In other news

I must be setting a record tonight for the most posts done in one evening. But there's been so much going on with Roan lately, now that I got a few minutes I want to finally get caught up.

In tonight's headlines: Three Children Bitten at Local Daycare Center. Yes that's right; I went to pick Roan up from daycare one day last week and the center's operator had to sit me down and tell me she bit three kids that day! Older kids! Bigger kids! One because she was riding the rocking zebra and Roan apparently felt it was her turn. Another because the kid had the audacity to want to slide down the slide while Roan wanted to scramble up it. And a third was completely unprovoked, seemingly just for fun!

Isn't that every parent's nightmare? To find out your kid did something not just rude but brutal to other innocent children? As Aunt Bunny said, "There's a crack in the halo!"

Fortunately there haven't been any other "incidents" since. We borrowed a friend's book called "Teeth are not for Biting," and have been reading it regularly. I've also been putting a little more thought into her episodes of acting out, which have been growing in frequency lately. We've been trying a couple of new things. Some advice I read at some point said to try to take the "now" out of it and see if that reduces the conflict. In other words instead of "It's time to put your shoes on now," I let her know we will be putting shoes on soon. If she is resistant, I say firmly "We don't have to do it now, but we will have to put shoes on soon." Sure enough, next thing you know she is bringing me her shoes to put them on. It's really been helping. It seems to provide a balance between requiring certain standards of behavior from her while at the same time giving her a shade of autonomy on when those things have to happen. Who knows. These little tricks seem to work for oh too short a time, but they're good while they last.

In other news, Roan has been freaking us out a little with all she's been learning at school. Her vocabulary is beyond my ability to count it (over 300 words). She is even beginning to grasp the concepts of you/me/I. She tries to count to 10. Normally that goes something like this: one, three, five, six, seven, eight, seven, five! with great enthusiasm. Occasionally she throws nine and ten in there. The other day she brought me a triangle puzzle piece and said "triangle!" She constantly identifies circles she sees as we're strolling or driving down the street. And she's been working on her colors. It's funny, sometimes she will get 5 or 6 colors right in a row. Other times, every time you ask "What color is this?" her first reply is "piiiink" and then when you say, "What color is it really?" she says "wewow" [yellow].

Ok, I'm finally fading tonight, but before I go here are three, count 'em three, videos for you. Enjoy!

Riding the big bike


Ride 'em cowboy


Counting

When Gramps Came to Town

Gramps' visit was fun filled and busy at the same time. We squeezed in a ton of quality time together while also getting Jen & Micah's bathroom remodel project off the ground.

Here we are one fun filled afternoon at the park. Well, we had our ups and downs getting there actually - including car trouble for Jen & Micah (nothing that a couple gallons of water couldn't fix.) But it was a gorgeous late summer afternoon, and they had these fun little bike-mobiles we could ride around the park.

Roan was pretty excited about riding the "big bike." And also about seeing geese. She can actually tell the difference between ducks and geese, and she knows which ones quack and which ones honk. I'm not actually sure who taught her that to be perfectly honest!

Here are Uncle Micah and Aunt Jen lookin foxy and cool as always.

Roan knows who Dad is, but can't quite say his name right. She calls him "Bwamps." We even worked with her on the g-sound a bit. The best we could get her to say was "G-g-g-g-Bwamps!" She really put a lot of effort into it; it was so cute. She also says "bwapes" instead of "grapes." "Roan's bwapes" and "my bwapes" and "bwapes pwease" are phrases we hear frequently around here.

Roan at the helm, as she prefers to be.

Here's Roan getting a ride on Gramps at the zoo.

Playing ball with Gramps

While Dad was here we managed to catch up with our friends Molly and Scott and their little darlin Audrey at the Denver zoo for a fun-filled morning. Roan was excited to see the giraffes once again, but rather crestfallen that she was unable to feed them. At least there was a baby giraffe for her to marvel at.

And here is an action shot of the jacuzzi tub going into the bathroom... right before it had to come back out again for a few "adjustments."

Let's just say this has turned out to be the project from H - E - you know what.

Updates galore

Ok, I have put aside some time tonight to get this blog up to date for pete's sake.

Let's see, the last time I had a chance to post a bonafide update was way back when Lolli & Pop were visiting. Here are some pics from the 2nd half of their trip, particularly from our visit to Cheyenne Mountain Museum which has to be one of the most gorgeous museums around:



Cheyenne Mountain isn't as big as the Denver zoo, but they place an emphasis on highly interactive exhibits, for example where visitors can feed the giraffes or pet the baby wallabies. Roan is *still* talking about the crackers she fed those giraffes!

The other thing Cheyenne Mountain has in spades is incredible scenery. It's basically on the side of Pike's Peak, so you wander up the mountain to see the exhibits and marvel at the views.

They even have a gondola ride so you can get a good look around. It was Mom's first time on a ski lift (Stephen's too?) and she was like a little kid, she was so thrilled.



This is after feeding the giraffes.

This is at the koi pond

And here is my little wall flower on the carosel. I tell you what, you'd never guess her mama spent her whole life trying to overcome pathological shyness.

While they were here we managed to squeeze in a few good meals. Here we are out to breakfast with the whole family, including GaGa and Jen. Somehow that morning I managed to wrestle a ponytail holder into her hair. I think I deserve a merit badge for that!

But it pales in comparison with the magic Aunt Jen was able to do for Crazy Hair Day at Roan's daycare. Not only did she get pigtails in, she even managed to dye the tips black with some temporary hair dye mousse. Impressive!

Another photo on Crazy Hair Day. Pay no attention to the grass we're intentionally trying to kill in the background there...

More updates to follow... stay tuned for updates from The Visit from Gramps!

so behind...

It seems I'm always "so behind." So behind on the blog, so behind at work, so behind on the housekeeping... If "so behind" has become a constant state of being for me, then perhaps I should just accept I am simply where I am.

Ah, I feel better already.

In any case there is so much I have been wanting to blog about for weeks: our trip to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to feed the giraffes (which Roan is still talking about in her own shorthand way: "raff... cracker!"), our visit with Gramps (or Bramps in Roanspeak), and all the shenanigans Little Miss has been up to lately, including saying "No!" to everything under the sun.

But for tonight I'm going to keep it short and just share with you one precious video from this afternoon. We had a couple of Roan's (and my) friends over this afternoon for an impromptu playdate. They hung around the water table soaking themselves, they ate themselves silly on our homegrown grapes and a friend's peaches till their faces and shirts were running with goo, and they played in Roan's playhouse. Here are Roan and Scarlett playing house. So sweet.



It's those moments that keep me going through the temper tantrums and the Epic Battles over diaper changing and getting dressed in the morning.

One more quick photo - this is of the cooler full of grapes we harvested off our back vine. They taste like grape hubba bubba bubble gum!