Cute Things that Anya Says and Does #3

• Tinkerbell = Tinkybell
• She recognizes the "ding! ding! ding!" of the stock market closing and yells "clofing bell!"
• She loves our real estate agent, almost every time we get in the car she asks "Don house?". She also recognizes the ringtone I have his calls set to and yells "Don! Don!"
• She recognizes most of the letters in her name, but defaults to "e" when she can't remember
• Last night she put crayons down her pants for some unknown reason
• When we walk down to get the mail, she points out our neighbor's pickup that is similar to my Dad's and says "bompa's picky"
  

Dear Mr. Obama

Listen up! I know this blog has been mostly family related stuff, but this is awesome:


Transcript:

Dear Mr. Obama: Having spent 12 months in the Iraq theater I can promise you, this was not a mistake. I witnessed firsthand the many sacrifices made by the people of Iraq. Those sacrifices were not mistakes. Iraqi people are just like us. They want a chance to live in a secure world, free from tyranny, free from terrorism, free to prosper, free to raise their children and pass on a future. Are they better off today than they were in 2002? You bet. I’ve seen many men sacrifice their lives for the Iraqi people. They died for a purpose, not a mistake. They died giving hope. They died promoting freedom. Do you rescue a fireman just as he’s about to save a child? When you call the Iraqi war a mistake, you disrespect the service and the sacrifice of everyone who has died promoting freedom. Freedom carries with it a price. Because you do not understand nor appreciate these principles, sir, I am supporting Senator John McCain for president. He, too, made a huge sacrifice promoting freedom, because he understands the fundamental truth, freedom is always worth the price.

Big surprise, this is getting little to no play in the mainstream media despite 8,232,924 views on YouTube. We wouldn't want any one to think that many of our service people think they are doing the right thing and are proud to serve, would we?

New Photos

Click the Our Photos button for more....

Cute Things that Anya Says and Does #2

• Soccer = soccers
• You know how the Barney song ends "with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you"? Anya ran over and bent down and gave Willow a big kiss.
• Lunch = munch
• She puts in the accent in the wrong places in words "grass-HOP-er" "hap-Y birth-DAY"
• She asks me to read "Jesus and the 12 Dudes who Did" by saying "more Jesus? more Jesus?" and signing more.
• She rarely says please, preferring to sign it. If we ask her to use her mouth to say please she makes the sign over her mouth rather than her chest.
  

New Photos and New Designs

I've posted a bunch of new photos, and a few new designs are up at www.WhiteDogBlackDog.com.

Cute Things that Anya Says and Does #1

So I'm going to start a series of posts so I can record the things that Anya says or does that I want to remember. If you find these boring and/or the ravings of an overly sentimental mommy, please feel free to ingore.

• Pigtails and pony tails are "pony hair"
• Her night light is a "light dark". If I try to correct her, she corrects me back and says "no, light dark"
• Eli is "I-lie"
• She has to pick up a white rock from our front flower bed before we go to the mailbox, which she then carefully puts back upon our return
• She stands in front of Sean (or Grandpa) while seated, and throws herself knees first onto their stomach while yelling "gut bomb!"
• She asks permission to run - "Run? Run?"
• Okay is O-tay (said loudly with a vigorous head nod)
• When asked who has tattoos, she starts with Mommy, then names Bompa, Jake and Aunt Patti. She also carefully inspects each of Mommy's tattoos on a regular basis (wing! daggon! foot!")
• She has developed a bug phobia and will scream and cry when even a ladybug comes near. She waves her arms wildly and shouts "go 'way, bug!"
• She says "bye Sorka, bye Belle" when we leave the house
• When I started closing the garage door the other day after we came home from a walk and Willow was still in the stroller, she started crying and yelling "Baby! baby!" until I picked Willow up and reassured her that Mommy wouldn't forget baby and the garage door wouldn't hurt her.
• She has to sleep with Lion, Puppy, Brown Dog and Piggy. If any of the quartet is missing she screams bloody murder. Since Friend is sitting on my bed as I write this, it seems hypocritical to not make sure they are all tucked in each night...
• She sniffs Bompa's cheek and says "Old Spice!"
• Rather than sucking on her thumb, she holds the back of her wrist up to her mouth for comfort (she doesn't suck on it, just rests it there). Willow has already started doing this too.
  

Willow's Adventures in Eating

Our pediatrician recommended going ahead and starting Willow on solids due to Anya's texture aversions - we're hoping to head off anything similar by getting a jump start. Willow has great head control and can sit up when buckled into the high chair.


She's not too sure what she thinks of cereal, but we'll keep trying it for the next couple of months before we get into more variety! It's a bit early to be starting cereal, but she is doing great at keeping it down and not thrusting it back out with her tongue.

FAIL

My very own fail picture creation - Mom & Dad have this ashtray up in Molalla.

How Do I Love My Kindle? Let Me Count the Ways...

What is a Kindle, you ask? It's Amazon's ebook reader. I've had it for a bit over a month now and it's once of the best gadgets I've ever purchased (and being the gadget girl that I am, you know that's saying something).

Why would I need one when I already have a desktop, laptop and smart phone?

• It uses eInk with no backlit screen, so it's much easier on the eyes, and more importantly, can be read in the sun!
• I can store thousands of books at once on it - no more suitcase full of books on vacation (Sean is particularly happy about this aspect).
• It can read most ebook formats, so I can convert much of my library to electronic format - we should only have to move a few bookcases this next move instead of 8!
• It connects to the internet wirelessly, so I can download books from Amazon whenever I get a hankerin'. I can also surf the net from anywhere because it uses Sprint's evdo service (and it's free!)
  
• Those books I mentioned in the last bullet point? All of them are 9.99 or less. Yes. That includes brand new $30 hardbacks - just 9.99!
• My laptop battery might last for 8 hours if I'm lucky. I plug in my Kindle about once a week or less and I'm an extremely avid reader.
• I can hold it and turn pages with just one hand!

I can't recommend this enough for any other avid readers. It was a hard choice between this and Sony's reader, but I like that this has Amazon's backing and the price for the books is hard to beat.

I'm not loaning you mine, so go buy your own.