Random from September 2012

Hello!
It's been a while, eh? Since returning from the beach, it has felt like we are a family of nomads. We have taken a few weekend trips just for fun, but mainly we've been moving in and out of our house every couple of weeks due to construction. Paint fumes one week, polyurethane the next, etc. Another factor in the craziness was the start of school for Richard. August and September are definitely his most hectic months. BUT I am happy to say that we are settling back into our house, Richard has been able to put his feet up (or work on a house project) a little more often when he is home, and Jane is in Mother's Day Out twice a week.  So, here I am blogging!

I promise to post pictures of our house soon, but for now it is just a random collection from the past month.

First, my favorite quote/conversation with Jane recently...

     Jane: I used two towels to dry my hands.
     Katie: Oh, why did you use two?
     Jane: Because I have two hands!

And now for a few pics...

Jane's "cheese!" face is improving;
kind of looks like a real smile now!

Putting ALL her crayons in the pocket
of her art smock.

Helping Daddy paint...
just for a minute before escaping the fumes with Mom.

Heels and sunglasses from her dress up box.
"Don't me look pretty?" she asks.  

The Adventure Science Center has been a great indoor activity as we tried to escape the heat this summer, and we look forward to it this winter! It is pretty loud, though. Jane often covers her ears around loud noises, or overstimulating situations, or sometimes just new surroundings in general. So you can imagine that she looks like this most of the time we are there.

Her favorite part is the star room, which is a quiet, pitch black room in which you are surrounded by thousands of little pin pricks of light. When we entered this refuge Jane said, "Oh, Mommy, I like it in here. I'm so happy!"

Learning to be gentle with Nickel,
with whom Jane is kind of obsessed.

Still flaps those hands when she is excited.

First day of school.
She even got to give Daddy a hug!

After her first day, her teachers wrote to say that they were going to hang up family pictures for each of the kids. "What a great idea," I thought. "I'll just scroll through our recent photos and send one in." It turns out we had not taken one since last Christmas! I thought that was too outdated, but it ended up being the one I sent anyway because this is as good as we could get trying to take a recent one...

And now a video for extreme Jane fans only. It's about five minutes of really random "conversation" after dinner one night, but it captures her little personality pretty well.

The beach

The morning of July 13, Jane woke up and the first thing she said was, "It's time to go to the beeeeeeach!" Then for the next eight hours in the car she kept saying, "We're almost there!"  Well, eventually that was true.  

We are so thankful that we got to take a week this summer and head to the beach! Richard's family has been visiting the same sand in Destin, FL since before he was born, so it is especially fun to add to those memories each year as our own little family grows! (We kept reminding ourselves that next summer is going to be VERY different. Richard said, "Yep, it will pretty much just be me and Jane at the beach all day!" But I'm sure I can manage a few treks to the sand with a seven month old, right?)

Anyway, here are some pics of our favorite activites:

Playing in the sand with Daddy

Woo hoo!

Digging holes...

...and tunnels!

Eating fruit snacks

Post fruit snack sugar high silliness

Watching for parasails

Piling sand up on her shovel/rake...

...then "wash wash washing it off" over and over again.

We even met another two-and-a-half year old girl!

Then she and Jane took turns wash wash washing each other off.

Jane held on so tightly when we took her into the waves

But she was always so proud and happy after she swam in the big ocean

She even rode on the boogie board and caught a wave with Daddy!

One stormy afternoon we just watched the rain roll in

As much as we enjoyed the beach, Jane was definitely the most excited about the pool. After a morning or afternoon in the sand, we would always jump in the pool to rinse of the salty sticky of the beach.

I love my floaties!

The step/lunge...

...the full jump...

...and the toss!  

"Wheee!"

And now for one of my favorite parts of the trip... Richard cooked!

This meal featured crab stuffed mushrooms, the best bruschetta I've ever had, and sauteed spinach.  Thank you, Richard!!

Dress up

I recently introduced Jane to a box of princess dress up clothes that I acquired at a consignment sale this spring. Definitely some of the best bargain bucks I've spent so far! Her favorite part is the shoes, most of which are mini versions of high heels. Her observation of this strange, impractical shoe was, "They have bumps on them. They're kind of wobbly." Nevertheless, she loves to click clack up and down the hallway.
Disclaimer: I do not think that little girls have to play exclusively with dolls and be inundated with pink princess paraphernalia. In fact, Jane has spent most of her life playing with gender neutral or even "boy" things. But this spring she started showing an interest in the Disney princesses, whom she met through her new big girl underwear. (There are no gender neutral underwear options.) So, seeing as how she has a strong foundation on the non-girly side of the spectrum, I decided it was OK to get a few more princess items. I must admit, it was pretty sweet watching her dress up as Snow White, and then find her picture in the princess book.

How come I don't have a bunch of cute animals helping me
clean my room?

Don't worry, she still loves playing with her tool box, helicopter and various gadgety toys, even if she likes wearing high heels and singing "Be Our Guest."
Ok, now I feel like I have to give a disclaimer on my disclaimer: I don't think girly toys are bad. I just want Jane to know that she can grow up to do anything, regardless of gender stereotypes, so I guess I'm just overly sensitive about locking her onto a girls only path. It probably has a lot to do with the years I spent attending and teaching at an all girls prep school, where they are empowering women to go out into the world and be just as good as the guys. I didn't realize quite how much it had rubbed off on me until I started writing this post!

No shoes

This week the weather has really warmed up, so we broke out the baby pool. Shortly after Jane got in she said, "I don't need shoes in my pool. I just need feet." So true, Jane, so true. Here's to a wonderful, barefoot summer, right around the corner!

Maggie likes the pool, too. She kept trying to lie down in it, but there were too many toys, and a child, in the way.

Other random tidbits:
Richard has begun (and almost completed since this picture) putting the roof on the shop.

After a rainy afternoon, we looked outside and caught sight of this AMAZING rainbow. You could see every color and it stretched across the whole horizon.

Jane LOVES to swing. When we go to the park, it is her favorite part, even though we have one in our own backyard.

"Swing a lot of times?"

At a birthday party last week, Jane was so intent on getting every drop out of her CapriSun, that she drank the last half using this attractive posture. I'm not sure it helped, but she definitely drained it.