Unachieved goals

Self-portrait. Lily Julia Anderson. July 20, 2007. 23 months old.

Well, apparently I am never going to have time to post an Atlanta story. I did start writing it, but alas, it will never finish. I am burnt out from the crazy, busy madness at work, from the scorching heat and unbelievable humidity, and from sitting in the house in front of the computer. It's just not going to happen and I need to move on to other things...like thinking about the 18 days I will not be at work in August. Think about your upcoming birthday. Think about going to the folk fest. About the garden. Important summer things.

You insisted that you couldn't leave the house without your sunglasses and purse. Just like mommy - which you call me now instead of mama.

But I have uploaded a bunch of pictures to the Flickr site. At least the rest of the Atlanta ones including the fun times at the Olympic Park fountains and the Children's museum. (And some of my conference photos.) I suppose the pictures will tell the story so check 'em out here.

And before I go plop down on the couch with a magazine, I have to say how wonderful and smart and dramatic you are becoming. You are a girl who knows what she wants and loves to tell us all about it. You know words and concepts I thought would escape a 23 month old girl. Last night Dad asked you to say the letter "W" and you said double-ya-ya. Ya-ya is how you say Lily (because those L's are pretty tricky). Get it? Double-you. You is Lily. You have also gotten pretty sweet on Dada so he's enjoying that. And we just enjoy you more and more everyday. Especially when we come home from work and you are in the window jumping madly up and down and waving your arms with excitement to see us. Pretty terrific.

Sing me a song

The plan was for you and me to go to Wal-Mart after supper to get big girl panties while dad stayed home and mowed the lawn and tidied the yard. For some reason, you were being extremely uncooperative, having taken off your diaper and refusing to put one back on. Not to mention the fact you hadn't even had pants on AT ALL today. You were cranky and started kicking Skye. I took your arm, asked you to look at me, then I told you very firmly that you do not hurt the puppy. You squirmed away from me, climbed onto the stool, hung your legs over the edge and started kicking the dog. I told you no - mommy was not going to play with you anymore. So I went upstairs.

Nana is much more patient with you than I am - especially after an awfully busy week at work. So she brought you upstairs. Kicking and screaming. I tried to ignore you while I read the Prairie Dog, but you sat right on the paper. Seeing that I was still annoyed, you stood beside me, started playing the piano and singing, "Mommeee, mom, mama, mommey, mom, mom, mom."

I asked, grinning, "Did you play that song for me?" Uh huh, you said and played it again to melt my icy heart. It worked.

Where do the days go?

I can't believe that it's after ten at night and I haven't accomplished anything around here today. You only fell asleep at 9:40 tonight because we went to Wascana Lake to feed the geese and ducks and went for a walk to get a slurpee afterwards. Usually we get in just one activity after supper before you need to have a bath and get ready for bed. I figured since you and nana had a three hour nap, we could push it a little today.

We are having a tough time getting anything/everything done. Your dad stayed home sick for a couple days this week and finished some painting he started before you were born! Yikes. The garden is full of weeds. The counter is lined with dirty dishes. I have no clean clothes. But with us working all day, all we want to do is come home and hang out with you. That's the good stuff.

Can we hire someone to do the laundry? 'Cause all we wanna do is have fun.

Pat-a-cake

Your dad was reciting pat-a-cake to you the other night. "And put it in the oven for Lily and me!" And you immediately added, "And mama!" Thanks for not letting me miss out on cake. I will definitely share with you the next time I make cake, too.

Calendar girl

When the opportunity presented itself, how could I not use your sweet smiling face in our 2008 calendar? I originally just had a generic little girl swinging, but she needed a bit more personality. And we had just recently gotten a few great shots of your real smile - not your perfectly calculated posing smile. Just darling you are...

Here's the picture your head is from.


And this is the end result - well just the promo piece, but you come complete with a t-shirt that says "I *heart* mama." So true. Click on the image to view it larger.


And there are some new pictures on Flickr from our Atlanta trip. The ones from the Georgia Aquarium are really nice. I think there will be over 100 altogehter, so as I resize them and colour-correct them I will be putting them up so check 'em out.