Soy Sauce
I've mentioned before that I subscribe to The Big Picture blog by the Boston Globe. Today's series of pictures is called Small Worlds. It's from an annual competition held by Nikon to capture photography done at manification. All of the pictures are aweinspiring, but a couple stand out to me.
#12 is of crystallized soy sauce magnified 16 times. I'm amazing at how "Asian" it looks. It looks like an abstract of Asian writing. I'm sure if you read Chinese or Koren or Japanese, you'd probably think me crazy. However, not being familiar with those languages, it just looks so much like characters to me.
#16 is a snow crystal magnified 40 times. How perfect it is. Amazing.
Mexico Happenings
Vic & Mike arrived yesterday. They seem to be pleasantly surprised with our little community and casa. I don't think they were expecting much since I try not to oversell the place. We went into town for dinner last night (Christie & Mom - we ate at the same restaurant we had lunch at before taking Christie & Henry to the airport). It was delicious and Avery was quite content to watch the iPhone through dinner, a necessity since she was a good hour past her bedtime. That hour really matters now that she's not napping during the day.
My afternoon shift starts in five minutes. D has a conference call for work during it, so Avery and I will head to the beach or pool for sure during that time. Vic and Mike have headed into town on their own to do some grocery shopping. Vic wanted to explore, so it seemed better for them to head off on their own. And they're cooking dinner for us tonight. Sweet!
Avery and I made Vic a birthday cake (her BD was Monday) yesterday morning and it turned out quite well. I was most pleased with it. I didn't make any frosting, but it's moist enough with the sour cream I put in it to do without frosting.
Tomorrow we have a boat trip to Coronado Island planned as long as it's not too windy.
I think Avery is feeling the attention diversion now that Vic and Mike are here. When we were driving back with them from the airport, there was a lot of chatter in the car with the four of us catching up. Avery was watching and listening. When the adults would laugh, she would laugh, too. This is a move she's repeated during other moments, even though I know she's not getting the joke. I made a mental note of it and we're concentrating on making sure she feels included. I'm sure it's an adjustment for her.
They have started building the feature in our exterior courtyard. We thought they'd be putting in a fountain there, but it looks like it's going to be a planter with a large tree in the center and then surrounded by flowers. I would prefer the tree the fountain since the shade is more functional than a decorative water fountain.
Patching
Avery's patching is going better. She resists putting it on slightly, but not too bad. She has no issue leaving it on, but there's still prodding to get her to take it off. However, it doesn't hurt nearly as much since we put a very, very small amount of lotion on her face first and that reduces the adhesion enough to eliminate pain, but still allow it to stick (enough) to be effective.
Tool for voters
Check out this site: voteeasy.org. It's a very cool tool, but the fact that candidates are measured on their stance on a small number of key issues is a bit troubling for me. This is not to say I have a better way to match voters with their best candidate match. However, it does seem that sometimes you want to vote for who someone is rather than what they'll automatically vote for. Example: I don't want anyone in office, liberal or conservative or moderate, who would accept bribes for votes. I don't even want that person in office if they are voting for the issues that are important to me.
The other thing I realized is that I am often matched with a non-Democrat. Not a Republican, mind you, but a non-Democrat. I have no problem voting for a non-Democrat who can win. However, I still blame the people who voted for Ralph Nader for the election of Bush the first time around. In my view, voting for someone who has absolutely no chance of winning is essentially throwing away my vote.
Nonetheless, I think more information is a good thing. Information presented in a clean, easily accessible and fast way can only be a good thing. Well done, Portland firm. Who knew other people who love data as much as I do are located here in Portland?
Tradition
Few things anger me more than when people stand behind tradition or culture when defending something that is wrong. Cruelty to animals is wrong. Fattening up a pig so much that it can't even move is wrong. Saying you continue to do it because of tradition is wrong. For the record, I cannot handle looking at any pictures with animals being abused or read any graphic details of abuse, so the link that I've added above is relatively mild.
Picture day
Today is Avery's first ever picture day at school. Granted, it's at junior preschool, but still, it's a sort of school. Hopefully she cooperates with the photographer.
Mexico schedule
D and I decided that we are going to set a schedule for Avery-care in advance. While we don't butt heads that often at home about whose turn it is to do what, it does tend to happen on vacation. This is especially true in Mexico, where we don't do much sightseeing or many activities. I think because we both want to be completely on vacation and that never happens when you have a toddler (or should I call her a junior preschooler?)
I've come up with a general schedule and color coded it. We also agreed that, realistically, Avery will end up watching 2 hours or so of TV each day. It's just the way it is on vacation down there, so I included that time in the family time sections. Obviously we'll do things other than just TV. I should also note that this doesn't mean we won't go to the pool or beach as a family. It just that the person who is not "on" during that shift has no obligation to go, or, if he/she does go, he/she doesn't have to do the bulk of the work in terms of watching Avery.
Anyway, all this is a long way to say, see those yellow boxes? Most of those are four hour time chunks that I need to fill with Avery fun. This is where you, my dear readers, come in. I'm open to any and all suggestions for what Avery and I can do during our time chunks together. Christie & Mom, you two will have the best idea of what there is to do since you've been there, but I'm also open to craft suggestions and games. I can load up on supplies before heading down. Let the suggesting begin! Here, I'll get you started (see comments).
Survey
OK, I don't have much time. This trauma/drama has taken over my life for the past 24 hours. It's just paint. Anyway, see this blog where I'm doing a survey about our new house color and please vote if you haven't already.
c. 1910 color photographs
I am just fascinated by this collection of photos on The Big Picture blog today. That we almost always see only black and white photographs from this era make these especially fascinating.
Weekend Recap
Avery and I had a couple of playdates on Friday, the second of which was at Rachele's. Very convenient for me since D and I had date night on Friday night. We decided to make it a double-header and saw two movies: The Other Guys and The Kids are All Right. I thought The Other Guys was very funny. The Kids are All Right was good, but not as good as I was expecting given it's stellar 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Saturday we didn't do much of anything but nap before the G's arrived to drop Elise and Nolan off for a 24-hour break from the kids. Our first overnight with both Nolan and Elise was about as easy as having two additional children could possibly be. Nolan went to sleep without a fuss, as did Elise. Avery had a bit more trouble - as she always does when we have guest children around - but even that was easy to deal with. Nolan woke once during the night (D got up with him). I got up with Elise and Nolan in the morning. Avery came down to join us when she finally woke up. The kids played well together. Nolan entertained himself with my drawer of plastic containers. All in all, an easy little stint in having three kids and three dogs in the house for a somewhat extended period of time. Hopefully future weekends will be the same. Fingers crossed.
Sunday, after E&N left with R&J around 4 pm, D put together Avery's new bookcase (see pictures below). We ate out on Sunday night, followed by an evening of TV - Madmen, Design Star, Rubicon.
Avery's Room
We decided Avery's room was too cramped with both the chair and the new bookcase, so we have moved the chair into our room. Clearly, we need to move the map behind the book case (all in due time, people), but I'm so very happy to have a place to put all the books and toys that were lining the floor of her room. Eventually I'll buy some baskets/containers for some of the cubbies, but I wanted to get an inventory of the books and stuff we have before doing that.
I've also decided that I need to buy Avery curtains and bedding that are a bit more girlie. Now that her personality is more formed, I recognize the decor doesn't reflect Avery's personality very well.
Real Housewives of New Jersey
Crap. I'm totally hooked. I knew I shouldn't have started watching it. It's like crack. These people are crazy, but I just love to hate them. Which is why we all watch those shows, isn't it?
BFF Dialogue
I am absoluetely terrible at remembering the cute things Avery is starting to say. I have busted out laughing a number of times now that her vocabulary is verbose enough to relay more than simple things. I did jot down a couple of exchanges between Avery and Elise during our weekend.
Avery, to me, at dinner: "I'm having a conversation with Friend Elise."
Avery, to Elise: "How was your day Friend Elise?"
Elise, with genuine enthusiasm: "I didn't fall down the stairs!"
Avery, with matching genuine enthusiasm: "Good job, Friend Elise!"
Totally Awesome Desk
Check out this idea for containing cord mess.
School
Avery went to school today since she didn't go her regular two days this week. Unfortunately, Teacher Theresa is on vacation, so Avery wasn't too keen to stay. It's much harder to leave her when she doesn't want to stay. Of course, she always has a great time and is perfectly happy when I go to pick her up, regardless of whether TT is there, so I shouldn't worry. But I do. She was happy as a clam when I picked her up, so I guess all went well. Of course, a day at school means a whiny evening at home. Can't win 'em all.
Sick
D now has the stomach bug that's been going around. I feel grateful to have escaped it and can only hope I continue to do so. I am exhausted today, but I'm guessing that's just my natural, whiny state of always being tired versus actually being sick. It did, though, occur to me that I might have just the exhaustion portion of the bug and not the upset stomach part. Is that possible?
Haircut
I think I'm done with the hair battles with Avery. She hates to have her hair combed. It's just so darn cute when it's up in pig tails that I have a hard time cutting it. For me, any sort of desire to have Avery be girly is so very rare, but I was clinging to this one. However, I think it's time for a cut. Maybe we'll do it this weekend.
Young College Graduates
I stumbled upon this slide show of the youngest college graduates. Some were reading at 8-months-old and doing math problems at 18-months! Also, I didn't know that Woody Allen and Mia Farrow's son, Ronan, was one of these types of kids. He's the second slide. And, side note, he's very good looking. Who would have thought Woody Allen would produce offspring that looks like that?
Oprah
I stopped watching Oprah about the time Avery was born. I appreciated the shows of substance where she brought attention to issues around the world and in the US. However, I got annoyed that I had to put up with four shows with her fawning over celebrities or other crap to get the good show. I just now read a headline that indicates she interviewed Rielle Hunter, the mistress of John Edwards. Seriously, Oprah? Why is she giving this woman a national platform? She had an affair with a man whose wife is dying of terminal cancer!
