Potty Training & Other Adrie FUN

My how time flies. My little angel has turned into a back-talking, bossy, yet hilarious little girl.

• "oh-KAY Mom, oh-KAY!" and sometimes it goes on - "Okay okay okay okay okay oKAY!"
• Don't forget "I won't do it again!" Anytime I even hint I'm unhappy with her, it's "I'm sorry mom! I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"
• In response to ANY request I make (like 'please stop hitting that wall') she responds "I was JUST ____" (fill in the blank.) "I was just swinging him around." "I was just touching it." "I was just trying to see if it would do that."
• "I'm just teasin' ya." or "I'm just kidding." -OR- "You're just kidding about taking a nap mom, right?"
• "It's just pretend. It's not real."
• Annoyingly, she needs everything she sees and points out acknowledged, and if I don't say "Oh, yeah" or some acknowledgement she starts to cry. This is really difficult when I can't tell what the heck she's pointing at. "Look at that mom! Look at that thing! See it? What is that?"
• She is oh-so-curious about the world around her. Driving home in the dark the other night, she was so concerned about where all of the clouds went. She wants to know where the moon goes in the daytime, why Cherri's hair is curly, why I can't sleep in bed with her, and more. To hear her making sense of her world aloud is pretty awesome.
• Her tendency to repeat sentances over and over without seeming able to get out the last word or two is becoming pretty apparent. I'm hoping it's because she's such an advanced talker for her 2.75 year-old brain power and not a true stutter. I'm not worried about it, in fact I feel my own patience with her growing exponentially.
• She is getting to an age where I often worry what will come out of her mouth for the embarassment potential it holds. She asks random people in public their names, tells everyone at the store she's a big girl wearing panties now, and the usual toddler jib jab. Two great moments this month, though - at the family dinner of a boy I like, she walked into the room in front of everyone and said "You marry him, mom." I didn't really acknowledge her, hoping it could gloss over, so my darling Adrie grew louder and pointed with her whole arm extended: "You marry HIM, mom." When said boy came to visit yesterday with gorgeous flowers, she said "You brought my mom married flowers? Are these married flowers? Why aren't you married mom?" Oh, my child. She is a crack up.
  
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A couple of weeks ago we tried a few experimental days of wearing 'panties' that were not a full attempt at training. But her awareness became heightened, and through the priceless help of my sitter Cherri, Adrie has spent every day this week in underwear, with only a few accidents. Her whole face lights up with surprise when something actually happens in the toilet, and she says "You're so proud of me mom! You're so proud of me!" It's actually pretty fun. I am glad I waited until she was ready and excited about it, because it really hasn't been a battle at all.

Life is good. Have I said that lately? Life is grand.

Adrie's First Camping

I know, busy life = sporadic blogging. My apologies.

I never got around to camping last summer, so it was on my must-do list this year. First pic: I had to document the making of a proper tinfoil dinner. Every time I make a tinfoil dinner my Dad's voice is in my head, coaching me on the perfect way to arrange the ingredients and seal it tightly. We had a great spot up Provo canyon at Big Springs, with running water just a stone's throw away. Adrie would beg to go "swim" - it was freezing. My legs went numb after 5 seconds. She'd wade to her knees, and also put her hair in (middle pic). She also wanted to go on frequent walks, begging for us to pick gigantic dandelions. We explored a beaver dam and she enjoyed riding on shoulders and also 'hiking' on her own.

My little scaredy-cat freaked out about the popping of the fire. She cried nonstop and chose to stay zipped up in the tent for the first hour. Kendall came up with the genius idea of a "safe" blanket, which coaxed her to actually sit with us for awhile. By about 10:30 pm overtired delirium had set in, and she forgot her fears while entertaining us with her chasing the "light bug" (flashlight spots on the ground) and catching & killing "butterflies" (moths). The largest moth I have ever seen landed right on her foot, and she calmly tried to kick it off as we all screamed in horror/delight/hilarity (depending on who you ask). She's a mixed bag of fears, that one.

After it got dark she started saying "Let's go home now." However, she did surprisingly well at sleeping a full night (well, midnight-6 am I suppose). She cried again over the popping fire for breakfast, choosing to eat (yet another) cold hot dog. Maybe next time she'll be a little braver...

June Jump to Juneau

Remember "Alaina Does Alaska?" Well, I did it again. Here are some of my random thoughts via picture.

1) Thanks to this ridiculous airport menu, I now know a medium soda adds 300 calories to my 370-Jr Whopper. You would imagine they'd like to enhance business by appetite, not squelch it by guilt. My meal = 670 calories, except the sneaky bastards never listed the caloric content of french fries. So I ate tons, assuming they were calorie-free.
2) Waiting for a city bus. I didn't rent a car this time, opting to pay for a hotel instead. It's high season here, and things were expensive! (Side note - the sun went down at midnight and came up at 3 am. No pictures).
3) Feeling like a local on the bus, and trying to blend in by only pulling sneaky photos. Flashing my Elph would have ruined my act.

The Auke Bay, with Douglas island behind me. Cruise ships galore. Gorgeous.

My favorite way to see a place is to walk around and enjoy the flavor of the town. I hiked away from the expensive cruise docks to find some more local flair. I managed to purchase two darling vintage jewelry pieces for Kendall's wedding. Those are my favorite kind of souveniers - useful and memorable.

Here's where my true nerd shines through: I couldn't stop staring (or taking pictures) out my window on the plane ride from Juneau to Seattle. Two straight hours of breathtaking mountain vistas.

1) See those teeny bumps in the clouds? Those are the very tops of gigantic mountains. I couldn't get over how awe-striking it was they were tall enough to be so visible this close to cruising altitude, sneaking through the blanket of clouds.

2) Some of those mountains showing (sans clouds).

3) The light-colored wide ribbon through from corner to corner of that photo is a river - full of ice chunks. In June. Awesome.

I love striking off into the unknown and seeing what there is to see. Life is grand.