Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Little Bunny Foo Foo...Got Stuck in the Mud.

In an effort to keep you coming back to check on the blog, here is another randomly timed posting...Spring Break!

We had another invasion of the Front Range Wimsatts this spring - the mini-Wimsatts, that is!  Briana and Genevieve came out to spend some of their spring break with us and Anika.  We met the Wimsatt Parental Units (WPUs) in Glenwood Springs, snagged the girls, and headed back to the Homestid.  They had a great time in the back of the truck (in the cab, not the bed!) with Anika.  Anika taught them games such as "Put My Pacifier Back In My Mouth For Me or You'll Be Sorry", "Keep Singing 6 Little Duckies Over and Over or You'll Be Sorry", and "Don't Laugh at Me While I'm Sleeping or You'll Be Sorry". Ben and I grilled the girls on their social, school, and extracurricular activities until they were sick of us...it was a great trip!

As we went up the road, we told the girls that this was when the adventure for the week began.  The road was M-U-D.  Ben and I made up a song for Anika..."There's a bump in the mud at the bottom of the road"...and there was a reason for it.  We had brought the truck to get the girls rather than my yuppie Subaru Outback because...well...it was stuck in the mud on the road.  We knew about mud from last year, but since we had gotten so much spring snow this year, the top of our road turned into a pit of dispair.  We tried to liken the various types of mud to different types of chocolate, but that eventually wore itself out.  Perhaps it got worn out when Ben had to extricate the 2nd Census worker out of the mud.  Or when the internet guy got stuck...the 2nd one, that Ben just told to pull over and he'd come get him in the Jeep.  In any case, we were certainly happy to have the girls join us on our adventure.  Extra hands are always welcome at the Homestid!

We put Geneveive to work early the first day, when Ben snagged her to go down and help rescue my beloved leather interior, heated seats, sunroofed, yuppie-mobile.

They certainly got their hands dirty!


Peli is making sure that's really Ben and Genevieve...and our Jeep!

Briana stayed at the house with me and played with Anika and helped me out around the house.

Anika was thankful to have a new hand to chew on :-)

All of the cousins had a good time playing together:


Briana and Genevieve also got out for a snowshoe one afternoon:

We also made a trip to Telluride...

Anika has some growing to do before she hits the slopes!

Ben and Genevieve took the ski hill by storm, while Anika, Briana, and I shopped till we dropped.  Then, we all piled into the Subaru and drove back to Littleton to drop the girls off and to spend some time on the Front Range.  Out of everyone piled in the Subie, we decided that Anika had 1) the most room, and 2) the most comfortable seat (although I'm thinking that she'd be even happier with her own seat warmer!).

As for Little Bunny Foo Foo...


She's gonna get us back someday...somehow for this.  But, man, what a cutie...I think this picture is totally worth the grief we'll get when Miss A grows up!!!


A Winter Walk

Its odd how I've caught myself thinking in "blog posts".  I see something and think, "This would be great to put on the blog...I hope my mom / Ben's mom / my east-coast friends / etc. like it, too!".  This post is an example of such a thought process.

Our neighbor, Mel, came over one afternoon in February with his brother-in-law, Ralph.  Ralph and his wife own property across the street from us...if you can call it a street :-)  Ralph hadn't been to his property for quite a while (they live in CA) and came out to visit Mel and his wife, Judy.  Always up for an adventure, Mel chained up his Jeep and packed Ralph in and they came over the snow covered road (we don't plow the part they came on) and pulled up to our house with the intent to hike over to Ralph's cabin.  Anika and I weren't up for the hike, but we went out for our own little walk after the guys went out.  It was such a beautiful afternoon - a perfect Malinda day: snow covering the ground and a bright blue-bird sky :-)

Here are some photos from our walk:


Icicles hanging from the corner of the barn


Foreground: the path the guys broke.  Background: pretty!


Artistically framed photo of the path. 
The curved path is the when the dogs started to break their own trail. 
You can see it didn't last long - they like to make the humans break trail for them!


Bismarck decided to come back and escort Anika and I.
He's next to the tree closest to the driveway (yup that's the driveway!)


Sun setting through the tree.


Airplane in the upper right corner -
 pretty good timing of the pilot to add some interest to my photo!

Snow covered San Juans in the distance.

Mr. Bluebird Sky on My Shoulder!


No need to buy the icicles and fake snow to decorate the trees for us!
Just walk down the driveway!


Just enjoying.


More icicles, snow, and bluebird sky.


The three trailblazers.

I wasn't going to put this last photo in, but alas, I'll get over it - Anika is cute, even when she's wrapped up and passed out against me.  Its one of the greatest feelings in the world to have such a precious baby snuggled up and snoring away...and know that she's Ben's and my wonderful daughter.

Ben, Me, Anika, and Mel

Monday, April 19, 2010

Anika and the Pups

When we first brought Anika home, Ben and I were a little concerned about Peli and Bismarck and their reaction to having a little tiny baby introduced into the pack.  We've had the pups sleep in our room for years to help with the "pack bonding" concept as well as knowing that they weren't getting into anything and to put them outside should their bladders take a turn for the worse (we can be realists at times, you know!).

I've mentioned the dogs reactions to Anika previously, in this post .  Recently, though, Anika has become much more aware of them and they have started to try to figure out how to interact with her.  The other day, I was sitting on the floor holding Anika in Ben's office when Bismarck came in to check on us. Anika looked up and reached out her hands to touch Bizzy...and giggled.  Biz's tail wagged him and it smacked Anika in the head...and she squealed with delight!  Which made Mr. Biz even more excited - we ended up playing a sort of game with Biz going in and out of Ben's office and giving random kisses while his tail went bonkers.  It really was pretty hillarious. 

Below are a couple of photos of Bismarck and Anika's blossoming relationship (beyond the ones from Christmas):



Bismarck found a comfy spot to nap in the hallway - sunshine coming through the laundry room window...and Anika's clothes waiting to be washed.


I couldn't get a good shot of Biz and Anika together, but as you can see, I was in the middle of giving Anika a good sensory overload session by piling the toys on the poor kid when all of the sudden she turned her head and stopped everything and just stared at Bismarck chewing on his bone.  It was amazing how intent she was!  I wonder if it is a coincidence that she started teething shortly after this photo was taken...did Bismarck inspire her to chew on everything?

I don't have any good photos of Peli with Anika, but she is always close by - most of the time flaked out on our bed...or the futon in Ben's office...or a snowbank outside :-)  However, she does enjoy coming up to Anika and I when we are playing on the floor and dropping one of her toys on the quilt (dogs ARE NOT allowed on the quilt!  Especially if there is a baby any where near!).  Peli typically drops the toy in the middle of Anika's and my story time, and gets in a play stance and then collapses her rumpus on the ground with a great flourish and harumphs at us to play with her.  Anika immediately becomes infatuated, so Peli and I play tug and toss until Peli decides she has asserted her position in the household enough to Anika and saunters away. 

Here is Peli on alert at one of her favorite spots during the winter:

She's on a snowbank right by the barn.  That's the plow in front of her - you can see this was taken during our snow drought.  Which didn't last too long!


Here's a closer shot of Queen Peli

Months 4 & 5...even though its Month 6

Even though we were sans a home computer for a while, we still took pictures to chronical the monthly progress of Miss Anika. 

We brought her in for her 4-month well baby check-up and she was a champ.  We're pretty well known at the Pediatrician's place for a couple of reasons - one is that we're using cloth diapers and it doesn't seem that many babies are sporting them here in Montrose.  Another is that Anika has impressed the staff with her large lung capacity and strong will when nude and being picked up by strangers...can't say that I blame the kiddo!  And there is always the fact that we have just a super cutie for a daughter that wears cute outfits and hats :-)  She was a Jack-O-Lantern for her 1 week check-up, and has worn her strawberry hat the last few times.  Anyway, enough text, on to some pictures!


Above is the monthly quilt photo. 
Her 4 month stats:
Height: 23.75 inches
Weight: 13 lbs., 7 ounces

We played around quite a bit and this day was the first time Anika held her ball on her own...and she licked it - pretty funny!
 


We didn't get her official stats for 5 months, but we do have pictures!


5 month quilt photo


Happy girl getting up from her nap


And...fingers in the mouth!!!

The 6 month post won't be until after May 3rd, which is when Anika's next appointment is...but I'll take her quilt photo sooner than that!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Back in the Saddle Again!

Well, the computer is back from its debilitating loss of the power button. It was a devasting blow, but with perserverence and alot of knitting, I got through it. Sorry its been so long since the last bloviation of how absolutely awesome Anika is and the latest Western Slope Linstid Adventures.
We've gone through month's 4 and 5, next Tuesday is Anika's 1/2 birthday - 6 months old on April 20th!


Anika can't believe how fast the time has gone, either!

The snow is gone from around the Homestid (except for a few shaded areas the Peli and Biz run to and roll around in), the mud is pretty much dried up, and spring is starting to peek out its shy and bashful head around here. We opened some windows today and heard a cow elk this evening while we were relaxing on the deck. Not much later, we heard a mighty hunter driving their ATV and pausing at the end of our driveway to use the turkey caller. (Personally, I've had good results with "Heere, turkey turkey turkey!", but the real hunters laugh at me. Maybe its because I don't have a gun when I call the turkeys....or they know I'm a Hokie and they feel safe around their own...who knows?) Yup, its turkey season around these parts - not just spring!

Yup - all that is now gone!!!

Here are some shots from last spring that we are looking forward to seeing again soon:


We just wanted to do a quick post to get warmed back up to the blogging world...yeah, spring!!!