Fall Fun

So far this year we have enjoyed a rather mild fall. Last Friday My mom, Aven and I went for a walk on the Pipeline trail to enjoy the fall colors and fabulous weather. Aven had a grand time and my mom spent a lot lot of time worrying that Aven was going to fall off the mountain.

She's so fast these days that it's hard to get a picture of her.

Looking toward Salt Lake Valley from the Pipeline.

Cast of Characters

I love my neighborhood. Ian and I chose to live in this area specifically because we like the layout, the proximity to places we like to go, and because it has character. One of the things that I love so much about my neighborhood is the contrast. There are a lot of younger people buying up old houses and remodeling them. There are elderly people who are still living in homes they bought a half a century ago. There are also a lot of run down rentals and houses that have been strangely subdivided into multiple apartments. The wide variety of dwellings lends itself quite obviously to a wide variety of people. I love my neighbors and am always entertained by someone on my street. I'm sure that my tendency toward neighbor-watching came straight from my dad who, during my childhood, always had a pair of binoculars at the ready and a clever nickname for everyone within spying distance.

Our neighbor across the street, Mark, who lives in one of the worst examples of do-it-yourself remodeling in existence retired at a fairly young age from the financial industry. He then rode his bike across the United States in celebration and now spends his days tending to the neighborhood stray cats and doing odd things like walking up and down the street while brushing his teeth. Ian and Mark enjoy talking about sci-fi books. The house next door to ours is an ugly rental with an unkempt yard and is occupied by several girls that Ian and I refer to as "The Sexy Coeds". This group of girls gives us the largest variety in our neighbor-watching. My favorite is when they get all glammed up and ride their cruiser bikes a half a block to the coffee shop I can see from my driveway to get an iced mocha latte (or whatever it is they drink) and then ride back ten minutes later. Jesus, another guy across the street is also retired and spends his days working in his yard which reminds me very much of the secret garden. He likes to set up tiny scenes around an old hand-crafted doll house in his front yard. He also invites us over regularly to see new features he's added to his yard such as the river he built in his backyard. Steve a.k.a. Van Guy lives in a van in Jesus's driveway, wears the same clothes everyday and drinks a 36 pack of Natural Light a day. I really wish Van Guy would go live down by the river. He gives me the creeps.

Today a new character entered the scene. He may have just been making a cameo, but with the way Van Guy drinks I'm guessing he's going to be a regular. We were returning home from a walk to the bakery when we saw this:

I do own binoculars, but I prefer my telephoto lens.

A man I have already affectionately named Can Guy. He appeared to be homeless but he had a pretty sweet set-up with a bike that had an attached trailer and he had obviously been busting his butt collecting cans. He told us that he collected $300.00 in cans just on the Fourth of July- pretty impressive. When we arrived home Jesus was bringing out bag after bag of empty beer cans left-over from Van Guy. This guy hit the jackpot. I don't know why he is in the situation he is in, but Van Guy and Can Guy might have the start of a "beautiful" relationship.

Pet Day

Today was Pet Day at Aven's daycare. As luck would have it I had the day off, so I got the opportunity to take Grace Dog to visit Aven's class. I'm pretty sure it was one of the most terrifying experiences of Grace's life.


Grace tried desperately to burrow into my chest as she was quickly surrounded by 8 toddlers, 3 babies, and 5 teachers. She's just a big 60 pound scaredy-cat.


It wasn't all bad for Grace, I took enough biscuits so that each child could feed her one. Aven got a little miffed when I gave biscuits to the other kids. She wanted to be the hot-shot dog treat feeder.


Grace's nightmare, come true. One little girl was so excited that she laughed and squealed the entire time we were there. It was a fun day for Aven, even if it was at the expense of Grace's sanity.

Toddlerhood

Aven has recently entered what is commonly referred to as the "terrible two's". I always thought it happened around age two, but after doing some reading I have learned that the terrible two's start during the second year of life, usually somewhere between 15 and 18 months. Aven's pediatrician likes to joke that the terrible two's start around 18 months and last until about 18 years- ha, ha.

The thing that has surprised me so much about her stages is that the changes they bring seem to happen overnight. One day she was a happy-go-lucky toddler, content to play with her toys independently and rarely interested in stuff out of her reach. The next day she was constantly whining for something on the kitchen counter or dining room table that she couldn't have like a nail file or Ian's i-touch. If she doesn't get what her little heart desires she has a classic toddler melt-down. Several melt-downs a day is really starting to wear me out. I find myself asking Ian "do you REALLY think this is normal?" about five times a day, to which he responds "yes, what gave you the impression that having kids was going to be easy?". At least in between meltdowns she is fun, pleasant, and often downright hilarious.

Here's to the in-between!

State Fair

We took Aven to the State Fair for the first time. She absolutely loved the animals. She also fought to get out of the stroller whenever possible so that she could try to pick up repulsive stuff off the ground like cigarette butts and used straws. Ian, my mom, and I took turns chasing her. We had fun.

Aven met a friendly goat . . .

. . . petted this sheep on the nose and then promptly stuck her finger in her mouth- ewww! . . .

. . . and was entertained by the fun house mirrors for about 5 seconds before spotting something on the ground she wanted to pick up.

Next year she'll be old enough to go on a pony ride and get sugared up on cotton candy :)

Pucker Up

Aven recently went through a phase in which she didn't want anything to do with Ian if I was anywhere near. She wouldn't let him pick her up or hold her unless I wasn't home. She only wanted me. Our pediatrician warned us that this could happen and that it's totally normal. It didn't make it any less heartbreaking. Fortunately she has emerged from this difficult phase and into a completely fabulous phase in which she wants to kiss everyone in sight (as long as it's someone she knows). She also loves to kiss her toys, Grace Dog, and she even kissed her own toes in the bathtub tonight. I have to confess that this has got to be my favorite phase so far. She doesn't give what you might consider a real kiss. She presses her face up to your cheek (or arm, or leg) and sticks her tongue out as she makes a kissing sound. I've even been nipped by her baby teeth on a few occasions when she was a little too aggressive with her technique. I am grateful that her difficult phases seem to be peppered with heart-meltingly sweet phases like this one. Until she learns how to give a "normal" kiss I will proudly walk into work everyday with the remnants of a slobbery kiss on my cheek and a smile on my face because I get the opportunity to be a mom.

Eating is Fun!

Contrast

Ian and I went mountain biking at The Canyons today. One thing that I love about Utah is that you can go from cool, thick forest terrain to . . .

. . . dry, dusty desert terrain in a matter of minutes.

Summer Time Wrap-Up

With my summer vacation very near its end I am feeling very ready to go back to work. One thing I love about being a teacher is that I get to spend a quarter of every year as a domestic engineer a.k.a. stay-at-home-mom. Another thing I love about my job is that just when I start to feel mom-burn-out I get to go back to it, which will give me a much needed break from all of the domestic engineering I've been doing. Don't get me wrong, I love being at home with my daughter, playing with her and getting to see her achieve developmental milestones rather than hearing about them second hand from her daycare teacher, but I seriously need a break. This lifestyle is killing me. I don't know how people do it full time, year in and year out. I think it's far harder than being a working mom in many ways and I have a seriously high level of respect for anyone who does this job full time. It's hard for me to put into words why staying home is so hard for me, but I often feel like I never really get to go home from work. The only comparison I can think of is if I lived in my classroom. While I realize that I am still going to have to do all the same stuff I have been doing all summer with less time to do it I somehow know that it will be easier than this. I talked to the mom of one of my students last year who said "I think some of us are better parents because we work". I have always appreciated that she said that to me- it helped ease some of the guilt I felt last year for leaving my baby in daycare to go back to work.

Now that I have that off my chest, let me share some of my favorite moments from my summer with Aven:

Playing at Red Butte Gardens on a weekly basis.

Spending time at the cabin and getting to see countless hilarious facial expressions every day.

Getting plenty of exercise chasing Aven wherever we went.

Getting dirty on a daily basis.

Playing at the park with friends

Hiking in Milcreek Canyon

And last but not least- relaxing and playing at home.

It's been an unbelievably fun summer. By about Christmas I will be excitedly looking forward to doing it all again next summer!

A Few New Favorites

A few of my favorite things that Aven has been doing lately:

• Dancing- Not in the traditional sense, but if I play OMG by Usher then she concentrates really hard, looks down, and stomps her feet as fast as she can.
• Talking- She chatters non-stop sometimes. A few words that I have been able to recognize are "dace daw" (Grace Dog), "shzzz" (shoes), and "fsh" (fish). She also says "ya ya ya!" if I ask her if she wants a snack or to go play outside.
• Playing with Grace- She is determined to get Grace Dog to play with her, but Grace is still a little nervous about getting too close, so Aven usually ends up chasing her around with a dog toy.

As frustrating as she can be sometimes, she is incredibly fun and always full of surprises.