Archive for the ‘Everyday Stuff’ Category
Does it count as an official NaBloPoMo entry if all I do is post that I didn’t really feel like blogging today?
Sorry, but Ava miraculously fell asleep relatively easily tonight and that meant I could actually catch the last 40 minutes of Glee on a TV instead of watching it on my teeny netbook screen, courtesy of Hulu, later. The novelty of that sucked me in and here I am – doing nothing but making excuses for crawling into bed at 8:20PM and not going anywhere near my laptop.
(And blogging on an iPad? Sucks.)
Studying. Doing homework. No time to blog (and nothing especially exciting happened today anyway, unless you count taking a trike ride and picking up 13,000 pine cones).
Oh yeah, and she told me she was not a good listener today. Believe it or not, I kind of figured that one out on my own by about 8:30AM this morning.
This is what they all should be like – less the grocery shopping we had to do afterwards.
Thanks to our local colonial historic area we were able to visit for free as part of their Veteran’s Day celebration. We headed out this morning on the spur of the moment – remembering to take snacks and water but forgetting such things as changes of clothes, napkins, and wipes. After waiting in line for eons with eleventy-billion other military folks we were on our way.
Ava was networking. I think she met her future plumber.
We always learn something new every time we visit. Today’s lesson took place in the gardens of the Governor’s Palace. Did you all know that 21st century strollers don’t really work that well in 18th century mazes? We do now. There was one point where I was seriously considering hacking through a hedge with my mini Swiss army knife keychain. Good thing we had food with us otherwise Ava would have starved to death before we finally found our way out.
We (mostly she – I was too busy hovering making sure she didn’t topple to her death) took a break.
J had a $7 ham sandwich from one of the taverns while we enjoyed our Crustables. By the way, I think they called this highway robbery back in colonial times. And that PB & J crustable is why the napkins, wipes, and extra clothes would have come in handy. Peanut butter ground into corduroy is pretty gross although it did make her very popular with all the dogs around. Now that I think of it, I should have just let one of them take care of cleaning her up.
The scenery was marvelous. The weather was fabulous. The company was beyond compare.
And then this portion of the day ended rather abruptly looking something like this.
(I’ll spare you the story of the commissary shopping trip that followed. It was painful.)
Ahhh, there’s nothing – and I mean nothing – like that first really perfect spring day after a long, cold winter.
So we reached out and grabbed the morning with all of our hands then ran like mad for the hills. Well, for the local park, anyway. There aren’t that many hills around here.
We got started after a slight (loud) meltdown by Ava. She saw a pinecone.
Yes, that caused much drama. I have it on video but I can’t post it because all you hear is me laughing at her drama queen-ness and her screaming louder and louder because now she’s not only traumatized by the pinecone but she’s getting madder and madder at me for laughing. I figure if the screaming didn’t scare you off of the blog then my clearly poor parenting skills would.
J finally went and got her then stuck her in the backpack after she 1)refused to walk past anymore pinecones and 2)fell tush over tea kettle for some unknown reason probably relating to aforementioned pinecones.
We’re finally off:
Giddy-up, Daddy:
I was trying to get her to look at me for a picture so I asked her to show me her beautiful eyes.
She did. Literally. Smart-aleck.
We found a geocache (from memory, actually) since J didn’t bring his GPS and we only had my iPhone which will get you close but no cigar.
We did let her walk when she asked to…
but she got tired after 4 feet or so and had to take a break for a rest and a rousing rendition of Mary Had A Yittle Yam.
And a few tickles from Mama.
(Straightened hair courtesy of my hairdresser who apparently wanted a (futile) challenge and had some spare time on her hands.)
After all of us had some time to catch our breath and prepare for the trek out (it always seems like a good idea to hike the whole trail…until I get about halfway in and realize what I’ve actually committed to) Ava decided that she’d really rather ride so J loaded her up in the backpack and I took one of the sweetest pictures ever. Totally unplanned and unposed, by the way.
Is that pure cane sugar sweetness or what?
When I was little my parents used to watch the Lawrence Welk show every week. I grouched and grumbled every time it came on but secretly enjoyed it – the women were sooooo pretty, got to wear fancy dresses, and they could sing. What more could you ask for? Oh, and bubbles. Yep, they had plenty of those too.
Did y’all know that the LW show is still on the air thanks to syndication and public broadcasting? Yep, already we’re finding ourselves regularly settling in to watch at 7PM on Saturday nights. And yes, I am aware of how pathetic and boring that sounds but Ava loves the show and is entranced with the music and the dancing. J grumbles about it since it is invariably interrupting yet another Cops marathon but I’m convinced he secretly enjoys it, too – even though watching and listening with much older and experienced ears makes us realize that some of the acts were, ummmm, not so good after all.
Really though, how could he not enjoy it when Ava just wants to dancedancedance with Daddy every single time a (arguably) good song comes on. Since tonight’s show’s theme was Love Songs and was originally recorded in 1980 there were plenty of dancing opportunities even though J’s ears were near to bleeding from the massacre of a much loved Beatles song. Do you know how freakin’ cute it is when Ava shows us how to tap dance just like the people on TV?
Almost as cute as watching Daddy teaching Ava how to samba. He was successful, btw. Sooooo cute!