Oh No! Watch Out!

Addie's class at school is studying volcanoes, and she drew this picture of lava erupting and a girl in her house shouting, "Oh No! Watch Out!"

Addie is learning to spell phonetically which is pretty cool. What I love the most though is the burst of confidence it has given her. In the past when she wanted to write something, she'd have us tell her each letter and she'd write it or we'd write it out and she'd copy it. Now she adds captions to her drawings without consulting anyone. The learning process reminds me how completely ridiculous the English language is to read and write!

Tucson: Botanical Garden

Our last adventure in Tucson was a trip to the Botanical Garden with Nana and Pop Pop to visit the butterfly house. I took waaaay too many photographs of butterflies. Addie also visited the carnivorous plant exhibit where she drew a picture of a plant that eats lollipops.




Nana had a stowaway. Can you believe this is the same butterfly with the blue wings as the one in the photo above?








I definitely want to get the girls a sandbox. Eliza was so content.

That's it for our Tucson trip. Already feels like a million years ago.

Tucson: The Desert Museum

No trip to Tucson would be complete without a visit to the Desert Museum in Saguaro National Park West.


Dad power


Big horn sheep


The look out


Eliza saw not one but two owls that day. A favorite bird - and word for her.


Addie petting a snake


Addie claims that the dinosaur dig is everyone's favorite part.


Sleeping Eliza

Tucson: Tohono Chul with Nana and Pop Pop

By Thursday, Nana and Pop Pop had arrived from cold Michigan. Nanci and I spent the morning getting massages and manicures at the spa before meeting up with the Big Boys and the Little Girls for lunch and trip to Tohono Chul park - a first for us. The outing was cut a little short after Addie stepped in the stream soaking her shoes and got a cactus needle stuck into her thigh.


The baby carrier arrived in the mail and Pop Pop gave it try.


Addie reading the map. She insisted we all walk behind her.


By the end, Cap was carrying two cranky girls on his back.

Tucson: The Zoo

GranJanne lives down the street from the Reid Park Zoo - a perfect way to spend an afternoon.




Addie's favorite part was the peacocks who roam about and hang out in trees.


Sisters in a log.


Play time.

Tucson: The Desert Of Course

And of course, there is the desert that I love.

At Saguaro National Park East, we learned quickly that alternately keeping Eliza away from the cacti and carrying her was enough to get me onto Amazon that night and order a backpack baby carrier.






Plus, hiking takes a lot longer when Eliza stops to investigate the gravel. Eliza called all the cacti "ouch!"


Lizard hunting


Addie and the biggest, oldest Saguaro we could find

Tucson: The Children's Museum

How did I not know that Tucson had a children's museum? It was the perfect place to let the girls run wild and escape the drizzle outside.



Eliza practicing being the Big Sister in the play doctor's office.

Tucson Time

In my usual behind the times fashion these days, I'm finally posting photos of our relaxing trip to Tucson during President's day week. We stayed at GranJanne's lovely new house, lounged around, ate take-out and went on some sort of adventure each day between Eliza's naps. Addie loved helping feed the mourning doves in GranJanne's back yard which involved lots of spinning and showering of bird seed in all directions.



This is Eliza's favorite perch, watching the birds and dogs from her window spot.


Eliza was also fond of the bird bath where she would lick the water off of her hand. Gross.

I'd love to come back in the spring when the desert is blooming. Maybe next year!

We miss you GranJanne!

(I'll be posting photos of our Tucson adventures and fun with Nana and Pop Pop soon!)

Face Painting

I bought a face painting kit several weeks ago. Addie painted a colorful sleeve on both arms and then I painted a caterpillar and wrote her name on her cheek. Her other cheek has her friend Danika's name on it even though Danika wasn't even over at our house that day.

Danika did come over recently, however, for a playdate and brought her little brother Kieran along. Eliza and Kieran are in the same toddler class. How cute are the two of them together. It's officially Eliza's first playdate.

One and a Half

18 months today!

Eliza is all energy and curiosity. She's figured out how to pull the step stool up the bathroom sink and turn on the water. She can be found standing on a chair, the coffee table or trying to scale the dining room table. She opens the caps to all our pens and markers and threatens to fall off our bed at every twirl. No is a favorite word and is the answer to all questions. Did you have a good day at school? No. Are you hungry? No. Is your name Eliza? No. When she doesn't get what she wants she screams and throws herself on the floor. We call her Tyrannobaby and Baby Menace.

Still she can be sweet as tapioca pudding, bringing you an animal book to read and sitting herself down quietly in front of you or on your lap. Her vocabulary has doubled at least in the past month and mainly consists of animal words. She's switched from calling me Mama to Mommy which is what greets us at 6:15 am in the morning from the next room over. She has moved out of the infant room at school into the toddler room where she sleeps on a mat and baby bottles are banned. She refuses to use a sippy cup but I'm hoping with persistence that will change. Her smile transforms her face. She adores Addie. She's confident and loving. She has no idea her life is going to change in July when her baby brother is born.

Happy year and a half Eliza Wren! You make me laugh and I love you.

Snickerdoodles

I plan on giving up sugar again for lent this year so in preparation I'm devouring it now. Addie and I made snickerdoodles as a birthday gift for a friend today. These are great cookies to make with kids because they are very tactile. Addie helped make the dough, roll it into balls and then dredge them in cinnamon sugar. A bowl of cinnamon sugar was a standard on our kitchen counter when I was growing up. There is nothing quite as comforting as eating cinnamon toast curled up on the sofa.

The birthday girl is a lovely, single gal in her early thirties and the party guests were more her demographic. I think the last time I was at her place was two years ago and I was pregnant with Eliza. There was another mom with her two year old in tow, otherwise we were the only family and with our two kids and a third on the way I felt a little like we had rolled in from the farm. We lasted thirty minutes before Eliza terrorized her cat, the girls fought over a toy pony, Eliza ran off with the entire hunk of smoked gouda and left a trail of crackers in her wake like Gretel.

I'm wondering if the homemade cookies, instead of a bottle of wine, might have been a little too June Cleaver of me.

It's a Boy!

Really, I'm shocked. Ecstatic too.

Addie was right as she was with Eliza. I'll spare everyone the boy parts ultrasound photos but we are 100% sure that baby #3 is a boy. And, he looks totally healthy which is the best news.

Addie really wanted to come with us to the doctor's but woke up this morning feeling sick. Poor girl barfed on the way to the appointment (poor Cap's car too) but smiled when she found out she was right. She is going to have the baby brother she had instructed my belly to produce when she yelled at it, "Hey baby. Turn into a boy!" She can be rather bossy.