Spin, spin, spin, spin!

Note to self: do not start this game with Audrey right after a meal.


Scott's been away this week in Hawaii for work (I know, I know-- isn't it terrible?) so Audrey wants to be with him all the time. While he was gone she looked for him under the bed and in the closets, and thought that he must be in every passing car that we saw. She missed him bad. I missed him bad. Welcome home, Scott. And if you have to leave us again, bring more Kona coffee with you.

Oh, and I'm just going to answer the question you are surely shouting out loud right now: why didn't Kris and Audrey go to Hawaii, too? Well, because it kind of had to be a short trip and it's a long (horrifically long) flight from Boston and if I'm spending that long on a plane with a toddler, I'm staying where I land for at least three weeks. Maybe we'll swing it another time. Here's one of the cool things Scott took a picture of while he was in Volcano National Park on the Big Island:

TXT: Mom says "time for nap." LOL!!

There are few things more enchanting to Audrey than phones. She prefers a real one, but sometimes she sits down to make some calls on her play phone. More than once she has called one of Scott's clients when he gave her his phone to play with, thinking he had the phone on some sort of super kiddie-proof lock down. Think again, my friend.

The artist at work

This is a collaborative piece Audrey and I did with her first box of crayons. You can see, in the upper right, evidence of her pointillist style-- a clear departure from my more traditional squiggely lines. She likes to slam the crayon tip down on the page, making bold points of color, occasionally nibbling a little non-toxic crayon wax. Today I scraped blue and purple off her teeth.

Vacation Part II: Salt Lake

Here's a travel quiz: You are in Tucson, about to board a plane to Salt Lake where you will almost surely spend the night at the airport because it's snowing in your final destination, Boston. Oh, and your toddler is coming unglued because she is 1) sick, 2) teething, 3) flying on very little nighttime sleep and no naps for five days. And you happen to be from Salt Lake, where you have great friends you have not seen in a long time. What do you do?

You cancel your flight, that's what!

Boy are we glad we did. What would have been the crappiest, longest layover of our lives turned into a lovely visit in Salt Lake with Kate, Molly, Myron, Malon and Mike. The first four in that last provided great company, food and lodgings to us (and when you travel with a toddler you don't take any of that for granted) and the last one, Mike, gave us a tour of the gorgeous new library in Salt Lake.

Great to see you, everyone. Thank you! We will be back. And your rooms are ready at Hacienda Willcox whenever you want them. We are a cat-free establishment now...

Butterflies

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Great exhibit of butterflies at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. A small, humid greenhouse so densely packed with huge butterflies that you had to watch your step, and have a volunteer brush them off your sleeves on the way out...

Audrey pointed and said, "Birds!" Which sounds like "Boooods!"

Vacation Part 1: Tucson

My dad's family, L to R, back row: Joyce, Uncle Greg, Dad, Janna, Uncle John, Aunt Kris (the original Kris), Scott and Audrey. Front row: Uncle Sergio, Aunt Carol, me, Tom, and Inga. We were gathered at the home of a friend who took this photo, and the sunset a few minutes later over Tucson was quite something.

We spotted this tiny car-- a real car-- in the parking lot of Jerry Bob's restaurant in Tucson. Audrey dug it. The salsa with my breakfast burrito at Jerry Bob's was excellent.

Pa Skip and Auntie Janna spend some time with Audie. She chewed on her fingers a lot because she was cutting four new molars. Ouch. Lot of gum-shredding fun that was.

Smokin.

It's a world of hidden delights... and raisins.

Here's another completely un-original but nevertheless true observation about living with a small kid: she really does remind me of the wonder of everyday things, the hidden coolness of the mundane, the that-is-so-awesome-I-just-wet-my-pants amazement of simple pleasures. Audrey is as delighted to find the discarded cardboard tube of a toilet paper roll as you or I would be to find a $100 bill on the sidewalk. And it's good to live with someone like that.

It is also, of course, exhausting and sometimes tedious to go through the world with someone who moves at this pace-- who needs several minutes to examine a display at the grocery store and even then may wail when hauled away. Or who has a bottomless fascination with the panic button on my car keys. Or who is certain that all child-protected drawers contain treasure.

But these anoyances aside, living with a toddler reminds me to look for those small delights that the world is always offering up, for free. Like that raisin she just discovered under the stove.