when Aubie grows up (also, expect a craft post tomorrow!!!)

Aubie wants to do three things when she grows up:
1)Be on the stage. By "stage" she means Broadway or local theater--she doesn't know the difference yet. A stage is anywhere that one performs musicals, and she wants to be on it.

2) Be a rock star.

3) Play volleyball.

Of course this list of three doesn't include her desires to be an artist, wife, mother, world traveler, princess, and several others I can't remember at present. These 3 are just her latest(fairly long-lasting ambitions).
You're probably thinking I put these ideas in her head. Nope. She came up with them all on her own. Here's proof:

1) A few days ago, Matthan got aggravated at Aubie and hit at her to show his disapproval. Thirty seconds later, he had forgotten all about it, but while trying to get by was brushing her with the large object he was carrying. She started tattling that he was pushing her, blah, blah, blah. I said, "Aubie, I want you to be a Discerner of Motives." Obviously thinking that I had put an end to all her dreams and ambitions with the high and lofty title I'd rather her have, she whined, "But I still wanna be on the stage." Thank goodness one can still be on the stage and be a discerner of motives at the same time.

2) The other day, that silly Hannah Montana Walmart commercial came on ("Bring it on"--they say this at least 20 times. At least she didn't pick that up!). The background music is a Hannah Montana song that says something like "ooh, I wanna be a rock star." Aubie heard the music and said, "I wanna be a rock star". I said, "I thought you wanted to play volleyball". Sadly, I didn't write it down, so I can't remember her exact words, but she said something like, "that'll be my job in the morning." Then of course she'd be a rock star at night.

3)Aubie wouldn't eat her spaghetti because "its got meat in it". She's a texture eater and doesn't really like meat much. David was telling her she needed to eat her meat and I said because it has iron in it, it would help her poor little bruised legs--I'm afraid she has her mother's talent for running into things. That didn't really help much. So then David said it would make her strong. I told her that she couldn't play volleyball if she wasn't strong. I began imitating the volleyball commentators that we've heard the past two weeks talking about Misty May-Treanor and Keri Walsh. "Yeah, we were talking to Aubie Lane's mom before the game. She said that Aubie never ate her meat. No wonder she's playing so badly. Oh, and this could have been a gold medal." I left the room, and Aubie came running to find me a few minutes later saying, "Mommy! I ate two bites with meat! I ate two bites with meat!" Now, I don't know that 2 bites will help her win the gold, but its a start. And then, today she told me she wanted to be as tall as the ceiling, so I'm thinking volleyball would be a good option for someone that tall.

yesterday...

all my troubles seemed so far away (at the beginning of the day, anyway).

Matthan has been pulling up on things for about a week now, but yesterday morning was the first time he pulled up in his crib. (Some folks might recognize this little face from about 27 years back--here he reminds me so much of some of Daniel's baby pictures.)
Renee brought her kids to the park in our neighborhood and the kids got to feed the ducks and geese. Aubie, Jill, and Daniel had so much fun, and as you'll see in the video, the free food caused quite a stir!




Matthan so enjoys the outdoors. He was quite contented watching the kids and the geese for... well, a little while.


When we got home, I started getting excited about our ladies group's craft night. I planned to go late so I could feed Matthan and put him to bed before I left--I knew it would be impossible to do crafts with him getting into everything. I did that, and got there around 8:00. Still plenty of time to eat, fellowship, and work on crafts. But 7 minutes after I got there, my far-away troubles called me on the phone. With a very worried voice, David told me that the spot on Aubie's face that we had discussed at supper was not a bug bite, but poison ivy. : ( "Oh, and Matthan's awake now too." Double : ( So, I hurriedly finished up my piece of pie and stuffed the rest of my baby carrots in my mouth grabbed a cup of coke and was out the door again. Off to CVS to get poison ivy stuff and back home to treat the poor dear.

Here's David putting the stuff that gets rid of the poison oils on her fingers.

The girl loves pink, but its so sad to see it on her face : (
(Speaking of pink, I'll post the pictures of the Cherry Blossom Festival soon. They've been hanging over my head for far too long.)

fish for a day

We walked to the pond today (started this post 4 days ago). And though I desperately wanted to catch a tadpole, I only saw one. When I finally figured out what to catch him with--Matthan's baby food jar--he was gone.



So, I caught a minnow instead. Up with that scoop came some pond sediment, and some form of larvae that I'm hoping wasn't mosquito. I also got a a small lily pad so the minnow wouldn't feel too out of its element. Aubie named it Lolly. Since I had no way of finding out if this centimeter-long minnow was a girl or a boy, I figured we had a 50/50 chance of it being a "Lolly"*.



Though she came home in a Gerber container, she quickly graduated to something much bigger--a frappucino jar.But, by the afternoon, I started to realize that Lolly may want more room to swim around in, and I wasn't going to buy a fish bowl for a minnow that I didn't even know how to feed. So I convinced Aubie that we needed to take Lolly back. After several I-don't-want-to's, Aubie finally said, "Yeah, her need to go back to her family."
That evening, Leah, Aubie, Matthan, and I walked to the pond (only Matthan was in the stroller) to take Lolly back home.



If you click on this picture, and you stare really hard at the upper middle of the jar, you can see Lolly.


Aubie saying goodbye to her fish.



A parting glance.



Aubie and the rest of the farewell party, sans photographer.



Getting a fish and then taking it back all in the same day was too much excitement for this little fellow.




It was such a nice evening, David went for a ride and met us on our way back home.



Goodbye Lolly. We miss you :)


*Besides the name Sally (and now, Wendy), Aubie's favorite name is Lolly. If a Lolly has a sister, its Tolly, and after that, its anything else that rhymes.