Another busy day in the Varnes household - we dropped off recycling at Ashland Nature Center, and then of course walked all over the place. We saw tadpoles and bees and dandelions (oh my!) and generally had a very slooooow walk. Dandelions were the reason. Of course. But Alex is working on her bouquet-arranging skills, and has gotten pretty good if I do say so myself. Daisies, dandelions and a spiderwort make a darn good wildflower bouquet, if only until they wilt a half-hour later...

We had to stop at the fresh new Friendly's right down the road from here, and we all had our own sundaes, which was, as always, a treat in more than one way. But ice cream washes out of clothes and calories are burned by chasing after the little one, so everyone was a winner.

We hit the playground next and Alex got to watch a remote control car race around the baseball field. Very exciting stuff.

Then off home for a nap (Alex and Jeff) and dinner, a walk through the neighborhood, a bubble bath and "goodnight". She's talking about only she knows what, but it's a lively conversation that won't end any time soon, I'm sure.

I asked Alex if she wanted a shirt (she naps and sleeps in just a diaper now because she gets too hot otherwise) and she very specifically requested her silly monkey shirt. Hmm, it's getting small, but the sentiment is appropriate, so I'll go for it.

We've had a busy day with lots of time-outs, our latest fun thing to do every time she crosses the line which is only all the time now that she's got the terrible twos to live up to. I can hear the distant clinking of Grampy's medals around a smaller neck, so I should go...

Uh-oh, Alex just said something that sounded like........en-uh-pee nap. I'm pretty sure she's learning how to spell, and that could spell trouble for us. :l

Alex got a new outfit - here she is "posing" with it on.

She also has a new favorite word - millipede. We were moving some old compost pile lumber into the woods and found at least four of these crazy-looking guys underneath. After a few scrapes with potential death in the form of a toddler picking them up, we left the millipedes to a relatively peaceful existence digging through our old dried up carrots and coffee filters.

A good time was had by all.

For some reason, Alex has Spring Beauties, these cute little pinky-white wildflowers, on the brain. She talks about them a lot, only she calls them Spring Yuties. I've explained again and again, but she likes the way she says it, so that's what they are.

We went to the library today (puzzle stealing at its peak - the police car puzzle piece was always in her hand) and the playground (alone today because the clouds looked like they were going to let loose a rainstorm of biblical proportions even though they never did) and we played in the yard. She found a digger bee and picked it up. She actually grasped it by the abdomen in the best possible way - well, not for the bee, but for a human grasping a bee - and no one got hurt. Though the males apparently don't sting, and this was a boy bee for sure. He was small, that's how I know.

Anyway...

Right before bed, I was holding Alex in a standing position over my chest and she started air-running like crazy. Very cute, also very scary for my chestal regions, but I managed to escape unharmed and she had a great time.

She's currently fighting sleep. Should be a good night once she gives in.

Here are a few pictures from the last few days. Alex is finding her evil side, and I'm very tired and a bit impatient as a result, so pictures are all for now. In the words of Her Heiny-ness "I like Daddy Princess cup." Indeed.

A weekend of much outside with sand and flowers was had, with a little bit of going out for lunch thrown in for fun. We explored a new park - is there no land in Delaware a DuPont -hasn't- grown a garden on and then left to the public? - and picked our fill of buttercups. Yellow buttercups. Important to make that distinction, or at least according to Alex is is.

Tonight, after an incident involving a dirt-encrusted trowel, play sand and a tiny mouth, we headed inside to read some books. We read one of her favorite animal picture books, and when asked what a picture of a snail was, she told me it was a volley ball. Hmmm. If you say so......

Busy day today - from zoo to plant shopping (unsuccessful but fun for both of us) a nap in the garage (with the cats lurking around and getting locked in for a while) to the playground and lots of time out in the yard. Goats and ice cream were the most obvious highlights, with a green bug on the hostas almost right up there. Enjoy the pics!

And definitely check out the Brandywine Zoo in person. http://brandywinezoo.org
As Alex would say, too much fun.

Alex had her first lollipop today, which she declared delicious. It was grape. It was also all over her hands because she kept switching hands while eating it. Lovely. Unfortunately for her, we got a lollipop from the pharmacist as we were waiting for her antibiotics - she's got a nasty sore throat that kept her up most of last night. And the rest of us, of course.

She taking an early nap right now, and maybe that's what I should do too...

Nothing too earth-shattering today. Library trip = lots of flopping on bean bags with random puzzle pieces. Lunch = dipping pot pie noodles (nootles?) in pot pie gravy. Bath time = declaring bubbles to be "delicious" and eating as many as possible before they are all gone. And she got her first haircut. Just bangs, and I think I even got them mostly right! Well, no more hair in her eyes anyway, and that's as right as you can get when you combine the sharpest pair of scissors with a toddler shaking her head. :i I'll post a new bangs pic as soon as I find the camera again. But don't get too excited, she still won't smile for the camera so they're all quick snaps of her turning away from the camera.

*There we go, a very typical picture of Alex. "Geez Mommy, fine, here, I'm looking. Now are you done? I have things to get sticky."

Busy Busy

Alex has had a busy couple of days - which of course means Mommy has had a busy couple of days too. Which means Mommy goes to bed early to recover, thus not posting faithfully to the blog. But here's a quick recap for those of you who might not have been part of the busy. Or those of you that were, because you might have missed something crucial. :)

We started our busy weekend with friends. Megan, Scott and their too-cute daughters Angela and Elyse. (Omigosh, I just realized I'm only marginally sure how to spell Elyse, so please forgive me if it was a wild guess gone wrong!!!) Well, the girls have hung out together once before, but not at our house, so that was about enough excitement for everyone. New cats to chase around? Heck yeah that's fun! A toddler-perfect coffee table to eat each others food at? Oh yeah, bring it on! White carpet to track dirt and ill-advised chocolate cakes crumbs all over? Perrrrrrfect!

I should qualify all this by saying that Alex does all of the above on a daily, heck, hourly basis, so I'm not complaining, I'm just kind of amused that three times the crazy wasn't as bad as it could have been. These girls, my little angel-baby included, were very well-behaved, which is no surprise, but certainly nice for all us adults who get to watch the show and clean up afterwards.

There was no blood, fires, broken bones, dislocated tails, anything tragic besides a (rather comical if you ask me and probably Alex too because she's got my sense of humor) collision of two-year-old heads resulting in a bit of crying and wailing by Elyse and much shrillness from Alex, who was only trying to compete for the loudest toddler award. It was a three-way tie for that, by the way. Ok, maybe Elyse and Alex should share.

Anyhoo, the "walk" around the neighborhood picking flowers, running recklessly down hills and shuffling through the gutters was only one of many other highlights far too numerous to chronicle. A good time was had by all, including all the adults, and I hope to have many more fun days like that. :) And maybe a few at Sesame Place too!!!! The rain can't go away soon enough.

Speaking of rain, Alex and I trekked through the rain yesterday for a visit to Grammy-Grampy's house for lots (and I do mean lots) of food and fun. Emphasis on the food, as Alex is apparently growing and ate everything in sight. Rare were the moments she didn't have a cookie or cracker in her sticky hands, and also rare were moments of quiet, especially once Auntie WuWu and Uncle A-dum got there. Alex was in her element - people were watching her every move and spoiling her like it was going out of style.

She got a butterfly from Lu and Adam which will (eventually) hang in her room. She got pot pie from Grammy-Grampy, which will be eaten at lightning speed today. As will the banana bars.

Highlights of the day include running, running, running and shrieking, shrieking, shrieking and running, and more running. And tickling. And shrieking.

And lots of kissies for everyone, Aggie-dog included. Well, ok, everyone excluding Grammy. Even Mommy got a few rare kisses - truly a miracle - but Alex knew better than to lavish kisses on Grammy because she wants her to savor the few kissies she gets. Or maybe she was being difficult. Highly unlikely but still.........

We stayed all day, and Alex absorbed all that attention like a sponge, not daring to sleep at all in case she'd miss a tickle or tease. Somehow she did actually sleep last night - shocking!

And now, back to boring old normal days. I see perhaps a library visit in our future, as it's still very wet outside.