Future Foodie?

Turns out I didn't do so well with the posting all month thing.
Anyway. We had a very nice Thanksgiving. We spent the day of at Tray's parents' house, and then had another dinner on Saturday at my mom and grandmother's. We have/had lots of leftovers from both places. Penny surprised me by correctly identifying the house of origin for each leftover when served each thing. The first evening we ate a plate full of things from Melba's dinner. Penny said this came from Georgia. I was a little surprised because we'd had pretty much the same things at my mom's, but not too surprised because I figured there must be enough difference to tell it all apart. But then, I made chipped ham in a white sauce (aka Ham SOS) for supper last night using ham from my mom's. We had ham from both houses. But she said, this came from Nana's. How did she distinguish the ham? It tasted the same to me. And anyway it was covered in sauce. Hmm. I think this calls for some future food experiments. :)

November 14: Penny's Perspective

"My Family" by Penny Earnest

Ok, so we'll just ignore the fact that I forgot to post yesterday on the 13th. We'll just consider that like some buildings that don't have 13th floors. (And I always want to say to those building operators, "It's a NUMBER." But whatever.) 

I promised to post some pictures taken by Penny. I have a mint ton of them. For her birthday this year we got her a Kidizoom camera. From the moment she opened it, she has loved it. She took over a hundred photos in just that few minutes after getting it. She kept taking everyone's picture individually and then she'd take pictures of whatever she found interesting: the corner of a piece of paper, the "i" in the word Dictionary, the bathroom faucet. These pictures are so cool, because they give us a glimpse into how she sees the world. The ones that get me the most are those of us taken from her perspective looking up at us. Unfortunately, the Kidizoom is a crap camera (and it has some of the best reviews of the "kid" cameras out there). You have to hold it absolutely still for two seconds after you take the photo or it will be blurry. So, almost all of her photos are blurry. She does great with our "real" camera, but we are obviously scared she'll damage it somehow. She hasn't dropped it yet though. So, we're thinking that for Christmas we are going to get her a $50 real digital camera. And then she can take 20 different photos of the cover of her Lightening McQueen coloring book, and they'll all be in focus. :)

November 12: On Demand

Penny and I love to go to the public library and check out new books to read. We recently discovered the Pigeon books, like "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." I love to read them because the artwork is hilarious and the comedy is all in the vocal delivery. Anyway, the one called "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy" has a wish list on the inside front cover. One of the items on his list is "french fries on demand." Penny loves to quote the pigeon books all the time. And one of the things that has caught her imagination is the phrase "on demand." If you hand her something she'll go, "pepper. on demand," or "water. on demand." She'll get on a whole "on demand" riff walking through the house just calling out stuff. I think it's so funny.

November 11: Veteran's Day

I have many veterans in my life (and one or two still serving). They didn't have to serve, but they did. And I just want them to know how grateful I am to them for making that choice. Happy Veteran's Day.

November 10: Blah, Sick.

Tray has been sick with a cold since last Wednesday. I've been trying to avoid catching his cold, and so far neither Penny nor I have caught it. However, on Tuesday I tried to go swim like normal, and just could not seem to get going. I probably swam half of what I normally do, and in shorter intervals. I chalked it up to poor nutrition that day, and the after effects of having gone running with a (much faster) friend on Monday. She and I were supposed to meet up yesterday to swim after work/classes. Well, I woke up yesterday morning with that distinctive "cold-coming-on" feeling of sore throat and achy legs that I always get with a cold. I stopped by Walgreens on the way to work and took some cold medicine and some tylenol and hoped I'd feel better in time for our swim. By the time I got done with my class that afternoon I was really feeling the sore throat and decided to call things off. When I got home, I took my temperature. Fever? Check. I looked in the mirror at my throat and immediately sat down and googled images of strep throat. My throat looked exactly like strep. So, I went to the doctor this morning. The nurse said, "It's strep." The doctor said, "It's strep." The strep test said, "It's not strep." So I was sent home with a diagnosis of viral tonsillitis. And all I could think was, "here we go again." Back in 1999 I had three bouts of this back to back and the last one put me in the hospital for almost 4 days. Here's hoping I wake up tomorrow feeling better. And that I don't actually have strep despite the test that I am now spreading throughout the household. Ugh.

November 9: Resolutions 2 Months Early

Or maybe not. I've got a Wiccan friend who posted "Happy New Year" to her facebook on Halloween, so I guess New Years Resolutions could be in order now depending on your personal calendar - lol!

Seriously though, I had to fill out my professional goals for the 2012 year for human resources recently. It got me thinking along those lines in other aspects of my life. I've never really done New Years Resolutions much because for whatever reason I always thought of those as "negative" resolutions - like you were supposed to resolve to give up something or not do something. And it always seemed that people were choosing something very broad like "weight-loss," or "save more money," or "stop smoking," or something similar without any associated ideas about how to go about those things. But, the form at work was different. It required you to pick achievable (and specific) goals for each of the three areas: teaching, research, and service. And then at the end of the year you have to fill out another form explaining how you did or did not achieve those goals. It's a better system than me sitting there going, "I'm going to get more research done this year" (the standard new year's resolution style of things). Instead, I have to say exactly what I am going to do this year - publish this or that article, attend this or that conference.

Put another way, I am henceforth viewing New Years Resolutions as yearly "bucket lists" of things I want to get done during that year. I'm still working all the categories out, but thus far my fitness goals are the most clearly defined. They were not until just a day or two ago when I found out about a 15K race in Dothan in January (that's about 9 miles). There's a half marathon in Bainbridge in April, so that 9 mile distance would be a good intermediate distance between 6.2 miles and the 13.1 miles for the half. So, for 2011, I achieved my base goal of running in a 5k (3.1 miles) race. My goal for the rest of 2011 is to run a 10k in December (I've run 5 miles a couple times now, so I have to add another mile between now and December). Then my 2012 goals are the 15k at the end of January, and the half in April.
I'm not far off of swimming a mile in the pool, so achieving that before the new year is another 2011 goal.
My swim goals for 2012 are still nebulous, but so far include swimming in a swim meet. Any swim meet. I just have no idea how to go about that one.
I still very much want to do a sprint triathlon (1/4 mi swim, 12-20mi bike (depending on race), and 3.1 mi run). All very doable on their own, but put together I don't know. Plus, I still need a bike! It feels good to have goals though, and accountability for those goals, which is what this post is all about. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

November 8: Pose

I didn't have the photographic evidence of her new hands-on-hips pose until my mom sent me her pictures from when we stopped by on Halloween. All I can say about this is that we are sooooo done for when she gets to be a teenager.

November 7: Cars2 Review

Before I get to the "review," we went in for Penny's second post-hospital ekg and echo. Everything looked good. We have to go back in a year, and probably one more year after that, but her odds of anything happening are pretty slim.

So last night I used a free-rental code for Redbox and rented Cars2. We don't rent movies much b/c we aren't really a tv/movie watching family, so this was the first time we'd ever had anything like a family movie night. It was fun. I bought an inflatable mattress for camping b/c the last couple times my back had been getting too sore, so we blew it up and "camped" in the living room. We ordered pizza and ate it and turned the movie on. Penny was so excited, you guys. Like, she could hardly contain herself, excited. She sat on the end of the mattress right in front of the tv and was soooo cute in her enthusiasm. As for the movie? Tray and I loved it. It was a very good movie. You could almost forget it was a cartoon, or that animated cars were the characters. Plus, I just love Michael Caine. However, Penny could not get into it. I was uncomfortable with the amount of guns and shoot-em-ups going on right off the bat, since we don't usually let her watch anything featuring guns or battles. She didn't seem to notice or maybe realize what was going on with that, but she did notice that none of the characters from the first movie appeared on screen for what felt like forever. She kept asking when they were going to race, and even when a race scene would finally arrive, they'd cut away to the "spy" storyline for most of the race. It was a disappointment. I had been planning to get the movie for her for Christmas, but I'm glad we checked it out first, because now I know we can wait a few years before getting it. While it is a very good movie from a grown-up perspective, it's definitely not for three year olds. Or at least not this three year old. She's ok with it all though. She got enough exposure from it to know the characters now instead of just saying, "oh he's from the second movie. We don't have that one." And so far today with playing with her cars figures and/or reading her cars books she's been happy with that as a takeaway even if she didn't seem to love the movie itself.

November 6: Hands on hips

Lately Penny has started wanting to stand with her hands on her hips all the time. I know she didn't get it from me, because I tried it and it felt really unnatural. Guess who does stand like that? Tray. It's so cute to see her standing there like that, especially when she's telling you about something. She looks so comically grown up.

November 5: Post-football

Wow! What a game between Alabama and LSU. I know I was supposed to be rooting for Bama to win so we could beat them in the Iron Bowl, but I find it so difficult to root for Alabama. I'm happy with the way the game turned out except for that one LSU penalty, which was definitely not cool. Penny watched the first half of the game with me until she fell asleep at halftime. It worked out well. Normally I don't get to watch them.

And now for something completely different:

At the Pike County Fair a few weeks ago. Penny's second merry-go-round ride (I rode with her on the first). She loved it. I only had enough money for two rides or she would've done it again and again. Next year I'll have to spring for one of those unlimited ride armbands or something.

November 4: Wherein I wish I had an iPhone4

Here are some recent photos taken with my Palm Pre. It's the first smart phone I have ever owned. We splurged on them when me moved to Troy last year. Like most things I own, I will use something until it completely breaks before buying another one. I'd had my old phone for maybe seven years - almost the whole time we'd lived in Tallahassee. I am definitely not the type to buy a new phone every year or even every five. But, man, I want one of those new iPhones. In the right light conditions my Pre takes ok pictures. At any time outside of those 5 to 10 minutes a day that the light is just right, they look like this. But, oh well, they still serve their storytelling function.

One of the first Halloween functions we went to this year. It was the weekend before Halloween at one of the local churches. There were lots of games, at which Penny won these sunglasses and an enormous "ruby" ring. She reminds me so much of my Aunt JJ in this picture for some reason.

After I took her photo, she insisted that I put the items on so she could take my picture.  Elizabeth Taylor would be so proud.

Here we are at another church Halloween festival. They had a petting zoo that Penny loved. I know it's not a great picture, but it's the only one I have of her in her costume and looking in my general direction.

We went to that festival with Ally and her mom and dad, and stayed for the spaghetti supper after. The girls of course had a hard time staying put at the table. Here they are playing nearby.

November 3 - Candy, Day 3

Oh my, the candy. Note to self: you cannot expect to finish a swim workout after having consumed Halloween candy all day. Not gonna happen.

So, this past weekend Tray and I ran our first 5k together. I've been running since last winter, but had not done an official race yet (time and finances being key issues there). Tray's only recently started back running, but used to run before so he actually runs better/faster/farther than I do. It was a tiny little race down in Brundidge. I think maybe 15 or 20 people ran/participated. We didn't come in last, but came close to it. We pulled up to the race site as the race started. (We thought the race started at the festival, but it actually started about 2 miles away.) We had to run to get our numbers and pin them on mid-stride. We had a really good time just being together and running, though. That was the best part, the togetherness. I run while he watches Penny, and he runs while I watch her. Our first race together was actually the first time we've ever run together, period. It was very nice. Here's to more fitness-oriented togetherness!

November 2 - Qualifiable

Quantitative methods = statistics
Qualitative methods = interview people

I'd say Penny's behavior isn't quantifiable, but I think I mean qualifiable. Right? Is that even a word? Outside of competitive sports? Anyway.

I was reading this great blog post about how parenting is wonderful because it gives you the first four years of your life back. You get to see them grow and change and go through all the developmental stages that you don't remember yourself. Those early milestones are easy to mark - when they first roll over, first walk, say their first word, first jump on two feet (*ahem*). The other stuff is less quantifiable (qualifiable?). Every so often Tray and I will remark on how much more "grown-up" Penny seems. This is now funny to us because we keep saying it every few months, and obviously she must not have been all that "grown up" the last time or we wouldn't be noticing the change this time, yet we keep feeling that way. I can't fully express what it is that makes me sit up and take notice that she's "changed," but she has. I don't know when exactly, or even what exactly, but I know it has to do with how conversational she is. Like, I guess I keep expecting simple short answers to my questions, but she busts out with a narrative - and I'm sitting there like, "where did you come from?"  Her ability to think logically has really progressed recently too. We can play "Blues Clues" together where I'll give her three clues and she has to figure out whatever it is that I'm asking her about. I mean, I don't make it difficult or anything, so she always gets it right, but I don't think she could have played it a few months ago. And she's always working her little brain to outsmart us. For example she likes going to the bank b/c she gets a lollipop. Well, obviously, we don't have anything to take to the bank very frequently, but she will ask if we can go every other day or so. She asked yesterday and Tray told her he didn't have anything to deposit. She told him we should go to the bank, take some money out, and then go and deposit it so she could get a lollipop! I guess I should be thankful she didn't tell us to work harder to make more money - lol!

November 1 - Halloween Recap

Today is the first day of the national blog posting month wherein you are supposed to post to your blog once a day for the whole month. I never discover that it is NaBloPoMo until several days of it have already passed, so I am excited to get in on it from the start this year.
November 1 seems like a good day to start since it offers a nice chance to recap Halloween. Sadly, I have no pictures of Penny from trick-or-treating currently in my possession. Her friend Ally came over along with her parents (they live out in the styx sticks)  to trick-or-treat our neighborhood. I fixed us some black bean and butternut squash chili (Halloween or no, it was still meatless Monday after all) and made a pan of flat cornbread that I cut out into ghost and pumpkin shapes using my cookie cutters. The meal got rave reviews (and by "rave reviews" I mean everyone going back for large second helpings).
We stopped by all our neighbors first and then made the loop through Woodland Circle where I usually go running. There weren't a whole lot of houses participating, but more than enough for a 3 year old and 2 year old. On the return approach, Penny actually said that she was tired of trick-or-treating. Renee and I laughed that we couldn't remember ever having had that problem. :) Most of Penny's candy "disappeared" to Tray and my respective offices overnight, but we left her with a solid handful of things. She got a couple little bags of skittles and reece's pieces that are nice b/c we can dole them out one skittle at a time for a week or more - although the red dye 40 in those does concern me. Her most favorite thing in the world though are Tootsie Rolls and she got a ton (since she could often pick what she wanted out of the bowls being presented). I did regift the large size ones and about half of the little ones to my college students, but she has enough of the little ones to last a while. It was a good haul, especially combined with everything she got from Haunted Sorority Hill, and the harvest festivals at Southside Baptist, First Baptist, Park Memorial Methodist, and Bush Memorial Methodist that we hit up in the week preceding - lol!