didn't know they made those

We were driving past a ballfield today which was having it's grass trimmed. Flannery said," Look at the lillel, tiny, big, giant lawnmolars!"

of course she does...

climb UP the slide
slide DOWN the rock climbing wall
repeatedly.
We don't have photographic evidence, but do you really need proof?

Yesterday we took her out for ice cream. We got all settled at our table with some sort of candybar, cookie dough carnival cake or whatever, offered her some and she wrinkled up her nose and said, "No, could I please have some water?"
What the heck?!

a tower as tall as she is

and she "crashed" it.

see the mountains in the background!

in the Meadow

all of us

watching the train with papa

excited to visit Blaise in the Meadow

classic car show date with papa

puddles

our wild girl

doodle tracks

the tracks in palouse

on the way to Wenatchee

cottonwood seeds

Flannery's interests

We'll start with the books I got from the library today - one on tractors, one on airplanes, 2 on squirrels and an assortment of Dr. Seuss books.
She's so in love with tractors and trucks that when we go for walks all she can say in her breathless admiration is "Mama! Look at all my trucks!"
A few weeks ago, we were at a stoplight and a tractor pulled up beside us. I pointed this out to Flannery but heard no response. I mentioned it again. Silence. I turned around to see why she was so quiet and saw my 2 year-old GIRL leaning as far towards the other window as her carseat straps would allow, mouth hanging open, speechless in her wonderment at the Caterpillar in the next lane.

global warming shlobal shwarming

It snowed yesterday. Not a few random flakes that 2 percent of us saw. Lots of flakes for a few hours that stuck and covered green flourishing things, like my basil and chili peppers. In other news, I noticed the snow when I looked outside the hospital window in the room where Kristen was pushing out baby Richard...who is now born. 8 lbs. 9 oz. He's cute. I'll post pictures later.

Flannery has begun a very common habit for little girls. Talking instead of doing what you're supposed to be doing. I'm doing it right now.
But, the funniest time is when she's sitting on the porcelain throne and one of her parents is waiting patiently for her to go potty so that we can go on with our day. She begins talking to her captive audience instead of doing her business. "Mama got a sweater on? I need some munch. Where'd Papa go? I go trinkle. (does that qualify as lying?) Where's Angel? Ridley's baptized. Where's Miss Krista? " Etc. The other day, after exhausting all of her many conversation topics while her patient Papa waited, she finally grabbed at the last straw she could find, waving her arms generously, she shouted, "Look at ALLLL my towels!"

About a week ago, I put her to bed at 8 and went to do some things in the kitchen. I noticed an hour later that I hadn't heard a peep out of her, which was unusual. There's usually more verbal stalling at bedtime than any other time of day. So, I went to check on my sweet cherub, who I earnestly believed would be sleeping in her bed. I opened her door and this is what I saw: The light was on, all of her clothes had been pulled out of their drawers and were ALL over the room, the blankets from her bed were more in the closet than on the bed. Flannery was sitting on her bed like a queen serenely reigning over the chaos below, she was wearing her swimsuit, had wet the bed, and looked up at my face without a trace of guilt and said, "Hi mama!"

As our Lost-watching fest continues (we're finally beginning season 4) Brendan has decided to call it "Baggage."

the storm

Flannery has taken on characteristics of a two-year-old boy. Today, after waking up from her nap, she stood in the living room shoving on the glider - rocker as hard as she could so that it was almost tipping over each time it rocked. She's been running around the house screaming and yelling REALLY loudly, giggling her head off at toots, and pushing the laundry basket around and ramming into anything stationary, which includes me.
Yesterday, after a long time in coming, I finally washed her car-seat cover. It had had one too many 'accidents' happen in it and smelled. So, clean and fresh, I put it back on, Flannery climbed in and, of course, rebaptized it pretty promptly.
Today, I switched out an old ugly lampshade for a new one. I had left the old one on the floor in the living room. At one point, I realized that it was awfully quiet, so I wandered into the living room and noticed the lampshade was on the couch. And then a little voice from inside the shade said, "Where's Flannery?".
Pictures will be posted next.
Tata.

The calm before the storm

more flanneryisms

So I got Flannery a pair of sunglasses. She's been a faithful steward - here we are 2 days later and they are not broken. She woke up at 4 in the morning the other day and as I was taking her potty, asked me where her "Sunshine glasses" were.

This morning as I was stowing her in the car, I whacked my head on the car door. I made a comment about it and Flannery insisted on kissing it and then asked me if I wanted her to ask Jesus to make it better. I said sure so she prayed. She also blew on it. Not sure where that one came from.

Flannery and Blaise

They tore up the living room and then I put on some Bill Monroe and they immediately started dancing - the one of Flannery's arms in the air particularly caught my eye since she has only started doing that since she started learning to raise her hands in church during the Gloria. My irish lassie thinks it's dancing! Maybe she's right.