New post

... just because I have not posted an enormously large picture of sweet Annie in awhile - this girl has been busy!

Run & play

GeoTagged, [N36.11683, E97.07690]

Today I dropped Annie off at school and as soon as we got there she got excited. Annie loves her school and most mornings she grabs her little lunch box & stands by the door ready to leave the house 15 minutes early. This morning was no different - we could barely get her hands washed after we got to her class before she was trying to crawl off the step stool & start playing. Today was funny because when I sat her down the two little boys in her class ran over to her, she laughed, & then they started chasing her on their unsteady toddler legs - the whole group of them giggling like crazy.

I was insanely jealous of three things:
1. Their schedule: play, snack, group reading, singing, play, lunch, nap, play
2. Their energy - I did not get my morning coffee & I was feeling it.
3. The joy they were getting out of just seeing each other. These three had all seen each other the day before but they were SOOOOOO excited to be back together for another day.

Youth while not wasted on the young is appreciated by those who are older.

Lessons Learned

1. A 3 mile walk in the evening for fun when newlywed, pregnant, & new parents with a baby that sleeps can be done & enjoyed in 45 minutes to nearly an hour (depending on how pregnant one is). This same walk becomes much more time consuming & eventful (stopping frequently to point at cracks in the sidewalk, look for where the random dog bark came from, tottering with lightning speed never before seen by your parents, who have to rush after you, close to a busy road that is at least 8 feet from the sidewalk, etc...) when you have a toddler of 16 months.
2. Never let the aforementioned toddler who is very determined & at times stubborn out of the stroller because she will prove you wrong & walk over a mile on precious chubby legs.

A little bit country and a little bit rock and roll...

As a kid there were quite a few Saturdays that my sisters and I accompanied my father up to the lot to work cattle.  When we were younger we spent the majority of the time playing around the hay bales and horse tanks but as we got older we got different jobs to help process the cattle.  While I moaned and groaned about doing it at the time and complained about the smells and the mess of it all I look back at that time fondly because it was time spent with my sisters and Dad.  Here are a few pictures from a weekend not long ago snapped of Annie outside in Sayre up at my dad's lot that now has kid-sized tools for the grandkids that were strangely never available when I was a child...  She shows you can be working like a ranch hand and still sparkle like a rock star!

Jelly shoes

GeoTagged, [N36.10215, E97.11011]

We had a picnic yesterday on the OSU campus & Annie wore her new jellies. If you are reading this & have never owned or worn a pair of jelly shoes (unless you are male) you missed out on one of life's great joys for a young girl. Back to the topic at hand though - Annie bless her heart inherited her mother's lack of grace in new shoes but she met the challenge head on (literally, she tripped many times) by trying out steps!