Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go...

LB has allergies or a cold. Whichever, she has quite the resounding honk when she put nose to tissue. Humorous.

Earlier today there was an news helicopter hovering above our building for about 15 minutes. No one still knows why.

I have a Cheerio hooked on a paper-clip dangling from a cut out of a mini birdhouse tapped to my monitor. It is a present from TT so that I never go hungry. I'm not the only weirdo around here.

I want to be home now. Grammy, Frank and Lexie are going on another walk. To the Indian Hills playground. It is a gorgeous day outside. I am so jealous, that when I think about it I get butterflies in my stomach.


Word(s) of the day: SONOROUS

Lexie log: Hey, I forgot to post pictures this morning. Oops. -- This weekend was fun. Saturday went like this...Slept in until 9:00 am. Woke up to Lexie, "Mommy?", ...Me, "Yes?", Lexie, "Cereal?". I made her a bowel of mixed grain cereal, and while she fed herself I did the dishes, put away the dishes, fed the cats, cleaned the microwave, took out the trash and recycling, cleaned up the kitchen counter, and cleaned up the table. Then Lexie took a bath while I did some more picking up and got ready. Then we all piled into the car and went to the Evergreen Aviation museum in McMinville. My goodness what a spendy entrance fee. It cost 22.00 for the three of us. My only regret is that Lexie did not get a good nap before we arrived. She had three major temper tantrums. She doesn't yet understand the no touch part of a museum and the only thing between her and the airplanes was a chain rope hanging one foot off the ground. She was far too excited (mixed with tired) to sit still in her chair. I tried carrying her for a while, but she was still too squirmy. She walked holding hands for all of ten paces before the duck and dive maneuver. This is how it works: Fall to the floor and roll, while still being held by the hand. Then just lay there waiting for time to pass and the hand to drop. Then start inching you way on your belly, as if no one will notice, off in some odd sort of escape attempt. I even tried letting her walk on her own, she is pretty good at this sometimes, but it wasn't even a nanosecond before she made a bee-line towards and under the barrier chain. So, then a full blown tantrum (no. 1) as I made way for the first exit labeled "no re-entry". Luckily we had our hand stamped. We had a nice ineffective chat on discipline and behavior. I made a lot of intelligent points on the subject. Lexie was far more impressed with the outside wall composed of cemented river rock. She proceeded to touch each rock with her index finger while saying, "Rock, rock, rock...". So we went back in after our little cool down exercise. This time she went into full tantrum (no. 2) immediately upon being set in her stroller. I decided I could ride this one out. For anyone who may have read my previous blogs, I mention about the fact that I never seem to notice anyone paying attention to her tantrums in public. Strike that. We got all kinds of scowling looks, mostly making me feel like I had done some horrible thing to my child. I believe Frank even mentioned the fact that she was two in loud voice. I walked around for what seemed like 20 minutes, but was probably closer to 10. She finally realized she was not going to win this round and endured sitting quietly in the stroller. We had a pleasant tour and pictures around the whole museum, and ended up in the "hands on" children's area. We strategically picked the exhibit for last. The first thing we did, was put her in the cockpit of a real, miniature airplane, with real controls. It had gauges, levers, pedals...everything but the steering mechanism. She was in heaven. We were out of battery juice in the camera. We fooled the camera into working by waiting a few minutes and then trying again. I believe we got a couple pictures before this trick didn't work anymore. We haven't looked at them yet. The most amazing thing was that as we were watching her, she figured out how to work the controls to get the wing flaps and tail/rudder thing to move. She used her feet on these pedals and some other thing... And I was dumbfounded. Still am. Of course, we would have had to stay there for hours, until she crawled out of the cockpit on her own, or fell asleep in it, in order to avoid the next tantrum (no. 3). We literally had to extract her from the plane kicking and screaming. She did not stop until we left the building. Frank, I don't know what he must have been thinking, wanted me to wait for him in the lobby of the snack shop while he bought us some Sobe. I held her riggling in my arms, on my shoulder, kicking, making that horrible Pterodactylus scream. I was confused, but stayed there, never hearing him tell me to forget it and go outside because I could hear nothing but her. I guess that was my little "I told you so" childish behavior. Oh well, she stopped the moment we got outside. We went and looked at some tanks (military vehicles, not storage) behind the building, then to the car. She fell asleep moments after getting back on the road. I really need to remember to bring the video camera more often. I have some mental block because we have not transferred any of the digital movies to VHS yet. It is already an extremely daunting project - ten or more tapes - to watch, organize and label. I think I have unconsciously given some ultimatum that I won't record anymore until I get this done. Sound like a good Grammy Monday project.


Today I'm grateful for Frank and Lexie, museums and other attractions, weekends, happiness, and fish.