I thought we should let you know that we will now be posting at

http://thehuntersfamilyblog.blogspot.com

We promise there will continue to be Addie pictures and news, but you can also check there to see what the rest of us are up to. As a little incentive to visit I already put up a post with pictures of my last foray into hand spinning yarn. Who can pass up a chance to see that?

Please check back often as we *plan* to post more regularly there. Now that I have a place for it, you will at least be seeing alot more of what I do with my time.

Ame

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Hey, you. Yeah, you. I've set a new international blogging record--or was it a personal blogging record?--by making five new posts in only two days! This means that if you're reading this, you might want to scroll down to read the other four recent additions.

Meema's Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
Sugar cookie dough
Sprinkles
Broom and dustpan

Step 1: Arrange sugar cookie dough into individual balls on a baking sheet. Be certain to put as many stickers on your shirt as will fit.


Step 2: Prepare sprinkles.


Step 3: Remove lid, and pour sprinkles into lid.


Step 4: Dump.


Step 5: Repeat Step 4, then grimace.

Step 6: Throw a few sprinkles on the floor for good measure.


Step 7: Bake and enjoy. While they're baking, get the broom and dustpan and sweep the floor. Come to the realization that you're only kidding yourself and fetch the vacuum. As you walk through the kitchen a few hours later, pick out the errant sprinkles that have become embedded in your socks. Laugh about it, because, hey, at least you've got cookies to eat.

Christmas Wish List

On Saturday we drove to a local toy store that is going out of business to have a look around. While there, I made note of a few things I, I mean Addie, would like for Christmas or her birthday this year. First on the list is the Playmobil Knights Empire Castle, pictured above. I'm not certain, but she might also like any of the corresponding accessories (sold separately) . Just something to look into.

Also by Playmobil, there was interest expressed regarding the Large Pirate Ship and Soldier Fortress with Lighthouse, Roman Arena (great for teaching about the persecutions of the early Christian church) and Warrior's Ship, Zoo, Noah's Ark (might even be necessary for Bible lessons), and the Animal Farm. I, er, Addie, would really love to play with any of these. And that warning that says "Small parts. Not for children under 3 years"? Don't be concerned; I'll keep a close watch on Addie as I, um, she, plays.

And while she's hoping for a little brother to come along someday who will enjoy playing with them, Addie told me that she wouldn't be terribly disappointed if a nice set of Lincoln Logs happened to find its way under the tree. Again, just something to think about.

Chocolate Fiend

So it turns out Addie loves chocolate, so much so that Ame and I have to sneak it around to keep her from attempting to eat half of our stash. I'm torn between thinking, Hey, we might have a serious problem brewing here and This is just what girls do, right? Whatever the case, Ame, perhaps being sympathetic on behalf of her fellow female, is prone to urging Addie on in her love of all things chocolate. Case in point: a couple of weeks ago while the two were out doing something, Ame stopped by and got a small cup of hot chocolate. You might imagine a situation in which Addie repeatedly demanded a drink until she wore Ame down and she finally caved, but I'm leaning more toward labeling Ame as an enabler. We may never know exactly what happened, but the photographs tell a gruesome tale.

____, ____, Goose

Lately Ame and I have been trying to get Addie on a more rigorous sleeping schedule in hopes of getting her to bed earlier, so that she's not awake until midnight when the two of us are ready to go to sleep at 10:30. Part of this schedule has included an afternoon nap, something which Ame worked out so that Addie would sleep from around 2:00 to 3:00, wake up, then hopefully be ready for bed when we were. For a couple of weeks this worked reasonably well, but for the last few days Addie has decided to forgo that nap.

This was all manageable--beneficial, even--at first, since the absence of a nap in the afternoon meant that Addie was tired earlier, sometimes falling asleep at 9:00 or 9:30. Great, we thought, now we actually have some time to ourselves. But we soon realized that the downside of the napless afternoon is that the lack of sleep begins to build up, and for the past couple of days of not napping Addie has begun getting quite cranky early in the evening. At first we were able to fight it, distracting her with toys and food and games and whatnot, but last night we caved and let her take her 'afternoon' nap at around 6:00.

This, of course, meant that when bedtime rolled around Addie was far from being ready to go back to sleep. So at around 11:30 Ame graciously offered to take Addie downstairs and put on a movie until she went to sleep so that in the meantime I could get some sleep, since I've got to get up early to go to work. I'll take this opportunity to explain our bathing system. Addie has two hooded towels, only one of which we use to dry her off after a bath or shower. The one we don't use is a small yellow terrycloth towel whose hood has been decorated to look like a duck, beak and all. (As an aside--and I don't know why you'd be curious, but if you are I'll relieve that curiosity--the reason we don't use that particular towel is because of its size. Addie has simply outgrown it.)

So I've not seen this particular duck towel recently, but when I got out of bed this morning this is what I saw lying there:



Towel on, hood up, face down, and a sockless foot thrown in for good measure. I don't know what happened between Ame and Addie going downstairs last night and coming back up, but the results are certainly amusing.

HELP WANTED: Young girl, 1-2 years old, cute as a button, good with hammer

Right. So a few posts ago, which it turns out is a few months ago by now, I resolved to posting more often. Well soon after that the internet connection at our apartment became a thing of the past, so the only time we have available online is when we take the laptop to the library. Since this usually means one of us uses the computer while the other chases Addie around, switching halfway through, we tend to not do anything with the blog.

Anyway. Our apartment has two bedrooms, and since Addie sleeps in ours the second one is a combination spare bedroom/craft room/library/office. And in that spare bedroom/craft room/library/office are two bookcases--both built by me--one crammed full of books and the other with Ame's craft stuff, the latter being the first one built. Well it turns out that the fine folks in the lumber section of Home Depot aren't the most reliable sources for providing their customers with multiple pieces of lumber cut to the same length. They get them close, sure, but when you're talking about something like a bookcase you need all the shelves to be the same length.

I failed to notice that some of the shelves were a little longer than others until I already had the thing mostly put together, but with a few extra nails and an L-bracket at each corner the thing held up just fine. (As a side note, I took a few precautionary measures before starting the second bookcase, so it's nice and sturdy.) So we've been living with this not-quite-perfect bookcase for a few months now, and when I recently noticed that it was leaning a lot more than it was initially I decided it was time to take it apart, cut the individual shelves to the same length, and put it back together. Always curious and more than ready to help, Addie stepped into the room one night before bed and went to work.






And here's the kicker: after I cut the shelves to the same length and began putting the case back together, I realized that the real problem was that one of the side boards was considerably warped, which was preventing all of the shelves from fitting flush against the sides. So now in that spare bedroom/craft room/library/office we've got one bookcase packed full of books and one hastily-nailed-together-quasi-shelf-sort-of-thing for some of Ame's craft stuff.

Just Because

Because sometimes all you need is something good to read during those tough times.




Because there's not much better than finding exactly what you're shopping for.




Because ghost stories are just plain better with flashlights.




Because I'd really rather not go down that slide, Mom.




Because I'll grow into these shoes... eventually.




Because who says there's only one right way to wear a shirt?




Because surely there are enough minutes on this phone, anyway.




Because having a roll of masking tape stuck to your back isn't as fun as you might think.




Because I'm just that cool, daddy-o.

The First Ma-melon

That's "watermelon" for those not in the know. Most Saturday mornings we get up and go to the local farmer's market, and for the last four or five weeks we've bought a watermelon from one particular vendor. The first was met with mere indifference from Addie, but since those first few bites she's been singing a different tune. Now we can't open the fridge without her peeking in, taking note of the contents, and excitedly proclaiming "ma-melon! Ma-melon!" Now she scarfs it down; these pictures chronicle the the begin of the addiction:

A Day at the Park

I've got a boatload of pictures to put up, and there's at least one person still reading this (for the rest of you, don't forget to leave a comment), so I guess I better get going. There's a nice park near our new apartment that I took Addie to a couple of months ago while Ame was teaching a childbirth education class. The park has a nice man-made pond with a walking trail all the way around, with ducks and geese and turtles and all kinds of good stuff. See for yourself:

Addie checking out the ducks from the foot bridge. You can just see one duck over her right shoulder:




Getting mighty brave in checking out one of the ducks in a little closer proximity:




Then while I was trying to get some closeup pictures of the waddling ducks, Addie walked around behind me for a few seconds before coming back and presenting this to me:


(Note for the PETA crowd: This blog, and the authorship thereof, that being defined as Wes and/or Ame, does in no way promote nor value the removal of the waterfowl egg from its native habitat. The juvenile waterfowl egg is to receive constant care and attention if it is to grow into an adult waterfowl egg. Really, you can blame the ducks for leaving it out in the open like that. Or blame another kid for moving it to where my daughter could pick it up.)


Our gorgeous girl gazing at a gaggle of geese grazing on the grass:




Baby geese! (A two-word phrase repeated every few seconds by a certain member of the family, namely the small one, while she watched me write this post.)