Corners

This is Corners.

Corners is a blanket my aunt made for Robbie. It was only recently that we realized we had, in fact, named the blanket and were regularly calling it by name. Sometimes these things just sneak up on you.

Thankfully, Robbie doesn't drag a blanket everywhere, but he's pretty attached to this one when he goes to bed. When he was smaller, he sort of rolled the corners around in his little fists, and he would use the tips of the corners to tickle his ears when he was sleepy.

He still does this, and occasionally he'll very gently shove a corner into one of our ears when we're holding him at bedtime. It's nice that he shares.

One of the corners is apparently better than the other three. He shuns the one with the little tag. Two others receive ample attention, but the one diagonal-opposite (is that a term?) from the tag is his very favorite. We learned this the other night. He will dig through the blanket to find that particular corner. If we rotate the blanket, he'll turn it back so he has the right one. He can find it in the dark.

I'm not sure what the big deal is, but he must know something we don't.

Nature's Car Wash

My non-Arizonan friends may find this strange, but we take pictures when it rains here. It's a novelty, and we definitely appreciate it!

I was *this* close to washing my filthy car on Saturday, and I'm glad my laziness prevented me from doing it. A nice downpour started on our way home from the store this afternoon, so I left the car outside for a shower, and the kids and I hung around in the garage for a little bit.

Robbie thought it was great! Most of his experiences with puddles are from splash parks, so he was perfectly happy to squat by the gutter and poke the little raindrop rings.
My legs would fall off if I tried to squat like that.

Free food on Labor Day!

We went to Chick-Fil-A today and saw a sign that said you can get three free chicken strips on Labor Day (from 10:30 to closing) if you wear any kind of pro or college football clothes.

Yay!

This was at the Dysart & McDowell location, but I looked around online and it sounds like it's a corporate-wide promotion. So wear your Sun Devils stuff & go get free food that day!

**Editor's Note: If you wear U of A Wildcats stuff, you're entitled to a free kick in the pants**

School Portraits: Greatest Hits

Erin doesn't really like posing for pictures lately, and I think it's some kind of karmic payback for the collection of horrifying photos I provided my parents with when I was young. I'm sure my mom cringed every time the school photo packet came home! These were the photos she had to give to friends & family.

For your amusement... here is some of my best work:

Age 4 (Extremely annoyed at the photographer and his puppet)

First Grade (no explanation)

Second Grade (I was told to show my new permanent teeth when I smiled)

Third Grade (I just like the comparison of me chillin' next to Miss Prissy Rufflesocks)

..And I can't say the photos got much better through the years! I still don't like posing for pictures, and they still come out very similar to these.

First Grade!

Erin starts first grade today!

Rob took her to "Meet the Teacher" day on Friday, and she was pretty shy with her new teacher. But she got to pick out her own desk, and her teacher showed her where to get her textbooks and everything for her desk, so that made her feel pretty grown-up. She's excited that she already knows several kids in her class, and some more of her friends are starting kindergarten, so she's glad she'll get to see them at school this year.

She could hardly wait to get out the door this morning! Wouldn't it be great if we always felt that way about going to school? As opposed to dragging yourself out of bed in college and telling yourself it's OK to go to class in your pajama bottoms if it's before 10:00 am. :)

I'm excited to hear all about her day when she comes home.

Ah, Summer!

The kids and I spent most of Saturday swimming at my parents' house. Poor Rob was umpiring softball tournaments out in the heat all day long while we were lounging in the pool.

Erin is a pretty good swimmer. She's getting better at swimming underwater & really likes to do somersaults. She went off the diving board about a million times, and she even let me throw her in a couple of times.

Robbie did really well with just the arm floaties again. We were out there a few hours, and I think his little legs were kicking the whole time! (Except for when he got on the raft - then he closes his eyes and is perfectly still) He'll swim the length of the pool and get himself in and out. Hopefully he'll do well at the beginning of next summer, so we can work on doing it without the floaties!

It was a perfect day to be in the pool, and we had fun visiting with my parents. Pizza for lunch and Mexican food for dinner - my favorites! The kids were properly worn out, and we all slept really well!

Chalk & Water Balloons

After the driveway cooled down tonight, the kids got to draw all over it with chalk. Robbie had more fun rolling the chalk down the driveway, but Erin had a pretty good time drawing.
I found some balloons earlier & filled them up with water, so after the chalk we went in the back yard to throw water balloons. As you can see, this wasn't Robbie's favorite activity!

Poor thing cried when his water balloon popped! He thought it was funny when Erin would throw one, but it was a different story when he dropped his. He was so sad.

To end the night on a happy note, we chased the lizards around in the back yard for a while. Yesterday I found one that was molting & it was pretty gross. I had to show Erin, and of course I left the door open while we looked at it. It jumped out of my hands & scurried off somewhere. Later on, Erin found it on the blinds in our living room! This lizard with nasty peeling skin had been wandering around in our house. I caught it again, put it outside, and SHUT the door. Then I washed the disgusting lizard dandruff off my hands. Bleh!

Whip It

The kids were putting their new buckets to good use the other night, and I had to do a little photo comparison...

(Yes, I'm that old.)