Scott and Laura

We were so lucky to have Scott and Laura in Amarillo to visit this week. Laura is my dear friend from college, and this was the first time we got to meet her husband Scott. They live in Jersey, but were in Texas for Christmas.

Genevieve thought Scott was the cat's meow. Actually, we all did!

Christmas with Pop and Nana

Gen was so excited about Christmas.

Gen's excited about presents! She "helped" pass them out.



She was VERY interested in the cherries jubilee for dessert!

Christmas with GJ and Grandad

Christmas with GJ and Grandad. Gen was intent on checking out cousin Jocelyn's baby and stroller. And here she is enjoying her new wheely bug toy!

Ranch Christmas

Genny and her Grandpa

Brotherly love is sometimes brutal...

A really good shot of Meredith and Parrish

Here's Gen, Meredith, and Walt

Stan feeds deer every afternoon on the ranch. Here's some of the herd, visiting for dinner!

AC's next generation

So in this picture you see my other "Math Babes," named because we were the young generation in the math department. And I like to tell myself it's because we are sooooo good-lookin! So Macy is on the left, and that's her son Benjamin in red. He's 19 months old and has a great vocabulary. He and Genevieve like to play together. Shannon is on the right with her daughter Sierra. She is almost 6 months old and has the most beautiful eyes! Sierra fell in love with our dog, Daisy. And then Genny is sitting with Macy. We got together to celebrate the end of the semester and the start of Christmas.

I have to include the next picture on the roll because it makes me laugh. You can see Daisy is approching in the one above.....

And here she is in the middle of things! You can see Sierra is thrilled, and Ben is about to go get her. And Gen is just happy to be showing her belly button....

Santa won't mind...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Here's our Christmas Eve, as we set out cookies for Santa. Genny thought he wouldn't mind if she borrowed one...

The Joy of Jammies

Here's Genevieve this morning in her jammies, with her very wild hair, just about to unload our laundry basket for us. I just really like little footie jammies, so I hope this brings you joy as well...

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

The Discovery Center had a Breakfast with Santa event this past weekend, and we went with Gen, my Mom and Dad, and Rob's Mom. It was a great time.

Here's Mom and me with Gen in line to see Santa. Looks like she's a little apprehensive...

Here we are with Santa. As you can see, Genny is not a fan of the big guy in the red suit. She wouldn't go near him without me, and so we're all here with Santa, even blankie.

Here's Robert and Genevieve and his mom, Janice. Gen is watching an exhibit on dry ice.

And here's Gen with my Dad. This was an exhibit on bubbles, and Genny thought it was wonderful. She's just about to pop a bubble in this picture.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

I have a story to share.

This week, it's been cold here in Amarillo. Really cold.

Genevieve loves to go outside, and she gets antsy if she's inside too long. So Monday afternoon, she decided it was time to go out. She went to the front door, pointed and scowled, and told me "Ba!", which clearly meant, "Hey, it's time to go outside."

I told her no, it's too cold for little girls out there. So she went to the back door, pointed and scowled, and told me "Ba!" again, which clearly meant, "Fine, then let's go out this one."

I told her no, it's too cold for little girls out there as well. So she went to the big picture windown in the kitchen, pointed and scowled, and told me "Ba!" again, which clearly meant, "Have it your way, we'll just go out here."

And when I told her no a third time, I had a sad little girl on my hands. She went to the couch to pout a little while. And as she was just starting to get involved in something else, Daisy went out her dog door. This was just too much for Genny, who pointed at Daisy and yelled at me "ma MA" Translation: I never get to do what I wanna do, everyone else gets to go outside, even the dog, and you are the meanest mama ever!

Genny and her Doggie

Well, I have to say that Daisy is a really good dog. And she loves her Genevieve.

We're learning lots of new things. Genny is starting to share (sometimes). She likes to give people things: toys, food, whatever she has. Now she is learning that it's fun to share with Daisy as well. Daisy thinks it's great when Genny wants to share her waffles, but she doesn't understand so much when Gen gives her blocks.

The funniest part is when Genny gives Daisy something to eat that Daisy doesn't want, but seems very troubled at turning down such a generous gift. You should see the poor pup trying to force down part of a banana just because her little girl gave it to her!

Cousins!

Here's Genny and her cousins, Cole and Micah. You can kind of see her progression here. She's not shy! She thought they were just the best, and they were sweet to play with her.

A happy moment

Well, I took this picture this morning. It might seem like just a random picture of a messy living room, but there's really a lot to it.

You can see Genny sitting in the little slide/fort thing. I cleaned the ice off it so that I could bring it inside for the day. It's too cold for little girls outside, but Gen needed some way to work off energy! She's been playing on it all morning. She prefers to just go up the stairs and sit and wait for me to help her slide so she can go up the stairs again.

Daisy dog is there in the middle. She and Genny have become friends, and that is wonderful. I like that Daisy, Genny and I can all hang out together during the day when we're home.

On the TV you can see Mr. Noodle, which is part of the Elmo segment of Sesame Street. I have realized that I know more about children's programming than about shows for my own age group... and that's ok.

So you can see the Christmas decorations! Yeah, I love Christmas. It's definitely more fun with a little girl than without.

And you can see what a sea of toys my house has become, even though I said it wouldn't happen to me. It did. The funny thing is that when I look at it, I see the table where Genny is learning to color, the music toy where she stands and dances, the elephant riding toy that she will only propel backwards, and so on. They have ceased to be normal clutter and are now just part of our world. Which makes it a little better!

So big!

She's getting so big. So big! Here's Genny sitting at her table, and we're coloring. Can't believe it.

Mama got your belly!

Today, in order to get through a shopping trip to Wal-Mart, Genny and I played an exciting game of Mama Got your Belly! It's a simple game, really. Genny leans back in the cart and points at the lights and says "ba," and I tickle her belly and screech "Mama Got your Belly!" She, of course, laughs hysterically. And we start the game over. Hopefully, somewhere in there, I have sneaked some necessary groceries in the cart.

This can be a little embarassing in the middle of the frozen food aisle, but you do anything you can in order to get through the great Wal-Mart without incident....

Yes, people stared. But most of them looked at me with a lot of understanding. Clearly, they have played this game before!

How To Tether a Christmas Tree to the Wall

1. Accept that your daughter will touch the tree no matter what you do.

2. Remove daughter from tree. (repeat as necessary)

3. Distract daughter with Sesame Street, nap, or cookies.

4. Choose tether. Although I considered Old Phone Cord, I eventually went with Green Ribbon. Avoid metal things (see #6)

5. Choose tethering point. This can be a tough one. You need something attached to the wall. The more permanent it is, the larger the hole will be if the little girl actually manages to pull the tree down. It's a conundrum. After careful consideration, I went with two curtain brackets.

6. Climb into tree. Try not to electocute yourself.

7. Attach tree to wall with tether.

8. Pray husband will not notice awful tethering job.

Bee - BOO

Here's Genny and her baby. The baby's name is Baby, or, according to Genny-speak, Bee -BOO. It's so funny how we're learning her language as she is learning ours! Genny loves her baby (a birthday gift -- one of the favorites!).

Here's a short lesson in how to speak "little girl":

"puh puh puh puh" or "puh pee?" is our dog, Daisy. Any dog really. Also knows very rarely as "Day dee"

"boon" is balloon. Balloons are always a favorite.

"duh" is duck. Ducks are a big deal during bathtime.

"Ma ma ma ma ma" is me. This one is usually used when wailing.

"tah too" is thank you. I pat myself on the back when this one is used. We get a lot of practice using this one, since her favorite way to play is to hand me all her toys/books/dinner/etc.

"Dahhhh" is Daddy. It makes Robert extra happy.

"nah" is her favorite word. Three guesses on that one.....

My Two Engineers

There they are. My 2 engineers. I love them both. Here they are at the Discovery Center playing. Rob's been home from work this week, and it's been so much fun. We've gotten to do so many things as a family, and I have loved it.

Genny looks most like her Daddy when she is working something out--studying a toy, figuring out how it works. So it was fun to see them both in action at the Discovery Center!

Time to Climb!

Did anyone tell me that climbing comes before walking?? Seriously... when is my Genny going to walk? She has taken up climbing--on anything she can find. Here she is in the yard in a slide we borrowed from Josh and Careese. She loves it. And can you believe it's just two days to Thanksgiving in this picture? Beautiful for sure.

The procession of the ducks

Genevieve loves her bath. Loves it. She can be having a rotten day, but the moment you take her in the bathroom and start getting her undressed,

she cheers up.

She loves cups and ducks in her bath. Every night we line up the ducks and "quack" as they march down the side of the bathtub and dive into her bath. She likes to give the ducks kisses. And she likes to pour water... everywhere!

Halloween revisited

I realized that I never posted a picture of Genny in her Halloween getup. She was a fairy princess... Rob was Harry Potter, and I was a witch. We were quite the festive family!

Fro up.

Oh what a list of "I'll never let my kid...." I had when I was childless. Some of them I was awful enough to verbalize. Some of them I just noted in my head.

One thing on my list was bakery cookies in the grocery store. I swore I'd never use food as a reward for my daughter acting like she was supposed to... Fast forward--not only have I realized that a toddler hanging out in a grocery cart for 20 minutes peacefully is considered a record in their little world, I've realized how difficult it is to grocery shop when they are unhappy. I've made friends with my local grocery store bakery ladies. I even know which bakery ladies give us two cookies (we always try to catch their eye when we're waiting at the counter, by the way!). I have consoled myself by telling myself it's a good opportunity to teach Genevieve to say "thank you." Pretty lame, I know. But let me have my delusion.

Last week my mom and I were in the grocery store with Genny, and it was late in the afternoon, so Gen's limit on shopping peacefully was about 8 minutes. I asked my mom to take her to the bakery to retrieve a cookie. They came back, and Genevieve was putting the pieces of cookie in her mouth as fast as mom would give them to her. Apparently Mom and I looked like we were hungry and about to take the cookie.

As we drove home, the fast eating revisited us as cookie was "fro'd up" all over the little girl. She was just fine, but I got to do a little extra laundry that night. And I got to remember how silly I was to EVER say "I'll never let my kid..."

Falling with Style

Genevieve has yet to walk, but she has really perfected falling with style. This picture is from our trip to the park last weekend. She took about 5-6 steps between us. Walking is imminent, I tell you!

Daisy Doggie

Well, the Poling family now includes a furry friend. We found Daisy at the shelter, and she seemed like the dog for us. She is a year and a half old, and seems to be some kind of Westie/poodle/schnauzer cocktail. She's really sweet. Her greatest desire seems to be to take a nap on the living room rug.

Genevieve is adjusting to having a new friend in the house, slowly but surely!

Fortify me

I have become a sucker for any fortified food. I admit it.

Since Genevieve is eating such small little portions, I just want to pack each bite with as much good stuff as I can. So we have fortified cereal, and fortified peaches (really, how exactly are they doing that??), fortified, cookies, fortified applesauce and this evening, fortified whole wheat pasta.

Now, whole wheat pasta isn't great. And the fortified kind is just as ... um, awful... as you are imagining. But she ate it, and I was happy.

I tried to fortify some food myself. I made this whole wheat, wheat germ, no sugar, no salt, fruited cheese bread with the wonderful intention of feeding her this super-healthy and wonderful homemade bread. Unfortunately, I ended up with fruited cheese bricks that no one would eat. They were only good as doorstops.

So hear me, marketing minds of the universe. Your plan is working. Put that little fortified label on anything, and I'll buy it and feed it to my little girl!
W

Toilet paper and other entertainment

Every day a child is learning something new. What a great thought! Of course, what no one tells you is that what they are learning is not always exactly what you wanted them to learn!

Take a look at the picture. At first glance, it may seem I uploaded the wrong one. But on closer inspection, you will see very important things Genny is learning:

1. When you push the silver thing, the toilet flushes. Every single time.

2. Eventually, the toilet paper stops coming off the roll. But then there's a pile of it in the floor to mess with.

3. Mommy doesn't like it when I play with her soap.

4. There is water in the toilet! Water! I love water!

Hope joy finds you wherever you are!
W

Balloons

AC held a balloon launch here in town, and Rob, Genny, my mom and me went to see it. It was a truly beautiful day and we got to see 15 balloons take off. Genevieve loved it; heck, we all loved it!

She liked to watch them and pointed at them over and over and said "ba", which is her general word for anything right now. What a fun time!

Daddy's birthday

Robert turned 30 this year! Unfortunately, the whole family was sick and we had to cancel his birthday party. Then he was on a work trip to Oregon on his actual birthday. So when he came home, Genevieve and I were ready to celebrate!

Here's Rob and Genny blowing out the candles on his decorated brownies. Genevieve is dressed in her "I love Daddy" T-shirt for the occasion. And she does.

Happy Birthday Rob!

The noggin-bonker

Here's a picture of Genevieve "walking" outside on a beautiful fall day with what we fondly call "the noggin-bonker."

The noggin-bonker earned its name early; she would pull it backwards with her as she fell on her bottom, and, hence the name, bonk her noggin with it.

She's really quite proficient with it, and she likes to collect treasures in the basket there as she walks along: an acorn, some rocks from the neighbor's yard, and some leaves. Every few steps she will stop to examine the treasures or add a new one.

Someday we won't need a noggin bonker to walk to the neighbor's house!

The beginning of the blogging

Here's a picture of Genevieve eating her birthday cake.

Like every other parent out there, I want to preserve the memories of Genevieve's childhood forever. For the first year, pictures were great. Pretty much everything she did could be captured in an image. But now, things are different. It's not so much the pictures, it's the stories! Every day is a story. So here I am, entering the world of blogs. Bravely.

I hope you enjoy sharing the wild ride with us!

W