Viva el Peru!

In Peru, everyone is celebrating the Veintiocho de Julio - 28th of July, Independence Day.

Lima, near the Plaza de Armas

Cusco, Plaza de Armas

Peekaboo at the Farmer's Market

14 months old today!

And what a day it was ...

Actually it was a pretty normal day, up until bedtime.

V. woke up around 5 with a poopy diaper, didn't go back to sleep despite Terry's most soothing efforts. He brought her to me a little before 6. We nursed, played, had breakfast (egg yolks, blueberries, and bread for her) and then went to the playground for about an hour until naptime.

On the walk back we stopped to watch the neighbors tearing shingles off their roof, to admire another neighbor's wind chimes, to smell the flowers, and to look for bees in our coneflowers. Also to pick and eat a cherry tomato ripe from the vine. *happy sigh*... summer!

While V. napped, I dug a splinter out of my heel and then took a nap myself!

After naps, we dropped her off at Grandma Dot's and then ran around trying to do a zillion things on the to-do list. Mine all got done! Plus I packed for our upcoming trip to Lancaster for the Jantzi family reunion. Side note: I have found that I am a MUCH better mom (more patient, understanding, kind, and happy) when I have a few hours to myself in the middle of the day. It makes a huge difference later during the 4-7 p.m. lead-up to bedtime.

Picked up Val, came home, fed her supper (sweet potato, spinach, cheese, bread, mandarin orange slices), played some more, then moved into bedtime mode. That was all pretty much routine until I tried to lay her in her crib - she popped right up again, crying. I went through the usual routine we have to soothe her back down again (letting cry for short periods of time, checking in at 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5, 7, etc.) but in the middle of the 3-minute period she made gagging noises... I went in and she was throwing up.

Oh dear.

Terry cleaned up the crib and floor while I put her in the bath again, where she asked to have her teeth brushed again (I would have too!) and played happily for a good 15 minutes. Just as we went to lift her out - she pooped in the tub! Fortunately we're still using the baby tub and could dump the dirty water straight into the toilet. Terry did that (clean-up guy again!) while I wiped, dried, diapered, and dressed her again for bed.

She finally fell asleep at around 9:45.

I had been planning to go to bed early tonight...

365th Post

Valerie has taken a few more unassisted steps, but mostly she likes to walk around while hanging onto someone's hands. We've been going to the park playground every morning around 8, and that's been a lot of fun - we swing, we go down the slide, we play "uh-oh" (throw stuff off the picnic table and then peer through the cracks while Mom picks it up), we look at birds and grass and trees and flowers and bees. She loves watching bees - she points to the flowers and goes "Bvvvvvvvv!"

Other new words:
"ow" = owl (mural on the side of our shed)
"Ayish" = Alex (the boy next door)
"esh" = eggs (favorite food)
"babbo" = bubbles
"da-ee" = daddy
"mama" = yours truly

I think "bvvvv" counts as a word, too!

**
edited to add:
"edz" = edge (usually in reference to stairs)
"jish" = this

I also have to add that she used to call the green tomatoes in our garden "eggs," but now has been calling them "owl" - I think she got confused because the mural is right next to the garden, and I would point out the owl whenever we went past it towards the tomatoes. She loooves to eat the little cherry tomatoes the minute they get ripe enough!

So I'm Told

Valerie walked 6 steps unassisted today at Grandma Dot's house!!!! Of course I missed it, while out to lunch (literally, not figuratively, I hope) with a friend.

4th of July

Memorial wreath for David Sparks (veteran)

New Blog Title

So... you may have noticed the new blog title - punny, eh? :-) For those who don't know me in real life, "Phantzi" is a melding of my last name and my husband's. And "yarns," of course, can refer to the knitting kind or the narrative kind.

On this light note, I list here three new games Valerie has initiated:

• Bonk. Not for the thin-skulled, the primary object of this game is to provoke hilarity by bumping your forehead against someone else's (if you are V., that would be mine). Laugh, repeat. And again. Game ends with a nose rub.
• Feet. Alternately known as "Happy Feet." Sit in Lazy Boy. Hand mom your pink bunny or the toy known as "green guy" (kind of a dragon-ish thing, with little mirrors on its feet) and brush your hands together to signal "do it again." Mom flips bunny or Green Guy over twice, then holds out his feet saying "feetfeetfeetfeetfeet!" You hold up either one foot or both feet, then laugh and giggle while she tickles your soles with the toy's feet!
• Where is Valerie? Edition 2.0. Unlike the prototypical cloth-over-face version, this more sophisticated version of the game involves standing behind mom's back, sometimes gripping her shirt for support but sometimes unsupported! Stay very still while mom swivels her head back and forth looking for you. Then slowly leeeeaaaaaan over to one side where she can see you. Mom cries, "There she is!" and grabs you for a hug.

Happy Canada Day!

Christmas 2006, Cuzco, Peru

Happy Canada Day to all you Canucks out there, but especially to Valerie's one and only Uncle David!

Thanksgiving 2008, Savannah, GA