Food drive

This morning Evelyn and I went downstairs to the pantry to choose food for the food drive. I told her about the families who don't have enough food to eat. She decided to give them some of her favorite beans, a container of bread crumbs, some jelly for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and chocolate milk for them to drink.

Lindita is both organized and incredibly messy at the same time. She likes to put things back, put things on shelves, put lids on things, and put things away. But she's 1. She can't help being messy. Yesterday morning at breakfast, we gave her blueberries (thawed from frozen). After eating a few, she lined up the remaining ones on the counter, in a neat row -- neat except for the blueberry juice oozing into puddles on the counter and down to the floor, and except for the blueberries she dropped on the floor.
This evening she found a strawberry in a plastic bowl. She took the strawberry out, pulled it apart, ate some, and put the remaining bits back in the bowl. Then she set the bowl down on the air. Maybe she meant the counter, but she missed totally, and plonk, bowl and strawberry bits all over the floor.

Evelyn is interested in road signs, especially the ones with a circle and a line. The other day we sat at a stoplight in front of "No left turn." She knows that one. A car went straight through the light across the street. "That's a bad car! Turning left is not acceptable!" I tried to explain to her that it's okay to go that way if you're going straight, but not from the direction we were coming from. She didn't get it. "No right turn on red" is another tricky one.

Tonight while getting Lindita ready for bed, I couldn't find any pants for her. Her drawer was full of shorts. Nana looked through the clean clothes pile but didn't find any. Then out of the bathroom wanders Lindita, holding out... pants! She found the pants she wore before the bath and brought them to me. Wow! Coincidence? She tried to put the pants on by herself by pulling them over her head. She tries to put all clothing on her head, including socks.
Smart about the pants, right? ... but what was she doing in the bathroom before she brought out the pants? Throwing her favorite book in the bathtub. The book is "Pajama Time," not "Bath Time," silly Deeter Doo.

and now it is Kitchen Time.

Revenge

Lindita dunked Dora in the toilet for a while and then threw her into the garbage can.

new rug

 

A different child

Last night, after Lindita's bath, she sat naked on Evelyn's bed playing with a toy. I approached with a diaper and pajamas. Lindita saw me coming with the diaper and ... laid down. She laid down on the bed and let me put on her diaper and pants! She continued playing with the toy. No rolling away, no fleeing, no squirming, just sweet cooperation. Wow. She is not a clone of her sister, that's for sure.

pictures

Dancing with Daddy:

 

Wrestling sisters:

 

Evelyn at the zoo:

 

Lindita is a power star for Halloween:

 

Evelyn had costumes ready for Mario, Luigi, King Boo, Princess Peach, and Rosalina. At the last minute, she insists she's Yoshi. She can be Yoshi by wearing any green pants and green shirt. Okay, Evelyn, if you declare that you're Yoshi, then you are.

 

At Gymnastics, she wore Mario:

 

Election Day!

Have you voted yet?
The line at our polling place was a little over an hour long, before we left for work. Evelyn was late to school. It's for a good cause.

There are lots of pictures over at the mobile blog from our zoo trip last Sunday. http://jessitron.vox.com

Here is a really interesting article.
It's about how Christians in America get a little too hung up on our country, when we should be more focused on our Heavenly kingdom. What do you think?

Nervousing

Lindita loves buttons. She likes the power buttons on Evelyn's computer and on the TV. Yesterday, Nana reports, Evelyn was playing Mario Kart while Lindita hovered near the TV. Evelyn called out, "Nana, she's nervousing me!"

Lindita has learned to pour water from one cup to another. She likes to put lids on things. She tries really hard to dump out cereal boxes, to get at the food.

Evelyn has been under the weather the last few weeks. She's well enough to go to school, except she's short on sleep. The child will not nap until she collapses.

Last Sunday Aunt Bunny and I took Evelyn to a party at the zoo. It was a very nice party. I have a bunch of pictures - one of these days I'll upload them. Now, at the zoo, we pointed out the word "ZOO" in a few places, and went over how it is spelled. Yesterday, Evelyn spotted the word "zoo" on a magazine and read it! She also recognized the word "zoo" in Good Night, Gorilla. This is progress.

Lindita says "Hot" when near the oven. She knows that my coffee cup and steaming pitcher are hot. This morning she touched her eggs and then pronounced them "hot." Then she attempted to blow on them, unsuccessfully.
She loves to listen to music, but when we turn on the CD player she tries to unplug it. She dances and claps when not chasing electricity.

Evelyn's Christmas wish list

I'll put toys that Evelyn wants on this wish list. It'll show you what she likes. Don't feel obligated to buy from the list directly; some of the stuff is way cheaper elsewhere, and the toys are available in many forms. This will show you some of her favorite Pokemon. She also loves anything related to Mario Kart.

Lindita is 1

Don't mind me -- I'm cranky from too little sleep.

Lindita is now one year old. Hurray Lindita! We never did get a proper birthday celebration in this weekend. She had a cupcake on the deck. Mama Cat brought her a toy laptop with lots of buttons. Nana reports that she likes to use it as a seat.

Pa Pa worked his butt off this weekend to install a swing set in the back yard. The kids are crazy about it.

Evelyn is Luigi today. Each day, she is Mario or Luigi or King Boo or Princess Peach or Rosalina. Occasionally she's Yoshi or Donkey Kong. She is all about the Mario Kart characters. For Halloween we're preparing for any of the above. I just ordered her a blue dress and silver shoes for Rosalina days. She's going to be thrilled.

Lindita is interested in dogs (she pants huh-huh-huh to say "dog") and cats ("Daa!") and books ("buuuh") and balls ("buuuh"). She enjoys pulling things off of shelves and dumping food on the floor. She usually has a scrape on her forehead from a sidewalk encounter.

Eric says that he is tired too.

Health care

Here's a summary of a report about the health care plans of the two candidates.

It hypothesizes the insurance situation in 2010 and the costs over the next decade if each plan is implemented.

McCain -> 21.1 million fewer uninsured
Obama -> 26.2 million fewer uninsured

McCain -> $2 trillion cost over 10 years
Obama -> $1.1 trillion cost over 10 years

The distribution of those insured changes, too: in McCain's plan, those with chronic conditions are less likely to be insured than they are now. In Obama's plan, the sick are more likely to be insured than they are now.

And this report was "more optimistic" about McCain's plan than other comparisons have been.

Which plan is better? DUH!

OCD

Evelyn, yesterday, very sadly: "At school, it wasn't a very good day, because Daddy didn't park in a red spot."

The parking lot at her school is brick, sort of, and it alternates between red and white for each parking spot. Evelyn strongly prefers the red spots.

Eric: "Rrrrgh. This happens every day when I park in a white spot. There weren't any red spots open."

furrin countries

The consensus here is that we should recommend to Sarah Palin that the US invade Kanadastan, in preemptive defense of Israel. This would also make it more convenient for her to drive from Wasilla to Washington with no national borders in between.

Busy weekend

Evelyn is feeling much better. By Friday the fever had faded and she was awake and eating and doing stuff.

Saturday she had two birthday parties to attend, plus a dinner playdate. At the morning party, she and five other girls made dolls at Friends 2 B Made. Evelyn wore her green Diego T-shirt and overalls, because she was Luigi that morning. I warned her that there would be other girls in dresses, but no, she was Luigi. Of course at the party she wined and wined that she wanted a dress. After the party, after lunch, given a choice of ice cream or a dress, she chose ice cream. When not around a bunch of other girls, she was happy to be Luigi again.

In the afternoon she attended her first drop-off party at Carter's house. Carter's mom reports that Evelyn was extra crispy. "And now she's had a bunch of sugar, so good luck this evening."

And for our third outing of the day, dinner at the home of some friends with a boy Evelyn's age. Surprisingly, Evelyn was fine. We all had a very good, relaxing time. Even Eric, who does not like doing more than one outing in a Saturday, was happy.

Today church and then a visit to Jorge and Eva's house, always a hit. Both girls went to sleep on the way home. Whew. Everyone is tired.

Now, back to my mission of Decluttering. I've figured out what to do with some sentimental stuff: photograph it, put the picture in a scrapbook, and give the item away. Good-bye, armadillos. Good-bye, carrots. I can like you without collecting you. It is tough to let go, especially of the armadillos, but the clutter is stressing me out. The houses we visited yesterday were much less cluttered and it was easier to breathe there. I want that feeling in my own home.

Lots going on

Last weekend we went on a retreat with Friends of Missouri Midwives to Lake of the Ozarks. It was nice, although rustic, and Nana didn't go with us, and we had some conflict involving shoes.

On the way back we dropped Eric at the airport for a conference at a resort in Georgia.

Monday Evelyn came down with a pretty high fever. I took her to the new clinic near our house for a strep test that evening. It was negative. On Tuesday the fever was even higher, so I took her to her own doctor. Dr. Salter says that she has an ear infection, and she likely also caught a virus at the retreat. She prescribed antibiotics and immune boosters. She said to put away the thermometer and instead evaluate the child by looking at her. (wonderful!)

Evelyn is still quite sick. The antibiotics have not caused her fever to drop, so it's probably viral. She is sore all over. She is drinking fluids but eating very little. She still wants to play Mario Kart, but much of the day she is too tired.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, Eric broke his foot. He stepped in a gutter. He came back today on crutches and in a cast.

Random pictures

 

I took Evelyn and Lindita to Laumeier Sculpture Park. This is Evelyn's perspective from her carseat.

 

Lindita borrows Evelyn's dinosaur mask at the zoo.

 

"Take a picture of me looking at the elephant's poop."

 

Pictures from Evelyn's first day of preschool

 

 

 

 

Evelyn's first day at The College School

Evelyn walked real slowly to TCS. Kind of taking things in I guess. She put on her backpack and took her lunch box from me (not forcefully, but like dad I'm supposed to be carrying that to go to school).

Went through what I believe is the new cafeteria. No one in there, which I thought was odd for a 1st day and lost parents. Anyway, tried the Spanish class 1st since it had little people chairs. Got directions from ?teacher?. Upstairs. Okay. Stairs on the left lead to 2nd floor. Went right, no left, no right. Finally asked another teacher looking type standing around where the Big Bend classroom was. To the right.

Went in there. More confusion as there is a foyer with cubbies for an older class. Finally saw the sign on glass window for Big Bend room. Evelyn and I went in and lots of people milling about. Found the cubbies. Evelyn just starts unloading her stuff in a random cubby. looks like she has business to attend to. Finally locate her cubby (not in alphabetically order, I think...). Drop off her stuff. Point out her cubby nametag. Dad explains that her water bottle is in her backpack. Okay dad, whatever...Evelyn zips off to a waist high sandbox table filled with dinosaurs or was it dinosaurs an animals or just animals?. 2 seconds in she is commandeering a giant elephant from a boy similarly engaged. She tries the trick of handing him a different toy. He goes for it. Sucker! I tell her that Nana will be there to pick her up at around 12:30. Take two pics, just missed a quick shy smile. Stand around for a moment and realize she'll be okay. Dad goes to work.

Hello out there

Today is a really good day. Yesterday, my sister moved into her college dorm. Wow! She is in for an awesome time. Then Mom came to our house and stayed the night. Evelyn is thrilled to see Mama Cat, but she was anxious to head to Hannibal and see Pa-Pa. Mama Cat enjoyed playing with Evelyn -- the granddaughter ignores Mama Cat when Pa-Pa is around. Plus, Mama Cat got to see Lindita walking around, which is one of the cutest sights ever. Plus, Daddy came home from his short trip.

This morning I had a double cappuccino for extra tastiness. A good evening and a good morning started the day well. Plus work has been fun this week, busy and interesting. Things are great in my world.

Middle-of-the-night questions

Evelyn, at 11 pm: "Hey Mama, after gymnastics, can we see God?"
When I told Nana about that this morning, Nana said, "Did you say, 'Why?'"

the night before, at midnight: "What's the sky for? the sun and sky for?"
When asked what she thought they were for, she said they were for turning light, and turning dark.