toy store tantrum (BIKE)

This weekend, the Sesame Street Live show was in Austin. We debated extensively about whether or not to go. Tickets were still available at the door but we decided not to go. Instead, we thought it would be a better idea to use the money we would have spent on tickets to buy toys for my yard (not for my yard to play with but for me to play with in my yard).

We could have gone to the show and bought toys, of course, but my mom wants me to learn budgeting skills. She says if I don't learn now, I never will. That may be true; my sister learned well. She is a tightwad with her money and she has an elaborate system set up where she lends herself money. Also, little known fact: if she ever tries to borrow money from my mom, there is a formal and very invasive application process. My sister has only ever borrowed money three times from my mom!

After my nap and lunch, we left for the toy store. I picked out a shovel, a truck because no shopping trip would be complete without a new truck, and I cannot even remember what else. It was dark when I got home so I haven't unpacked my yard toys yet. We looked at several different push cars (bikes, as I called them). The one in the photo is the one I desperately want (loved the pink and purple). My mom let me ride the bikes in the store for an hour. When it was time to go, wow did I get mad. I yelled BIKES as loud as I possibly could and turned bright red and tossed my head back so fiercely that I am quite lucky it didn't come off.

I cried all the way to Whole Foods and told everyone there about the bikes. We had a lovely dinner at Whole Foods and we spent some time on the playground. I drank a 12 ounce smoothie and ate my usual dinner of special beans, other beans, corn, veggies, and a roll (no tamari tofu today boo hoo). My mom had Indian food and I ate most of that too.

The good news is that I am getting a bike. just not today. We are going to order it from Amazon so it will be cheaper, tax-free, and it will get delivered right to our door. I am not getting the one in the photo, though, because it doesn't allow me to push myself but I am getting one that is similar.

And the other good news is that I will go to the Sesame Street Live show next winter when it comes.

tired.

Count Atticus

Today, I proved that I am a mathematics genius. Unprompted, I counted 1-2-3.

self, as I say, when I do something all by myself.

Up until now, I would just fill in the numbers when my mom counted for me - which is great, but not as great as what happened today and I wouldn't always get them perfectly in order. My favorite numbers were two, six, and ten so I often tried to fit those in wherever I could. Now, my favorite number is five.

In other displays of my genius, I have been practicing with word tenses.

find, found.

see, saw.

broke (please PLEASE do not say something is broke), broken, break.

freedom, at last

After my very short nap today, we went to the park in Bee Cave. It is a lovely and very large park built for a community of 656 people - most of whom probably don't even realize it is there.

I have entered a rather impatient stage in my life. If my mom mentions to me in the morning that we are going to the playground, it is all I can talk (and then holler) about until it happens. I did the same thing yesterday with the trains at the bookstore.

Since I had been housebound for what felt like years, I was so happy to get to the playground. I played and then decided I wanted to go on the walking path. Normally, I just walk my mom from the playground around the building with the drinking fountain and back. We must have walked close to two miles today. I ran most of the way. I greeted all passers-by with my best Queen Elizabeth wave and a cheerful hello. The people would say what a cute little girl and I would reply with thanks-sssss.

My favorite park patron today was a big red dog (not Clifford). The dog's family sat the dog down so I could pet it and I said "nice" and I was very gentle. The dog gave me a big kiss on the cheek and I swooned. I thought I should never wash that cheek again!

Toward the end of our walk, I got quite sleepy and laid down on the bridge for a while. My mom should have taken the camera with us so I had a photo of how funny that was.

When we got home, we played in the yard until it was almost dark. I was chasing my dog around and fell down and cut my lip open. It bled, but it wasn't anything that a kiss couldn't fix.

birthday number 20

Happy birthday to me!

I look pretty good for a boy who was up all night. This time it was not my choice/fault. I started out having a good restful night but, around 3:30am, our fire alarms started going off. It started with several intermittent beeps (which is how we knew it wasn't a real fire but it was frightening nonetheless to wake up that way) and then progressed to every alarm in the house blaring. The big problem is that we have alarms that are hardwired and interconnected so disabling them wasn't as easy as you might think. First off, you need to find the one that is acting up. Once we did that, we removed the battery which we later found out only triggers another alarm in the system so the beeping would stop for five minutes then start back up again.

This nightmare carried on until 7:00am when my mom could finally get on the phone with the company that manufactures the alarms. They told her the only immediate way to stop the beeping was to disconnect the wires in the one that malfunctioned. done. She had to do all of this work while carting around 25 pound me who was saying loud loud loud and my dog who is the biggest crybaby who ever lived.

Sometimes during this ordeal, I had to comfort my dog. Mostly I took advantage of him and sat on top of him and poked him and and pet him.

After I napped for four hours, we went to the bookstore to play with the train table for the rest of the day. With my Christmas gift card, I bought a new book and a CD to celebrate my birthday.

It was still a bit cold for the playground today but tomorrow will be a sunny warm day.

Wish us a good night of sleep!

snow day, part II

We had another snow day today - but not the good kind. We woke up to sheets of ice covering the ground, the trees, the side of the house, the roof, and we had long icicles hanging from the Christmas lights my dad should have taken down weeks ago. Even my slide had thick ice on it.

I kept telling my mom "outside." She would tell me it is too cold. I would offer to put my jacket on. shoes jacket shoes jacket shoes jacket shoes jacket but nothing could/would convince her to play outside in the 13 degree cold (8 with the wind chill). I am getting very confused by this weather. We had several days of 81 degrees, then snow. Then it was in the 70s and now this. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I hope for a thick blanket of fluffy snow.

The snow started to fall mid-morning today but it wasn't enough to do any good.

Chunky Monkey

This is how much I love Ben and Jerry's. Chunky Monkey is my favorite flavor. It is a desperate situation when the bowl empties.

snow day

The beautiful warm sunshine of today makes me wonder if yesterday's snow day was just a dream.

We woke up early Friday morning to snow. finally! We had been anxiously waiting all week. We quickly (well, as quickly as we could) got dressed so we could go outside to play and we didn't even care that it was 20 degrees. I put on several layers of clothes and my puppy hat. I refused to wear mittens though and pulled them off repeatedly because my hands are too busy and curious to be covered up. Even my dog came outside with us and he tore around the front yard in circles.

My dad also woke up early and he foolishly did not check news reports (or ask my mom, who knows absolutely everything) before leaving for work. Had he bothered to take the time he would have known that the whole city being shut down also included his office. He spent more than two hours (maybe three) braving icy roads only to find that he could have been home enjoying the day with me. Sad for him, but maybe he will remember that next time we have snow. My mom cancels everything for weeks before and after any chance of snow as a hopeful precaution.

After I played outside for a long time, I decided that I wanted a bowl of oatmeal. After breakfast, we got dressed again, which was quite a production, and then went back outside. We went for a long walk on the street since no cars were out driving. My dad probably made the only set of tire tracks in the neighborhood. We rarely see any of our neighbors since no one ever leaves the house like I do but everyone was outside playing and walking and building snowmen. People go crazy about how cute I am in my puppy hat so I got lots of well-deserved compliments.

And then I napped for three hours. By that time my dad came home to make a yummy lunch and play with me so I went outside again.

I wish every day could be a snow day.

p.s. You will see how cute I am in the photos. You will also see my tractor; I always leave it in the front yard on the path to fill with rocks and it collected snow.

rabbits and puppets

Today is an important day. Not only does Elmo celebrate his birthday, but it also marks the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit.

Last week, I started going to yoga again. When I became too wiggly for infant yoga, there was no class available to me until now when I can finally attend the parent and tot class. Since today is Chinese New Year, we had a celebration in yoga class and pretended to be different animals. My friend from yoga said her favorite animal is a bus. I agree. The only animal better than a bus is a tractor and maybe a helicopter too. I spent much of the class in downward dog since that is the only yoga pose I care much about.

We have been mostly housebound this week because it has been unbearably cold - like below 20 degrees sometimes. brrrrr. It might snow tonight. My mom keeps asking me to peek out the window for snow and I tell her "not yet." This week has been a huge change from the 81 degree day we enjoyed on Sunday; that day I spent several hours on the rooftop playground at Whole Foods. I miss going outside all day every day. I have a lot of energy that I need to use up.

Speaking of Whole Foods, the store was unable to open yesterday because there were/are rolling blackouts in the state and downtown Austin was hit hard. It makes no sense that no one is encouraged to conserve energy throughout the year and then THIS happens. Suddenly on the coldest day in history, they realize ooops we ran out of electricity. I am already trained that we don't need to turn the lights on during the day and always turn them off when you leave a room.