Slapstick

I consider physical humor to be the basest kind in existence, but I'm in the minority around here.

Slapstick from Be Like the Squirrel, Girl on Vimeo.

I wonder if Mummenschanz is hiring.

The 'Ween '09

This Halloween, in honor of life in the Beehive State, we dressed in bee-themed costumes. I found cute costumes online for myself and Penny, and Britt wore his coveralls with an actual beekeeper's hat and veil, which I bought from a local bee supply place. I consider it an investment, because who knows? Maybe someday we will have an apiary. It could happen!


Damn, those tights are cute.

I tried to get all Martha Stewart and do my hair in a beehive, but that didn't work, as my hair is not really long enough. But I DID make my own little bees out of yellow and black pipe cleaners (using white ones for the wings), which we attached to my costume and Britt's hat. Take THAT, Martha. Unfortunately, in the craziness that unfolded on Halloween, we neglected to get a picture of the three of us in our bee attire. Photo Op FAIL!


Ummm...hi.

We went to Penny's cousin's house, so they could trick-or-treat together:

(Penny's cousin, and her Uncle David, before the fun had even begun).

I mentioned before that Penny is easily frightened by things, things like pumpkins and elevators. She completely freaked at the sight of a pair of those Groucho Marx glasses, so I wasn't sure how she was going to handle seeing people in costume, coming right up to the door, shouting for candy. But once she got the concept of putting candy in other kids' buckets (fun!), and went to a couple of houses and got candy for HER bucket (REALLY fun!), things were a little less scary.


Our terribly frightening pumpkins.

A word about candy. Don't get me wrong, we love dessert around here, but candy is not really something we keep in the house as a general rule, because if we did, I would eat it all day long. I was naively hoping to keep Penny in the dark as far as the existence of candy is concerned (Have some delicious apple slices!). But my best made plans were laid to waste, because she would catch me or Britt sneaking some candy on the side, and would request it. And not wanting to be hypocrites, we would share with her, so now she's developed a taste for Reese's Pieces. When she got home, she meticulously took the candy out of her bucket and put it back in, over and over, all the while not realizing or caring that it was edible, which was a relief. And I have to say, most of her candy was crap. Come on, where's the good stuff? There were no Reese's Pieces in sight.

I just thought of a story I heard about my first Halloween as a baby. My parents were destitute college students, and I was 4 months old, so they taped a bunch of leaves to my pajamas and took me around their neighborhood, so they could get some candy. Isn't that desperately sad, and funny?


Suspiciously eyeing the dry ice, which was "Na Arie." (Not scary.)

The girls came back from their trip around the neighborhood, and then Britt and I made an undramatic exit so we could attend our grown-up party. Penny's Aunt and Uncle graciously offered to let Penny sleep over, so we wouldn't have to worry about driving back across town at a very late hour to wake her (and them) up. I wasn't sure I would be able to handle having Penny away from us all night, but she had a blast with her cousin. And we had a blast with our friends. When we picked Penny up in the morning, she had slept through the night, and had already eaten pancakes for breakfast. Her toenails were even painted bright red, so it must have been one exciting sleep-over.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Can you tell I'm slightly excited for Halloween?

This year, we have plans...to go OUT. I'm struggling with a tiny bit of guilt for plotting to go to a party for GROWN UPs. The plan is to take the little one around to friends' houses, so Penny can practice the fine tradition of begging for candy, and then we're going to take her to Grandma and Grandpa's, so they can Trick or Treat together in their neighborhood and put her to bed at their house, while we are out having FUN. I'm not ready for Penny to spend the whole night away from us, so we'll sneak in to take her back home after the party. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

I've been wanting to get into Halloween more than in years past, partially because Penny is getting older and can understand more things, sort of. She doesn't really know that candy exists yet, and she dislikes Jack O'Lanterns. Also, she can't say "Trick Or Treat," but maybe people will accept her very polite "Please?" Which sounds like "Eeees?"

But the truth is, I have always loved this holiday, because it is the one time of year when it's ok to pretend to be someone you're not. As someone who has only recently accepted the person she's become, this holiday holds a considerable amount of significance for me. My mom, the creative genius, used to come up with the most amazing ideas for costumes. She would start by asking us what we wanted to be, and then try to make our ideas come to life, using ordinary items, or by sewing costumes for us. It wasn't until I was an adult that I actually paid money for a store-bought costume. An adult who can't sew and whose creative genius of a mother has died. But this is not meant to be a sob story.

I distinctly remember my costumes over the years, from the various incarnations of Princess Leia, to the Gypsy Woman whose identity I assumed to attend my first teenage Halloween party. Some of the more outstanding costumes made for my sisters were the Swiss Army Knife, the Sandwich, the Alligator, and the Spider, which was hand-sewn with the right number of legs and lots of googly eyes.

But the first Halloween I remember well was when I was in Kindergarten. I wanted to be a fairy princess, so my mom used my dance recital costume and made wings and a crown out of leftover Christmas tinsel. Penny's Aunt Meg was only 2, so we were Fairy Princesses together, naturally. Our wands were wooden mallets from our toy xylophone with tinsel around them. The best part was the Halloween costume parade at school. I remember walking down the street with the other kids in my class, feeling so proud and so beautiful, just like a real fairy princess.



We've upheld the fine tradition of pumpkin carving, another talent of my mom's. We carved pumpkins at our friends' house this weekend, and feasted on roasted pumpkin seeds, which Penny devoured. She was fascinated by the pumpkins, but did not enjoy the sight after that first incision, when the top of the pumpkin is pulled away from rest, complete with pumpkin goo and innards dangling from the stem. No, she did not like that one bit. Later, she was entertained by the pumpkin's face, because she likes faces, but did not like to see it lit, in the dark, with its glowing eyes.

So we've been having discussions about things that are "not scary." She will be babbling about something, then stop, and look at me with the most sincere and serious expression on her little face, shake her head, point her finger, and say "No, Nair-ie." Nope, that's not scary. Not really, baby.

Nesting Doll

Sorry for the "shaky cam" on this one, I was holding the doll with my right hand and trying to operate the camera with my left. Penny prefers to see what's going on behind the screen of the camera, so she's been hard to film lately.



The littlest doll is her favorite, obviously.

Communication

Time keeps on slipping (slipping, slipping) into the future, and things around here are better than ever. Communication is getting easier all the time - when Penny asks for something, I can understand her, which she thinks is the greatest thing ever, to be finally understood, and I think it's great that she is communicating, and I get all excited, and then she gets more excited, so it's a nice little positive feedback loop. She's been trying to say everything we say, and sometimes she comes pretty close. Other times, she's not even speaking the same language, but has what we call in the business, "pattern perception," which means she gets the number of syllables right. It's so exciting for a speech nerd like me.

Speaking of nerdy speech things, I've been keeping track of the words Penny uses consistently (of COURSE I do!) and she has 50 words and 16 signs. The kid blows me away, and pretty soon it will be impossible to keep track of everything she says. Her "b" sounds are all "ds." So, "belly" is "de-yee," "buckle" is "duck-oh," "baby" is "deedee." And her favorite thing in the world, her binky, is "dink-dink." For which she will plaintively wail, when she's tired: "DINK-DINK!" (Yes, we still use the binky for sleep). She will say "Wok," and then I have to figure out if she's talking about her sock, a rock, or going on a walk? I can usually guess correctly, and she's thrilled, but I have the feeling Britt and I are going to be the only ones who understand her for a while. Meanwhile, she understands everything.


Don't read the opinion section, it will only make you angry.

And she can sing! And she follows commands! Penny can throw trash in the garbage or put clothes in the laundry basket when I ask. She's become my slave! And her songs sound like actual songs! She hums the alphabet to herself in the car, and when she's sleepy, she will hum the lullaby we sing to her every night. She doesn't have the words, but she has the notes and the inflection (what's the musical term for that?), and it's so sweet to hear.

Other things Pen likes to do:
Playing dress up with my shoes, and any other article of clothing (including underwear) she can put around her neck.
"Cooking" and feeding her menagerie of dollies and animals.
Stacking up towers of blocks or cups and knocking them down.
Taking apart the nesting dolls and demanding I put them back together for her, x1000.
Playing "whispering secrets," which consists of her lying on the floor and us whispering things in her ear to make her laugh. I don't know why she has to lie on the floor, but she won't receive secrets any other way.
"Talking" on the phone, or her toy remote, which she thinks is a phone.


Penny unlocks the secret of the cannibalistic nesting dolls.

I get lonely in the car when she's at her Grandma's. I'm so used to hearing her jabbering, laughing and singing, that when she's not with me, I feel like something is missing. I miss her and the sound of her voice. She's my little friend, you see.

The Valley of the Goblins

Goblin Valley is one of our favorite places on the planet, and it's practically in our back yard. In the spring and fall, the weather is perfect, so we try to go at least once a year. Our friends have a really cool pop-up trailer, and they invited us to join them on a little excursion into the Valley of the Goblins.





This trip to the desert was much smoother for Penny than our last venture. She's becoming more independent, so I didn't have a little monkey baby clinging to me the whole time. She also likes her friend Niels, who shares his trucks with her.


Heading into the trailer....

Goblin Valley is truly a geologic playground. We had a nice picnic lunch at the overlook after wandering around the hoodoos. Hoodoo? Youdoo.


Staying hydrated is key for survival in the desert.

Plans are in the works for a return trip soon. It will be fun to see Penny scrambling around the rock formations when she's older. It's hard to imagine her being that big, but she's getting bigger and faster and more agile all the time.

The Fair

September wouldn't be complete without a trip to the state fair. We put Penny in the trusty backpack and ventured out on the last night the fair was in town. Many of the animals had already gone, but we were still able to show Penny the goats and the rabbits, eat some funnel cakes, and do some people watching. The demolition derby was sold out, but we could hear it and saw a little bit of the action behind the scenes. Ah, the fair. Where else can you see award winning amateur art, eat a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and listen to the sounds of revving engines and people cheering?







It was nice to be there around dusk, when the sun was setting. I was tempted to try the carousel, but after our recent Lagoon experience, I decided against it. We'll wait a little while before we try that again.

Traveling

Whenever I feel like complaining about the 7 hour drive we make on a regular basis to Wyoming with our baby, I think of my friend Alisha, who flew from Guam with her baby to visit her family and friends here in the states. She traveled 30 hours ONE WAY with her 10 month old. I have flown once with Penny, it was an hour and a half, and it was the longest flight of my life. I don't know how Alisha did it, but she did, and she was even coherent despite the layovers and time changes and ALL OF THAT FLYING.


Penny liked Xavier quite a bit, and who can blame her? He's really cute and a seasoned traveler already.

Our trip to Wyoming was fine - during the mere 7 hour drive, I honed my skills of entertaining Penny while Britt drove, and Penny did well, although whenever we stopped, she didn't especially want to get back in her seat. We got to see Opa and Grandma Shirley, bathe Penny in their magnificent jetted tub, watch some of the TV shows we never get to watch after she went to bed (I love vacation!), and went on a little outdoor adventure in the badlands for some fossil hunting.


One of the various wind farms along I-80, harnessing Wyoming's most abundant resource.

Britt got to partake in his favorite activity, fly-fishing. Penny and I went up to the fish hatchery, while Britt took to the creek. The hatchery has changed a lot since I was a kid, but you can still feed some of the big rainbow trout, and Penny got a kick out of that.

On the trip home, the travel-sized MagnaDoodle from Opa and Shirley was a godsend. Penny discovered that scribbling and erasing is fun, and I was even able to do some reading on the drive home. Huzzah!

The Reset Button

Today was one of those days where I needed a "redo" within an hour of being awake. Do mornings come with reset buttons? No? Folds arms. Harrumph.

I discovered one of the cats had thrown up on our bed (Eww! They usually have the decency to puke on the floor) and was cleaning it up by stripping the bed and wadding the soiled sheets into a ball and carrying them downstairs. Upon shoving the sheets into the washer, I noticed some water was on the floor of the basement, water that was coming from the kitchen sink upstairs. By this point, Penny was hollering because she finds the baby gate positively insulting when I use it to block her entry to the kitchen. I was trying to explain to her (over the ruckus of her yelling) that I was pulling dangerous chemicals out from under the sink, and didn't really need her in the kitchen at the moment, but the screaming is really helping, thanks. After strategically positioning a bucket under the hose beneath the sink, I was able to calm Penny down, which worked until she stubbed her toe on her high chair...at which point, my mother-in-law called.

It's always fun to take a phone call while your child is crying in the background. She asked if she could do anything to help, and I honestly couldn't answer, because I knew the only reasonable solution would be to go back to bed and start all over.

Needless to say, the day improved.

In case you were wondering, Britt is saying:
"I'm a little farmhand with no arms
I hope that no one tries to give me charms
When I get all fogged up
I hear the alarm
(Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop)
Tip your server and then go out."

Don't ask. He does that on purpose because he knows it makes me crazy when he doesn't sing the RIGHT words to songs.

Do What the Baby Wants, and No One Gets Hurt

Our recent adventures included a trip to Lagoon for Labor Day, one of our favorite holidays. Penny, who decided within minutes that she hated ALL of the rides, got to hang out with her daddy and mingle with fellow Teamsters, and I got to ride on some sweet rides with my friend Mindy. There was much shrieking and giggling and excited clapping. My heart rate hasn't raced like that a long time, and I had forgotten how thrilling those little shots of adrenaline can be.

Penny didn't even like the carousel, although she might have handled it better if I could have stayed on the horse with her, but that was against the rules. I had to clumsily dismount the horse, and when it was painfully clear she was not going to stay on the horse alone, we were relegated to the bottom caste of the carousel animal kingdom: some little bear with a cart that sort of shimmied unsteadily back and forth. She fussed and complained before, during, and after the ride.

To be fair, we didn't get off to the best start. We thought we'd see if Penny would ride any of the little rides at Kiddieland, but the majority of them do not accommodate parents, so the kiddies have to be brave enough to fly solo. I could have left her on Bulgy the Whale alone, sobbing in distress, but I didn't have the heart to do that to her.

Hopefully by next year, she will be a little more adventurous. I don't want to force Penny to do things she doesn't feel comfortable with, but I want her to enjoy amusement parks as much as I do.


(Apropos of nothing, Penny performing dental work on Po, with a pencil.)

But I had a blast! I want to go again soon. Who wants to go with me?