Mud

We had a great camping trip and Annika loved it, with the exception of her lack of complete freedom. It was rainy and muddy, so I was reluctant to let her run everywhere, because girl clothes are all pink. Or lavender. Or spring green. Or pale this and pale that. James, the explorer, was wearing brown and navy blue and army green, etc. and had big boots to splash around in. He was prepared for the weather. (And his mother was a lot more willing to deal with the mud!) Anyway, I'm going to buy all weather clothes for her in decidedly "boy" colors and then she can go to town. Or the woods, in this case.

Camping

We're going camping this weekend and I've been making a packing list. We only have one child, and yet, I think we'll need to rent a U-Haul. I can't believe how much stuff we have to bring! I have to figure out a way to effectively pare this down without leaving us starving and open to the elements. (Camping in Oregon takes some flexibility, and packing for a variety of potential weather conditions.)
Anyway, I'm looking forward, mostly, to seeing how Annika likes sleeping in a tent, eating outdoors, not running into the fire, being covered in dirt all weekend, and being in the hiking backpack. I'm hoping that this is all delightful. Except the covered in dirt part.

I'm very crafty and I don't mean scrapbooking. I mean Mr. Burns, "excellent" kind of way. We were having a planning meeting for our Laurel activities and we were trying to come up with good, useful and educational activities that would allow us to be outside. Someone suggested that we learn gardening and who could teach us and where we could do that. Hmm. I can't teach, but I have a backyard that needs a garden.
So, now that John has turned over the garden patch, I'll have the Laurels come and do all the rest of the work! Yay for free labor!

Annika's accomplishments

Annika can climb the stairs very quickly, so we decided that we needed to make concerted efforts to teach her how to come down the stairs safely. Not understanding all of the particulars concerning gravity, she forgets that she has to turn around before descending. She can crawl down backwards on her stomach just fine, but she doesn't quite get how to start that. She would just step off the top stair.
The past couple of days she has been getting the hang of stepping up and stepping down, not on our stairs, but off the cement patio onto the grass and back up, off the paved trail onto the grass and back up, etc. She's pretty brave and she doesn't fuss about falling. If she isn't hurt, she is pretty unfazed.

Annika also likes to organize. Any small toys can be hid in the compartments of bigger toys. Her sippy cup fits in a cup holder on the back, bottom of her highchair and she loves putting it in, taking a sip, putting it back, admiring her work and starting over. Today, she has been putting John's cycling shoes in and out of the cutting board drawer. (I think I'll rewash the cutting boards.) His shoes are half or more her size, (body size, not shoe size)and she walks around with them, cradled gently to her body. Then she'll hurl them down and run to another pursuit.

She has fallen in love with stuffed animals and will put one up against her shoulder, between her shoulder and her neck, and cuddle. Then she'll hand it to me, and I'll cuddle. Then she might cuddle with both of us. Then she'll go find John's shoe and put it back in its cutting board drawer.

And, she doesn't want to sit down in the tub anymore. I haven't yet mastered the situation. So far, it involves a quick soap, rinse and dump of water over her head, which she hates, but I can't get her to sit down or lean her head back. I am the meanest person in the world at that exact second. She knows it and so do I.

Oh, and lastly, we were putting Annika to bed a few nights ago and had rubbed her eyes to let us know that she was indeed tired. We sang and prayed and kissed her and laid her down, and she giggled. She giggled, smiled and clutched her bunny and we left. She was the happiest kid in the world! Granted, thats how I feel almost anytime that I get to lie down and sleep.

Obsession

Not the perfume, although I do like it quite a bit. No, I'm referring to The Office. Though it is often painful to watch, thanks to Michael Scott's painful social ineptitude, I can't stand to miss it. So much so, that I think I might be judged in heaven on this one. I called my babysitter and switched our temple night to tonight so that I wouldn't miss the season finale of The Office. I'm so ashamed.

Dumb birds

We have a nice big window in our family room that lets in light and lets us look at our trees (or the back of our neighbors houses, in winter.) Anyway, I like this window. And so do, apparently, the robins. Actually, I can't tell if its one or several, but it/they have flown into the window, and bounced right back off, over 50 or more times in the last hour. The robin is sitting on a branch, as I write, less than 10 feet away from the window. I've closed the blinds, opened them, stood menacingly and unappealingly in the window. I just don't know what they/it thinks is in here that worth the repeated bonk on the head.
Anybody?

The reason I don't blog

The reason that I don't blog as frequently as I had planned is this:
I write several dumb, boring or trite entries, erase them and start over. None of them are worth posting and I get less and less interesting as this goes on.
So, here:
Its sunny, John rode his bike to work (yay!), I'm having a bad hair month, I keep breaking out which is great because acne goes great with forehead lines, I hate my clothes, I'm trying to go to kick boxing and it hurts, I'm planning a camping trip (yay!), my mom came to visit me and we (she) made cute, red and white gingham valances for my kitchen, Annika is the greatest baby in the world, and our lawn needs cutting.
If anything interesting happens, I'll keep you informed.
Annika is awake and letting me know by banging her pack n' play against the wall. Its pretty effective.
I'm off to consider weeding. (And get Annika.)