08/12/2013

 This weekend I decided to add a cleaner shrimp to our tank. I ended up with two and they were so cool!!

You can see the shrimp climbing off the volcano.  Tiny, almost clear.  But they were so fun to watch!

I’m using the past tense because this morning they were gone!  I’m not sure what happened, I checked the tank and the filter.  Right now I’m thinking that they just climbed out.  So sad.   I’d go get more as they were about $2 each.  But…if they are going to climb out it’s not worth it.

I’m currently obsessing over these puppies my mother smuggled back into the country for us:

They aren’t especially awesome but since they are technically illegal here, well now their some sort of forbidden fruit.

And therefore 10 times more appealing.

Saturday I dressed Vivien up a little extra fancy and we went to take her official 2 year pictures.  As always coaxing a smile out of her was tricky.  Here’s one of her while we were waiting:

It was sunny. And hot.  So hot.  So afterwards we got ice creams:

I love this little outfit.  Because of budgeting stuff I didn’t buy a lot of clothes this summer so this little outfit is a little nicer than what she’s been wearing more often than not.  Most of her clothes this summer have been more play clothes.  She’s not been in rags or anything, just things that are a little more comfy.  The photo shoot was actually watermelon themed so I thought the colors would pair nicely.

I also want to brag that she did extremely well with that cone!  I was, and for good reason I’m sure, certain that it would end up on the floor or on the seat next to her but most of it ended up in her mouth with just a bit on her shirt.  The straps got a pretty good covering too but it was time to wash it.  By the time we got home the cone was really drippy but it was still too hot (the issue with Texas heat is that unlike summers everywhere else there’s little to no difference when the sun goes down) to be outside so I let the dogs clean up after her as she wandered around the dining room with me.

Here she is practicing writing. When I say writing she’s taking a pen, or sometimes a pencil and holding it pretty much how you are supposed to and using it to make very fine, fairly detailed markings.  Most of them are peaks and valleys and not swirls.  They’re usually about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long.  She’ll do that for a bit, study the page and then go back to it.  Sometimes she’ll bring me something and say "This says…." and then break off into a rather passionate but impossible to understand tirade. I think she’s actually writing something. 

It was my mother in law’s birthday yesterday so we went to Fort Worth.  In the car I gave her a card I’d picked out and told her to write her grandmother a nice letter.  She said ok, and after about 20 min she handed it back to me and said she was done.  My daughter, the writer.

Also in the photo you can see the little tray thing she got for her birthday.  With us going to Fort Worth fairly frequently and to Galveston from time to time I’m always on the look out for things that aren’t videos to keep her busy in the car.  This tray is soft so it would just bucke but stiff enough that it makes a nice lap tray.  I leave it fairly loose so she can push it down if needed.  It also doesn’t interfere with the cup holder next to her.  I really like it as it kept her markers (Color Wonder) at an arms length.  Up to now she’s been using a clipboard and I tied strings to the markers and then taped them to the clipboard.  It worked well but I like this method better.

That’s about it. Not too much new here.  Happy Monday!!