Neighborhood Booing

Ever hear of Neighborhood Booing? Us either, until we moved into our new neighborhood two years ago and got boo'ed. We woke up one morning to find a basket filled with goodies, a picture of a ghost and the following poem:

Happy Halloween
This treat is for you, we hope you enjoy. The idea is simple, one we hope you employ. You pass "BOO" along to two other neighbors. Along with any kind of Halloween favors. If we all do our part, and spread the good cheer, By Halloween night it will be very clear,We're a friendly bunch, we like to share fun, so please do your part to keep "BOO" on the run!

Directions:
1. Place BOO on your door
2. You now have two days to make two copies of this poem, two copies of "BOO", and two "scare" packages to pass on to your neighbors who haven't been "BOO"ed
3. Watch to see the fun spread around the neighborhood.

By Halloween our whole neighborhood had BOO on their doors.

Last year, I was excited for this tradition to happen again since Morgan was older and able to understand the concept better. But alas, there was no BOO. So this year, we decided to take matters into our own hands and start it ourselves. Morgan was so excited to do this. Once it was dark, we sneaked out to do our mischief. Morgan was like a stealth Ninja, all hunched over as she carefully and quietly tiptoed up our neighbors stairs. She placed the baskets just so and ran back as fast as she could bursting into silent laughter with her hand over her mouth.

I hope, like two years ago, by Halloween the whole neighborhood has BOO on their doors and Morgan can see all the fun she started.

Go Fly a Kite

This weekend we took out our kites and headed over to the neighborhood soccer field. On the way, we met up with Tim and Keaghan who decided to join us. The girls were interested in flying for about 15 minutes, and then it was us three adults flying for another hour (at least) while they played on the nearby playground.

I tried to get a picture of Mark and Morgan with the kite...

But as you can see, it was a bit too high (500 ft of string had been let out)

And They Are Off

The folks left this morning. We had a great visit and I've been going through the pictures. I thought I'd post the "Big Splash" ones for your enjoyment.

At first all was going well...
...and then kur-plunk

Even her butterfly wings could not save her.

If you want to check out all the pictures from the visit, click HERE

I noticed that Baba is barely in any pictures, and Gigi is completely missing. Looks like during the next visit Mark and I need to man the cameras so Gigi and Baba get captured!

Visiting with the 'Rents

My parents got in town on Thursday evening and we have been very busy catching up and seeing the sites.

Morgan had a dentist appointment on Friday. It was touch and go at first, but then she did great, even letting the dentist take x-rays.

Saturday we had perfect weather to go hiking in Castlewood Canyon. Morgan enjoyed climbing over the rocks and splashing in the creek until she splashed down right on her butt. She was soaking wet and we were only half way into the hike. I thought it was going to be a long way back, with lots of whining. We took off her top and she wore my sweatshirt like a dress. Not once did she complain about being cold or wet.

I took off work Monday and we went to the Botanical Gardens. Their "Secret Children's Path" was a big hit with everyone. They had lots of neat things to see and touch along the way including a dig site and tree fort. We had a bit of an experience later in the day. The good news is that Morgan is not allergic to wasps. The bad news is that she was "attacked" by them. She was walking ahead of us, when she came running back screaming "owie, owie" and violently rubbing her head. We took a look and I found "something" smashed in her hair and pulled it out. She kept screaming and rubbing and upon further observation, we found another (alive) wasp. It was completely tangled up in her hair but Baba managed to get it out. Thank goodness, because my first reaction was to smack her in the head to kill it. She would have had a headache AND a wasp sting. We went to the Visitor Center to get some first aid for the sting(s?). After a little bit, she was really to head right back out and continue exploring. What a trooper!

Where Do You Come From?

At Turtle Talk with Crush, Crush asked Morgan were she was from. Morgan answered that she didn't know. Crush asked her who she came with. When she replied "my mom", Crush asked me where we were from. After I told him Colorado, he went back to Morgan and said "your from Colorado little dude. Make sure you follow your mom since she knows the way home". After this exchanged, I figured we better start working on teaching her where she is from.

I decided to quiz her today and see if she could remember. I asked her where she was from and she replied Colorado. I asked her what city she lives in and she replied Sleeping Beauty. Ummmm, close I said. But what is Sleeping Beauty's real name? She finally got it - Aurora!

Introducing Logan Edward

He decided to come on out and join us on Monday night. Mark, Morgan and I got to visit on Tuesday night. He's a little guy at 6 pounds, 6 ounces. Joann and Eddie are beaming.

After holding him for a while, he used his mind control powers to make me think I would love to have another baby. Must keep reminding myself how they are so calm and peaceful at the hospital, only to lull you. It's not until you bring them home that they show you how well their lungs really do work. Must resist....

Random Ramblings

Mark made it home on Friday. Thank goodness! But then she was really crabby over the weekend, testing to see if the "two parent" rules were the same as when Mark was gone. Oh how fun.

I forgot to mention something funny she said while Mark was away. Usually when it's both of us home, she tells the last parent to put her to bed to go downstairs and ask the other parent to come back up (which, by the way, we NEVER do). Anyways, I was tucking her in and she says "Can you go downstairs and tell yourself to come back up" and then bursts into laughter. I thought this was the funniest thing! She's definetely got a clever sense of humor.

And finally, today was Morgan's last swim lesson. We orginally were going to keep her in them until she could save herself in the water. But we are realizing that isn't going to happen anytime soon and we are tired of paying tons of dough for her to frail around in the water. Attention span during swim has equaled none lately. So... we are taking a break from it until next summer, when (hopefully!) she is more focused. Yeah, right!

Can't Catch a Break

Mark went out of town this week for business. I have been single-parenting a child who is coming down from a vacation high and missing her dad, which means she is extremely cranky and sassy. To top it off, I'm really, really sick. Not a fun week, but wait it gets better. At the beginning of this week, when I was feeling my sickest, I had to take away Morgan's tv privileges. Oh, how I did NOT want to do that. I really would have loved to have sat her in front of the tv this week while I nurse myself. But, she broke a huge house rule, not just once but three times so I had no other choice then to ultimately punish myself.

Mark was supposed to be home last night. My whole body ached thinking about the rest I was finally going to get. But it was not to be. I got a call from mom around 5 saying she had Morgan. Mark was trying to get a hold of me, but couldn't. There were no messages on my phone, so not sure what happened. Anyways, he was working in Nebraska and had drove there. On the drive back he hit something in the road and broke the truck. He is stuck on the Nebraska/Colorado border until it can get fixed. Hopefully, it will be this morning, but I'm not holding my breathe. I can not get my hopes up that he will be home tonight. If he's not, I would seriously be crushed.

I've always had a huge appreciation for single moms or mom's who's husbands are deployed for months. Here is another time, when I once again want to applaud them.

Super Butterfly

The butterfly wing shirt arrived from Little One's Baby Gifts while we were gone and it's the cutest thing. Morgan wore it to school today. She was no longer Morgan but Super Butterfly. She was very busy today saving all her friends on the play ground. There are circles on the wings that apparently shot out *things* against her enemies.

I was going to get a picture of her after school, but then Super Butterfly was replaced by the evil villian Detoxing from Vacation, Super Crabby Girl. Once Super Butterfly returns, I will get a pic.

We're Baaaack!

How can I possible sum up our week's vacation in one post? We had an incredible time. Morgan is becoming such a great traveller. A couple of mornings were a bit rough and she had a HUGE meltdown the second morning at Disney (to the point we thought we were going to have to leave) but she always pulled it together and the afternoons were pretty much a breeze.

When we first arrived, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner. We got in pretty late, but figured we might as well head down there to eat. We were going to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe. She really enjoyed exploring it, until we were on the second floor and the "storm" kicked in. That was enough to send her running outside where we promptly had to find another place to eat. We found a non-threatening Mexican restaurant. After dinner we did some shopping and watched the different street entertainers. Morgan wanted to watch a violinist for a really long time. We kept trying to get her to go, but she wouldn't budge until he was done. Wonder where she gets that from?

DAY 1 - DISNEY'S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE
This was probably the best day we had. There were hardly any people in the park so we got to ride everything without long lines and see the shows without huge crowds. We actually thought the Monsters Inc ride was closed because there was nobody (and I mean nobody!) in line. The only downfall was that Morgan was a measly 1 inch short of the 40" requirement for a bunch of rides. She really wanted to ride them, but handled this fact quite well.

Morgan wore her Snow White costume and got treated like royalty. The whole staff made a point of calling her Princess and treating her extra special. She was in heaven. In Talk to Crush, only three kids got to talk to him, and Morgan was first. He said he never spoke to royalty before and asked her lots of questions. She wasn't shy at all and spoke loud and clearly into the microphone. I wish I got that on video!

Her favorite part was lunch at Ariel's Grotto with Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Cinderella. She is usually a bit leery around characters, but she had no hesitation in hopping right in the princesses' arms. She ate octopus (hot dog cut to look like one) and fish (goldfish crackers on top of mac and cheese). Unfortunately Jasmine (her favorite princess) was not at the lunch, but she was fine with finding her later.

Mark and I took advantage of the kid-swap - where one parent waits in line for the ride while the other parent waits with the kid who's too small to ride. Then when the riding parent gets done, the other parent gets to go right up to the handicap entrance and immediately get on the ride.

All of us agreed that the Ferris Wheel was the scariest ride. Yes, the Ferris Wheel. We went on the cages that swing along the spokes of the wheel, and let me tell you, first thing in the morning, those things are greased up and slick. We went FLYING! After getting over her initial fear, of course Morgan loved it and we rode it three times.

When the parade came at the end of the day. Morgan freaked out and started panicking. I guess she didn't know what to expect and was very overwhelmed. She did calm down a bit and watched it from a safe distance.

This park closes early, so shortly after the parade, we headed to Disneyland for dinner. We were able to catch the parade at Disneyland too and this time Morgan had completely warmed up. She was getting so excited about what float was next and was waving very excitedly to everyone.

DAY 2 - DISNEYLAND
Like I said above, the morning started off pretty rocky. There was lots of temper tantrums, whining and fits. We had some lunch and then she was a new little girl.

The park was a bit more crowded then California, but still not bad. I think the longest wait we had was for the Nemo Submarine ride and that was about a half an hour. The Matterhorn was about 20.

We discovered that Morgan is a thrill seeker. She likes the adrenaline rides, but is scared of the intense visual rides (or at least intense to her). For example: her scariest ride - Winnie the Pooh. Yes, Winnie the Pooh. Why you ask? Well, because she was scared of Pooh's dream of the Huffalumps. She also did not like Pinnochio or Roger Rabbit. We didn't even try the Snow White ride. Her favorite ride was the Nemo Submarines and Gadget's Go Coaster. She would have like the Matterhorn if it wasn't for the "scary gorilla" flashing it's red eyes.


She also loved the Disney Princess Faire, where we stood in line of an hour for her to meet the princesses again. Good thing too, because this is where Jasmine was. Being as Jasmine is her favorite, Morgan was a bit more shy around her. We also watched some of the princess shows. And yes, in my pictures, that is how empty the place was. We overheard one of the dads there say he was about princessed-out. To which Mark replied "Well then you are at the wrong park!"

We stayed until the park closed and Morgan caught some of the parade again. With Morgan, again, frantically waving at everyone.

DAY 3 - La Jolla and Whispering Sands Beach
Today we headed down to La Jolla and checked into the cottage we were renting. The cottage is only a block away from the ocean, so we walked down and spent the day there. It was the first time Morgan has seen the ocean. She was bit leery about the waves but did get into the water a little bit. She mostly wanted to look for seashells, dig holes, get buried in holes and chase birds. It was a very relaxing day.


DAY 4 - SeaWorld
This isn't the same SeaWorld I fondly remember from my own childhood. It had a lot of really neat hands on stuff, but it kinda has sold out to corporate America. There were ad placements through out the shows and the Shamu show wasn't all that interesting. Most of the show was a new chant and hand signal everyone does so the whale splashes them. I thought this was a bit corny. Of course Morgan loved it and was chanting the chant on the rest of our trip. My personal favorites were the Artic Wild exhibit and feeding the dolphins. They didn't feel anything like I thought they would - much harder than I expected. Morgan's favorite part was holding the star fish. We went back to that exhibit at least two (maybe three??) times. Followed close behind was the Sesame Street area that is exactly like some of the rides at Sesame Place. Hmmmm, didn't we do this already??

DAY 5 - La Jolla Tide Pools, Children's Beach and La Jolla Cove
Another relaxing beach day. It was cloudy and cooler today, but still comfortable enough in the afternoon to be in a swim suit. We walked the two blocks from our cottage to the tide pool area and did lots of morning exploring. We found fish, crabs, and hermit crabs trapped in the rocks, but no starfish. Then we made our way down the beach to the Children's Beach, which is now were the seals hang out. After sitting and waiting to watch the seals slowly scoot across the beach, we dragged Morgan away for lunch, again only a couple blocks walk away.

After lunch we spent the whole afternoon at La Jolla Cove, a protected underwater ecological park. The water was bit cold to swim in but we still got in for a while. We saw a seal peak it's head up about 20 yards away. Morgan made a friend. A girl also on vacation named Rita. The two of them spent hours digging in the sand, getting water in a bucket, hunting for sea shells and exploring the cave/tunnel that opened into the ocean. It was amazing how much braver Morgan was in the water when another girl is with her.

DAY 6 - Legoland
This day had all the right possibilities and started out great. Morgan wasn't afraid of things on the ride since they were made from Legos and obviously fake. We quickly got on two rides, they were really neat with all the Lego stuff... but then it went down hill for Mark and I. We waited in line for an hour to go on a ride that is a car that rides in a circle around a track elevated in the air. It wasn't even that busy and the line wasn't even that long! Then we got to the log ride which was two tiny loops with two tiny drops. The line, which was so short it would have taken 15 minutes max at any other park, took over an hour! Of course Morgan wanted to wait and she did a great job waiting, but us parents were not too pleased. Any ride that would have been fun for us grown-ups had WAY too long of lines. Also, the park had really weird height requirements. Rides she normally rides, she was not tall enough to here - including a teacup-type ride.

Morgan's favorite ride was the Beetle Bounce, where you go up in the air and drop. A mini-version of the one she did at Sesame Place. She rode that thing four or five times. Her second favorite ride was the Fairy Tale water boat ride.


Day 7 - Returning Home
Before we left, we made a quick stop at Balboa Park. We arrived just in time for a puppet show so we decided to do that. Puppet shows kind of freak me out and this was no exception. Morgan seemed to enjoy it and even participated by shouting out answers. After the puppet show we grabbed some lunch and ate in a nice open air courtyard with a sculpture garden. Morgan could run around a bit without bothering everyone else eating. Finally, we stopped at the Japanese Gardens. I love Japanese Gardens and wished we had a little bit more time, but alas, the vacation was over and it was time to head back to reality.

The Loot
We let Morgan pick one souvenirs each day we were out there. Each item, she would play with when we got home each day. Here is the run down:

1) Downtown Disney - A Tinkerbell doll playset
2) California Adventure - A Disneyland coloring book and crayons molded on top with the characters
3) Disneyland - A stuffed Jasmine doll that she calls "Baby Jasmine"
4) SeaWorld - Two small stuffed seals. One seal's arms hugs the other one
5) Legoland - A set of regular Legos.

Why is that Lego sets nowadays only cater to boys?? Every set but one on the huge wall contained boy related things to build and most of them include some type of weapon. Sad.

To view all the pictures from our trip click HERE

And We Are Off!

This is my last post for at least a week. We leave tomorrow for the "Happiest Place on Earth". We are heading to Southern Cali for Disneyland, Sea World, Legoland and some time at the beach. Morgan is a bit excited to say the least. I hope she doesn't wear herself out before we even get there.

Or better yet, wear us out before we get there!

Fashion Queen

Morgan got a new Princess skirt from Baba and Gigi yesterday. Can you guess what her favorite part is?

Why Don't We Ever Learn

Whenever we go camping, we lug around this huge bin filled with all sorts of buckets, shovels, rakes, sand molds and other stuff. The kids break it out, play with it for a few minutes and then move on. We forgot to bring it this time, so what did they do? They entertained themselves for hours (ok, maybe not actual hours) with four spoons, one small empty storage bin, one bucket and a bottle of water.

You Might Have a Girlie-Girl If...

...she insists on camping and rock climbing in a ballerina outfit.

We had a great Labor Day weekend camping with the Banaitis Family outside of Colorado Springs. Since our last camping trip was rained out, we promised we would take Morgan to The North Pole this time. So, on Saturday, we took the kiddos and we were there for six whole hours. I was expecting a really cheesy place, but honestly, I really liked it and we had a great time. The kids are at the age where us adults can drag them onto the rides that we really like too. One of the more adult ones which was pretty intense, The Paratrooper, was her favorite one but her least favorite was the Tilt-a-whirl. We had it going pretty good, to the point that I was worried about being sick. The whole time Morgan was screaming "I don't really like this ride. No! I don't like this one!".

Before we got to The North Pole, Morgan talked a pretty big game about how she was going to give Santa a hug. Once we got there, we saw him out in the park and she hide behind my legs. The second time we saw him, she at least waved to him, but she wasn't stepping foot inside his house no way no how. Out of the four kids, only Keaghan - the seven year old - would go and see him in his house.

The kids were so worn out that night, Morgan actually Mark "would it be alright if I went to bed right after the s'mores".

And she did.

Cheyenne Update or Why I Hate Banfield

Don't ever go to Banfield Vet. Seriously. NEVER. I'll try and give the condensed version.

We've been taking Cheyenne, our 14 year American Eskimo dog there for a while. They have been fine for the basic stuff, but now that she is getting older and having issues, Banfield is HORRIBLE!! It started back in April. She was limping on her back leg and it was getting worse. They took x-rays and said it was severe arthritis - the ball of her bone has rubbed down and is flat. They referred us to a specialist. Specialist couldn't figure out what Banfield was talking about. Bone looked completely normal. They thought the problem was in the meat of her leg. We were going to wait and see how she does, and bring her back in a month. When it came time to bring her back, the specialist was gone from the clinic. Chey was doing better, so we left it at that.

Fast forward to yesterday. Chey has been biting at her leg to the point there is a sore. Also, her leg has gotten much worse. Not knowing where else to go, and since Banfield knew about her history, made the poor choice of going back. They wouldn't even look at her back leg or discuss the specialist diagnose that it was not arthritis. They were 100% focused on the fact that her teeth needed cleaning. Ummmm... hello! That's not the main problem here. The took a quick look at her sore and said it needed to be removed with surgery. Tried to pressure us into a $660-820 procedure. Looked at me like I was scum of the Earth when I told them no.

Thank goodness Sara gave me the name of her vet. I went this morning and LOVE him!! His recommendation for the sore - put some cream on it, keep Chey from licking it and and see how it does. At Chey's age, putting her under for surgery can be dangerous. He couldn't believe it was Banfield's first/only option. Told us that although her teeth could use a cleaning, it's the least of his worries right now. More concerned about the back leg (thank goodness!). He did some tests on it and validated my concerns. It appears that Chey's body is no longer recognizing her back leg. Referred us to a specialist to see if the problem is pain or neurological. At least we have some better direction and new hope.

And we don't have to pay an exorbent amount of money for something that wasn't even going to fixing the main problem. Stupid Banfield.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane... It's a Kid with a Cape

Momdot.com was having a contest sponsored by Little Ones Baby Gifts for the most adorable cape shirts I have ever seen. If I don't win one, I am going to have to buy one of these for Morgan. She would absolutely love flying around with one. They even have a line for boys (see the bat one below).

Check out all the styles at: http://www.littleonesbabygifts.com/capeshirts.html

Clever, Clever Little Girl

We were at a friends house when Morgan started to complain that her stomach was hurting. I told her if it really hurt, we needed to go home. A little while later she started groaning "aaaahhhh". I gave her "that" look - the one that said, if you hurt we need to go. Without skipping a beat she finishes her "aaahhh" with "Apple - aaaahh is for apple. That's all I was saying Mom".

Four Year Checkup

Yes. I'm a little late on this. I remembered to make the appointment at the end of June, but they didn't have anything available until now. Better late then never.

Morgan measured in at a whooping 30 pounds and 28 3/4 inches. She is right on track on her growth chart, staying in the 10 and 20%. I had a couple of concerns that the doctor addressed:

1) She runs with her knees locked and throws her legs out and around. Doctor had her run up and down the hall so he could see it in action. She loved this part. He said that this is because of her hip width. There is no problem with it - it's just how she is. It can be minimized by strengthing her inner thighs through lots of swimming and biking.

2) Her recent sleep issues. We put her down consistently at 8 pm. She stays in her room playing quietly arranging, re-arranging her stuffed animals until 9 sometimes 10 pm. She doesn't sleep in and only gets about 9 hours of sleep. He said that she could be going through a growth spurt. During growth spurts kids don't produce as much seretonine. As long as she isn't coming out of her room constently, she is fine. We aren't supposed to keep her up later. Within time she should start falling asleep at her normal time.

3) The last couple of months she's been complaining that her stomach hurts. In the past couple of weeks she's been throwing up a little bit in her mouth. She had reflux as a baby. The doctor is concerned that the reflux has come back. He gave us a prescription that should help the problem. If it doesn't, we need to contact him again. If it does, then we need to keep her on the meds for a while.

She also had to get four shots today. We talked about the shots before the appointment so she was prepared. She hopped right up on the table and laided very still. She was so brave. She wanted to watch them put in the shots and she didn't cry or whimper at all. The fourth shot was a bad one, but all she did is suck in some air. She's one tough girl.

A Word About Status Reports

One of the main reasons work has become so awful is our new inforced daily status report. At noon each day we are supposed to send a report to upper management outlining: Planned accomplishments - what do you plan to complete in the next 24 hours giving very very specific details. Accomplishments - what did you complete in the past 24 hours giving specific details. If you didn't complete something you had in your previous planned accomplishment list you need to justify why it wasn't finished, what percentage of it is finished and a plan for how you expect to get it finished.

We are system engineers. It's not like we have work that can be or should be bean counted. Now I am in no way saying that I nor anone in my group does the following, but merely reporting what I see as a possible fall out from this micro-management. It may just be possible that this daily status could cause otherwise very productive people to be even less productive. People might not want to over produce one day and not have as much to report the next. They might want to start dragging out their work so they have a list in their pocket for the next day. Instead of centering their work day around, well, work, they will start centering their day around what would look the best on my report. Not to mention the amount of time it might take to fill out such a report.

Again, not saying this is occuring within my group. I'm merely thinking out loud.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Yesterday I was having a terrible day at work (or should I say worse than usually). I commented to Sara that I should check my sick time and see what I have and then use it.

Fast forward to this morning. Morgan wakes up this morning. Her eye is matted shut, red and swollen. This isn't what I had in mind. I was hoping to use sick time for some me fun time. Instead I ended up taking Morgan to the doctor to get a prescription for red eye. The doctor said that she could go back to school after the first drops. This is new and I'm not 100% sure I buy it. I decided to stay home the whole day with her anyways. We had a wonderful mother-daughter day and did so much stuff: she dragged out the playdough that we haven't touched forever, played lots of board games, did several art projects including the real cool window decal making kit Grandpa John got her for her birthday, and even made it to the park for over an hour. Turns out the sick time did end up being fun time.

Days like today really make me wish I could be a stay-at-home mom.

Instant Journal - Compassion

Wondertime magazine has a section to fill out called "Instant Journal". I thought I would start recording Morgan's answers here.

Whether she's offering her hot dog to the black Lab or flashing her toothless smile at your elderly neighbor, your child's act of kindness are anything but random. Even if her compassion comes (and goes) in fits and starts, take a moment to record it here:

List your child's favorite way to:
cheer someone up - Patting their back
be taken care of - Nicely
offer a helping hand - helping carry my friends

Ask your child: "If you were in charge, what rule would you invent to make the world a better place?" I would be king and say cheer up you'll get better soon.

Sad and Angry Day

I was so exited that Morgan was moving into the Pre-K room. 90% of my exitement stemmed from the fact that one of our favorite teachers, Ms. Adrienne was in this class. When I dropped Morgan off this morning, Ms. Adrienne pulled me to the side to let me know today was her last day. She took a new position with a new school. When she gave her notice, they immediately let her go. I've never been very happy with this school but due to our home and work locations our choices are limited to say the least. I was absolutely appalled to find out that Ms. Adrienne, who's been with the school for over five years and is a head teacher gets paid a measely $8/hour with no vacation or sick time. I am outraged. This is another reason why I really really really want to have Morgan in a different school!

Point and Shoot

We finally had a break in the weather this afternoon. It was still overcast and a bit chilly, but good enough to get outside and get some fresh air. We headed to the zoo. Morgan wanted to bring her camera and take pictures of each of the animals. It was a whole different experience. She waited so patiently to get the perfect shot she had in mind: the animal needed to be looking at her, that animal was too big to get, that one was too far away, learning that a flash doesn't work so well against glass. I posted some of them here. While the Fisher-Price camera is so much fun for her, the picture quality is a bit lacking.

Rain Rain Going Away

We've been having record high temperatures and absolutely no rain until Friday, the day we were supposed to go camping down in Colorado Springs for our mini-vacation. We were going to do the whole tourist thing: Pikes Peak, The North Pole, Seven Falls, Manitou Springs. It's Colorado and it never rains for a full day, let alone two in a row so surely we would still be able to go up Saturday morning and have two good days. I guess you should never say never because sure enough, it has been raining with a high of 58 today as well. We nixed our whole weekend plans.

Morgan wasn't too disappointed because one of her good friends Ellie was having a birthday party. I called up her mom to see if we wouldn't be imposing if we came. Ellie was very excited that Morgan would make it after all. The party was a dress up tea party so Morgan wore her tinkerbell outfit. The girls drank lemonaide "tea" and had strawberries, cookies, crackers and sandwiches cut in the shape of butterflies. It was a 100% girly-girl party so of course Morgan loved it.

Tiger Girl

To close out the summer program, Morgan's school had face painting today. All I can say is "WOW!" The lady who did them went all out. Morgan looked like she could be in the Broadway production of Cats. I couldn't stop staring at her because she totally didn't even look like herself. Check it out:

Follow Along

Here is some video I captured of our future Olympian. It's the highlights of two performances. Notice the concentration. Notice the stellar cartwheels. And of course that's only her underwear she's wearing. Every good gymnastic knows that pants and shorts hold you back.

Going for the Gold

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I've been in California for work. The trip went very well, but I don't want to talk about work. Let's talk instead about the Olympics. Morgan is enthralled with it. We watched the girl's gymnastics before I left and she couldn't get enough. She was asking all sorts of questions: Where are they from, which country is that girl from, what are they putting on their hands, how can I get in the Olympics. Then she started to imitate everything they were doing. It was so cute to see her throwing her arms and legs all around. She kept going over to her play kitchen, putting her hands in the sink and informing us how she is putting chalk on her hands. We recorded the rest of the events, so I'll have to video tape her watching some of it.

She also informed us that some day she will be in the Olympics for gymnastics. I told her the Olympics is for the best of the best - that there are other competitions/teams she could be on as well. To which she replied that some day she will be best of the best - if she practices enough she will be in the Olympics. At least she has determination.

Baby Fever

Today I threw a baby shower for my dear friend Joann. I was a bit nervous about the whole thing as 30 people RSVPed to come and I had no idea how the heck we were going to fit that many in our house. Thank goodness Jackie came over and help me get things ready and Mark was also a great help. As it turned out, only 20 people actually showed up so there was no need to worry. The shower went quite well and Joann was very surprised and happy with everything we did for her. We had the girls decorate fabric squares that are going to be sewn into a quilt for the baby, I made a diaper cake decorated with her nursery theme (ducks), we played the ever popular guess the poop (candy bars melted in diapers) game and just for Joann (who's favorite game of all time is the Price is Right) played the Price is Right Baby Style.

I'll have to confess that seeing Joann pregnant really makes me miss being pregnant. I absolutely LOVED being pregnant. Sigh. But then I think about the labor part (for us it was a nightmare - almost lost Morgan and/or me!) and the new baby part (can you say colic) and that fever starts to fade.

A Day According to Morgan

When I asked Morgan about her day this was her response:

I didn't nap at school today. Instead I played in one of the centers (editors note: what they call the different play area at her school, such as science, art, reading centers). They had dinosaurs. REAL dinosaurs. Yep, they were alive. There was a T-Rex and it tried to eat all of us. But then all the other dinosaurs came and saved us. They got him with their tails. Really.

Wow. That's a pretty intense day!

Water World

With record days of 90 degree weather, we decided to spend the day in cool water so we headed to Water World. They offer a huge discount if you come after 2 pm, and since Morgan would only probably last a couple of hours, we decided to make it a late afternoon/early evening thing. Right after we paid for our ticket and we were in the first play pool it started to pour. Morgan was extremely patient and waited without a single complaint for a half hour until the rain stopped. At least the rain scared away a lot of people. We went on a couple of tube rides were the three of us could go together. They were pretty fast and the tubes rode up pretty high on the side, making us feel like the tube was going to tip over, but Morgan loved it. What Mark and I didn't love was having to carry the tubes up the side of the hills to get to the top of the rides. You would think they could get a conveyor belt or something! Morgan was so excited that she barely noticed she was climbing up steep hills over and over. She even attempted to "help" us carry the tube.

One of her favorite things wasn't even a water ride/feature - it was the gondola that ran from the top of the park to the bottom. We rode that thing six times!

Even though Morgan loves the tube rides, she still isn't the most comfortable playing in water. In the first play area, they had a bunch of toddler slides but she wanted nothing to do with them. At the end of the day, she wanted to go back to that area. She VERY hesitantly went down one of them after tons of coaxing. Then it all clicked for her and off she was running from slide to slide going down each over and over. She even went on ones that had water spraying over them. She HATES water spraying at her.

At the end of the day she was shivering like crazy. I told her she was so cold and she said, "but I still had lots of fun!"