Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Coughing up a lung...

We are all sick. Have been for a week. Dag-nabbed summer cold. Coughing, hacking, stuffy head. This is the evil look that my lungs are giving me right now...

This is how I feel...

If we could just go one day without having to run through the sprinkler, perhaps we could heal up. Bring on the holiday weekend!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Bourbon...

After spending a few relaxing days at the cabin hiking and napping, we headed to Lexington, KY for a couple days. Our main activity was Bourbon tours/tastings.

We learned a lot about bourbon, most of which I will not bore you with. But, we saw the grains (at least 51% of which must be corn), and the yeast (closely guarded family recipes in most places), and the water (largely from fresh water springs). Cook all these things up and splash them together in a huge tank and you get Alex's favorite part...


As the yeast eats up the sugar from the grain it burps out gas and bubble, bubble, bubble. From there it is distilled, and distilled again, at which point it is clear and potent (white lighning, white dog, moonshine) Then it's loaded in to new, charred (as in burnned with a hot, hot, flame), ash barrels.
Then they go to the rick house to age for... however long it takes.
Some tours/facilities were nicer than others, but it was pretty cool. We did also manage to bring some home...

Saturday, June 26, 2010

What the...

We have always made a point of talking to Alex like we talk to adults. We have never used a smoodgy-boodgy tone. We explain things the way we might to each other. Sometimes she doesn't understand the words, but that's how you learn. Maybe this practice has contributed to her vocab and communication skills, maybe not.

A couple weeks ago we had the "Apparently I wanted to play" incident. this sort of thing is becoming more normal. She comes up with words that we didn't think she knew, but manages to use them properly... if not sassily. Last week she had her 2-1/2 year well visit with the doc (75th percentile, progressing nicely). The doctor asked a bunch of questions to gauge her cognition, the first of which was, "Are you going back to school after this?". The answer? "Actually, I'm going to Carmen's house!" The doctor was impressed to say the least.

Just a few minutes ago Alex was playing Lego's while I read near by. She always talks to the Legos as she builds and destroys. I was roused from my book when I heard, "What the *frick* is going on?". This is my fault. I have had a difficult time curbing my salty language. Partly because I believe that there are no bad words... words are words and are meant to communicate, and frick comminicates very well thank you. Michele believes that I am crazy/wrong/diluted. I had a talk with her about adult words and children words. She nodded.

All in all, I am happy that she picks things up as quickly as she does. Now if I could just learn to be so aware...

*She did not say frick.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Hiking...

So, yeah... we went hiking. Sure it was several weeks ago, but just pretend it wasn't. We went to the Hocking Hills region of southern Ohio, and I wish I had a picture of the beautiful, well equipped, luxury three bedroom cabin we rented. It was lush. But I do have pictures from hiking... so here we go.

There were caves...

and cute girls...and scary stairs...
and cool bridges...
and more cute girls...it was not stroller friendly...but it was a good walk...and good practice for Switzerland this fall...
and Alex packed us a lunch that we stopped and ate next to a very nice waterfall...

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Saddle up...

I have no idea what my problem is. Writer's block? Laziness? Something better to do? Whatever it is, I have had a really hard time recently convincing myself to sit down and write on this here blog. It's not that this monkey is no longer interested in dancing for your amusement. It isn't that Alex no longer does cute things. It certainly isn't that we don't have stories to tell. I just can't seem to make myself do it.

So today I am writing about nothing... just to write something. Perhaps it will break me out of my funk to just get something down.

I still haven't even written about our vacation that was nearly a month ago... I'll try. There are plenty of cute pics to drive the story... like this one of Alex taking a break from hiking.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Vacation so far... a list...

Vacation ends tomorrow, and I don't have the pics downloaded yet... so here is a short list of memorables before I forget.
  • Three hours in a car is alot with Alex. And she doesn't want to nap.
  • Our cabin in Ohio was big and beatiful. Alex had a separate bedroom just for napping.
  • Cabin naps were forced on her by playing with her hair and singing for an hour.
  • Boxed wine isn't so bad.
  • Hiking with a toddler in a backpack is not as easy as hiking with a baby in a backpack.
  • Playdough will get everywhere, no matter how many adults are watching.
  • S'mores are tasty.
  • Alex thinks we are going to Arizona next.
  • We stopped at an outlet mall and shopped for an hour. The registers were down. We were able to buy nothing.
  • Kentucky is less hilly than southern Ohio.
  • Bourbon is good. We toured six distilerries.
  • Alex likes to hold both Bob's and my hand, and yell, "I have two Daddies!!" Kentucky is not the place for this behavior.
  • Alex loves to sing. Alex sings all day, especially in the car. Her favorite right now is Kumbaya. But she sings, "Kumbaya Mahorn, Kumbaya!" over and over. We giggle.
  • Tonight Alex ended an excited sentence with, "SUCKAH!!". Michele is mad at me.
  • Tonight wee went to dinner. Robin ordered a Mojita. They made it with salt instead of sugar. Michele ordered a burger. The bun was moldy. Yes, moldy. We recieved no discount.
  • Bourbon is good.
More when I have pics. We head home tomorrow.