7.4.12

Where to start, where to start.  It's been so long, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed looking through all my pictures.  But I promised Hannah that, in exchange for free swim lessons for Rex, I'd update this here blog, but I don't know what to say...

I think that rather than bore you with a travel log of my life for the past few months...or month, I don't even know how long it's been since I wrote, I'll just update you, briefly on the family.

Greg: works.  He briefly took up gold panning in the creek that runs through the property where we currently reside, but after about a month of not finding anything, he's moved on.  Now on his accomplishment list: watching another season of Law and Order Criminal Intent and the series Solved.  I think he may be plotting my murder; he denies this, but if he ups my life insurance policy I may need to be taken into protective custody.  Oh, and did I mention he bought a hammock.  He decided that the love seat he found in the basement was not meeting his reclining needs so he came home with a hammock one day.  We are so classy.

Rex: plays.  He's really into imaginative play, which, by the way, is not my favorite thing as he refuses to imagine me playing with him.  Don't get me wrong, I love playing with Rex, but the older I get the less exciting my imagination is (pretend we're all going to take naps now Rex).  The nice thing about Rex's pretend games is that each one has it's own plot and has an ending point--Cowboy Tyrone takes about 7 minutes to complete; Park Dragons about 10; and Super Villains can last up to 15 minutes.  Then it's over and we start again.  While this method of play is a bit repetitive, it's low on the imagination tax--I only have to come up with one story line that Rex then memorizes and we repeat.  Speaking of memorize, I heard Rex reading to himself the other day and realized that he has most of his library memorized so we started memorizing the Articles of Faith.  1 down. 12 to go.

Rex in his Cowboy Tyrone outfit

Cowboy Tyrone plays the ukulele.

Cowboy Tyrone builds a fire

Alice does the percussion.

Alice: walks.  ish.  While holding my fingers.  That's pretty much all she wants to do all day.  She has the floor plan of our houses memorized and knows where all the stuff is so will walk me directly to the thing she wants to play with, even if it's several rooms away.  She's brilliant.  Her favorite things are bikes--Rex has one little car that Alice and I can both squeeze onto, and stairs.  We have two steps down into our living room and we repeat them several times a day.  Sometimes, if she doesn't notice that I've let go, she can stand on her own for a second or two.  She has started to crawl a bit, but it's a super weird looking crawl.  She keeps her right leg bent under her body and propels herself with her left foot.  This way she can easily return herself to sitting.  She do two or three of these little crawls and then sits up.  She also Dada in reference to Dad, any male holding her, and enjoyment.  She says Mama to mean Mom, milk, I'm tired, I'm whining.  And, wait for it, she says banana to mean banana.  Have I mentioned she's only 9 months old?  My child is a genius, obviously.

Alice walking.

Alice crawling.

Alice eating PB&J.

Me: clean.  I try not to spend all day getting stuff done, but that's all I feel like I do any more...just a second Rex, I'll come play with you just let me finish doing the dishes/cleaning the bathroom/changing Alice's bum...you get the picture.  I've got to work a better system out so I can play more and get stuff done less.