Springtime Tallahassee

On Saturday we all went out to Springtime Tallahassee which is this weird spring festival that also somehow honors Andrew Jackson and territorial-era Tallahassee and kind of also doubles as Mardi Gras in that there is a big parade with Crewes and floats and beads. Penny did not know what to make of it all. She didn't cry, but this look on her face is pretty representative. Afterwards we went to Pizza Hut for lunch (Penny loooves pizza) and she had an absolute ball there. Maybe she was just relieved to be out of the crowd. Her mommy and daddy sure were!

Cooking with Cats

On Sunday Penny was digging around in her toy basket and found a plastic beach spoon. She held it up and declared, "make some breakfast." She then walked over to her play kitchen and stirred around in her pots with the spoon, and that's when I took this photo. She only did it for a minute and then she saw her stuffed cat laying on the ground. I thought she'd gotten distracted and moved on to something else, but no. She went and got the cat and brought him to the stove. I figured that she was about to put him in the pot, but she took the pot and held the cat up to the edge and made num-num sounds like he was eating. She cooked the cat breakfast! So cute.

Get your goat

When we last visited Tray's mom and dad, we rode over to their neighbor's farm and saw their baby goats. Here is Penny petting one.

Thought provoking

A more-recent anecdote to make up for the backlogged photos -

Penny has in the last week or so begun questioning us all the time like we are on a quiz bowl or something. At night she pretty much never lets me read a book to her, she always "reads" it to me (such as it is) and points to things. And if I "accidentally" get it wrong, she gets the funniest look of annoyance on her face before primly correcting me. Outside of books though, her primary question is, "what does ___ say?" Obvious inquiries are made about cows, dogs, etc., but she also asks us stuff like, "what does yellow say?" or "what does the number two say?" or "what does the barn say?" But they don't have to be inanimate objects/concepts to stump me. She also has asked what bats, skunks, turtles, and moose say. I can usually come up with some kind of answer for her, but I admit that thinking about what the color yellow might say is a fun mental exercise.

Cousins

This is Penny with her cousin Bennett, who is 6 months younger than she is. Having found themselves in the same wagon together, they each discovered that the other's shoes were fascinating.

Dog Hugger

Similar to tree hugger, except, you know, with dogs.
Hank (our dog-in-law):



Jake:



Lindy was hugged, but I didn't get the photo. Also not pictured (and not hugged): Toby, who is crazy, and Lola, who is also crazy, but in a completely different way.

Penny and the Cows

Penny trying to figure out how come the baby calves won't let her pet them.



Maybe this one will let me. I'll just run waaaay over there and see.

Tractor

This is a picture from the weekend before last at Tray's Mom and Dad's. This is Penny's first tractor ride. She loves tractors - she gets excited if we see one when we are out driving and she pushes her little tractor that came with her farm set all over the kitchen floor. But, prior to this visit she was scared of the real thing. Her Pa was out driving it and letting Owen "drive" and Penny and I had gone for a walk to see the cows. She and I met them coming down the lane and we hopped in. Penny did not seem too enthused, but I think was a good first step toward future tractor rides. Pa has a really nice tractor with an air conditioned cab and a radio. In fact, Owen implored us to turn on "Alan Jackson" so Pa turned on the radio and we pretended that we were listening to Alan Jackson. :)

Jazz Festival

I have a backlog of Penny photos to post. This is from the Saturday before last (the day after the great scorpion incident). We went out to the Junior Museum for a Jazz Festival. It was too loud for Penny's taste right where they were playing the music, but over at the playground she sat in one of the swings and enjoyed it. She sat stock still for the most part except for her right hand that she bobbed up and down to the beat almost like she was conducting the music. I think she really liked it.

Ohhhhkay

Almost two weeks ago now, on the 12th, I was stung by a scorpion. We've had them in the house before, so I always tried to remember to shake my shoes out before putting them on, especially if it was a pair that I hadn't worn in a little while. I doing so, however, I never saw one, so I admittedly had become a bit lax in the practice. On Fridays we can wear jeans and tennis shoes to work if we want and I had set my tennis shoes just inside the back door because it had rained Thursday afternoon and I'd had them on after I got home walking around the yard. I was late for work and just stuck my foot in without checking first and the pain was instantaneous. I slung my shoe off thinking that it was a wasp (we have kind of a wasp problem around here). Tray wanted to know what had happened and when I told him, he went and got my shoe and shook it out. Out fell a scorpion! A biiiig scorpion. Not one of the cute little inch-long ones I've seen before. So, ok, it wasn't like Hollywood horror movie big, but he/she/it was no joke. I did some immediate googling and it was widely recommended to call poison control so I did. I was advised of what to watch for (twitching, basically) and told that most otherwise healthy adults usually do fine. I went on to work, but I was sick (nauseous and woozy) until lunchtime. And the pain in my foot was unpleasant. It lasted on until the next day and then it was over. No big deal.
Until today. Fast forward twelve (!) days, and my toe decided to get incredibly inflamed and painful and all around angry within a very short time. It was fine when I left for work, but by the time I got to work it was bad. Like, absolutely without a doubt infected bad. So, I called the doctor's office, where of course they had no appointments - and the emergency room seemed rather excessive. I split the difference with an appointment at the urgent care clinic at 1045. Of course, I wasn't actually seen until 1145 at which time my foot was totally normal again. Y'all the thing was turning black at 830 this morning and was all normal and pink and why-are-you-wasting-my-time-and-your-15-dollar-copay normal at 1130. What is up?! Is this normal of scorpion stings? Do I have this to look forward to for weeks and/or months? This is just the most bizarre thing.

The funny and the sad

Penny had a sad afternoon. She had a tummy ache for a little bit. It thankfully didn't seem to last long, but she was upset for an hour or so and cried. But then just about the time that she seemed to have gotten over it and calmed down and we were going outside, I squished her fingers in the door. It wasn't enough to even bruise them, but it was adding insult to injury since she already felt bad and she just cried and cried. I ended up just basically holding her for a long time. The sad part too was her trying to calm herself down by repeating my mantra of "it's ok, it's ok, ok, ok." Then later this evening in the bathtub she was playing and talking and she said, "Penty's ok." It was so sweet and sad too.
But, on a funny note, she also starting saying "how ya doing?" today. She was playing with her stuffed mouse (which you will recall is actually a polar bear) and she said, "Hi, Mouse! How ya doing?" And then when Tray came inside from the grill she said, "Hi Daddy. How ya doing?" Too cute.

More flowers

I love Japanese Magnolias (I have always called them tulip trees for some reason). They are so pretty. It was very cold today here in Tallahassee and I was missing the warmer weather from just a couple days ago, so I decided to post another picture of the flowers to warm me up!

Sass

This weekend Penny asked me for some bagel. As I walked past the kitchen counter I noticed that we still had half of a banana from the day before and I knew that I would have to open a new bag of bagels so I asked her if she wanted some banana. I said, "Hey Penny, how about some banana?" She looked at me and said, "how about some bagel?"
I know she was just repeating me and didn't mean anything by it, but oh my goodness it was funny.

The stuff you never realize

Last night Penny had a hard time going to sleep (harder than normal). I don't think she fell asleep until almost 10, but she got sleepy on schedule around 7. I don't know where the disconnect occurred, but around 8 I she was obviously not going to fall asleep and rather than "fight" with her about it, I decided to just let her get up and play some. We came back out into the living room so she could play with her blocks. After playing for a bit, Tray and I decided we were both hungry and so I fixed us each a small bowl of soup and we had grilled cheese halves. Penny ate some grilled cheese and climbed up on the couch to sit down and have hers. While perched up there, she kicked off one of her dog shoes. Normally when she does that she says either, "dog shoe come off," or (emphatically) "dog shoe down!!" When she kicked it off this time, either I or Tray beat her to the punch and said something like, "oh, your dog shoe came off." Mullet happened to be walking past Penny at that moment and she cut her eyes to us and said, "Mullet needs a dog shoe."

Spring has Sprung

Yesterday, Penny and I went to Maclay Gardens while Tray was out fishing. The azaleas aren't blooming yet (except for a few), but the tulip trees were and so were lots of camellias. Penny was very shy and would not want to walk anywhere where there were other people, but away from all the "babies" she would run and hide in the flowers and bushes. She is such a child of the forest. :)





P.S. I realize that this is the same shirt she had on for our last trip to the gardens some time ago. What can I say? She picked out her clothes yesterday and this is what she chose. She had a light purple jacket to complete the ensemble, but it had warmed up by the time we took these pictures.

Job

On Wednesday I was offered a job at Troy University, and I accepted it. I will be their new Lecturer of Geography. I am so excited. It is a wonderful opportunity. In the fall, I'll be teaching two sections of World Regional, one Cultural Geography, and one Political Geography. While I don't look forward to moving, I think this will be a good thing. I can't wait to get started!

Culinary Arts

In honor of St. Patrick's Day (and because I did not have time to slow cook any corned beef), I made a shepherd's pie and steamed some cabbage. Penny absolutely loved both things. She ate quite a bit of cabbage, but the shepherd's pie was really good too. When I gave her her plate I told her that it was shephard's pie. She stuck her finger in it and said, somewhat surprised, "tatoes*." I said, yes, it has potatoes in it. She ate a bite and said, "and hamburger!" I said, yes, it has potatoes and hamburger both, all mixed up. She took another bite, and - no joke - she said, "this has got cheese on it." Yep.

*Incidentally, she can pronounce potatoes, but usually doesn't.

Conversation

Penny and I had our first conversation today! By which I mean there was an exchange of words longer than just one question asked and answered. One thing she loves to say is, "Where's _____ go?" filling in the blank with whatever, but usually people. Today she asked me, "where's Daddy go?"

"I don't know, where did Daddy go?"

She thought for a second. "Daddy's eating."

"Oh, Daddy's eating? What is he eating?"

"Tatoes."

How cool was that? Actually, though, I was relaying this to Tray and he said that he ate potatoes for lunch, so I'm thinking that rather than answering my question about where Daddy was at the moment, she was telling me what he had been doing previously in the day - probably because I emphasized "did" so strongly when I repeated her question back to her. It was still cool to have somewhat of a back and forth exchange with her.

Quilt

When I was a little girl, my grandmother started making a quilt for me. She would work on it a little bit along, but mostly it was put up in a box. Every so often they would go through things and the quilt box would be pulled out. I can only remember catching a glimpse or two of "my" quilt over the years, but was always so intrigued to see it. I have to admit, though, that I didn't think it would ever be finished. Well, over the last few months my grandmother has been working on finishing it up to give to Penny. She and my mom came to visit on Monday and she brought the finished product with her:



It is even more beautiful than I remembered. The color scheme is blues and purples - and really, she has no idea how much that color scheme is so me. Or maybe she does, but I can't imagine that she did way back when she started the quilt 30-ish years ago. It is a beautiful, beautiful quilt, and it means more to me than words can express. Thank you Maw-maw. I love you.

Return of the Curls

The curls are back! Penny's hair has been mostly straight over the winter and I kind of thought that it was straightening out as it got longer. Turns out it was just the dry air, because it rained today and the humidity made it do this:



I apologize for the blurry nature of the photo. It was low light conditions and I was lucky to get her to hold still long enough to get this shot! I think her hair is so pretty and especially when it gets all curly like this.

Playground

Yesterday after work I took Penny to the playground at the St. Marks bike trail trailhead. It's a "boundless playground," which means it is built in such a way that all kids can play on it - even those in wheelchairs or with other disabilities, which further means that the thing is HUGE. You know how a handicapped-accessible bathroom stall is way bigger than a regular one? Same deal with playgrounds, apparently. And, yesterday, the two of us had the place to ourselves. I was disappointed because I wanted her to play with other kids, but at the same time I have to admit that it was pretty fun to have that huge playground all to ourselves. She climbed up the stairs and went down one of the slides over and over again. At first, every time she got to the bottom she'd immediately say, "do it again," but after I told her, "ok. one more time and then we are going home to see daddy," every time she got to the bottom she'd say, "one more time!" and run back around to the stairs. She went down the slide "one more time" at least five more times. I told her that I think perhaps she was missing some of the more subtle nuances of the phrase. :)

Meticulous

Penny can be very meticulous about arranging her toys. Here she had her farm set arranged on her high chair. Also, exhibit number 1,000 that Tray is a much better photographer than I am.

My Pillow

From a few days ago - Penny rocking herself in the rocking chair while hugging the pillow I made for her nursery. So sweet. Also, notice how she is crossing her toes on her right foot. She does this all the time. And so does her Daddy. It's a genetic trait that they share. I can't cross my toes. That Mendel and his crazy pea patch...

Reading

Genius? Total fluke? (And is there a difference? Discuss.)
This weekend I was making out a grocery list while holding Penny in my lap. I talk to her a lot when I do things and said each word aloud as I wrote them down (and also so Tray could hear what I was writing so he could add anything I didn't list). When I finished, I let Penny color on the paper with the pencil while I continued talking with Tray. She scribbled a bit and then took the pencil and poked at the word "catfood" and said, "catfood." Total fluke, right? Still kinda cool though.

Beanbag Jumping

A new olympic event: beanbag jumping. She does this all the time on her own. Any encouragement heard being made by me was done for purposes of filming only... :)

Too Cool for School

I'm going to try to post some backlogged pictures and maybe another short video or two. Here is Penny one day last week after she figured out how to put her hands in her pockets. She's been walking around with her hands in her pockets all the time now since then. Some of the other shots I have of her make her look like she's soooo cool standing there, but I like this one because she is laughing.

Chicken Video

To go with my previous post:



I love how at one point she does the math - she sees one chicken while she's patting another and goes, "two chickens." Like, "I think...wait...yep. there's two chickens. huh. how 'bout that."

Chee-kens

You may have seen the advertisements for ACE Hardware stores this past weekend. They had a 20% off sale - 20% off of anything that you could fit into a bag. Tray needed some fishing line, so he figured why not buy it from ACE and get it 20% off? But then, he had this big giant Publix bag with only two boxes of fishing line in it, so he decided to fill his bag with chickens. Uh-huh, chickens. Four baby chickens.

Penny is in love. Actually, we all are (well, maybe not Lindy and Jake). They are so cute, and really very personable. Our favorite is Comet. She's a Golden Comet, and is very bold and will come and sit on your knee. I forgot already what the other three are, but one is littler than all the rest and I have a soft spot for her too. This afternoon the other three were blocking her from getting to the feeder and I moved them to let her eat. I have to look out for the little ones. ;)

Penny is completely fearless with them. We had them in a pet carrier while we converted our old dog pen into a chicken pen and when we set the carrier down to let them out, Penny stuck her whole arm into the carrier trying to fish the chickens out. I think she thinks they are like stuffed animals that she can just do whatever with, but she is actually very gentle with them -- and surprisingly doesn't get scared if they flap their wings or anything. She's so cute offering them chicken feed too, "here chee-kens. here's a num-nums." She cracks me up!






Tray with Comet: