Bee Sting

Yesterday Penny received her first bee sting. It was a honey bee that had somehow gotten into the house. She said, "Ow, Mommy something poked me." It swole up a little, but was completely gone in a hour and now you can't even tell where it was. I didn't even give her any medicine or anything. So, there were no lasting effects, but she was relentless last night asking me all about it. Why did the bee sting her?, she wanted to know. I told her because it thought she was about to squish it. She said, "But I wasn't going to squish it." I told her that I knew, but that's what the bee thought. Oh, but we must have gone 18 rounds with that line of questioning. She was totally offended that this bee had stung her.

When Alligators Attack

Penny's obsession/concern with alligators has been long-lived. The other night while I was laying with her as she was going to sleep, she asked me if we could build her cage for her bed. I'm thinking, "?" I asked her why she wanted to sleep in a cage. She said so that the alligators couldn't get her. We had talk number 1 million and one about how there are no alligators in our house.

Then the next day she asked me what do alligators eat. She's asked me this before. I said what I always say, "fish, mostly. Sometimes turtles. A deer when they can get one." She asked me if they eat people. I lied and said no. She nodded. And then asked me if I was afraid of alligators. I hesitated, but said, "well, if I was swimming in a lake and one came swimming over I might be afraid." To which she replied, "Don't be scared, Mommy. If an alligator comes swimming over you just say, 'let's become friends.'" So there you go. Child's going to have a job at the UN one day.

Sweetheart

I've been sick with a cold since Thursday, but Penny has been so sweet and understanding. One night over the weekend I was laying with her in bed before she went to sleep and she hugged me tight and said, "I'm sorry you had such a rough day, Mommy. Maybe tomorrow will be better." And then the next night she hugged me and said, "You know? I'll always be here for you." I cracked up hearing her repeat these things we say to each other and to her sometimes. She was so sincere though. Such a sweetheart.

Website

I set up a website through the University: spectrum.troy.edu/searnest. I just started it today and I'm teaching myself to code with html rather than use a template, so it doesn't have much content and isn't very physically appealing yet. This semester I am teaching a course called Web-Based GIS which will involve having my students create and publish maps on the internet. This new site will be the space where I post my own maps to demonstrate for them how things work. I've got one up there already that uses the Google Maps API to show the Troy Campus. Right now you can zoom in and out and pan around, but later I'll add other capabilities. I intend to show them how to do the same thing using Yahoo maps, Bing maps, MapQuest, and Google Earth.

Typing

Penny can "write" her name and the names of others if you tell her how to spell it one letter at a time. She only does uppercase, and some things she can't do yet without you having to demonstrate so she can copy it. She likes to play "school" with Tray on her chalkboard and practice writing short words that way. Even if it's a word that we've done many times before she still wants us to spell it out for her a letter at a time. If you ask her how to spell something we've done before like ball, she'll spell it aloud without hesitation, but if you ask her to write ball she won't do it unless we spell it out for her. So. Two nights ago I let her type on a blank Word document on my laptop. She usually just pushes a bunch of keys and writes jibberish, but this time she typed her name. Without anyone having to spell it for her! And then she typed mom. And ball. She "wrote" words on her own, but using the keyboard. And then she typed a bunch of jibberish (because that's fun).

2012 Goals

Goals are good. Not so good when you don't meet them, but good to have them anyway. I fell way behind on my fitness goals over the break. It was very difficult to get out and do things because the facilities that I normally use on campus were closed the whole time. I could have run outside, but it was hard to find the time with Tray gone so much working or hunting. Hunting season for Tray means less running for Sam. But, it also means more relatively free meat in our freezer. And a much happier husband. So, I'm okay with it. I just have to get back into shape! I finally met up with the guy who runs the swim team here in Troy to ask if I could swim with them some. He was totally fine with it, but then I got in the pool afterwards and could barely swim two laps. Also, they meet Monday, Thursday, and Friday from 530 to 730 which is pretty late for me with a child at home. And I can barely swim two laps so how am I going to swim for two hours? But I thought I might swim with them on Mondays and Fridays (once deer season goes out, of course) and use the next couple weeks to build back up some. Then maybe run in the campus gym on the treadmill on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I still really want to do the Bainbridge half marathon in April, but I have a long way to go to get there. *Sigh* It's raining right now, but I am hereby publicly declaring that I am walking next door to the Natatorium and going swimming. And today I am going to swim three laps. And then a whole bunch of one laps. :)

Back

Gosh, it's been forever since I've posted anything. I go through spells with this blog. Sometimes I wonder why anybody would want to read what I write about, and why exactly I am doing this. And then sometimes I go back through the blog and I am so, so glad that I recorded all those little moments because I can no longer remember what Penny was like as a baby. So, I'll try to do better about posting. Now that the semester has started back I'll have a little more time since I'm at a computer for longer stretches, but then all of my photos are at home.

I wrote that part above at work three or four days ago, and now I'm home with some photos. This weekend we spent a lot of time at our property, and guess what happened? A deer came to check us out. Evidently someone nearby must be feeding the deer because this one was national park level tame. She had two friends with her who were also interested, but not quite as dumb brave as she.

Related: you know how Penny once worried there might be lions in our woods? Well, two or three properties behind us is a zoo. With lions. That roar every evening for an extended period of time (possibly when being fed). No lie.

Also related: Tray recently purchased a new .357