The Big Swing

So apparently Chris has been working with A and swinging. Here is a quick video of her attempting to swing all by herself. Of course, she can have no help. She does a pretty decent job for being all of 20 pounds.

Death of Salesmen

As we have researched and test-driven cars, we decided how lacking the sales people here are. It is really quite amazing to us. We want someone to sell me the vehicle. While I may not be the best at speaking "car talk" I do understand some basic physics and get the general idea most of the time. Simply answering my question about why I should buy your car with, "Well, the amount you see on the road lets the brand speak for themselves" is not an acceptable answer. Especially when I follow it up with, "Well what about your brand makes everyone buy them?" I may not have a three year old yet, but I can ask why questions and string questions together with the best of them. I noticed this trend several years ago in Chicago, and it just seems to be getting worse. While I don't always want people trying to sell me stuff, if I walk up to you and ask about a product, sell it to me. Tell me what makes it good, give me some numbers, give me some real life stuff that it may work for, anything other than apathy. Unfortunately with our economy going from a goods economy to a service economy, salesmen are more important than they realize.

Speaking of those not quite three yet (and really about a year and a half off of three), we are starting to get definite sounds. She doesn't quite say "Thank you" or "You're welcome," but if you give her something she'll give you two sounds that are a clear indication of "thank you," and if you say thank you to her, she'll give you something that is a clear indication of "welcome" back. It is sweet.

We continue to have issues with her being bitten at daycare. If it was occasionally it wouldn't bother us so much, but for the past few weeks (since they got a new girl in her class) it has been at least a weekly thing. Yesterday she got bit twice. The daycare providers have tried telling me that she didn't get bitten, or that she bit herself. Yesterday Chris actually dressed her in long sleeves to discourage biting (since they bite what skin is available normally), but that clearly didn't work. Hopefully I will be able to get a new place soon.

Work has been good but hectic for both Chris and me. We have some semblance of a schedule and it doesn't leave for much time, but we are almost to fall break for him. I think it is the week of Oct 8. He is looking forward to it as his long days are starting to drag on him. He is also being jerked around about time (though he is working near 50 hours a week this term because of scheduling mishaps on the department, both stockroom people are) and taking time off as comp time.

We are really starting to see the trees change color. This makes my drive pretty. I really like seeing the colors spread across the mountains. It is also making for some pretty runs. I did seven miles this morning, and felt pretty good after it. :) I let A and Chris sleep, and they enjoyed it. Even though it rained some on me, it was good to get out and run. I've been running at lunch and there are a few guys there who will run with me.

With the trees changing color bring a lot of other fall activities. We are trying to decide what to make A for Halloween this year. I'm all about not having to buy or make something for her this time around. She still fits into her blue stuff from last year, so we are contemplating doing a Cornish Pixie again. Any ideas?

Well, I should get to the shower and bed. Let me know what ideas you have about Halloween costumes. :)

The Big Slide

This weekend A and I got to spend a lot of time at the park.  We got to go on Saturday evening despite a chance of rain and we stayed till sunset.  She is getting very good at climbing on all the toys.  In fact she is getting a bit brave for my taste.  Sunday she watched some older kids going down the big slides and she decided to go down herself. Now normally she asks me to slide down with her on the big slides.  This time she just sat down, turned to smile at me, and made me watch helplessly as she slid down and almost launched off the slide onto the ground.  Lucky for me she flipped onto her stomach at the very bottom of the slide and caught herself.  Well of course she loved it and raced to the ladder to climb up and do it again.  At least this time she let me watch from the ground where I could help her.  It is fun to watch her discover new things like this. Every time she does it makes me even more hesitant about trying to hold her back.  I want to keep her safe but she gets so excited as she learns new things and overcomes challenges. 

She and Carolyn also watched their first OU football game of the season together.  She enjoyed signaling for a touchdown, although not often enough.  She finds it hilarious to watch her mom yell and get excited like that. She watched the whole game, which means she was up waaay past bedtime. Carolyn kept trying to explain different aspects of the game to her, most importantly, about Norman and being a Sooner one day.

More Park Time

Well, we are going to the park a lot! Yesterday Chris and A went while I took a nap, and today we went as a family. She is learning to slide all on her own, and would rather crawl up the slide than go down it most of the time. She has also discovered teeter-totters, so there is a lot of fun to be had there. Today was apparently "little kid on the big kid toys" day at the park as the younger ones (under 5) were the main group of kids there. She got to climb in a tunnel and go down some higher steeper slides than are in the 2-5 year old section of the park. Naturally she wanted to swing and swing and swing.

For Labor Day we didn't really do anything special. We just stayed around the house. Last Sunday we went to Grandfather Mountain and got to see the animals. The pumas and the bears were out in full force so it was neat to see them. Monday we went to the park and just had a low key day, something we all needed. A and I went for a run in the morning and she waved and smiled at all the people we passed.

Chris is slowly getting a routine down for work this semester. It looks like it will be one full of long days. Since A and I are gone for about 11 hours a day this may work out so that he doesn't have to hike to work each day.

Work for me has been interesting. We may finally be getting me trained to work with the QC people. However, for 3 of the 4 days last week we were down a man in QA so I got to fill in for him. We labeled and packaged all day long, and tomorrow I think we are doing the same thing. On Friday we were going crazy enough to create a Stomp-eqsue rhythm from all the mundane things we were doing -- making sure the carton was full, opening cartons, closing cartons, etc.

This past week A threw up for the first time. Friday morning about four she threw up once and then again around six. She was running a slight temperature, and it definitely seems to be out of her system. Chris stayed home with her, and apparently they had a good time.

Overall we are finally starting to see some signs of fall. The weather has changed and we are getting into the 40s at night and only up into the 60s or 70s during the day. We are seeing some leaves start to change as well. I hope the weather is breaking where you are and it isn't blazing hot or inclimate much longer.

SLIDE!!!

I had to work this morning but this afternoon we got to go to the park. It had been a few weeks for me to come though A and Chris came last Sunday. I didnt run, blade today, I just played with baby girl. Of course one of the first things she did was fall and scrape her head pretty good. She wanted to slide, slide, and slide today. No swinging. Apparently she didn't want to be put to sleep. She got to play on the big kid toys since there weren't many people around. She loves the big twisty covered slide that she and Chris go down. This picture is one of them oming out the end that I played with a little. Overal this week went well. It was a mixture of good and bad, and good to get back to work for me. A really liked being in daycare this week, so that is nice. Chris had a busy week as we are trying to figure out the new schedule.