap" at the same time. This is called Multi-tasking. She cannot multi-task. The frustrated look and whining that goes on through her struggles are pretty humorous. If you think I'm being a bad father, take the next kid you see at church or wherever that's 1 1/2 years old and try it. You will come away looking like a total idiot but you'll have an insane laugh. We visited Gammy and The FOG recently and they bought a hippo pool instead of a jacuzzi some nice things to wear and play with whilst at the Grandrents. In terms of awesome stuff, we have more pictures of the visit and many other happenings. It's going to be the greatest moment of your life up to this point:

The FOG makes V's day a better day every day.

V totally incinerates her diaper outdoors but April remains strong.

V: Pools are great but pools with fountains ROCK!

V: Only 14 1/2 years until I get a REAL Driver's License!

It may look like she's getting mugged but she's learning how to hug.

When you're becoming human, you can do... well... pretty much whatever you want.