Do we live in a barn?

No...but Scarlett has started doing some funny animal impressions. The noises are lacking some major consonants (they're more of a vowely groan really), but she's got the idea.


The impressions are obviously exhausting...as a request for "nu nights" is made.

Keys

We gave Scarlett a set of keys and this is what she did. I'm amazed - and yet, she's only been watching us unlock doors for the past 14 months.

Also, we do own lights...and they were on. Sorry this is so dark. If you can't make out what she's doing she is actually lifting the keys up to the doorknob. Although she, very much like her mother, can't seem to figure out which key opens what.

The eruption of laughter is because Scarlett throws the keys across the table, runs to retrieve them, and then notices the milkshake on the table (thank you, Andrei, for my husband's addiction to Ashley's milkshakes). She looks at Joe, then at me, and delicately raises her hand to touch the cup...unsuccessful, but a hilarious attempt regardless.

Scarlett and her Linky-doo

Jack & Jill went up the hill...

This Saturday, we went to Aunt Stephanie and future Uncle Craig's Jack & Jill wedding shower. It had a Luau theme, and boy was it fun. Check out Scarlett's perfectly appropriate dress. It has hula dancers all over it. I wish I could steal the credit for this little piece of adorableness...but Scarlett's nan bought it for her especially for the occasion.

Uncle Craig has a 5 year old niece named Erin. She let Scarlett play in her outdoor playhouse. Scarlett loved it! Erin was so sweet to Scarlett the whole time we were there. While in Erin's playroom, I mentioned that Erin should let me know if there is something she doesn't want Scarlett to touch - Erin shot me a look and said "she could play with whatever she wants." I suddenly felt like I didn't know how to share. Scarlett and Erin are both going to be flower girls in the wedding. We all know that must mean that Aunt Stephanie loves her niece Scarlett very much to entrust her with such an important responsibility...and won't at all be mad at her when she rips the flower halo off the top of her head moments before running full speed down the aisle leaving Erin in her dust and shrieking at the top of her lungs - all choreographed, of course, to the beautiful Pachebel's Canon in D. Then proceeds to babble throughout the entire ceremony only to occasionally interrupt herself with periodic and slightly demonic eruptions of laughter.

Aunt Stephanie is the best aunt a girl could want because she accepts Scarlett...and all the insanity that accompanies her.

Here are Joe and Uncle Craig...this was before Steph and I whooped their butts in Beirut. (Who's laughing now...huh?!?)Awww....Craig...taking full responsibility for agreeing to a Jack & Jill.Some friends, bridesmaids, one bride...and a princess flower girl/Miss America and her stuffed horse that she sometimes pretends is a deer...she does...she told me. Yay Steph and Craig! We love you guys and can't wait for the wedding! Yay wedding!

Who says you can't teach an old baby new tricks?

These are all from one day...man, we were on a roll.

Carson and Scarlett sitting in a tree...

What does Carson do when he hasn't seen his Scarlett in 2 whole weeks?
He gives her a big ol' hug. Awwwwww!

Scarlett goes to the beach

We brought Scarlett to the beach last Thursday for a picnic dinner. Turns out, the kid hates sand. In her defense...this isn't baby powdery soft white beach sand. This is "Hi, I live on the Sound" rocks and shells and maybe broken glass sand. It hurts those tootsy toes. Here's Joe and Scarlett walking up to the beach.Scarlett was very interested in the water.

That is, until she actually put her feet into it. Again, in her defense, this water is kinda gross. I also think Scarlett may have been a flamingo in another life.

She was also very interested in the water park at the beach. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our bathing suits. This is not to suggest that even if we had brought bathing suits I would be comfortable running around in one while chasing Scarlett through this slippery crowded mother's worst nightmare concrete waterfest, but since we didn't have our bathing suits anyway that's the reason we didn't go into the water park. Hey, Scarlett bought it. I finally persuaded Scarlett to walk on the sand in order to get to the du duh duh dah...playground! First we had to brush the sand off of our hands. (She got quite good at doing that by the end of the evening.)Then we played.
Yay beach...or I guess yay playground at the beach! Cause we didn't really like the beach itself.

Climbing machine

Scarlett likes to climb. She likes to climb a lot. We've been going to a playground a few blocks away from our house in an attempt to appease the massive appetite this little monkey has for climbing. We wagon it over to the park and the second that Scarlett sees the playground equipment she tries to vacate the wagon by any means possible. Thank you, Radio Flyer, for seatbelts. She settles on saying "up up up up" until the wagon comes to a complete stop and we free her from its toddler restraints. Then it's on...it's on like Donkey Kong...quite literally. We climb up...

We slide down.We climb through things in the air...And on the ground.We swing high... And crawl low.In fact, this climbing monkey is always on the go!

July 11-13 - Family time!

This past weekend, we had no weddings. We had no birthday parties, or barbecues, or play dates. We thought that quite possibly because of this, we may have a boring weekend...not so much. On Friday night, we packed up the wagon, bought Subway and a six-pack, and headed over to the Hamden green for a free concert. Los Lobos was playing, and although we didn't get to hear "La Bamba" (much to my dismay), we did sing along to "I Wan'na Be Like You," which is the fun monkey song from Disney's "The Jungle Book." We got as close to the stage as two 28- year old first time parents with a young child in a wagon dared to get. Scarlett was in her prime. And, as usual, she had an audience. Her sense of humor is rapidly developing, and has gotten to a point where she actually cracks herself up. She'll babble away to herself, and then suddenly start cracking up to the point where she is out of breath laughing so hard...as am I. I don't know what she said, but it was sure funny. This, of course, will be fun until she gets old enough to talk and I realize that she's been making fun of me the whole time.
Scarlett also has her own sunglasses now. This is not at all to suggest that she wears said sunglasses for more than 10 second intervals...but she owns them regardless. As we were sitting at this concert last Friday, I got sentimental remembering that Scarlett's first concert ever was this same time last year when we brought her to the Hamden green to see Dr. John. She was just shy of 2 months. Ahh time, where do you go? And why do you go there so fast? Here are some good "that was then, this is now" shots...
Oh, that little Bubbaloo.
So, that was our Friday night.
Saturday morning, we woke up to a plan-less day with endless opportunities. What did we do might you ask? The appropriate question is - what didn't we do?
First thing in the morning the three of us went to Beardsley Zoo...
We saw tigers...And tigers pooping. (Come on, how could I not take a picture of this?! Have you ever seen a tiger poop?! More importantly, have you ever smelled a tiger poop?! I do not recommend it. AT ALL. Run away. We happened to be in down wind.)We saw Monkeys...

And scarlet ibis'. "Mom, there is no humor in getting a good picture of me in front of the scarlet ibis sign. Wah...you're so embarrassing. I hate ibis' anyway. Wah."And yet, another family photo standing in front of the giant cow at Beardsley zoo. To see our last one from October '07, click here.The best part of this trip to Beardsley was definitely the bird show. It was fabulous. Usually these shows are really corny, but not this one. It had everything you could want in a bird show. And Scarlett loved it. She never sits still for these things. But seriously, how could you not love Kito the talking bird?!


After the zoo, Scarlett and I brought Joe to story time at The New Haven Children's Museum. Scarlett has wanted to show Joe this museum since she first started coming here ( seriously...she told me she did). We did all the fun stuff that only Dad's would find to do at a museum. (I seriously had no idea half this stuff was here. This may be because Val and I force our children to hang out in the boring room that contains only stuffed animals and books so we can chat about LOST episodes and celebrities and not worry about the kids getting hurt although sometimes they still do. They've managed to get their little butts stuck in buckets and run full speed into mirrored walls in this particular room.)

This trip to the museum, we dressed like a mailman. A particularly hip mailman.

We played with a giant dollhouse. Joe and I decided that we were going to build this dollhouse in our new house's basement - that is, when we finally sell our condo and buy a new house. This led to a 10 minutes discussion/battle as to who could do a better job building/painting this future dollhouse that we both knew would never get built/painted or even exist in the first place. At the time, though, it was a very important discussion(/battle). All the while, Scarlett played.
Scarlett learned about gravity...


And missed her Carson..And, as if we hadn't done enough by this point in the day, we went to another free concert on a green Saturday night. This time, it was The New Haven Symphony Orchestra on the New Haven green, and Marie, Juan, Josie and Javier came with us.
Within minutes of them getting there, Scarlett made herself at home in Javier's lap. She also, for some reason, decided to pet Javier throughout most of the night. She would just stand behind him and gently pat his head for extended periods of time...no one really knew what to make of that...including Javier.
Scarlett likes Javi, but now Josie, she's really cool.
Josie is a girly-girl and does all the stuff that Scarlett is quickly taking an interest in, like brushing her hair and putting on lip gloss. She also brought her Pawparrazzipet that came in a cool pet carrier. Christmas present anyone? (Anyone?)
There are 13 months between Scarlett and Josie, which seemed like ages until now. This past Saturday, they ran around together, shared their toys with one another, and got along really well. It was really cute to see Scarlett imitate girly stuff, like hugging and kissing dolls/Elmo, and applying make-up. Till now...she just kind of banged everything together. Yay girls!

Another girly-girl that Scarlett knows is Kristina. Her dad plays on Joe's softball team and we see her every Sunday...including this past Sunday. Scarlett really wanted to sit like a big girl on the curb...just like Kristina.

She almost missed the curb the first time that she tried to sit down, but she quickly recovered her balance and played it off cool. I was seriously impressed at her "playing it off" skills. She must get those skills from Joe...I can't play anything off. If I trip on a curb, it's obvious I tripped on a curb.
Yay fun family weekend! I hope you enjoyed reading about it!
Say goodbye Kito. "Goodbye Kito."