Must-Read Summer Books

Recommended after many re-readings:

Blue Skidoos to the Farm
Blue and Steve ask for help as many things are missing. Once skidooed to the farm, you must assist in matching the animals with their babies, their sounds, and their food. Cunning sub-plot to discover Blue's favorite, favorite animal.

Everything I Know About... the Potty
From the first line "We're potty experts" to the last "", this book is teeming with information about the potty. Important to view book in theoretical, rather than practical sense (who actually uses the potty anyway?)

Disney's™ The Little Mermaid
A modern-day Lord of the Flies taking the reader through a trip through the de-evolution of humans placed into an extraordinary situation. Breathtaking illustrations.

Angel/Devil

Well, we have reached a lovely phase where our little one tends to be either really good or quite devilish. One minute she is unloading the dishwasher and helping to put away clothes, and the next she is ripping up her books and unplugging the television. She has also discovered the fine art of climbing onto the kitchen table. Pretty soon we are going to have to put up shelving five feet off the ground for anything we don't want her to touch. Thankfully, she spends 51% of her time on the angel side of things.

We've Gone and Done It

Well, we finally made the leap into home ownership. We are currently in escrow on a 1900 square foot house on a 1/3 acre lot in Federal Way. If all goes well we will be moving in on September 24th. I have no photos at this time, but will post them as soon as we get them.

In other news, all of us Cockerham-Twiggs and Twiggs have been fighting an uber-virus. It appears we are on the tail end at last. Even the baby's runny nose seems to be slowing.

The photos this week are from the Pacific Science Center. It was their annual Bubblefest and Anais found the bubbles quite the tasty treat. She enjoys it there more and more the older she gets.

That's it for now. I am off to enjoy the sun while it lasts.

Beer Pics

Here are a few of the photos from our brewing experience. A month or so to go and we will be able to taste our first professionally brewed beer.

Things are busy as usual. We went to the beach, library, and science center this past week. Today I am attempting to pickle beans using my grandma's recipe. We'll see how that goes.

Don't forget--It is the finale of So You Think You Can Dance this week. The baby and I like to dance and clap for our favorites. She is the much better dancer.

The Amazing Peter

I just want to take a few minutes to applaud the efforts of my husband. Not only did he spend all day Friday helping his parents paint their house, but he also managed to mow the lawn, put away all the laundry, brush the dog, vacuum, help with the dishes, and take a walk with the family. What a guy!

Today's photos revolve our musical drawer-opening virtuoso. She has discovered the beauty of clanging lids and will perform on demand. Tucker will watch for a few seconds, but will then run away. He does not appreciate the performances.

Stuck Hand

Our little angel has a curiosity that overrides her common sense. About once a month she puts her hand into one of her toys and gets it stuck. I think she believes she will one day conquer this foe and be able to pull the hand in and out with ease. I have included a few photos of this. (For legal reasons I must state that this was a re-enactment and no babies were harmed in the making of the pics).

She has also taken to movies with a musical format. She is now watching the Les Mis concert video and dancing to the music. Tenacious D's Pick of Destiny really got her interested. If they ever make a PG version of the film I will have to add it to her library of DVDs.

Busy Week

A lot happened this week. Peter and I went brewing at Diamond Knot, while Anais spent an entire day with Peter's mom and dad. I'll do a blog about the brewing process with photos later after getting all the pics in order. We went to library group, did a 10K Volksmarch at Renton River days, and had a visit from Wilder and Molly. Anais really liked Wilder and cried waving bye bye after they left.

Anais received an entire bag of dress up clothes from my mom and she has been wearing a selection around the house. I have included photos of two such outfits. I also posted two shots of our little darling sucking on the vacuum hose. I do not encourage her to do this, but I found it quite funny even as I was telling her "NO."