At the Beach

Here are pictures from Meghan's trip to the beach in Florida! When we first sat down in the sand, Meghan wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She got it on her hands and looked and looked and waved and waved, trying to get it off, then began to whine. So we went to the water to rinse it off. She wasn't sure she liked that either. I could tell by the death grip on my leg. But she didn't scream too much so we sat and played in the water. The sea foam proved to be the biggest hit. Time and time again Meghan plucked and picked at it, trying to pick it up. There was only one troublesome wave that smashed both of us, drenching Meghan. But she didn't even cry then. Just looked at me with a bewildered expression. Before long, she licked the salt from her lips and then began sucking on her arm, enjoying the flavor.

Lounge Lizard

No, Meghan hasn't been out drinking. But she will sit and lounge in our office chair if we set her there. She sat still for a good 15 minutes while I played DDR. That was helpful because she also likes to play, but she doesn't understand what it means to take turns. I don't like to step on her, so this is a good alternative, especially when she's lethargic enough to stay put for a while. We captured photographic evidence of the phenomenon. Enjoy.

Queen of the Mountain!

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Meghan has discovered the joys of climbing the stairs. There is nothing she likes better than going up them, then shouting her victory to the world. The only problem is getting her to come down them again...

From the Mouth of Babes

Meghan is starting to say things that sound an awful lot like words. We were at the pond on our way to the doctor's office today and saw some ducks. Meghan started calling at them "Duk!" or maybe it was "Duh!" Either way, it sounded convincing.
But this morning was the best. Meghan is the early riser in our family. She gets up at 6:30 or 7:00 regularly while Kyle and I continue to try to sleep. This leaves Meghan to play by herself. Determined to remedy this, she crawled over me and sat by Kyle's head. She then bopped him in the face and shouted "DA! Geupp!" which sounds for all the world like "Dad! Get Up!" As I was laughing she crawled over to me, smacked ME in the head and shouted "MA! Geupp!" Needless to say, we weren't in bed for much longer.

Reading Is Fun

More Meghan

Our New Cat

OK, we don't really have a cat. We think this fella's family must have gone on vacation this weekend and threw him outside to do some camping of his own. Our house must look like his because he came to visit us every night from Friday until Sunday. We gave him a bit of tuna-juice and bread since we don't have cat food. He seemed to think that was an invitation to come in because he tried his best to bolt inside whenever the door was open.

She's Just So Cute

Here is Meghan all dressed for Church. She's just as cute as can be. But she doesn't like headbands - this one came off barely twenty seconds after the photo shoot.

Kitchen Helper

Meghan has recently discovered how to open the cabinet doors. The result? My pots and pans all over the kitchen floor. Sometimes she scares herself when she pulls them out and they clatter on the ground. The mess isn't too much of a hassle, but it does mean I need to baby proof the cabinets with the cleaning supplies.

Hot Water Blues

Imagine waking up one morning, feeling that sleepy oiliness that only one thing can cure: a nice hot shower. So, you climb into the shower, shivering a bit in the morning air. You turn on the water and then - BAM! Cold Water! Cold Freezing Cold Alaska Cold Mountain Lake Cold Water! Cold! But don't worry, it'll warm up in a minute, right? WRONG! Because your hot water heater has busted and there is no hot water. There won't be hot water for five days - three days before the plumber guy comes to even look at it. Horrible story. Even more terrible because its true.

Last Friday our water heater gave up the ghost. You can't see it in this picture but there are soot marks on the wall where it left evidence of its death throws. Later, I learned the reason of its death - it was because it was 25 years old. It had been installed in 1982. So we had to tough it out for five days until it was replaced by this brand new beauty that in no way could last 25 years (they don't make 'em like they used to). But cold showers are not fun. Heating water on the stove wasn't all that fun either since I don't have very many big pots. Like Corinna said "Party like its 1809."

New Features

Well, not really new features. Just some new links on the left - to my new blog! I've made a blog to review the books I read instead of sending out book review emails. So, if you care, the link is to the left "To Read or Not To Read." I'm sure Kyle will be adding a new blog someday as well.

Sunday Morning Sleepies

Church is such a tiring experience that we take naps before we even go!

Shhh... I have a secret.

Do the Do-Rag

Good looks are genetic.

How Much is That Squirrel in the Window?

I always wanted a pet squirrel. I mean, come one. They're cute, funny, jump twice as high as cats, and climb trees like their tail is on fire. So, I set out to get me one. This is my pet squirrel. Since I don't like fur on my furniture, he lives outdoors. But Meghan likes to talk to him anyways. We haven't decided on a name yet, but Meghan likes the ideas of "Gum!" "Dum!" "Mum!" and anything else with a um sound shouted in an excited manner. I think I just might be the traditional artist that I am and call him Unnamed.

The best way to catch a squirrel of your very own is to leave the lid off your trash can. They're about as bad as raccoons when it comes to raiding, but they're small so they don't make a real big mess. They also respond well to leftover bread chunks lying by a window. Out here in Maryland, they're as bold as a really bold thing so they'll come right up to it. Meghan delights in making our squirrel jump and bolt by banging on the window and shouting at him. We're working on adjusting him to living with a baby on the other side of the window.

SudoKube

When the Vonns came to visit us here in Maryland, where the coolest thing we have is spikey plants (see last post and resulting comments) they left us a cross between a Rubik's Cube and a Sudoku. The idea is to twist and adjust it so that each face has the numbers one through nine. Fortunately, the one through nine rule does not have to follow along one line between faces (I looked up the rules online). This makes sense because there are four faces along one line which means twelve squares and that's three more than allowed. Anyways, so they challenged Kyle to solve it since he is the Rubik's Cube Master.

To Be Honest, Kyle didn't find the idea too appealing. He wasn't interested. And you can't really get Kyle to do something he's not interested in doing. But I was interested. My only problem was that I can't solve Rubik's Cubes. I'm not patient enough to figure out the method and the three dimensional thinking is not really my thing. But I do have other resources - I have Kyle.

I hit on the solution fairly quickly once I realized that. If I could figure out where each square was supposed to go, Kyle could put it there. So I would simply have to label each square somehow and hand it over to Kyle.

But First Step: I had to solve it.
Then I realized the next key to the solution. I thought about how the manufacturers make these cubes to sell. If they do it like a Rubik's Cube, then it comes already solved. And since they want to sell the most possible cubes, they make them aesthetically pleasing. That means, all the numbers are oriented in the same direction. Also, based on how people think, there would be a "top," four "side" faces oriented in the same up-down orientation, and a bottom. Therefore I now had two clues to help me solve it: one through nine on each face and each face oriented in the same direction.
I decided on using my favorite tool - Excel. Its easier then erasing all the time and its in grid shape already.

Well, to shorten a rather lengthy, blow by blow explanation, I used the corners and the orientation theory to determine the top and bottom, then the edges and middle pieces using a combination of orientation and 1-9 rule.

Second Step: Relabel it.
Easy enough. I took some masking tape and covered up each number and put a letter corresponding with each color of the Rubik's cube.

Third Step: Have Kyle Solve It.

We ran into a few hold ups. First of all, there were two 1's as middle pieces. Kyle says I had them labeled wrong. So he fixed it.

Then he told me the boys had pulled it apart and put it back together. One of the corner pieces was flipped into the wrong orientation. So he fixed that too. And then he finished solving it.

Step 4: Remove Labels.

And it's Solved! TaDa!

And so that you know I'm not lying.

The Vonns in Maryland

Mom and the boys stopped by last week to visit Maryland for a few days. And we certainly had fun! After a day of resting up, we made our way to Washington D.C. to see some of the sites. We saw several of the museum buildings all right - as we drove around and around and around the National Mall looking for a parking space. Finally, we managed to find a two hour parking spot. From there we visited a few of the places I had been to before: The four story fountain and the National Space and Air Museum. Of course, the first picture mom takes is of the fascinating plant life.

Inside the National Space and Air museum, we visited the Treasures of American History and Orville and Wilbur Wright exhibits.

There were also lots of really cool rockets and planes and space stuff hanging up everywhere. By this point, we had to go home because our two hours were up. However, we returned the next day to continue our adventures.

After less time driving around, we found an outdoor parking lot where we could park longer. So, from there we walked to the White House. If you look closely on the White House to the left, there are two guards spying on us to make sure that we don't try anything.

We also visited the White House Visitor Center and the Museum of Natural History. Hyrum and Mom splintered off the group to admire dinosaurs so there were a lot of pictures of Hyrum and dinosaurs. We got back together in the gems section. Meghan enjoyed the touch and total immersion experiences in the rocks and minerals section. We finished out the museum by having the boys spin a giant globe labeled as "Do Not Touch."

So, Washington D.C. was fun, but very tiring. It was more relaxing to play at home with the boys. Kyle was excited to get a chance to play against the boys, but if you look carefully you can see him cheating in one of these pictures.

Meghan enjoyed visiting with her Uncles. They were lots of fun for her to play with and she is excited for the chance she'll get to play when they come visit again!