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Anya is two today.

Happy Birthday, big girl!

obligatory monthly report to follow soon...

Birthday Party

We celebrated Anya's 2nd birthday on Saturday at The Little Gym. It was a fairly small affair and the kids had the run of the place. Lots of fun was had by all, especially the (almost) birthday girl. As a bonus, my dad and stepmom, Angie, came to town, along with Bob & Amy. All to celebrate with Anya. Lucky her! (and lucky us!)

testing out the equipment before everyone else arrived

basket hang!

Grangie, Grandma Lodwig, and Great-Grandma Scheuer

Noah and Alexa pause for a picture

Flynn rockin' the uneven bars

Max on the balance beam

please do not photograph the princess. She is not amused.

Riley and Kalea

Dad, Bob, Amy (and Dave & Alexa in the back) hanging out and watching the kids run amok on the big, unflatable bouncing mat thing

blowing out her birthday candle

the kids down their cupcakes while Anya savors her pure, straight-from-a-box and not watered down juice (probably what she considers the highlight of the party)

Baby Ramoma, fresh from the oven (with dad, HP).

Juice has been consumed. Now on to the cupcake.

opening her loot at home

Anya attempts to wear some of her new clothes at once

Sidewalks of New York

My dad and stepmom ("Don-don and Grangie") are in town visiting. Chris's parents ("grandma and grandpa") joined us for dinner. For an after dinner treat, Anya serenaded us all with her rendition of the 1890's classic song, "Sidewalks of New York". I was too lazy to move out of my chair while filming, so you all get a back-of-the-head view of the grand performace.

Sleeping...or not

Anya is getting into some interesting sleep patterns (writes her dad as he sits up in the middle of the night).
Most notably:
She's decided she likes sleeping on the floor.
This is probably why she wakes up in the middle of the night.
The good news is that when she wakes up at 3 am she's usually very cheerful. She says (very loudly) "Hey mommy! Watcha doing?" or she sings "Baa Baa Black sheep" very loudly, or she talks to elephant.
So while it keeps me and Amy up, at least it's cute.

Makin' Daddy Proud

I've been extremely busy lately, so I get the feeling that my kid is growing up when I'm not looking. She's doing some really amazing stuff right now.
This morning the sun was in her eye and she said, "My eyes are bright". Sure it doesn't make sense exactly but she put together some interesting ideas, and used a word I didn't know she knew to boot. When asked about a of picture of a monkey flying a kite last night, she said, "The Monkey is pulling a shape." You can't argue with that.

This morning she pointed out that she was "itchy", (has a rash) which blew my mind for some reason. I think it's the grasping of state-of-being verbs.

I've begun having conversations with her where real ideas and opinions are being expressed.
"What did you do today?" Is followed by a discussion of her day, albeit rather curt. "I play game with Malakai. I ride swings with Eloise. Ect."
"Do you like Malakai?" is answered, "Yeah, he my friend."

I've come to believe that very few things in this world are as cool as laying on your back with your kid laying next to you, her head on your shoulder talking about stuff that matters to her, or just counting the lights in the ceiling fixture.

Potty Training Set Backs

I've always been pretty superstitious about celebrating or getting too arrogant before the job is done. In my experience cool confidence only leads to heart break.
As it goes with home projects and work and novel writing and budding musical careers. So too with teaching a human being to poop in a designated spot.

It is not stupidity that keeps a child from doing the right thing. Anya was very quick to go from acknowledging the potty's existence to making it days with nary a soiled nappy. No, it is the chaotic hammer smash of infantile emotions vying for dominance in a child's head that is to blame. I'm sure it sounds something like: Wet diapers are very uncomfortable, going in the potty is fun, approval from mommy and daddy is great especially when stickers are involved, but the ability to affect shock and horror is pretty cool too.
Once the novelty of the potty wears off it's pretty much a crap shoot (no pun intended) as to which of these conflicting motivations wins out during a given bodily function.

Additionally, Anya has learned to strip down to her birthday suit and is very fond of doing so. So we're pretty much at her mercy. In the past week, she's pooped on the floor, she's tinkled between the ottoman and the chair (with company present no less) and, following the dog's lead, pooed in the back yard...Let me tell you a little about how gross dogs are...no let's just skip it. Suffice to say my very busy day working from home today was interrupted by the bestial growl of an extremely fed-up wife, a few moments with a pooper scooper and a very guilty dog in the bath tub.

Anya, now you know why daddy never never chose to work from home when you were growing up. And my liberal brain finally comprehends why, when men were in power, we called child rearing "woman's work".

Down with ABCs