Lucky baby

This little sweetie gets to play with her Mimi all day. We are all so lucky to have her here.

Rodeo Break

We went to the rodeo parade with the beautiful AJ this morning. All this time in Tucson, I've never gone before this year. I really liked it. It's like the counterpoint to the All Soul's Procession. It happens early in the morning, in South Tucson, and everyone is alive. It's also completely non-mechanized, which is cool. There were horses, bands, and lots of carriages and wagons.

The parade totally did it's job and made me want to go to the rodeo. It's easy to forget living in midtown that Tucson really does have a strong ranching tradition still and that there are a lot of people who are perfectly comfortable on horseback. I especially liked seeing the little kids riding horses. I'm so impressed with them. 

My favorite part, of course, were the highschool marching bands. Desert View band was playing "Rodeo". I'm a sucker for a drumline everytime.

Saturday Morning

I love these two so much. After this there was sausage, eggs, and coffee. And more Kung Fu.

Muddy baby

Doesn't want to take a bath.

CRM at home

We have this spot in the backyard that really needs a hole, so we looked around and hired the best.

She comes with her own equipment. There was a bulldozer, a dump truck, a mixing bowl, a bucket, and a shovel. She moved that dirt so fast, you'd think she's been doing this for a long time. The whole operation was even overseen by an archaeologist, so no cultural resources were disturbed. 

She dug her hole, then filled it in, then shifted rocks from one truck to the other until she got chilly, then Mama bundled her up...

And we all had a little fire. In true Jones fashion, Amy is in LOVE with fire and was very helpful in gathering sticks. She never went too close though. She would add her kindling to the very edge and say "Hot. hot."
All three of us sat in our chairs and talked about our day until it got dark and we all got hungry. It's too bad that she needed a bath, I could have sniffed her little campfire-y baby head all night long.

Last day at the zoo

Our zoo membership expired today. It was good for a year, and we've definitely gotten our money worth. We go a lot. I know I probably mention it a lot too. Anyway, until we renew our membership, we're going to miss going. Lots of things are changing at our little zoo and by the time we come back there will be two new elephants in the new elephant exhibit, our regular elephants will be in San Diego and the new polar bear will have arrived. 

I brought my camera today to take some pictures of our favorites. 

This guy was growling as we walked in. It really was a scary sound that made me feel like prey.

Elephant butt! 

Heeeeeyyyyyyyyy thhhhheeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre. Whaaaaaaaaaaaat's yourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry?

Stop lookin' at me. 

No, I'm serious. Quit it. Oh. You're takin' my picture? Oh ok. I'll smile. No, I'm not making faces at you.

This is me making a face.

Playground time

The paparazzi were at the playground again. 

Poor baby. They're always following her and her friends around.

Do they follow her for the fashion?

To check out the awesome stuff she does?

Maybe they just want to see her hiney?

They got her trying to climb up the inside of the slide (Wheeeeee!)

Hey guys, I'm on the playground with my peeps. How about some privacy?

All in the name of science

Amy is dedicated to science. She really supports the scientific method and is always looking for ways to further knowledge, especially when it comes to human evolution. She's particularly interested in how our human ancestors became bipedal. 

So, when our friend Adam called and said he was looking for a few good babies to take part in his study, she agreed right away.

She was asked to walk back and forth on this wooden platform with little motion sensors attached to her legs. Adam captured her walking on six motion sensors, a camera, and a pressure plate that measured her little footsteps and how she distributes her weight when she walks.

Walk on this thing? No problem. I got this.

In fact, she did it 63 times in a row. For a sticker.
I hope that it gives Adam a lot of good data. It was pretty fun to watch, and it's an awesome study. He's comparing variation in the ways that babies and kids walk so that he can look for patterns in the way humans learn to walk upright. That way they can compare what we know about modern people's walking habits and modern skeletal information (not Amy's!!-from historic graves) and see what our walk does to our bones. Then, they can look at other hominids' bones (like Australopithicenes and their friends) to see if they were walking in the same ways, dig? It's pretty cool, and a creative way to approach the problem, don't you think?

Wheeeeeee!!!!!!

Amy really likes slides. She calls them "whee!" This morning she used her blocks and made this whee:

Vishnu the Liar

There are a lot of..er...notable characters in our neighborhood, many of whom can be found in the park, especially on the playground. One of our recent favorites is 9 year old Vishnu. "Vishnu" is a creative story teller with very big aspirations and very few friends. Amy and I were playing on the slide yesterday when Vishnu came over to the swings to hang out. He was really little with short spiky black hair and huge eyes. He wore shorts and a really big jacket. His little stick legs ended in these huge white sneakers that made him look like he had marshmallows on the end of his legs. He kept on smiling at us with great big teeth and a dimple until finally Amy noticed him.

Amy: oooooo! (pointing to kid on swings)
me: Hey there (to kid on swings)
Vishnu: Wanna play?

So we headed over and Amy sat on my lap as we swang in the swing next to Vishnu's.

Vishnu: I'm 9.
me: Wow. I guess you're in, what, third grade then?
Vishnu: Yeah. I'm really smart. I'm prolly the smartest kid in third grade. When I was in kindergarten I was too smart for the other kids so they asked my mom if I could go in a higher grade. I skipped them, but then I was like too different and so my mom is letting me do third grade again. The school wanted to put me in 5th grade but I was all, welllll, only if I can be in 5th grade five times 'cause otherwise I'd be too short. I'm like the smartest, but I'm only like in the middle for football and like at the end for height. Your baby looks smart.
Amy: weeeeeeeeeeeeeee
me: you're short for your age?
Vishnu: (raises eyebrow, gives me a look, then winks like a boss) I'm only short for a third grader.
me: do you play sports?
Vishnu: Yeah. I play basketball. (points to the adjoining court FULL of highschool boys and assorted thugs) I was playin' with them, but then they made me leave because I was so good and they were all losing.
me: that's not very sportsmanlike of them.
Vishnu: I know. When I win, I say to the other kids "you'll do better next time" and when I lose, I'm like "good game!" (gives me a high five). I also play football, baseball, and I can RUN.
me:  do you run in P.E.?
Vishnu: Yes. We run a mile every day.
me: do they time you?
Vishnu: Yes. I can run a mile in a minute and 45 seconds. That's like from here to those baseball fields (points to a spot about 100 yards away). I'm the fastest. My brother is slow.
Amy: daDAT. errrrrrewwwwww. (indicates she is done with swinging and might be about to puke)

We moved from the swings to the teeter totter. Vishnu the Honest followed us and sat on the other end from  Amy.

Vishnu: I don't play on the teeter totter. It's for babies. I just sit in the middle of it and try to balance.
me: well, thanks for playing on it for us.
Vishnu: no problem. My sister used to be a baby.
me: how old is she now?
Vishnu: She's five. She was smart too like your baby. She could like, talk when she was one week old and she could run when she was a month old. She started talking when she was born.
me: wow. She's very advanced.
Vishnu: She only has one lung.
me: what?
Vishnu: yeah, they took it out. (points to his side and indicates scissor motion) They did like ten surgeries on her when she was a baby.
me: How sad. Was she ok?
Vishnu: She's fine (shrugs). They wanted to do more but my mom said no, so they gave her five shots instead. (indicates foot-long needle).
me: Well, that's lucky. Five shots must hurt.
Vishnu: (big eyes, earnest nodding).

We got off the teeter totter and started playing on the slide. Amy would slowwwwly climb up the steps and sit at the top of the slide and then let go and slide down into my arms. I'd put her on the ground and she'd run over to the steps and start over. Meanwhile, our little friend was doing monkey-style acrobatics on the bar, and sometimes would go down the slide while Amy was climbing.

Vishnu: My name is Vishnu.
me: That's very unusual.
Vishnu: Uh huh. I'm named after an Indian god.
me: Vishnu is also the name of a rock that's at the very bottom of the Grand Canyon. It's black and sparkly and very beautiful.
Vishnu: I know. I'm Indian. (he says in a clearly Mexican accent)
me: Oh really? That's cool. Are both your parents Indian?
Vishnu: No, just my Dad is. and my mom.
me: oh.
Vishnu: I can speak Spanish though.
me: I know you can.
Vishnu: I've been to China.
me: Wow. What did you do there?
Vishnu: we ate, you know, Chinese food. (look from me) and also we made these things. These like, little cups (holds hands together like a teacup). It was like clay. and we made them. I was little. I was like one. Maybe one and a half.
me: was it a long flight?
Vishnu: (slow dramatic nodding) You wouldn't believe it. I, like, slept two times the whole way.

He jumped off the play structure in a death-defying leap and began to root through the wood chips underneath it.

me: That's gross.
Vishnu: I'm in charge of the science fair at my school.
me: They must really trust you.
Vishnu: I got to choose the other kids for my team.
me: Who'd you pick?
Vishnu: I choose the second smartest kid. That's Emma.
me: 'cause you're the first smartest.
Vishnu: uh huh. and I chose her and then Adrian. He's the fourth smartest.
me: Adrian is a boy? What about the third smartest? Who is the third smartest?
Vishnu: I don't know.
me: (trying not to laugh about poor Adrian who is smart, but not smart enough to fill the #3 spot) what's your project?
Vishnu: we're going to throw balls off the playground like this (wild arm motions). baseballs and tennis balls. we'll see what hits the ground first.
me: what do you think will happen?
Vishnu: I think they'll hit at the same time, but I think the other kids will think that the baseball is a little heavy so it will hit harder.
me: I think you're right.
Vishnu: It's relativity.

I start to pack up Amy in the stroller because it's getting dark.

me: Well, thanks for playing, Vishnu, we have to go home for dinner now.
Vishnu: 'kay. Bye. I'm here some days when I'm with my brother. He's that one over there doing this (strikes hilarious high school boy pose).
me: He's tall.
Vishnu: Yes. He's 6 feet 15 inches tall. I'm going to be tall.
me: I'm sure you are. Are you ok waiting for your brother...what's his name?
Vishnu: Rodrigo. I'm ok. I'm gonna go help him with basketball.
me: ok bye.
Vishnu: BYE!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh. I hope we get to play with him again.

Amy on the phone

Sam gave Amy an old flip phone and she loves calling people on it. This afternoon she wandered around with it pressed to her ear just chattering away. I asked her who she was talking to and she pointed to Orbit and said "cat. Cat. Foo". She really loves that cat. I didn't know they spoke on the phone to one another. I wonder what they discuss.

Amy is so trashed

Amy put all her toys in the wastebasket and then crawled in after them. It turned out that was an awesome game, so she kept doing it. She crawled halfway in and then piloted the can around with her little feet. Scoot scoot scoot! 

That got a little tiresome, so she just laid down on the kitchen floor inside her trashcan. Is that bad parenting? Hmm. Maybe. Is it bad parenting that I was on the phone with Karen making fun of Amy while she was doing it? That I grabbed a camera instead of making her get her pretty head out of the trash?

Arrrrroooooooooooooooooooo!

I got a new telephoto lens for my camera for Christmas and I love it. It has image stabilization and it shoots crystal clear images. I took it out tonight to take a picture of the moon, though and all I got was a squiggly white dot. Drrrrr. With lots of experimentation and a tripod I finally got this shot.

I set the lens to manual focus. Then I shot in Manual. ISO=100, F 11, shutter speed=1/125. I put it on the tripod and set the timer to 2 seconds to avoid the shake of my hand pressing the shutter.
I cropped it in photoshop so the moon fills the frame better.
I can't wait to see the moon shots Dad can take with his new rig. That thing is like a camera strapped to a telescope.

Painty painty fun messes

Oh boy. Is there anything a one year old likes better than a humongous mess? As far as I can tell, the answer is no. The bigger the mess, the better. The brighter the mess, the better. If the mess can be made outdoors and spoil your clothes at the same time, that would be the most fun EVER.

What happens if your drippy, sloppy, mess is actually completely non toxic and non staining and will wash away with just a little bit of water? Toddler never has to know. heh heh heh

I used:

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup water

1 giant squirt yellow food coloring

I mixed it all together and gave Amy a paintbrush. She mostly prefers the splatter method and systematically dribbling the paint on her pants and toes. It's all very abstract.

p.s. Hey, Patrick. Shabadoo.

Soapy fun

Amy and I got kind of crafty yesterday. We saw on Pinterest how you can make your own liquid handsoap out of a bar of normal soap, water, and glycerin. 

I used this lemon verbena bar. It is strongly scented and smells soooo good. It makes me take long showers just so I can sniff it more. 

All you do is grate up the bar of soap with a cheese grater. It looks like Parmesan cheese in the bowl.  You add that to a gallon of water and warm them both up on the stove until the soap starts to melt in the water. Then you add two TBSP of glycerin to the mixture and stir over medium heat a little longer. Mine boiled over because I walked away, but it was a super easy mess to clean up (can soap be a mess?) and I don't think it affected the finished product. You leave it to cool overnight (10-12 hours) and then stir it again. Mine was a little thick, so I added some water and used my immersion blender to incorporate it and make the soap nice and smooth. 

I love it! I have over a gallon of soapy goodness that gets my hands clean and smells awesome. 

I needed somewhere to use the soap, so I refilled the softsoap dispenser in the kitchen, but for the bathroom, I made a new little soap jar. I used a salsa jar that I washed out and removed the label from. I poked a hole in the top of it using a screwdriver (I recommend doing it some other way-this was a little haphazard and scary) to accommodate the pump. 

I cut the pump off of an empty bottle of lotion because I liked the blue green color of it (see Rob, I CAN get rid of lotion bottles!)

I cut the bottle just below the threads for the lid and I poked that through the hole in the lid of the jar from the bottom, and then I screwed on the pump top on the outside of the lid. I cut down the little straw inside so it fit and viola! A trendy little mason jar soap dispenser. I added a ribbon to match the pump. Now it's sitting in the back bathroom just waiting for company with dirty little hands.

FYI: did you know that glycerin is bought in the pharmacy? Like, behind the counter? I asked the pharmacist for it, and then I couldn't resist, so I went back and asked what it was for medicinally and why it was behind the counter. Ahem...apparently glycerin is a powerful laxative. I guess it can clean you inside and out. HA!...........ew.

Amy rules Chinatown

Amyslide, a photo by robandlizzie on Flickr.

We hung out in San Francisco for a few days while we were in California. We found this super playground in Chinatown that was just the break we all needed. We sat on benches and Amy got out of her stroller and showed all the other kids how it's done.

Family adventures

The Joneses are piloting a new ship. 

The Kunkels gave us a '73VW bus. 

She's going to take us on so many adventures. What a cool camping car, or field vehicle. 

She's a Firefly class, Millenium Falcon type, for sure. A little bit of rust. A little bit old. So much character. She can take us anywhere!