A few photos

It's been far too long since the last time I posted photos. Roan has been cute as a button lately. This photo is after a recent trip to Target where we bought her a new bike helmet for the hand-me-down bike trailer a friend gave us. While there we invested $2 in the ball you see her holding. And you can tell by the look on her face it was money well spent. She thought Christmas had come early!

Here are some photos from the current visit with Lolli & G-Pop (known as Pop or PopPop by Roan). We did a burger cookout in the backyard one lovely evening. Summer is winding down in Denver and I for one am sad to see it go. We no doubt have a long stretch of beautiful, if slightly cooler weather ahead of us, but now that Arwen got a whole house fan installed I'm finally enjoying tank top weather.

While Lolli & Pop were here we took a day trip to Boulder. We went for a nature walk with incredible views, had lunch at the tea house, and spent the afternoon with Andye and McKenna, now 11 months. Here we are dipping our toes in the creek that runs through town.

Here is Jen with Andye and McKenna. It was such a picture perfect day!

Here are Lolli & Pop at a gorgeous overlook on our nature walk.

Roan is apparrently a budding geologist. She is fairly obsessed with rocks. We could hardly persuade her to toddle down the trail there in Boulder. She just wanted to pick up every rock she saw or rub gravel all over her clothes and hair. Here she is taking a rest on one of her beloved rocks with Aunt Jen.

And here's our big girl going on our walk with Pop and Aunt Jen. She likes to say "hands, hands" to let you know she wants you to take her hand. Often this leads to her going completely rubber legged in the hopes that you'll swing her by the wrists.

We had to say goodbye to Pop and Lolli today. It was a really nice visit filled with all kinds of fun stuff. Which is nice because the last couple of times they've come to visit we've been so exhauseted/ overwhelmed/ overworked that we hardly left the house or the neighborhood. This time was so much fun it's going to get a follow up post with the other half of the pictures. In the meanwhile you can enjoy this video of Roan with her ball (and no, I don't make a habit of putting a helmet on her just to play outside!).

So this is wild...

I will post photos soon. August has been a crazy month, and it ain't over yet baby. Right now we have Lolli and G-Pop here for a visit, and that's been really fun.

But I didn't want to let a day go by without capturing something so strange that happened last night. After a long day out and about seeing the sights in Boulder, Aunt Jen and Roan were drawing some pretty pictures with her jumbo crayons. Jen spelled Roan's name out in letters and then said the letters. ONCE. Jen then said "R - O - " and Roan finished "A - N." We all looked at each other thinking Did she just really do that? Then a few minutes later as Roan was distractedly putting crayons into the container and taking them out of the container she did it unprompted all by herself. "R - O - A - N." (She says her Rs "aww"; it's so cute!) That seemed really crazy. Jen also wrote Sasha's name down and she said some of its letters as well. Then an hour or two later as she was sitting in the bathtub, I used one of her tub crayons to write her name on the wall. I didn't spell it out for her, and she didn't take much notice of it at the time. She played happily in the water with her cups and her rubber duckies and drew a little on the tub with the soap crayons. Then at the end of the bath as we were getting ready to get her out, I asked her to help me clean the crayons off the tub. She looked at what I had written earlier and said completely unprompted "R - O - A - N."

Now is that weird or what? She is spelling her name and she is not even 18 months! It actually seemed slightly spooky to me. I haven't been working at all on the alphabet with her. I can only assume this is something she's picked up at school. I do not plan on sharing this latest development with the neighborhood mommies either; they already refer to her somewhat self-consciously as Baby Einstein. One asked me for tips and pointers on how I have gotten her vocabulary so high. It must be all the hours we keep her locked in her room going through flashcards. "You can eat as soon as you say antidisestablishmentarianism, Roan."

No but seriously, people might think I'm hell bent on getting her to read by age two or become the next Doogie Howser, but I'm not. From the day she was born I have told myself that we all have different sets of gifts that make us who we are, and I want to honor them in her. It's important to me to encourage Roan at whatever she's good at, whether it's building train sets or making art or reading. Whether it's an interest I share or not.

And anyway last night could have been some kind of a fluke. I can't help but feel though that Roan is a very bright little cookie though. Not only because of her large vocabulary or the way she is now stringing two words together at a time. But also because she has been so physically advanced from the begining - sitting up, crawling and walking early. She's been going in the potty every morning - just pee; poop is still giving her trouble. And she's a complete social butterfly, saying "Hi!" to every person we pass at the grocery store and going on hugging sprees with her little friends at daycare. It makes me wonder whether we're doing enough to challenge her and keep her interested in learning.

I guess you can drive yourself crazy with that though, and if you're not careful end up being the mom shuttling her between chess club and math tutoring at age 5. Don't want to be that mom. And anyway, just because you get a bright start doesn't mean your life is all roses. There's the friend of a friend who got a free ride to Yale and ended up as a clerk at a bookstore. Or that evil little genius on CSI who conspired with her brother to murder a cheerleader in her high school. Yes I know CSI is only for pretend, but she had a line in that episode that went something to the effect of "When I started spelling words at 18 months, my whole life changed."

Roan is 16 months, by the way.

Home again home again

... jiggity jigg. I got a lot accomplished on my trip to Houston but boy oh boy is it nice to be back home in Denver. Especially since things have cooled off this week. Temperatures have been in the 80's mostly - beautiful and sunny. Tonight we even got a refreshing little rain shower to cool things down a little more.

Way better than the weather though is just being back with my sweeties. I missed them all so much! Predictably, Roan seems bigger. She seems skinnier too - I think she's growing. I don't have long to chat tonight - I want to get upstairs and snuggle a few minutes with Arwen. It's UFC Fight Night - yippie!

But I did want to at least say a quick hello. Today was Roan's last day with Lindsay, the best nanny the world has ever known. Roan doesn't know it yet but she about this time next week she will really be missing Lindsay. She snapped these pictures of Roan today in her high chair. Frozen fruit has been a staple at our house. Between her teething and the heat it's a big hit. Blueberries are her favorite. She calls them "boo boos."

More later... goodnight!

This is why we came here

Today was a big day. It took us 2 years since we moved to Denver to make it happen, but today we summitted our first 14er!!! (A 14er is a mountain with an elevation of 14,000+ feet. There are 53 of them in Colorado.)


Other than a few modest hikes - moderate enough for me while I was pregnant, or short enough for Roan's short attention span - we have done almost no hiking. So it was a big deal to have Aunt Jen and Uncle Micah watch Roan for us while we went on this little adventure.

We woke up at 4:30 this morning and were out of the house by 5. We were on our way up the trail to Mt. Bierstadt by 6:45, reached the summit by 9:15 and were back at the car by 11:30. It was a short, but excitement packed day. I had butterflies in my stomach this morning, wondering to what extent we would feel the effects of altitude. Altitude sickness is a real threat. You can start vomiting suddenly, or even black out from lack of oxygen. We made sure to pace ourselves and stay well-hydrated.


It's funny to feel on the one hand like an extremely experienced hiker with over 2000 miles under our belts and many many mountain summits. And yet on the other hand we are total novices at high altitude hiking. So it was a humbling experience. We were eager to see how we'd do. And I'm glad to report we did just fine. Bierstadt is one of the easiest 14ers in the state, with a well maintained trail. The 3000 feet of elevation gain was spread out fairly evenly throughout the 7.6 mile hike, with just one brief vertical boulder scramble at the end. And I've got to say, it was great just to have a few hours alone with Arwen doing something we love to do.

Now we feel like we are officially Coloradans!

You can see all the photos from the hike here: http://www.flickr.com/gp/11647815@N04/4Q6sU7

In Roan news, Little Miss is still just the cutest thing. She was a little off this evening though. After a fun-filled relatively trouble-free day she suddenly started talking about wanting to go to bed at 6:45 (normal bedtime is 8). When I sat down with her to cuddle up with her blankie, baby and a book, our normal nighttime routine, I noticed she felt hot to my touch. Sure enough she had 100.5 * fever, which by our pediatrician's standards barely crosses the threshhold of fever. We'll have to see how the next day or two unfolds but at the moment we're not sure if she's coming down with something or perhaps just teething. I thought I saw a couple more molars coming in (she already has 4 molars... how many molars do you have? maybe these are called something else but they're BIG).

In any case I hope hope hope that this is not the start of some new terrible illness. I'm slated to leave town tomorrow night for a weeklong business trip to Houston. She and Arwen will stay here in Denver. It is my first time to be away from her for more than one night. I'm not exactly thrilled about it. But I figured she would do better here in her normal routine with all the people around her who normally dote on her (except me), than if I carted her down to Houston and completely changed up the routine on her. We are just getting to the point now where she seems to be happy at daycare. This week we've had virtually no crying! Hopefully my being gone won't throw her off too much.

Here's a quick video that is sure to make you laugh.

A little stolen time this morning

I was supposed to be getting on a conference call in 16 minutes (at 7 AM my time) but it's been pushed back an hour. Having to be at work by 7 AM is no problem for many of you out there, but for me it's waaaay too early. And were you fortunate enough to have a job situation where being at work means strolling down to the basement you would no doubt mock me for being a big slacking grumbler.

Of course gone are the good old days where I could just work from home in my bathrobe. (How I would have made it through pregnancy without that perk I don't know.) Now I actually have to get up early enough to make myself presentable enough to join the human race. This involves the usual things - shower, hair, makeup, and clothes - that are often eschewed by work-from-homers like myself. But with the two new guys we've hired in Denver, the basement is a hopping place lately. Plus we run a friggin daycare upstairs so the house has to be clean enough from yesterday's baby clutter, smeared food and dog hair for those same babies to crawl, run and walk all over the place and make those same messes all over again. Oh yeah and there's also the typical morning routine getting Roan ready to start the day - waking up, diapers, milk, food, dressing, etc. So mornings are a busy time for us, as they are no doubt in virtually every house on this planet.

In any case, since my meeting got pushed back I thought I'd make use of the time with a quick blog update. I also cleaned out the photos on my iPhone. They don't often make it up to the blog and there were some cute ones in there.

Here is Roan eating breakfast with "baby." She is really attached to this cabbage patch doll. "Baby" does everything Roan does - eats meals, goes in the bathtub, swims at the pool, gets wrapped up in blankets and cuddled, and sits on the potty. She can even pee if you squirt water in her mouth with the bottle she came with. Baby also comes in handy when Roan is having a temper tantrum over something silly or falls and gets an "owie." I can pick up Baby and console her when Roan won't let me give her a hug. That usually softens Roan up enough to let me give her some comfort too.

It's been so hot here lately that on Monday (my day off with Roan) we opted for an indoor air conditioned playground at the mall. It's pretty cute, a bunch of oversized breakfast foods made out of foam for kids to climb on. Here's Roan climbing up some banana slices into a bowl of shredded wheat with blueberries.

Here she is playing on the bacon and eggs. Notice the sausage links behind her.
And here she is climbing up and sliding down the bacon. Good times.

When I was going through the photos on my iPhone I realized that there were a couple of golden ones in there. It's been months since this happened, but it's still as funny as ever in my opinion.

TRUE STORY: Over at Jen and Micah's house they were in the process of swapping out the doorknob on the closet door. They had put on the new doorknob and realized it wouldn't work, so they took it off and left the door sans knob. The next day Jen was in the closet getting ready for work and somehow the door closed behind her. Wouldn't you know, she could not get the dang door open again. She tried everything she could with the tools at hand - a belt buckle, I think was the instrument of choice - but it wouldn't budge. Naturally she didn't have her cell phone on her, so there was no way to call for help.

She was sitting there trying to wrack her brain for a solution. Am I really going to have to miss a full day of work and sit here ALL DAY until Micah gets home?!? she wondered. Not content to sit around helplessly, she decided to take control of the situation. Here is a closeup of the result:



She kicked her way out of the closet! Quite impressive really. The hole was just barely big enough to squeeze through. All I can say is, don't back this girl into a corner; she'll come out swinging! Here is a wider angle so you can see it in the context of the room.

The best part was that she undressed before climbing through so she wouldn't get her work clothes smudged with drywall dust, only to find that she STILL couldn't get the door to open, even from the outside. So she had to climb back in for her clothes! And then of course later she had the fun of patching, sanding and painting that hole. It's amazing though. Homegirl can do some drywall, I tell you what. You'd never know that hole was there!

New milestones

Josefa was just here for a quick visit on her way back from a wedding in Brooklyn, NY. (Arwen's cousin Miriam got married in an orthodox Jewish ceremony. How exotic!) It was a brief stay, but while she was here she got in some QT with Roan. She was taken aback at how much Roan has changed since April when she was here last. She remarked that for the first time Roan seems like a toddler, not a baby any more. Of course she will always be my baby (I can already hear her groaning in disgust at this remark. Oh Mother! Geez, I am so suuuuure).

Hey I don't think I mentioned - or maybe I did - I am far too scatterbrained to remember much of anything these days and far too short on time to actually re-read my own writing - that we have started a little potty training. I swear I am not in a hurry for this kid to grow up, but she seems to have other plans. Out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago when she was in the bathroom with me she started pulling toilet paper off the roll, saying "Pay-puh", throwing it into the toilet and saying "Bye bye!". We're still scratching our heads on who taught her this. She also started talking about "poop" and "pee pee" with great interest, so I thought I better go ahead and look into potty training.

I had been under the impression that parents should NEVER start potty training earlier than 18 months lest the child develop all kinds of mysterious Freudian psychological problems (Roan was not even 15 months when all this started). I did some reading and checking in with friends as well as the Highland Mommies and found out that different families do all sorts of things, especially in different cultures. "Elimination communication" is all the rage now, which is basically toilet training for infants (crazy nuts in my humble opinion), and I also learned that lots of people right here in my 'hood introduced a potty when their kiddos were less than a year old, even if it sat ignored in a corner. I figured it was time to spring into action.

The first potty we tried was a miserable failure. She liked it in the store but not when we got home. So I tried another one. It is crazy with a capital K some of the potties they have available now, including ones with music, flushing noises and stickers that shoot out of them. Since our Roanie is somewhat sheltered when it comes to electronic toys and television I thought one of these fancy thrones might be overwhelming to her. I didn't want her to get sidetracked with stickers and forget to do her business. So we opted for something middle of the road. This is a three in one I think they call it - it's a little kiddo potty that looks pretty basic, with the cup you remove after they do their business. And for when she graduates to the next level, the thing comes apart and you can put the seat onto the grownup potty and the base flips over and becomes a step stool.

I'm glad we got started early because I think this is going to take a while. But it doesn't matter - there's no pressure - she has plenty of time. She likes to sit on the potty and read books. (We got some topical books with titles such as "Everyone Poops" and "Once Upon a Potty".) She talks about the potty and is somewhat aware of her business, but she seems to prefer to squat and make a mess on the floor rather than get it into the bowl. There have been quite a few messes to clean up. But the up side of that is with each one she becomes more aware of what's going on and seems more committed to getting things done on the potty.

Ok - brief sanity check: Have I actually been rambling on about my child's baby business for the past 15 minutes? Lord have mercy.

Long story short, she has had two successful episodes on the potty so far, one of each kind. Go Roan!

In other developments, she started going two full days a week to daycare. Last week was pretty rough because it was her first time going 2 days a week and it came right on the heels of our 10-day vacation, where she got to spend every day with us both. Last Friday the caregivers confided in me that it was her worst day so far. She apparrently cried off and on all day long. We were concerned.

This week we tried something new. A friend who used to work in daycare suggested to come up with a morning routine and always do the same things when we drop her off. So today I made sure she had her favorite blankie (not the runner up) as well as her cabbage patch kid (whom she refers to as "baby" and cares for tenderly throughout the day as well as steps on and drowns in the bathtub). I also put together a little picture book with photos of me holding her, Arwen holding her, Aunt Jen holding her, and her beloved Uncle GaGa holding her. Today when I dropped her off I spent a few minutes sitting in a corner with her on my lap, holding blankie and baby and thumbing through the book. When I got up to say goodbye she cried as hard as ever, but when I came to pick her up they told me she hadn't cried ONCE all day. I can't tell you how that buoyed our spirits! Even if we have some backsliding to come, it seems like we're on the right track. At least we hope so.

The other recent development is that we started a music class together (called Music Together appropriately enough). Last week at her first class she seemed somewhat detached, but this week she was into it big time. She was dancing (her baby moves involve an awkward combination of bending her knees while simultaneously sticking her neck out), clapping, and doing some hand motions. A few times she even shouted "Yay!" at the end of a song. It was freakin adorable.

One last development. It appears with a fair amount of certainty that Roan received the bookworm gene from me. "Reading" is a component of every day, often self-directed. I'll find her flipping through books on her own in the other room, or she'll bring us a book (or a stack of them) to read her. She is just now graduating to "real" paper books, not just the chewable board books. Her favorite for a while was One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. But now she is taken with Hop on Pop (she says "hop pop! hop pop!") as well as the Peace Book (a beautifully illustrated volume Papa picked up for her). Today The Cat in the Hat Comes Back arrived, but we haven't had a chance to read it. You might not realize it, but these little Dr. Seuss volumes are quite lengthy - 60+ pages apiece! And she actually sits enthralled through them. Who says kids don't have decent attention spans.

Other than that Little Miss is showing more personality and more willfullness every day. She is very good at asking (read: demanding) what she wants. I feel like a broken record because I must say 50 times a day "Oh that's not how we get what we want is it? What do we say?" What amazes me is that with that phrase she goes from whining/demanding to saying please and smiling in one second flat. She is also finding out more and more that we can't always get what we want, and that crying does not always get her way. One can't help but wonder all the time if you're striking the right balance between being responsive and raising a selfish brat.

I guess I'm quite the Chatty Kathy this evening. I keep thinking of "just one more thing" to add to tonight's entry. But I couldn't sign off without telling you how cute Roan was at the pool the other day. There was a little boy about 2 years old who was just the sweetest thing. He brought a ball and she had a ball, and he was sharing/trading with her so nicely. No fighting, even when she was rather brusque with him. At one point he came over and gave her a hug, ever so gently, without knocking her over in the kiddie pool. She was apparrently rather touched by this, and a few minutes later waddled over and planted a kiss right on his cheek. Wish I'd had my camera!

Ok that's it for me tonight. Later!

Vacation, all I ever dreamed of

Oh there is so darn much to get caught up on. We just got back from a 10 day vacation in Michigan, and before we even left I was behind on the blog!

I think one reason I've been having a hard time keeping up with the blog lately (besides exhaustion, lack of time and lack of sleep) is that sometimes it feels like my blog is a big fat sunshiney happy lie. Not to say that things aren't happy and sunshiney around here. But they aren't that way all the time. And this just does not seem like the forum in which to air those things. I like to keep things positive around here because I don't think it's fair to you, Dear Reader, to turn this into a big negativity black hole. Lately reading some other blogs (mostly knitting blogs with pictures of perfect happy babies and expertly executed knitting projects) I realized I was developing an inferiority complex. Hey why doesn't my life look that fantastic? Doesn't anything ever go wrong for her? Anyway, I wanted to take a pause and assure you (not that you would be developing the same quirky neuroses as me) that life really isn't as great as it appears in my blog. I'm just skipping over the crappy parts.

Whew, now that that's off my chest... onto the fun stuff!

We had a great time on our trip to Michigan. We took the whole family including Sasha and towed our Little Guy 1300 miles each way. It was a loooong drive. Luckily the CRV managed to get pretty decent gas milage (20-22 mpg). We gave ourselves two nights and two days to get there, so that we could stop every few hours during the day and let Roan run around. We managed to stop off at Windmill State Park in Nebraska as well as Elk Horn, Iowa, where they have a working 100-year-old Danish windmill. We also made a few stops at playgrounds, a water park and at one point a big field in front of the 4H club where we almost crashed a wedding. We even stayed in Chicago one night with our friends Brea and Tim, who were kind enough to put us up at 1 in the morning and show us around their neighborhood the next day.

Roan did great in the car. We brought along lots of books and videos. She had almost zero interest in the videos, but that was ok. We sang songs, read books, worked on naming every object in sight (her favorite pastime recently), and stuffed her face full of all kinds of healthy munchies.

And eventually we got there. Hallelujah! We had heard that Traverse City was a nice place, but it far exceeded our expectations. And it was so great to get to spend some time with Jim and Beryl. They have a very comfortable home on an acre or two in a very serene neighborhood. They have a lot of green space and trails just feet from their house, so it feels somewhat remote and yet they are only 4 or 5 miles from The Lake! We couldn't believe it but the shores of Lake Michigan resemble some of the nicest beaches we've been to with clear blue water and sandy beaches. It was gorgeous.

We had such a nice and relaxing time. We had a day hiking, a day at the beach, a day riding bikes around town, a day wine tasting (there are a boatload of vineyards up there), and plenty of time to just hang out and unwind. We played records with Papa and ate Poochie's famous blueberry pancakes. It was so nice to be able to spend a lot of quality time with Roan and without having so much of our time taken up with all the petty little things that get in the way - cooking, dishes, paying bills, oh yeah and work! She enjoyed not only having our undivided attention, but Papa and Poochie's as well. And she loved playing with their sweet doggies, Tess and Olive, or Tessie and Anya as she calls them. She is *still* talking about Papa, Poochie, Tessie and Anya all these days later.

While we were there Roan had her first sprawled on the floor full on screaming and yelling temper tantrum. It was so funny I had to get it on video.

So now we're back home in Denver, and summer is heating up. It was 99* today, and considering the fact that we don't have air conditioning you'd think it would be unbearable. But it's not really. Don't get me wrong, it's warm, especially during the day, but with the swamp coolers and fans we have going it's tolerable. Then at night it cools way down outside. Tonight it's going to get down to 50* and tomorrow the high will only be 80*. Great summer weather.

Tonight Jen and Micah invited us and a bunch of our friends over for a baby happy hour / backyard bbq at their house. It was such a beautiful night, no one wanted to leave. There were margaritas, burgers and dogs aplenty, and all the little gals were toddling around playing at the water table and in the kiddie pool. Great fun was had by all.

I'll leave you with a couple of fun videos from our trip last week. One is of Roan attempting to take Olive for a walk. You can see she's going to be stubborn like her daddy :). The other is from one afternoon in the kiddie pool.

at the pool

Here are a couple of videos from the pool the other day. I am so proud of our little swimmer!

First day at her new school

This has been a big week. Today is Roan's first day at her new daycare. Deep down I'm excited for her. It's a wonderful place, with exposure to art, music, an educational curriculum, and 9 other kiddos her age. I know it's going to be really good for her.

I just didn't expect today to be so hard on me! I guess I haven't had to experience the trauma of leaving her with new, different care providers for a long long time... about a year in fact. It's not so much that I worry they won't care for her well. They are amazing. It's a nagging pain in my heart that the next few days there might be a difficult transition for her. I just hate to think of her being scared or confused. And I hate being without her all day. It's so nice when she's upstairs with our nanny and I can hear her tromping around or giggling or even crying on a rough day. Even though I'm not in the room with her, I feel like I know how her day is going.

Gosh, I don't know why I'm being such a big baby. At this very moment I'm logged into the daycare's web site where they have streaming video. I can watch what Roan is doing, whether inside or outside the center, at any time. About half an hour ago she was having a rough spell. It was snack time, and instead of sitting at the table with all the other kiddos she was wandering around with her paci and blankie crying. *heart breaking* But I just peeked back in, and she's sitting on one of the caregiver's laps holding a pair of maracas, shaking them enthusiastically while the other kids in the circle around her are singing. *awww*

I strongly believe that one of the best gifts we can give our kids is the gift of independence. The privilege of experiencing the world around them on their own, the ability to make their own decisions, their own mistakes, and to experience and learn from the consequences. I see today, however, with crystal clarity that I may find it hard at times to walk that walk. An ounce of pain for her I experience tenfold. But I guess no one said it would be easy!

So much to catch up on

I haven't written lately because we've been too busy having lots of summer fun. (And working in the backyard... it's still mostly dirt back there though!)

Last weekend was her friend Scarlett's first birthday. Here they are together. Notice how Roan is intently eyeing Scarlett's cheese stick, shrewdly waiting for her opportunity to strike.

Roan is saying all sorts of new words. Every time I turn around she's got a new one. Last night it was "ca-coo" for cucumber. And tonight, giraffe (or "raff" as she calls it). I've noticed that unlike most of her peers who seem to start saying new words by pronouncing the first syllable or first few letters, Roan most often starts at the back end of the word. Yogurt is still "gurt". Milk was "ilk" for the longest time until she recently added the "m". It makes it tricky for words that share the last few letters like stuck, duck, and quack, or cup and up. But it's so darn cute.

In addition to linguistic development, she is also progressing socially. When I picked her up at Mommy's Day Out on Monday I learned she has a friend who is a boy whom she appears rather taken with. I am not, however, calling him a boyfriend. I mean come on, they're ONE. Her teacher said she was saying "Brice Brice Brice" all day long. And when you ask her about this dubious Brice character she gets a big smile on her face and acts all shy. Watch out Daddy, she's getting an early start!

This week Roan had her last nanny share playdate with her best buddy Audrey. Next week they're starting up at a new daycare but on different days, so they might not see each other for a while. It makes me a little sad because she adores Audrey. After they've had a play day together all I hear is "Aw-dee, Aw-dee" all night long. They played outside with the water table today and Lindsay got some great photos; I'll post them soon.

On a personal note, we are starting a running program. A group of people in the 'hood (not necessarily mommies) call themselves the West Side Runners. West Siiiiiide. Oh yeah. Anyway they meet up once a week for a 3 mile run (I once ran 3 miles at one time. ONCE.) at a local restaurant, followed by cocktails and half priced appetizers. They call it reverse carbo loading. Anyway, it must have sounded like fun for me to break my "I don't run" mantra. I often say I'd rather walk 2000 miles than run 26. But with the limited time I have, there's no denying that running is the shortest path to getting and staying in shape. So of course we had to get a jogging stroller. I hate the fact that I now have TWO strollers. Ugh. But what can ya do? At least I was able to pick it up used on Craigslist for chump change - those things can be pricey!

What else... .oh yeah! Roan is fast becoming quite the swimmer. The outdoor pool at the park down the street from us opened for the summer and we've been making the most of it. Roan has a little swimsuit that has an innertube around the middle. At first she seemed to think it was a new torture device, but after just 3 or 4 trips to the pool she is a real pro! She *loves* the pool. We canNOT say the "p" word unless we are just steps away from the pool or else there's hell to pay! Yesterday they were closed unexpectedly, and I didn't know that till we got there and let me tell ya it wasn't pretty!

Considering she's only been swimming a handful of times in her life I could not believe what all she was doing tonight. She would actually kick her feet and try to paddle around in the water by herself, climb up the stairs and jump in, pull herself along the pool's edge with her hands, and beg to be put up on the side of the pool so she could jump in. It was amazing! And the whole time she just had the biggest grin on her face; she was so proud of herself.

Tomorrow Arwen, Jen & I are going to a class on composting. We're hoping to get some more work done in the yard this weekend. This past week we built two new huge planters for vegetables out of broken up recycled concrete. They came out quite lovely in my opinion. Next it's plants, then more irrigation, and then mulch!! I can't wait till the last of the dirt is gone. Which reminds me... that's the other thing we've gotta do: get rid of the 6-7 yards of dirt piled up in the back. Oy vey.

Oh and of course Sunday is Father's Day. Let me wish a preemptive Happy Dad's Day to all the dads out there. Roan has a card and a couple little gifty things for Arwen, and I have a couple of suprises up my sleeve for him.

Well that's about it for now. Big hugs to all our loved ones out there...

Last weekend

Our first camping trip with Roan and the Little Guy last weekend was good overall, although it was not without a few hiccups. We had some trouble finding a campsite (we didn't have a reservation) and got into camp much later than we expected after traveling long distances down some rough roads.

Just as we were congratulating ourselves on not having to set up a tent, we discovered that our 2 1/2 gallon water jug opened up inside the Little Guy and got all of our bedding wet. We found ourselves towling up water at 9:00 at night in the dark with Roan still not in bed.

But finally Roan went down like a champ and gave us a chance to enjoy some time by the campfire. She loves the Little Guy. I was skeptical that we would be able to sleep all together as a family in there, because co-sleeping has never worked out with her. But she slept soundly through the night, even with Sasha curled up with us. I wish I could say the same for us, but I'll take a night of solid sleep for Roan over us any day.

The next day she was in heaven out there in the woods. She wandered all over our campsite, picking up rocks, sticks and pinecones, placing them in her bucket and carrying her "treasures" to and fro. She toddled over to the campsite next door and introduced herself to the four other kids staying there. She discovered the fun of swinging in the hammock.

She also had fun at the lake with the dogs. And later on Aunt Jen (now sometimes referred to as "fee-fuh") and Uncle Micah took her on a walk to see a waterfall (she fell asleep in the backpack before they got there). She also got her first taste of roasted marshmallow, not to mention a campfire breakfast and hamburgers and hotdogs. I have never seen her so dirty, or so happy. I don't think she cried once all day except when I had the gall to try and make her take a nap.

You can see the rest of the camping photos here.

As if that wasn't enough fun for one weekend, on Sunday we went to a neighborhood picnic organized by the "Highlands Mommies," the mom's group I belong to. They had hamburgers, hot dogs and veggie burgers for everyone; neighbors brought every kind of side dish you can think of; there was a dessert contest, a raffle with excellent prizes (we didn't win any) and wine and beer. Not to mention a lot of our friends from the neighborhood. Roan had a great time playing on the playground with the other kids, hanging out with her little buddies and poaching food off of our plates. After all that excitement, she slept in the next two days and took extra long naps.

Here she is all cuddled up with her Daddy on Monday morning. Normally she's all chipper first thing in the morning, ready to get after it. Not that day.

I told her that's ok; lots of people feel the same way about Mondays.

I can't wait...

to post the pics and videos from this past weekend's camping trip. Suffice to say, Roan was a very happy camper! The apple doesn't fall from the tree where love of nature is concerned. Hopefully I'll get the pics up tonight.

Dig It

Aahh... summer is finally here! And we are enjoying it, I tell you what. Yesterday Roan and I met up with some of our neighborhood friends at the zoo, and it was such a great time. This was her third trip to to the zoo, but the first time she really seemed "into" the animals. She laughed out loud, squealed, pointed and said "oooh" at the polar bears, giant turtles, giraffes, komodo dragons, fish and geese. She chased a peacock halfway around the park and darn near caught it too. She ran all over the place, played with her friends and got her first taste of ice cream.

She would take a little nibble, think on it a moment and then grunt enthusiastically as if to say, "hey, bring the good stuff back over here!" It was one of those perfect sunny but not hot Denver days, and all us moms had such fun with the kids and also just hanging out jabbering with each other. All in all, it was a great day.

Last weekend we broke ground on a massive backyard landscaping project. We must've gotten confused and thought it was "Labor Day" instead of "Memorial Day," because we labored like crazy. We had a little help from a hired hand, and thank goodness. We never could have gotten as far as we did on our own. We took out all the trash trees on the south side of the lot (where Arwen is), removed the sod, rototilled, levelled the dirt, and put in new grass and border.

We moved *so* *much* *dirt*. It was astonishing. Behind those limbs to the left there, the whole back of our lot is filled with the excess dirt. It's amazing what backbreaking work it is just to get a blank slate!

Roan got into the action, of course. She loves to "help." This usually involved standing in the way of the rototiller/ shoveling dudes/ wheelbarrow and scooping one tiny toy shovelful of dirt onto the pile. It was adorable, I gotta give her that. And naturally she has added a new word to her growing vocabulary: "dirt"!

Here she is trying on Daddy's gloves. Dad had to shovel one-gloved till he could sweet talk her into giving it back to him.

And here is the fruit of our labor: one little patch of new green grass. All the area around it that is currently dirt will be landscaped with bird and butterfly attracting plants, trees and mulch. Oh and we plan to put in a privacy fence to screen our neighbors' disasterous yards from view. We still have a ton of work ahead of us!

But that will have to wait at least until next weekend. This weekend we're going camping in our Little Guy trailer. I'm so excited! We seriously have not been camping since 2005!!! That is just plain wrong! I'm excited to see what Roan will think of it. I pray she sleeps, and lets us sleep. We are bringing a tent as a backup, in case we can't sleep all together as one big happy family. Wish us luck...

Oh, before I go here's a quick clip from last weekend.

A long winded recap

We had a great time in Dallas visiting Uncle Johnny, Aunt Angela, Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Ronnie as well as all the other folks there to celebrate John's graduation from SMU. Roan did her best to behave through the ceremony, but she and I spent most of the time at the back of the room with her running around making new friends with the other spectators. She helped cheer Uncle John's triumphant walk across that stage. We got to see John's fantastic new house, and even take Roan for a swim in the pool. Mommy Too threw John an incredible party to celebrate, and (unfortunately for my head the next morning) there was a non-stop margarita machine. It was a great time.

If only the trip home could have been as nice as our stay out there. Roan put us through our paces. I have never heard her cry and scream so inexplicably and for such long stretches. Naturally, the 3 hour flight was packed and she didn't sleep a wink. We were all exhausted by the time we got home, but the up side was that that experience was over!

If Roan could speak more eloquently, she might have pointed out that she is cutting molars on both sides of her mouth, and at the time of the flight was suffering a terrible diaper rash. Maybe that had something to do with it.

She is also continuing to exhibit more toddler-like, authority-challenging behavior. We've been on a reading binge lately trying to get our strategies caught up to her behavior. The last book I read, "Redirecting Children's Behavior" worked great for a while, and I think we may be able to return to it at some point in the future. But for the moment we've turned to "Love and Logic" which is all about giving kids choices and consequences, delivering discipline without breaking a sweat.

That last part is key, they say. As soon as you get mad, your kid realizes the inherent fun in pushing your buttons and then you're lost. As Arwen's mom once wisely said, "The key to kids is, you gotta trick 'em!" Now we finally know what she meant. Once Roan becomes more verbal, the options abound. Until then it's pretty basic. Try and have as much fun with her while she's not misbehaving, and when she is put her in her crib until she calms down and becomes sweet again. There's no screaming and yelling, just the simple idea that it's more fun to behave well and have good times with Mom and Dad.

I like this philosphy because I find myself prioritizing having fun with Roan, and when she misbehaves I don't view it as an exasperating affront to my authority. I just whisk her off to her crib for a little "bedroom time" to readjust herself. I also feel good about having a framework within which to deliver fair and compassionate discipline, and provider her with the limits we all need to get along in the world.

In the couple of weeks since we've been home, we've been busy. We picked up a new toy. It's a small trailer, not much more than a queen sized bed on wheels, called a Little Guy. This is not our actual unit, but here's a sample of what they look like. We haven't taken it out yet, but we hope to soon!

In our next episode, photos of the enormous landscaping project we've taken on in the backyard...

A video clip from tonight

Roan and her Daddy playing "monsters" before bedtime.

A quick word...

to say a lengthier post is coming soon. It's been a fun & busy couple of weeks. We traveled to Dallas to see my brother John the college graduate! We're all so proud of you John!! But I am such a loser I didn't break out my camera even ONCE. Doh! I will have to steal some pictures from Karen & Jen.

We also have been working our tails off in the backyard. This I do have pictures of, just got to get them uploaded. Stay tuned, updates coming soon!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope yours was a happy one; mine was. I got lots of sweet cards in the mail. Jen and Micah watched Roan on Saturday night so Arwen and I could go out to a nice meal and have some drinks with friends. We had such a good time that when we got to Jen's to pick her up we decided to make a night of it and have a sleepover in their basement.

On Sunday Jen and Micah looked after Roan again for a couple of hours so we could go pick out a new TV for the basement! It's kind of embarrasing how excited I am about it. But we haven't been able to watch a movie on anything other than a laptop since Jen & Micah moved out. Then we went to the zoo in the afternoon, and Roan got to ride the carosel and the train for her first time. I would say she is reserving judgement on the zoo as a whole, but she was a big fan of the monkeys and of the geese, who she chased all over the place. Then Sunday night Jen and Micah came back over (you'd think they'd be sick of us by now) and cooked us a fantastic dinner and helped us hook up the TV. All in all it was a great weekend.

Which was nice, because we had a couple of rough nights last week. On Wednesday night I put Roan to bed as normal, and two hours later BLAMMO she wakes up crying with what turned out to be croup. Her breathing was so wheezy and strained we called the urgent care nurse for help. We opted not to rush her into the emergency room right away (not big fans of the ER since her first appearance there), and instead kept an eye on her for a few hours by putting her in the pack n play in our room. At 2 am she was wheezing so badly we almost packed her into the car, but we tried one last thing - cranking up the humidifier - and that did the trick. The wheezing went away and she slept 5 hours interrupted.

The next day we got her in to see the doctor who identified her barking cough as a textbook case of croup and explained what that is - a cold-like virus that attacks the throat instead of the sinuses - and what they do to treat it - not much, mostly let it run its course. After those first couple of bad nights she's much better, now with just sniffles and an occasional cough. Bless her heart, I felt bad for her this last week. First she got the sniffles, then she got croup, and on top of it is teething molars. Ouch! Yet despite it all she really tried to keep her chin up. She's been a little more testy lately (I hear the word "no" a lot!) but that's understandable.

Oh one other Roan development: she "named" some one for the first time besides Mama and Dada - Uncle Micah. She calls him "ga ga". It is so cute; whenever she stays over at their house she always has to have "Ga ga" put her down to sleep. She has also added a lot of other words to her vocabulary in the last month. These are all things she says regularly:

• please (peas) - she also signs this one
• more (mo) - she signs this one too
• Sasha
• house
• outside
• open
• eye
• bird
• bottle (ba ba)
• bunny (ba ba)
• broccoli (ba ba)
• ball (ba)
• brush (bsh)
• no! (her favorite word, which she says with much enthusiasm)
• juice
• cup (bup)
• yogurt (guk)
• milk (lk)
• jacket
• cracker (see below)
• uh oh
• help (elp)
• banana (na na)

New words just starting to make an appearance:

• apple
• diaper
• thank you
• teeth
• yes (I would *love* to hear more of this one)

Regarding her pronunciation of "cracker." Yes. Well a few months back her good friend Audrey started saying "cracker." Arwen and I secretly thought it was hysterical that 1) Audrey pronounced it "caca" and 2) it was such a favorite word for her that she said it all the time in public to the point that perfect strangers would be compelled to ask her parents "Is she saying caca?"

Well I guess the karma wheel came around on us. Roan has her own twist on the pronunciation. She has shortened Audrey's version to just the first syllable, so it has an unfortunate and very striking resemblance to a profane name for the male member. And of course she loves crackers and asks for them all the time. Between that and her pronunciation of the word "ice" which sounds *exactly* like "ass" this girl is working on a sailor mouth like her good ol Aunt Jen. :)