Indoor slip n slide

This is what happens when it is 105 outside, and Rob and Amy decide to swim indoors instead. The video underestimates the amount of water on the floor. It was a 4-towel-and thorough-mopping kind of adventure.

p.s. don't worry, Rob is clothed! (Amy is not)

My sweet Amy

This morning my sweet girl woke up bright and early at 6 am.

Sigh.

Every night we put her to bed at 8 and she sleeps and sleeps like the perfect little thing she is, but then every morning between 5:30-6 she has the NERVE to wake up again. We keep acting like this is not sleeping through the night...but it totally is. She's sleeping 9 or 10 hours straight; it's our dumb asses that aren't sleeping through. We keep staying up. At 8pm, it seems so relaxing, the baby's in bed, the house is ours, we can eat our dinner or watch a movie or whatever. 10 rolls around and we know we should go to bed, but there's always one more troll through Facebook, one more stitch, one last page. around 11, we slap ourselves in the head and start getting ready for sleep. By midnight, showers are taken, cats are fed, doors are locked: sleepytime. 5 or 6 short hours later, Amy Gail stirs and would really like to be fed and cuddled. Who can resist a baby in jammies? Nobody. That's why Rob and I are bleary eyed and puffy all the time. It's our own fault.

Anyhow, at 6, Amy wanted to PLAY. playplayplay. Mostly with Orbit. Poor Orbit is such a good sport, he lets her pet him over and over again, and really only gets pissy when she gets too involved in his tail. When we reached that stage, I took her outside for some rock time on the

front steps. This kid knows her gravel.

She sat down and immediately started sorting the rocks into categories that are distinct, but known only to her. Some belong on the step, some on mama's knee, some in the flower pot, and some on the stepping stone. A fifth category apparently belongs to her dead homies because she tosses them in the air with a sort of open hand, high school play dramaticism.

She paused during her baby work to bark at a few dogs and their people. Luckily, "wuff" is one of the few bits of language she has chosen to perfect. What do dogs say? "Wuff!" What do giraffes say? "Wuff!" At mass on Sunday she pointed to a statue of Thomas More and said "Wuff?" hmm...

A little after 7, other kids started showing up in the front yard because our house is the elementary school bus stop. Oh boy! They played with Amy and were appropriately impressed with her rock piles "Dat! Da-DAT!", she told them.

The bus came and all the kids got on. My little Amy tottled as fast as she could toward the curb. She freaked out when I wouldn't let her follow the other kids onto the bus.

She cried so hard we had to go inside to shake it off, leaving our gravel outside. Poor thing. I remember desperately wanting to go on the schoolbus before I was in kindergarten, I can't believe Amy is already noticing it. I know she's too small to remember this morning, but it's still weird to see in Amy the thoughts and feelings I can remember having myself. I guess that's a little like immortality.

Not yet, little one. It's not time to ride the cheesewagon. It's not even time to want to be like the big kids. Give mommy a little more time to get used to the idea.

One Saturday to go

This morning the Jones family had some business to attend to. No laying around, no "what are we going to do today?" crap. This family is prepared. Rob got up and made coffee. With Bailey's. I fired up the computer to review some stats. Amy played the fight song on her xylophone. Together, we discussed seating arrangements on the couch, and made sure the remote had fresh batteries. I sorted the red load and the black load. We've taught the child to bark.

Bring it on Boise State.

Last year, Amy did her best. She dressed the part and everything, but I'm ashamed to say, she often slept through the games.

This year, we haven't quite worked out what she'll wear (still consulting Mark Richt as to the probability of black out games) but we've drilled her hard on the lineup, playbook, and appropriate cheers.

All the practice this morning wore her right out.

That's right, baby. Quiet on offense.

Running drills.

Beans n' cornbread

Last night Amy had black eyed peas for the first time. She ate a pretty good amount of them, but we couldn't tell if she liked them or not. So we asked her....

Check out the video here.

baby gate

Mom, move your leg, I wanna go play with rocks...

Bounty

Sometimes I get so frustrated living in Arizona. We have summer for about 8 months of the year. Summer is so hot and so long, we feel like we will never be cool again. It's especially hard around this time of year because I feel like it should be starting to get nicer. School has started and the weather should start getting a little crisper, a little nicer every day. In southern Arizona, this won't happen until late October. Two more months. It's hard to stay focused on the things that are good about summer and good about the heat.

This little face is exactly the reminder I need.

There are wonderful things about the summer that we just can't get in the winter and that just aren't the same back in the east. We get the most incredible produce ever. I guess it's our proximity to California and our own long growing season(s).

What a haul! This morning, we needed some milk so Amy and I went to the grocery store. We got all that yummy stuff for under $15. wow.

A lot of it is going to be baby food. This kid is a strawberry junkie. She would pretty much eat her own head if it was mixed with strawberries.

Wait a second... These didn't come from the grocery store!!

No, these are all that are left of Amy's first baking time. She did the stirring (and stirring and stirring and stirring and smooshing and stirring) and she added the vanilla. Nice job, kiddo!

So anyway, the point is, I'm trying very hard to live here in the present and quit wishing it was cooler, further east, greener, or anything else. It is FINE. We have plenty of reasons to love being right. here.

Mama got a new camera

Many more pictures to follow....I've already worn down the battery once.

Sweltering

It is so hot today that the clothes melted right off the baby. Oh my!

No, really, the forecast is disgusting. What are we supposed to do? Sleep in the freezer? Move? Wear ice cubes in our pockets? Ugh.

• Detailed Forecast
• Text Forecast

TonightAug 23	Wed24	Thu25	Fri26	Sat27	Sun28	Mon29	Tue30	Wed31	ThuSep 1

Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Mostly Sunny	Isolated T-Storms	Isolated T-Storms	Isolated T-Storms	Mostly Sunny	Isolated T-Storms	Partly Cloudy	Sunny
--High	106°	104°	103°	99°	101°	101°	98°	95°	96°
79°Low	80°	79°	79°	79°	78°	78°	76°	73°	75°

EXPAND GRAPH

◄ 5-Day Month ►

Chance of:

Boogie Baby

Amy loves to dance whenever she hears music of any kind. I've seen her bob her head to the beeping of the microwave. Here she is dancing with Mimi to some Counting Crows. I especially like the hug at the end.

Here's another one of her dancing all by herself.

Mothra

* edit on Saturday morning * Mothra was still around last night, but he had moved while we were out at the park. We left him alone, thinking that during the night he would mosey on out the window. Alas, this morning, we saw the remains of a battle between Mothra and the cats that occurred in the dining room. Mothra lost and there was a burial at sea after breakfast. I think, perhaps, a moment of silence would be appropriate for the world's biggest moth and what must have been an epic fight.

Visit with Mimi

We had a wonderful visit this week with Mimi! There are just about no pictures from her trip, but I think that's a good sign. We were having such a good time, nobody thought to take any pictures. We were busy every day and did lots of dancing with Amy, taking walks, playing in the park, and reading so many books the three people over 2 years old went cross eyed.

Here are Amy and Mimi at the Auld Dubliner. We ate Fish n Chips and Amy learned to play peek a boo with her napkin.

Here are Mimi and Amy working on walking while we were out buying a new coffee pot (RIP old coffee pot :( )

The video is sideways because I do not know how to turn it...

We also went to Amy's checkup. Doc said, "Does Amy babble?" Yes! "Does she walk?" Oh yes! "Does she like to look at books?" uh huh! "Can she make animal sounds?" She sure can! "Have you been brushing her teeth every day?"........* crickets chirping *......um. no.

So we got her a toothbrush. Aunt Katie sent an awesome banana toothbrush when she got her first tooth, but she has been playing with it in the tub. Not so sanitary anymore.

Brusha brusha brusha!

She's watching Mimi in this photo, only letting me stick that torture device in her mouth because she's distracted.
We all miss Mimi so much. Amy in particular misses her roommate. Come back soon!

Peaches n' Cream

Life handed us a loaf of stale-ish bread, too many eggs, and a peach that had gone all soft and a little too squishy. Did we cry? Did we complain? No! We made peaches and cream bread pudding! Yum. It's creamy and a little sweet with a little hint of peaches every now and then. Amy had a little bit while we were making her her chicken and rice for dinner.

Peaches and Cream Summer Bread Pudding

3-4 cups stale bread torn into small cubes

4 eggs

1 ripe peach, cut into small bits without the skin (I squeezed the skins over the bowl to gush out the peach juice into the mixture)

3/4 cup milk (or cream if you're feeling especially decadent)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

pinch of nutmeg

Mix up all the ingredients except the bread and the peaches together in a bowl. Pour over the bread and peaches in an oven-safe dish. Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is starting to get a little browned.

We like to eat it warm with ice cream, whipped cream, or a little half and half poured over the top.