4 years

We recently passed our 4th wedding anniversary. This was the first picture we took together and marks the first family Sunday dinner Andrew was invited too at my house. It brings a smile to my face when looking at it. In part because Andrew is wearing a three wise women cooking apron, but mostly because I am just as happy now to be with Andrew as I was then. As Andrew describes it when asked, "It's pretty fun being married."

We decided to celebrate a couple weeks late when Andrew would be done with his dissertation (signed and turned in two weeks ago)! We used my sister's time share and stayed at a place in Windsor where we caught up on cable tv, slept to our hearts content, and ate all the cake we wanted. Can't wait till next year!

A party two year old style

This year Little Bug requested a "pink cake" and "pink lady cookies." Lady is our word for princess. The reality is Little Bug only likes cake and cookies in theory. She gets excited about them, but won't actually try them. Apparently, it is too risky. However, she is a fan of strawberry ice cream. I thought if there was any hope of Little Bug trying her cake this year I should do an ice cream cake.

She was excited all week as she saw me making lots of pink stuff. She even got to pick out a pair of fancy dress shoes and necklace to match her tutu. Come birthday day, she was thrilled. She even came up to me and told me she wanted to wear her tutu. That's where the excitement ended. She was too excited for the upcoming party to nap and only fell asleep for an hour. This girl needs at least a two hour nap to function happily. Unfortunately, she did not feel like participating after that. I guess she really is two.

This is as close as she got to trying the cake. She couldn't even bring herself to touch it.

When the candles were lite the cake became even more threatening. Daddy was needed.

She was too grumpy to wear anything but her lady shoes.

After the presents, she spent the rest of the time hoarding. She tried diligently to get her new baby bed and herself on top of her new chair, with unforeseen spacial problems.

At least she was pleased with her presents, especially her chair. I saw it in the window of a second-hand store. It looked like it had been used as someone's stepping stool in the garage. So we cleaned it up with some steel wool and oil and then reupholstered it. Little Bug picked the fabric, literally. She rejected every fabric I showed her by stating, "No, I don't like it." So I told her to tell me when she saw a fabric she liked. When she found the pink with polka-dots she exclaimed, "I like it. I want it chair. I hold it." And she was very upset when she had to let go of it for the cashier to ring it up.

Eventually, she relaxed enough to play pedicure/manicure with cousin Z.

From now on, all two year olds get a good nap and a surprise birthday party.

Halloween

In anticipation of Halloween this year we practiced Little Bug's "trunk or treat" and talked up all our Toy Story character costumes. She was pretty excited until she found out that meant putting on a cowgirl belt and tucking her shirt in. However, upon arriving at our event and learning quickly you get candy every time you say "trunk or treat" to someone really changed her attitude. She ended up not wanting to leave. It certainly made a mark on her two year old mind because the first thing she said the next day was "where the candy?" For our second trunk or treat she was begging to put on her Jessie costume, except for the shirt being tucked in. That was still a "I don't like it!"

Off to trunk or treat!

Stopping at Papa and Grandma's trunk. Are you recognizing a theme in costumes?

Checking out her loot.

The hat she finally consented to putting on for the last five minutes. She spent the next couple days carrying it around with her as one of her prize possessions.

"To infinity and beyond!" "yeehaw!"

My sister-in-law, with the help of Little Z's "please," convinced everyone in my family minus one to be a Toy Story characters this year.

We definitley had a lot of fun this year. Especially when Andrew realized to be a true Buzz he had to pull out his sweet talking Spanish skills and take his Jessie for a romantic twirl.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to two pumpkin patches this year and I would not be opposed to going to another one. I had no idea how much fun they were; train rides, pony rides, corn mazes, animals to look at... Either they have improved since I was a kid or we were just going to the wrong patch.

Little Bug insisted on pulling the wagon despite us trying to help.

But soon realized maybe mom and dad had a point in wanting to help.

Her choice of pumpkins.

Little Bug was so excited to see there was a "horsie ride" at our first patch. We didn't know if she would actually like to ride or if she just liked the theory of a horse ride. Before we joined the ranks of suckers paying way to much for a few minutes on a small horse, we tested it out to see if she would stay on the pony. This is the face we got. She loved it!

A couple days later when we went to another pumpkin patch with Z (my brother and his family). As soon as we got there Little Bug started talking about riding another pony, "horsie ride! horsie ride!" Sure enough she found another pony ride. This time around she noticed her cousin didn't have any assistance while riding. Of course this started adamant declarations of, "no touch mommy, no" while swatting my hand away.

The super slide was the major reason for the trip to the second pumpkin patch. I took Little Bug down it, but I think it was more traumatizing than fun. There were tears afterward and she is now refusing to go down slides at the park. This is a picture of Andrew right before he got some major air on the last bump. Hindsight bias, he didn't need to give himself such a big push before going down. Apparently even watching someone go down a slide is scary cause Little Bug also burst into tears when Andrew got to the bottom.

Now we are just working on Little Bug's "trick or treat" in preparation for the upcoming holiday.

Light

Assignment #3: Light experimentation

Waiting

Little Bug is a daddy's girl. As soon as he comes home she is all about "daddy." You can imagine her disapproval when her long lost daddy has to make a pit stop before playing with her. She does not approve. She use to shed tears, but has since learned to wait by the door, knock, and say, in a sweet voice, "please open daddy."

A Little Bug Original

We went through Little Bug's closet today. I say "we" because Little Bug was definitely involved. She rediscovered some very beloved items and insisted on wearing them. As we were heading out the door I tried telling her that the boots, hat and tutu didn't quite fit together. My attempts to take the hat off and switch out the boots for shoes were met with adamant tears. It was then I realized I need to start adjusting to Little Bug having a say about what she wears.

Savoring the last bits of summer

This summer I've been meaning to try out canning. Such a desire was mostly inspired by my Aunt's tasty raspberry sauce. The final incentive was Berkeley Bowl selling a pint of raspberries for 89 cents. Surprisingly, all went well. Except for the part where I took to literally the tip of not screwing the jar rings on to tightly to help it seal properly while boiling. While placing my jars in the boiler I lifted my precious jar of sauce and off slipped the ring. Which meant down came the jar. In short this lead to raspberry sauce all down the cupboards, over the flour and left splatters on most the kitchen walls. Little Bug loudly shouted "uh ho" followed my an adamant "I help" and came rushing over to the scene. Besides the occasional sticky step on our flour, the clean up went as well as expected with an almost 2 year old's help. Even with such a mess, my 10 cans of raspberry sauce were certainly worth it. And I am looking forward to trying some freezer jam with the extra berries.

Birthday Trip'n

I remember a few years ago looking at Andrew during church and calculating about what age he would be when he finished his doctorate program. When I realized it would be around 30 I just thought that was crazy. Well, Andrew's 30th just came and went. Now I'm wondering when we will actually feel like grown ups. I mean, we don't even pay rent yet!

But onto how we celebrated! I thought and thought about what to do for the event. The only thing I could come up with that I knew Andrew would love would be to go water skiing on his birthday. So, off to Utah we went! I surprised him with the plan a few days beforehand.

Since it was Andrew's 30th birthday I also thought he deserved a fun cake. In reality, Andrew and I have been watching Cake Boss lately and it created quite a desire in me to give fondant a try. Overall, it was pretty fun stuff. Andrew even jumped in on the fun. Inside it was lime cake with lime cream cheese frosting. It was yummy in my opinion.

Here Andrew is still looking good at 30!

I believe I've said this before, but I really am not that big of a water person. However, about 4 years ago Andrew informed me if I was really to join his family I had to learn how to water ski. Period. I have to note here that the first time we went water skiing I was sent into the water with two skies and no instructions. No instructions people. None. It was quite a humbling experience. Thank heavens by the end of the day I managed to pull myself up out of the water for 5 seconds before whipping out. That was 4 years ago. And really I have been happily skiing on two skis since. However, this trip I knew it was time to give the slalom ski a try. With some encouragement and thank heavens a few tips from Andrew's mom (where were you 4 years ago?) I made it up out of the water. Hurray!

Little Bug bundled up with grandma and of course who doesn't love having control of the wheel?

These shots were taken before Little Bug made the executive decision to join mom and dad in the water. That was the first time her head has gone completely under the water. She did as well as expected for ridged lake water.

Here papa is attempting to introduce fruit in peach form into Little Bug's diet. It went exactly how this picture is portraying. Little Bug has a very strict diet she adheres too - meat and potatoes.

In case you're missing it, this is the close up of Bug saying "no" to peaches while attempting to hide. She spent the rest of the trip in fear of the word "peach" even being mentioned.

We of course maximized the use of papa and grandma's pool. Little Bug figured out if she put her arms around these swim weights she didn't need help swimming. Of course she had test out this new swimming freedom by ditching the weights a few times and stepping off the ledge. I'm catching onto a jumping in the water theme and guess it is time to teach this girl how to swim.

And we did a lot of lounging. It felt fantastic. If only we had a driveway to pull out some lawn chairs and people watch more often.

Thanks Mark and Laura for a fun trip!

A few things I've been up to...

I was intending to crochet Little Bug one of these soakers (baby bum covers worn as shorts) about a year ago. Apparently it never made it to the top of my priority list because she never got one. With some babies due in the family I was actually able to motivate myself to crochet a few of them. This first picture is of the back and the second is of the front.

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Little Bug never got a pair of soakers, but I was able to finish her baby book. I had stacks of baby gift cards, ribbons and pictures just sitting under my bed collecting dust. I am sure we all have similar stories. Not to mention Little Bug would sometimes discover a box and fling its contents everywhere. I decided the other week it was time to get rid of such a pile/Little Bug temptation and make her baby book. Little Bug happens to love "her book." So much so, we have to keep it up high and only bring it down on special occasions, which really means she just has to read it with an adult after she has said "please."


Also, I've been up to a lot of cookie making! Andrew needed 5-6 dozen cookies for an open house at his lab, my mom needed 2 dozen cookies for a linger longer, and I needed another 2 dozen for the start of my freshman Sunday School class. That's a lot of cookies folks! It was fun having all that cookie dough around, dangerous actually, but I sure am glad no one seems to be placing any cookie orders this week. I am cookied out.


And finally a baby hat for Andrew's colleagues new baby girl.