Pictures at the river

We recently took our first "summer" river trip of the year.  We invited the Scurr family to join us and took some cute photos.  Check out the picasa album here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/102141069696263032387/AtTheRiverWithTheScurrFamily?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNPoiK-x0MqmTQ&feat=directlink

Darwyn plays in the Laundry

Gus has a habit of hanging the laundry to dry on a rack in our living room.  I'm not overly fond of the rack, but our daughter loves it.  Her favorite activity is to go over and systematically "unhang" the laundry.  But she also enjoys playing peekaboo in Daddy's pajama pants and wearing 5 pairs of mommy's underwear around her neck.  What a beautiful necklace!  The world really is full of possibilities when you are one.

Peekaboo!

Why didn't I think of this?  It is bound to be a new fashion trend.

Darwyn's first words

Tonight I was poking through some old blog posts of Max and reminiscing.  I noticed a post by Gus on Max's first words and it occurred to me that we have written nothing about Darwyn's first words.  It is easy with the second to get distracted.  I can only imagine what will happen if we have four.  Anyway, I'm not sure how interested you random readers will be in Darwyn's vocabulary, but for her benefit (when she is older) here is a dictionary:

"Mo" is more, but is said somewhat periodically (the alternative is whining and reaching for the food she wants)

"Daddy" - obvious

"Mummy" - also obvious (she used to say geeda, but she only did that a few times and then resorted to mummy)

"Denny" - Dennis  (She has also said Kathrin's name, but I can't remember how she pronounces it)

"Ma" - Max  (Again, she also says Annie, but I do not remember the pronunciation).

"Titty" - A rather unfortunate attempt at kitty, but not as bad as when Eric used to pronounce Shaky "Shitty".

"Doddy" - Doggy

Dat - That (she's says this a lot, but I'm not certain that it is not just me reading into it and deciding she is saying "that")

"Uh-OH!" - A very favorite word (Or least favorite for Gus and I)

"Ah" - Means "Ya", she does not appear to have a word for no, but screaming and crying and waving her hands around emphatically usually gets the message across.

She says both "Bye" and "Hi" perfectly, but usually only after the person in question has long since departed.

" Up Pee" means up please.  Despite considerable effort on my part, she rarely says this, but I have heard her say it perfectly.  Usually she just holds her arms up...which is still a step in the right direction because I can now convince her not to scream and cry when she wants up.

I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember them right now (I'm reminded of Mike's attempts to record all of Leora's vocabulary on his palm pilot when Leora was Darwyn's age.  As I recall he gave up a few 100 words in).  Darwyn is entering a phase where her vocabulary (both spoken and understood) is exploding.  She regularly impresses me with how much she can understand, and communicate even without words.  If she wants to go outside she gets her shoes and brings them to you, if she wants to eat she goes to her chair and cries, if she wants your help she comes and takes your hand and drags you to the task she is trying to solve.  She can also find different requested books in her book bin and bring them to you, but she still has trouble sitting through them (except for peekaboo baby and barnyard dance which she requests repeatedly).

Anyway, I won't try to pull a Mike and record all her words, but at least now she has a record of some of her first words!

Happy Birthday Max

Today we celebrated Max's 3rd birthday.  If was a much more exciting event than his second birthday, largely because this year he seemed to care.  He was still a little confused during the happy birthday song (see video at bottom), but really enjoyed his train cake, all his friends and the bouncy castle we borrowed from friends of ours.  Highlights of his day included a special homemade birthday card from his friend Ella, a good game of wrestle in the bouncy castle and the moment he finally got to devour the engine on his birthday cake.    I've posted a few pictures and videos here, but for those of you that would like more, you can check out the whole album here (link).  Anyway, Happy Birthday Max!

The birthday cake engine. 

Max waiting to eat the engine.  With the whole hour he spent with his face 2cm
from the engine, I doubt anyone else was going to eat it!

Max's friend Fiona enjoying the bouncy castle.

For the first half hour the bouncy castle was inflated, Max completely
ignored it and played on the hammock....

Daddy liked playing on the hammock more than in the bouncy castle too.

Max and Ella enjoying the bouncy castle.

Max's friend Danny and his mom Anne, decorating a train car.

Finally, someone (Elliette) is bouncing!

Pepper

Grandma Sandi and Grandpa Lee recently came to visit with their new kitten Pepper.  She was a real hit with the kids (and Grandma...who couldn't talk about anything else for the whole visit).  We managed to snap lots of cute photos.

A cute story:
Grandma has claimed that they only have the kitten "on trial", but as far as I can see there is no trial.  Both of them are completely smitten, but their perspective seems to be a little distorted.  When driving with just grandma I said "Dad seems to be very fond of the kitten."

Mom: Yes, it was very important for dad.  You know...with the unemployment.  He was getting depressed and he is much happier with the kitten.  I like the kitten, but your dad really needed that cat.

Then driving with dad....

Me: "Mom can't stop talking about that cat."

Dad:  It's a good thing we got her.  Our house was starting to feel like an old folk's place.  I was ok without the kitten, but your mom has really perked up.  She really needed that cat.

As far as I can tell they both are a lot better off with the cat.  Trial or no....I think we will be seeing a lot of Pepper over the coming years.

Darwyn and Pepper on the cat tree

Cousin Annie holds the kitty

A safe place

Grandpa attempting to construct the cat tree.  Mother says "Greta, it's modular!"
Turns out that modular means impossible to put together.

"I hope I have trouble sleeping tonight!"

Yesterday we saw Grampa G one last time before he and Gramma embarked on their long trip out west.  Almost as an afterthought, Grampa sent us home with a bag conspicuously marked "Happy birthday, Max!" and no further instructions.  I failed to realize that the intent was for us to hold onto the gift until Max's birthday.  I made no effort to hide the bag.  When we arrived home Greta asked what the bag was all about and before I knew it Max was tearing open his exciting new birthday gift only minutes before bedtime, a full thirteen days before his birthday.  (In retrospect I'm glad we let him open it early.  New toys get a lot more mileage when they come one at a time, and we don't like to cultivate the expectation of rapid-fire gifts all at once.)

It's a crane with many attachments that can also mold play dough.

Look how excited he is!  Yeah, his face is a bit blurry.  I didn't get any good shots of him smiling with the crane.  Deal with it.

Max instantly fell in love with the crane.  Giving it to him immediately before bedtime was a big mistake.  I knew we were in for trouble when he agreed to swap a bedtime story for a few more minutes playing with the crane.  (In the end, he got his story and some extra time with the crane.  We're spoiling him rotten.)

We parked the crane only inches from his bed.  That's nothing new -- he often keeps trucks beside his bed at night.  Sometimes he plays with his toys in bed at night if he has trouble sleeping.  But I suspected that tonight would be different.  As I left his room, Max told me with a gleam in his eye, "I hope I have trouble sleeping tonight!"  Who ever wishes that?!

A few minutes later, he sneaked out of his room and found me in the kitchen.  He led me back to his room mumbling, "I'm having trouble slee--crane pieces are stuck."  I helped him put his crane back together and tucked him back into bed with a stern warning that if he comes out again then he'll lose the crane for the rest of the night.  We didn't hear from him again that night.  No one knows exactly how late he stayed up playing with his new crane in bed.  But his little bedside light was switched off by morning, so he must have had the presence of mind to switch it off before falling asleep.

More photos and a couple videos.  We got him to say "thank you" to Gramma and Grampa for the video.

  

Apparently his dad used to do this, too.