Ivy Ivy Ivy

and also Heidi Heidi Heidi. Aunt Heidi is coming for a visit next week, and if I don't get the blog updated, I will have way too much to fit on it.



School has started with a vengeance. No more days at the pool.

We are working with a new, tough schedule. We both teach Tuesday/Thursday; I only have one class, but Josh leaves before 6 and doesn't get home until after 5:30. We have hired a nanny to help us in the morning. She was sick this week, and we did it without her, but that's only because I got up at 5:15 and Ivy miraculously slept until 7. She has not been sleeping as soundly or as long as she was 6 weeks ago. We think it's both teeth and the adjustment to school.




Josh and I both joined a Writing Accountability Group that I hope will help us get more work done, and make our work better. (I go up for tenure in 10 months, and I am really, really nervous. Ivy is so great, but she has really slowed me down. Instead of working on the weekends, we go for brunch with our friends [this is Jayson, Laura, and Gwen]. I know they say that no-one ever wishes they'd spent more time at work, but I will surely wish I got tenure.) I produced a guest artist residency 14-15 September. Our entire office staff has turned over, and we lost our long-time (but totally replaceable) Costume Studio Manager in August. They hired 6 new people in Communication. We have been very busy with getting new people into the loop.


Ivy continues to amaze us with her brilliance (right now, she's fussing in her crib and refusing to take a nap, so I am less amazed than I sometimes am). She can eat with chopsticks better than her daddy. She is putting together very long sentences as a way to practice concepts in the world: We don't wear our shoes at nighttime, but we wear them during the day. She knows so many words, and she knows what kinds of words they are: Fire plug and fire hydrant are synonyms. She can recognize her name, and is working on writing it. She also scribbles on the wall and tells us what it says (when she's not drawing "walruses"). Her artistic talent isn't always as evident as her eagerness to learn and do, but we are very proud of her.



Everything has a song: Mommy, sing the fire hydrant song. No, the other fire hydrant song.

Josh made up a great song about cement mixers that she especially loves:
Round and round and round and round.
Mixing up all the cement.
Down, down, down the chute and into the wheelbarrow.
Scoop it out onto the ground and tamp, tamp, tamp it down.
Smooth, smooth, smooth it and out and Ivy has a new sidewalk.

She sings it all the time, especially when she's in the car.





She also likes the construction worker song I made up for her:
Construction workers work all over town.
They fix things up and they tear things down.
Construction workers build houses and streets.
They smooth out the sidewalks so they look really neat.

Construction workers wear yellow hard hats.
Construction workers drive yellow Bobcats.
Construction worker use cranes and excavators.
In tall buildings, they ride elevators.

Construction workers work hard all day.
They don't have time to nap or play.
Construction workers stay until the job is done.
When they are finished, they go out and have fun.

And, for the record, I made that up on the bike.

She is really a great baby. Though her teachers won't admit it, she is the smartest and prettiest in her class. And, she is very well dressed. And, her hair matches her Mommy's.









Potty training went so well for us... as long as we were there to help. She never has accidents at home, and she is very good at going in the park, the restaurant, the grocery store, other people's houses. But until last week, she'd never had an accident-free day at school. Last Friday, I told her that is she didn't have any accidents that day, I'd get her a new train at Target (we basically go to Target every Sunday for coffee and running around and to buy whatever we've decided we can't live without that week). She didn't have any accidents, and picked out a Piglet (which she identified as a pink bunny). This week, I told her that if she had 3 days without an accident, she could get a train or something else. One on Monday, that she barely missed; none Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; and then one on Friday (which I REALLY hope wasn't because she'd gotten to her 3 and her train by then). We're going for 5 days next week, and then I hope we can stop the bribes. I really hope we have this kicked.

Now, we just have to get rid of the damn sucky, though I think it's keeping her from biting (me, friends, stuffed koala bears).

She continues to be an excellent eater, but has become a regular kid and prefers chicken nuggets and french fries to nearly everything else when we go out to eat. She is doing a great job eating at home, and if she balks, I just ask her if I can have a bite of whatever it is she's eating. NO! It's my carrot/pancake/tuna/noodles/broccoli/cottage cheese/chicken/bagel. NOT yours! That almost always works. Of course, she doesn't respect those boundaries with my food -- nothing is so delicious as what comes off Mommy's plate, unless it's off of Mommy's plate and has sauce (ketchup, salad dressing, mustard, salsa).



Now for the photos with captions:

Actual Ivy sentence: When you learn to go potty, you don't have to wear pants at home.












We had a really great time with Grammy and Grampy in Iowa.





I think my parents fought over who gets to hold Ivy even more than Josh and I.










She loved playing in their garden and finding all the statues.

Grammy tried to show her the goldfish.






Grampy is just smitten with her (so says Grammy).

He took care of her all by himself while we went shopping. No meltdowns from either of them!








We went to Moats Park several times. It is WAY cooler than when I was little. The first day, Ivy changed her pants three times. I had to go home and get extras (to be fair, she'd only been potty-trained a week, and it was a park!). She really liked climbing.








We also went to the pool. Of course, Ivy had to try on Grampy's shoes first. She really likes wearing our shoes -- I think it's because she can get them on and off so easily.









I found a bag of jewels in the dresser in my bedroom, which Grammy finally remembered were Grandma Ruth's that she had been saving (for over 10 years! Poor Grammy!) in case she ever had any grandchildren who wanted to play with them. Ivy did necklaces a couple of times, and just loved the time with Mommy and Grammy.

Who is prettier, Ivy or the flower fairy? Ivy!

Grampy can give piggy shoulder rides!










And pump the water so the frog spits it out!











The butterfly garden was a highlight of the trip.











There were hundreds of butterflies, and they landed on us. We could get closer to them than at the museum in Houston. It was a smaller space, but had more butterflies per square inch.








Cactus Dinosaur! Oh my gosh!












Grammy can push high, but nobody pushes as high as Mommy! Hi, Mommy!









I think John and Rachel are more photogenic than my parents. Out of dozens of shots, this is the only one where they all had their eyes open and looked in the same general direction.

Places to go, people to see, monkey shirts to wear.











Floating in the bath. This has made it much easier to rinse Ivy's hair (which is getting much longer).


What this say? Read it!











I fear there may be one of these in her future. Ivy loves to play in our car, and she thinks Joshua's toy car is about the coolest thing ever. I hope that I will magically drive by a garage sale and see one of these. I can't stand the idea of buying all this molded plastic, and certainly will only get one used.


Wide...











Wider...











Widest!