On Friday night, those of us who cannot drink alcohol demanded a trip to the ice cream parlor. We then did our best to work off some of those calories by walking down to the boardwalk. Stella ran around the compass rose about 649 times. Show off.
Costume designs by Stella
In viewing these photos many of you might proclaim, “Oh My! She isn’t wearing any pants!” Whereas those of us who live with her are joyful at the fact that she is actually wearing underwear.
Road Trippin’
Well, Thad and Steve managed to survive an entire weekend with the Ladies Anderson (of whom, Stella has been made an honorary member). Just the fact that it wasn’t raining was enough to make me giddy with such joy and happiness that constant trips to the bathroom, roundhouse kicks to my internal organs and being on the wagon seemed like trivial annoyances. Combine good weather with ample shopping, a Whole Foods within spitting distance and round-the-clock toddler-sitters and you have the formula for virtual nirvana. To sit and read a trashy novel for the better part of an afternoon was, frighteningly enough, one of the highlights of my trip. Amazing how one’s priorities change when things as simple as going to the bathroom without a 2-year-old companion becomes a luxury.
Speaking of going to the bathroom, I was beside myself with pure, inexplicable joy that our pretty-much-completely-potty-trained daughter made the entire car trip without a single accident. And I can only blame myself for not catching on film her first experience with gas-station/fast-food restaurant bathroom usage. She handled it like a pro – as though in her former life she was a long-haul trucker. Simply amazing.
All I can think of when I look at these photos is that Blackhawk Country Club has no idea WHAT they are getting themselves into letting our family in there for an event that involves celebratory activities and alcohol. If no one falls into one of the lakes or finds themselves buried in a sand-trap I think we will be able to call the event a success.
Career Day
When God was handing out imaginations Stella must have gone through the line about 6 times. With predictable regularity, she will do or say something that, seemingly, comes straight out of left field. Whenever possible, we try to capture these moments on film so that later in life – like, oh, say, 13 years from now when she is trying to be as normal as possible – we can show her that she should just stop trying because it’s not in her genetic make-up to be normal. “Go with it,” we will tell her, “fighting it will only make it harder.”
The following photos were taken of what we can only surmise was her own personally-hosted career day. (Clicking through the photos – as opposed to viewing them in slide-show format – will allow you to see their titles).
DISCLAIMER: We did NOT pose her for any of these photos, but rather photographed her in the environment (and attire) in which we found her.
You may be experiencing technical difficulties…
Nobody panic. I am in the process of upgrading my blog software, and running into a few technical glitches. Mostly, you will find that the navigation from the categories and comments are broken and that a side effect of this is that you also cannot leave comments.
Bear with me.
UPDATE: Things seem to be working now. Let me know if you encounter any problems…(aside from the fact that I haven’t posted any photos of The Chosen One in over a week).