For some reason Shayla is 'on strike' when it comes to allowing easy pictures to be snapped. "No, Dada No" she says while I try to take these. Sorry kid, posterity wants what it wants.
For 2 days now Christina and I have been trying to discover the source of this noxious smell in our dining area. We had narrowed it down to right around the dining table.
The search began at ground level and worked upward. We have one cat and a 2 1/2 yr. old baby girl so the sources of olfactory assault are numerous to say the least. First I thought that the cat had gotten sick in an inconspicuous place. Nope, ruled that out. Next I checked the potato and onion/garlic wire storage bins. Nope,...not there. At this point I am starting to suspect the death of a small rodent in the junior wall that makes up our simulated 'foyer' separating the dining 'room' from 'foyer'. I sniffed around at the water in both of the flower vases on the table..No, not that either (both my partner and I have had birthdays in the past week).
I am close to this point where I don't know what, but I have got to find the source of this stench even if I can't do anything about it!! It's like an itch that I can't scratch!
Then, just in a last scrutinous nasal pass over the top of the dining room table my senses red line over the most delicate, pretty, normally unobtrusive florally accentuating greenery on the table......'Babies' Breath'. Yep... Babies' Breath. This super foul stench that I had taken as something far more physically putrid was nothing less than one of the most delicate and pretty recent additions to our environment. Who would've thought? Excited to discover the source, I could now relax knowing that the guest would only be temporary, and that I still know how to keep my house clean. Yay...... Afterwards, I realized that that was all it was about all along.
The search began at ground level and worked upward. We have one cat and a 2 1/2 yr. old baby girl so the sources of olfactory assault are numerous to say the least. First I thought that the cat had gotten sick in an inconspicuous place. Nope, ruled that out. Next I checked the potato and onion/garlic wire storage bins. Nope,...not there. At this point I am starting to suspect the death of a small rodent in the junior wall that makes up our simulated 'foyer' separating the dining 'room' from 'foyer'. I sniffed around at the water in both of the flower vases on the table..No, not that either (both my partner and I have had birthdays in the past week).
I am close to this point where I don't know what, but I have got to find the source of this stench even if I can't do anything about it!! It's like an itch that I can't scratch!
Then, just in a last scrutinous nasal pass over the top of the dining room table my senses red line over the most delicate, pretty, normally unobtrusive florally accentuating greenery on the table......'Babies' Breath'. Yep... Babies' Breath. This super foul stench that I had taken as something far more physically putrid was nothing less than one of the most delicate and pretty recent additions to our environment. Who would've thought? Excited to discover the source, I could now relax knowing that the guest would only be temporary, and that I still know how to keep my house clean. Yay...... Afterwards, I realized that that was all it was about all along.
Shayla was telling me all about these stones this morning. "This is the baby stone", she would say. "This is the Daddy, and This One is the Mommy". It was great. Apparently there is a whole hierarchy within the stone people's world and she was telling me all about it. I Love being a Dad!! :)
It was fun tonite going to Westgate Bowling Lanes for Shayla's first intro to the Real world of bowling. Up until now she'd only been exposed to plastic pins and ball. I was excited for her.
She was very taken with all the sound and light stimuli. She knew What she was looking at and was very eager to get underway.
All the lanes nowadays have these submerged, rubberized 'bumper' rails that you can opt for on any player when logging your players info into the scoring program. When your kid's turn comes up the rails raise themselves on either side of the lane to keep the ball from 'guttering' . No matter what their skill level is they will knock down pins. Pretty cool! Then when their turn is over the rails go down 'till their next turn.
Shayla thought Every turn was her turn. So that was fun. It was really funny because she wanted to accompany each one of us as we bowled our turns. As you know and can picture that could me a hazardous practice. She got her groove on after about the first game and started to kind of realize (a little) how it works, ie. with 'turns' and such.
Several times I had to discourage her from trying to 'kick' the ball down the lane. Lucky for me (not to mention her) I caught those before she really gave it the good ol' toddler try. That would've hurt. Even though her ball was light, it wasn't That light. 6 pounds is the lightest kiddie ball they had. No, of course she has to carry the ball up to the foul line, set it down, then push. (Her little fingers don't quite span the holes of the ball just yet.) I kept trying to sync with her so that I could help her push the ball with a little bit of extra force. We'd put the ball down and I'd say "Okay Shayla, on the count of three we'll push...one...tw-", Bam! She'd push off before "Two" was out of my mouth! It was Great! She was so eager, but by the time the ball actually made contact with the pins we could've pulled up chairs and been halfway through a bag of chips and a juice. Excellent!
Really the only other thing that we found that we had to stay on top of other than her spontaneous hugs to the lane of 6, 7, and 8yr. old boys next to us (really--she kept trying to hug this one boy, and succeeded once from behind him. He was very disturbed by this, and looked at me Like she was trying to pick his pockets or something. It was very funny. I thought, 'don't worry, you're gonna make it'.) was to keep her hands and fingers away from the ball return chute . She got impatient a few times when her ball was taking a little more time than she thought it should to come back. She started to go for the black abyss of the ball return chute and...SWOOSH!! Momma steoped in and pulled her back just in time! She was standing directly behind her watching her every move (I do like to write a little dramatically for the sake of the peanut gallery, I must be honest. :) ) Thanks Momma! You're a Very Good Momma :).
So we had a Really good time out on Shayla's first bowling night. I feel pretty confident that there will be more.
....Take a Deep Breath and Count to Ten...
She was very taken with all the sound and light stimuli. She knew What she was looking at and was very eager to get underway.
All the lanes nowadays have these submerged, rubberized 'bumper' rails that you can opt for on any player when logging your players info into the scoring program. When your kid's turn comes up the rails raise themselves on either side of the lane to keep the ball from 'guttering' . No matter what their skill level is they will knock down pins. Pretty cool! Then when their turn is over the rails go down 'till their next turn.
Shayla thought Every turn was her turn. So that was fun. It was really funny because she wanted to accompany each one of us as we bowled our turns. As you know and can picture that could me a hazardous practice. She got her groove on after about the first game and started to kind of realize (a little) how it works, ie. with 'turns' and such.
Several times I had to discourage her from trying to 'kick' the ball down the lane. Lucky for me (not to mention her) I caught those before she really gave it the good ol' toddler try. That would've hurt. Even though her ball was light, it wasn't That light. 6 pounds is the lightest kiddie ball they had. No, of course she has to carry the ball up to the foul line, set it down, then push. (Her little fingers don't quite span the holes of the ball just yet.) I kept trying to sync with her so that I could help her push the ball with a little bit of extra force. We'd put the ball down and I'd say "Okay Shayla, on the count of three we'll push...one...tw-", Bam! She'd push off before "Two" was out of my mouth! It was Great! She was so eager, but by the time the ball actually made contact with the pins we could've pulled up chairs and been halfway through a bag of chips and a juice. Excellent!
Really the only other thing that we found that we had to stay on top of other than her spontaneous hugs to the lane of 6, 7, and 8yr. old boys next to us (really--she kept trying to hug this one boy, and succeeded once from behind him. He was very disturbed by this, and looked at me Like she was trying to pick his pockets or something. It was very funny. I thought, 'don't worry, you're gonna make it'.) was to keep her hands and fingers away from the ball return chute . She got impatient a few times when her ball was taking a little more time than she thought it should to come back. She started to go for the black abyss of the ball return chute and...SWOOSH!! Momma steoped in and pulled her back just in time! She was standing directly behind her watching her every move (I do like to write a little dramatically for the sake of the peanut gallery, I must be honest. :) ) Thanks Momma! You're a Very Good Momma :).
So we had a Really good time out on Shayla's first bowling night. I feel pretty confident that there will be more.
....Take a Deep Breath and Count to Ten...