Day at the Lake

Shortly after we arrived at Quinn & Linda's wonderful lakeside house everyone changed into suits (except me, left mine in Michigan!) and headed out to the boat. We had told Anna that we'd be riding in a boat and she was STOKED. No fear or anxiety at all. If we had let her, she would have attempted to hop into the boat all on her own and surely wiped out. As Quinn was bringing the boat alongside the dock, she was exclaiming "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! The boat!" She watched, calm and curious, as the boat trundled out of the cove and took on speed in the middle of the lake.

Now - In the name of safety, Anna was of course wearing a kid-sized life vest. In the name of sun protection, she had on a cotton hat. In the name of foot well-being, she was wearing little pink crocs. As it turns out, these safety measures combined with the beating sun and oppressive heat seemed to be overwhelming for poor Anna. While we can't conclusively say whether she fell asleep from the rocking waves and lack of a nap or actually passed out from becoming overly hot, she definitely lost consciousness.

At first we were all like "awww, sleepy baby!" Not alarmed at all - but when Dad passed her back to me, she was fairly limp... and then I saw that her cheeks were flushed and sweat was beaded on her nose and upper lip. We asked Quinn to steer us back to the house. En route we soaked one end of a towel and dampened all of her exposed skin to keep her cool. It seemed that once we crossed the threshold back into the air-conditioned house, she perked up considerably. Linda fixed her a dish of vanilla ice cream, which she ate with gusto. After that, she was perfectly fine for the rest of the day.

Yeah.

That was too close. I'm gonna be more careful with heat from now on. Zoiks.

After everyone was back from the boat ride, everyone (but swimsuit-less me) hopped in the lake. Anna has been rather timid about swimming so far, and she started out that way today, but after about 15 minutes sitting with Amy in the shallows, she determined that she had this lake thing totally figured out and did NOT need any further help from anyone. Seriously, if we had let her, she would have marched straight out into the lake. "DON'T HOLD ME DON'T HOLD ME DON'T HOLD ME!!" If there is anyone out there still harboring a shred of concern that we are raising a wallflower over here, you may now relax.

After swimming we dried off and had snacks on the deck. Linda thoughtfully brought out some zoo animal toys (originally belonging to their kids David & Jill!) which Anna shuttled back and forth from one lap to another.

It was a great visit! Hey Quinn & Linda - let's not wait 6 years til the next visit, eh? :-)

Mama Movie

This morning Anna was not super enthused about eating her breakfast. One of the best things in my bag of tricks to help her eat when time is of the essence is to show her some video clips on the computer and sneak the spoonfuls in while she's watching.

Here is one of the videos we watched this morning: (http://bit.ly/dyPjnQ) Anna was about 9 months old when this was recorded. It's one of our all-time favorites! She had just learned to say "Mama" and was making sure all within earshot were aware of this new skill.

At this point it's been months since she started calling me "Mommy" full-time, but after the video clip was over, she turned to me with a huge smile on her face, took a deep breath, grasped my arm close to her body, and said "Mamaaaaa! Mamaaaa! Awwww... Mamaaaa!" Then she reached up and hugged me close, still saying "Mama! Mamaaaa! Mama mama! I love that! Mamaaaa!!"

It was so amazing and I feel like the description comes nowhere close to how great it was, but I was just so touched by it. While she has expressed many emotions before, she's never been quite so purposefully and intentionally warm and loving. Made my week for sure, I'll never forget it.

Tonight's tweets

Just in case Twitter loses my tweets from earlier tonight, here they are:

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Chris: Is Mommy awesome? Anna: No. Chris: Is Daddy awesome? Anna: No. Chris: Is Anna awesome? Anna: No. Chris:Who is awesome? Anna: Blankie.

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Chris: Who else is awesome? Anna: Blankie. Chris: Ok, who ELSE is awesome? Anna: Blankie. Chris: Anyone else awesome? Anna: Blankie.

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Unsavory symptoms much improved, but she's still just kinda off her feed. Y'all know I'm pretty particular about her diet- slightly on edge.

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Her bedtime stall tactic tonight was to "change Mommy's poopy diaper." Mmhmm.

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Her sentences are getting more complex: "I picked a pink one." "Mommy, you do it now."

Elmo's Gender

As told by Chris on his Facebook profile:

Last night Anna developed a crazy high fever very suddenly, but this morning she woke up with no fever and feeling VERY spunky. We've enjoyed her many escapades as she literally bounces off the walls with energy.

At one point this morning she decided she wanted to take Elmo's temperature, and having just had her own temperature taken the *ahem* old-fashioned way, Anna seemed to have some ideas for how she would like to have taken Elmo's temperature. Of course, not wanting to let Anna use her *ahem* special thermometer for fear of contamination, Brooke decided to grab a random object instead and tell Anna it was a thermometer (Parenting 101: Lie to your Kids) - that object happened to be a contact lens case.

Of course Anna was not fooled - she immediately said "Contacts," and proceeded to unscrew the caps and put Elmo's contacts in his eyes.

*Shrug*

After she finished, she praised Elmo for being brave and said, "Good girl, Elmo." Brooke inquired, "Is Elmo a girl?"

"No," Anna said confidently, "He's an ELMO."

"Oh, an Elmo," replied Brooke.

"That's right," said Anna, followed by a more emphatic, "That's RIGHT."

Lessons learned: Elmo is an Elmo, and contact lens cases are NOT thermometers.