one man's junk....

...is another man's treasure, or so they say. This was proven today. We had our first ever garage sale. A month or so ago we got a notice saying that someone in our neighborhood was organizing a neighborhood sale, and after first deciding against it, we eventually changed our minds and decided to give it a go and clear out whatever we could. We ended up finding way more than we thought we had....and lots of things we figured nobody would buy. My friend Allecia brought some things over, too, like a book called "Our State's Spiders" or something like that (it had the actual name of our state in the title, but I didn't want to write that, so you can figure out the title if you know where I live!). She said, "Who would ever have this book in their house????" My husband said, "Well, it's your book!" and we couldn't believe it, but someone actually bought it! Would you pay a quarter for a book about spiders found in our state??? Crazy.

It was funny to see what things went quickly and what hung around all day--many things we thought would go easily didn't go at all, or went only after we kept lowering the price throughout the day, and other strange things were snatched up in a second. In the end, we got rid of almost everything and made a whole lot more than we ever thought we would've. We boxed up the left overs and took them to a donation center, just to get rid of them. Our house is that much more uncluttered (though trust me, there still is plenty of clutter! I'm sure we'll have another one in a few years).

Our little one LOVED it. She got to play outside ALL day (it was a gorgeous day to be outside, too--low humidity, sunny...perfect!) and see lots and lots of people, dogs, and babies. We were constantly chasing her but she was very good and happy most of the day. It was a good, but tiring day. We met neighbors we hadn't met before and making money on your "junk" is always a happy thing!

week in review

Not too much going on around here lately, so I haven't had much to write. Here are some pictures from the last week, though.

My college friends, Ginny and Paula came over last week to visit. Paula just got her PhD (finally--she says she's been a professional student since we graduated from college in 1996. Way to go, Paula!) and is moving away to Canada in a few weeks, so we wanted to get together before she left. They hadn't seen our little one since last summer (she's changed a lot since last summer), so we all had fun playing with her and catching up.

Sunday was our church picnic. We had never gone before because we were always busy on that day, but this year it worked out so we went. We had a good time watching our sweet girl play on the playground---she loves playing with the big kids, but Mom and Dad aren't too sure about that. They plow her over and we have to be so vigilant to make sure she's safe way up there.

Yesterday we went with a friend and her son to a new park. They have fountains for the kids to run through, which she had never done before. She wasn't too sure at first, though she loved watching everyone else do it. Eventually she became more brave and would go in and get a little wet, and then run out. As the afternoon went on she would stay in the water a little longer. She also enjoyed the playground across from the water area, which had this toy train to "drive." Real trains kept going by on the train tracks next to the park, which both fascinated and terrified her. She watched and watched them, while safely clinging to Mommy!

before and after

The haircut was an adventure on Friday. She got to choose which seat to sit in....she chose the horse. She got to eat a sucker (she'd never had one, so imagine her face when she stuck a little hard thing in her mouth and it was SWEET!) and watch Baby Einstein. Could it get any better? Not much...only if animals or word books were involved!

Anyway, here she is before....

during.....

and here she is after. There isn't much difference, but the back and bangs are neater.

And here she is today, just because.

playtime

I haven't gotten a chance to post these pictures. Last week we went to the local science museum, which has a great play area for little kids. She LOVED it! There were all kinds of things to play with and climb on. She especially loved the water area (she probably would've happily stayed in there all day!) and the kitchen set. We'll definitely be going back on a regular basis.

I put her hair in pigtails that day. Daddy has decided that he loves her hair in pigtails. I've tried many times since to put them in again, just for him, but she screams and does everything in her power to get away, so it hasn't happened since. Tomorrow she's getting a haircut--her first one, other than Mommy trimming bangs now and then. We'll see if she can sit still long enough! Our friend, Molly, is cutting it, and she works at a children's salon, so she says she's used to this kind of thing. Maybe she'll have some tips for me on putting in pigtails, too!

obsessions

Last time I wrote about her favorites. Well, I'm coming to realize that they're less like favorites and more like obsessions. Are other little ones as obsessed as my daughter? Here are her most recent:

• Word Books....You know, the kind with a picture and a word underneath. It's great for her age because she doesn't sit still long enough for a story, but she can look at a few pictures and we talk about it and she's had a mini vocabulary lesson each time. These are her absolute favorite types of books. We look at them time after time after time each day. She's not very much into toys at the moment. All she wants to do is bring Mommy books to look at. I'm loving that she's so into them--the teacher in me, I guess--but gosh, do I get tired of the same books! I went to the library to get some new ones for her last week just because I had had it with the ones she was bringing me every other minute.
• Animals....yes, animals (I think it's a cruel joke, since both her daddy and I are pretty anti-animal people!) Well, in all of these word books there are a couple of pages with animals. Those are the pages she especially likes to look at. She turns and turns the pages until she gets to the animal ones and then sits and looks and looks at them forever. She goes especially crazy over the kitty cats and doggies ("ki-ki" and "da-da"). And to see them in real life? Oh my....she goes berserk! At my brother's house yesterday she was constantly chasing their two cats around the yard. Poor cats. I hope they haven't been completely traumatized, but I guess maybe they're used to it with three kids of their own to run away from. She now makes many animal noises too. They're not really that close to the actual animal sound, but she's consistent! Her cow noise sounds more like you're buzzing your lips together to play the trumpet (I used to play trumpet, so I know the sound well) rather than a mooooooo. If I make an animal sound she can point to the right picture in the books most of the time.
• Dancing...also in one of the word books is a page where there are kids dancing. She loves turning to that page and just dancing while sitting on my lap or on the floor. And everytime a commercial comes on TV with music, she dances. Upstairs in the guest room (which has sort of become her upstairs play room) there is a CD player with her favorite CDs. She goes in there several times a day, points to the CD player, and starts dancing, letting me know she wants to hear the music. As soon as she hears the music, she starts to boogie. You can just say the word dance to her and she'll start dancing. It won't be long before she'll be taking tap dancing lessons or something....
• There are more, but I'd run out of energy if I wrote about ALL of them! This girl is obsessed, I tell you!!! But they're all so endearing and make her quite an individual!

I mentioned my brother's house.... Yesterday we went up to his house (an hour north of us) so my husband could help them put in a new countertop. My parents were there, too, so my dad could help. The three guys worked so hard all day and were exhausted and sore. My mom and I kept my little one out of the way (her three cousins weren't there, though, because they had gone to their other grandparents' house so they would be out of the way!). Anyway, my brother lives only a few miles from my college alma mater, since he teaches there, so my mom and I loaded up my sweet girl and went there for a little while. I hadn't been there in several years. It's such a special place full of lots of memories. We walked up and down "Middle Path," the mile-long stone path down the middle of campus. I saw my old dorms and reminisced with my mom. I heard the bells ring on the hour from the church's bell tower. I used to hear those all the time! It was fun to go back down memory lane.

That's about all of the news from our house. Just trying to stay cool (our a/c broke last week--the hottest week of the summer--thankfully they were able to come out the next day and fix it, so we got by with only one difficult day/night). Thank goodness the last few days haven't been as humid. Let's hope this week it continues.

favorites

Just thought I'd fill you in on some of our little one's favorite things, now that she seems to have opinions of her own. Of course, we can't ask her to know for sure, but these are what we've observed. Enjoy!

Favorite word: "hot," but in just the last couple of days she's been saying a new word, "woah," a lot, so maybe that's her new favorite. She learned this because when she trips or stumbles I often say, "Woah! Be careful!" So now she says it herself....often.

Favorite toy: it changes almost daily, but right now it's the old Fisher Price kitchen set that my mom brought down that used to be mine, way back in the day! She loves "stirring" with a utensil (doesn't matter if it's a fork, spoon, or knife) in the cup, pitcher, or pan.

Favorite book: still Goodnight Moon, but I think Peek-a-boo is a close runner up. It's a book the library gave us free when she was born with close up pictures of babies laughing, crying, yawning, and so forth. She loves imitating the faces (or more accurately, watching Mommy imitate the faces).

Favorite activity while playing: carrying books or toys over to Mommy...usually wanting to sit on my lap to look at them, but often just to share them with me.

Favorite hobby: going outside, and lately because it's been so hot, it hasn't happened much. She lets us know she wants to by going over the the back door and patting it or fussing and pointing at it. She knows we're going if I tell her, "Let's get your shoes on!" so she gets SO excited to get her shoes on, because she knows what's next!

Her newest favorite trick: pulling all of the pillows off the couches onto the floor (and we have a lot of pillows) so the entire family room is littered not only with her toys, but now pillows, too. She likes to sit down on a pillow, lay back onto the floor, and wait to be tickled! Seriously, she waits for us to come tickle her. It's when she gives her best laughs.

Favorite food: carbs...anything carbs....crackers, bread, whatever. She loves her cheese, too, but she'll choose crackers over about anything.

Favorite drink: Anything she can drink out of an adult glass (usually only water is what we allow out of our glasses). She only drinks milk and water, and I don't know which she prefers. She just loves to drink, and I no longer have to hold her sippy cup, so I'm enjoying that fact.

Favorite song: I don't know, but boy, does she love music! She dances like crazy every time she hears it. And she recognizes songs, too. When I sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider," she kind of twists her wrists as if she's making the spider crawl up the spout, but she can't quite do it with her fingers. When I sing "If You're Happy and You Know It," she claps her hands.

I can't think of any other categories at the moment. If you think of one and want to know her favorite, you can let me know and I'll post it!