They Learn so Young

TV just isn't TV unless you are six inches away.

I would like to point out that Nathan doesn't usually get to watch TV. I turned on PBS Kids solely for my benefit (Word Girl is my favorite!). Although TV did help distract him from pulling at the masking tape.

And, as you can see, the painting continues. I'm getting trim-painting fatigue.

P-Day and V-Day

We've discovered windows. They are very fun. Nathan will stand at the window for a long time. It's an added bonus whenever a car drives by, and then he will crane his little head to see where it goes.

For President's Day weekend we went to visit our favorite southern Utah grandparents. We had a great weekend. We drove down Friday afternoon so we could spend all of Saturday playing. Mike, Erin, and Ethan came down too so Nathan had someone to watch all weekend. He thinks Ethan is so neat, and that he needs to play with everything Ethan has.

We also did the requisite hiking, because you cannot go to Bullfrog and not hike. This is my favorite time of year for it, too, because it's not blasted hot. This time of year you get just warm enough that you can take your jacket off when climbing mesas. We found an easy way up the mesa, but it would just be no fun to take the same way down. The way down was not quite so easy, and occasionally quite steep. Luckily my dear husband was always ready to catch me when I lost my traction and slid. I'm not quite as adept at slickrock navigation as he is.

Note: we would not have attempted this had Nathan been in the hiking backpack. He was safely in his grandparents' care.

Once we safely reached the ground, we meandered along the water's edge on our way back to where we'd left the car at the ferry ramp. If we'd been collecting them, we could have gotten two pairs of shoes--as long as you don't mind they were mismatched. We also could have gotten several beer cans, an inflatable mattress, and a lego man. We like seeing the refuse that's exposed when the lake level recedes in winter. I've never seen anything quite so cool as the burned-out boat that I've heard about and seen pictures of. But we did see a nice petrified sand castle.

The day after we got home, Nathan got a glimpse of the pictures of his grandparents' and got so excited. He had such a good time playing with grandma and grandpa. We miss you already! We'll see you in a couple of days, but we wish it were under happier circumstances.

I Broke My Brain

I woke up with a bruise yesterday morning. It's quite the bruise. It's so bruise-y that there is a small bump in my muscle where it's been injured. I know approximately when I got the bruise (the middle of the night). But I have no idea what I ran into. I guess that's what happens when you're walking around in the dark, with a mad baby, and you're drunk with tiredness. But I do feel concerned about my sense of self-preservation. What kind of state are you in that you don't remember getting injured?

Nathan's been really expanding his boundaries lately. He loves to climb things now, like low-lying shelves. He's pulled all the books off the lowest shelf in the living room and I've put them up so he won't love them to pieces. So he climbs up onto the shelf to see the few remaining books that can withstand him turning the pages. He's also learning to pull himself up to a sitting, then to a kneeling, and occasionally a standing position. He gets so pleased when he accomplishes this.

The only downside is that he wakes up at night to practice. Last night I went in his room and he was sitting up, holding on to the bars, with his legs poking through the bars, wailing. I picked him up, calmed him down, and laid him on his back. But he popped right up again. This stage cannot end fast enough for the three of us.

But who else is excited about the snow? I figure if it's going to be cold, we might as well have some nice snow to look at.

I Caught It

The family cold, that is. I was hoping my immune system was invincible. But, alas.

First the husband, then the baby. I don't feel as sick as they have acted, though. My poor husband had a sore throat that lasted two eons. And Nathan had a runny nose but seemed pretty fine. Until he woke up from a nap with green oozing out of his eyes. (Isn't ooze such a wonderfully descriptive word?) Turns out colds can get in your eyes. Who knew? We got some drops from the doctor, though, and it's cleared right up. His eyes look great today. Which is, of course, why he's only been awake for an hour all morning and was super ornery the whole time.

So I'll nurse my cold and pray that winter ends soon. I guess it's because I'm home all the time, but I am so sick of winter! We're trying to be creative to come up with things to do. And I may have decorated the rest of my house by the time the weather warms up. Yes, we moved in more than a year ago, but still the living room is the only room in the house with pictures on the wall. It's not really my thing. I've been painting lately and it looks so much better.

Nathan can do things with a keyboard we didn't know were possible. Talented kid.

Making Friends with Mr. T

Nathan and Mr. T are pretty tight. He hasn't started wearing gold chains or growing any sort of mohawk (although that could be arranged), But Mr. T does make the day a little better every time we see him. Which is usually right after we eat.
The end of eating is usually a sad affair. Especially when we have muffins. But Mr. T makes it all better.Mr. T lives on the fridge, which is where the towel hangs. When we wash after lunch, usually he tries to eat the towel. But yesterday he noticed this friendly black man looking at him. It was very exciting. It has revolutionized washtime.

At Hill Air Force Base museum a few weeks ago.
A beautiful sunset from our front porch.

Well, that's it for this week. Maybe. I'll post pictures when I get the painting mess cleaned up. I took the blinds down so I could paint the trim in our living room, and they've been very fun for Nathan. Painting with a baby takes three times as long.

Dog Eat Dog

Most imperative of recent missives was a letter from Forbes, reminding us that we are not a bluebird. "You are not a bluebird," the letter said, gruffly, and then added, "you are a business man." There was a kind of finality about this news, and we read on. "Business is a hard, cold-blooded game today. Survival of the fittest. Dog eat dog. Produce or get out. A hundred men are after your job." If Forbes only knew it, goading of this sort is the wrong treatment for us. We are not, as they say, a bluebird. Nobody who reads the Nation regularly, as we do, can retain his amateur bluebird standing. As for business, we agree that it is a hard, cold-blooded game. Survival of the fittest. Dog eat dog. The fact that about eighty-five percent of the dogs have recently been eaten by the other dogs perhaps explains what long ago we noticed about business: that it had a strong smell of baloney. If dog continues to eat dog, there will be only one dog left, and he will be sick to his stomach.

Written by E.B. White as an editorial for The New Yorker, in 1933. I'm thinking that our federal government is one sick dog.

By the way, I have recently become a big fan of E.B. White. He's best known for his children's books (Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little) but also wrote for adults and was on the New Yorker staff for many years. Thanks for the book, Jon.

You will think these are cute. That's not a request.