Stand Up Artist

Happy Birthday USA!

Despite the recent oppressive heat wave, Mike was brave enough to turn on the oven to make meat loaf and bake a cake.  I don't know who loves Mike's schedule more - me or him.  Having a house husband for the summer is pretty kick ass.  I am one lucky lady.  But, I digress - back to the birthday cake.  My favorite kind of cake is class yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  Mike has been looking for a good recipe.  For the Fourth of July he made the best birthday cake from Smitten Kitchen.

Smitten Kitchen cake

Mike's cake is below.  It looks just like the one on the cooking blog!   I frosted the cake, it is one of my surprising talents.  The cake was really good.  The frosting was a chocolate sour cream frosting, which I really liked because it wasn't overly sweet.

Mike's cake

Charlotte staying cool

After a day in the hot sun, who wants to go home and cook?  So, we went to Galactic Pizza with the Garvins, and Nance and Brian.  Six adults and 5 kids crowded around a four-top.  It was busy at Galactic Pizza, apparently the rest of Minneapolis didn't want to go home to their hot kitchens either.

Cozy

Procrastination

We have a deck that needs to be refinished.  I have a power washer to get what's left of the old finish off before applying the new finish.  But before I can attach the hose to the power washer there is this trigger nozzle of the end of the hose that might be rusted on.  Either way I can't get it off, so I can't power wash.  I will persevere but not at my present level of annoyance.  I chose to "take a break" so as to keep myself from getting so frustrated at the situation that I would end up thinking that taking an axe to the hose, the deck, and then the world would be an appropriate solution.

So I thought I'd work on editing some Youtube videos I have of Charlotte instead.  Only problem being I can't get the video editor to work on Youtube on this old laptop, even though Emily says it can be done.  I'd use my work laptop but the mousepad is not working right now.  I am beginning to think taking an axe to these laptops, Youtube's home office, and then the world is an appropriate solution. 

Sorry but for now I can't edit this video (and another that one that goes with it that I won't post).  Below is a video of Charlotte looking at the London Bridges Falling Down nursery rhyme in her Richard Scarry Mother Goose book.  She now requests Mother Goose books by name.  If she wants a specific book, she'll just say "book?" over and over until she finds the one she wants, unless she is looking for a Mother Goose book.  Then she'll "Goose?" over and over and really seems quite satisfied once she finds one of the four Mother Goose books she has available to her.

This video is from a few days ago, right after breakfast (hence the "just out of bed" look she is sporting).  Charlotte was leafing through the pages and ended up here and I swear she is singing (or at least trying to sing) "London Bridges Falling Down" complete with a dance number.  That is like the first 50 seconds.  I would have edited out the rest.  But if you want to watch her crawl up to me and well, that's about it, feel free to watch the rest of the video.

Why Charlotte Doesn't Walk

Even if you put wheels on her, mobility doesn't interest her.  Why see what's down the road when everything around is so awesome?

I was worried the last video I posted was too long and boring but my mom said it wasn't long enough.  So if you are stuck in a different state and 22 seconds of Charlotte doing nothing is too short for you, below is another minute of the same, only with more... well.... I don't know... more sips from her straw?  Smiles?  Regardless, these 85 seconds of footage represent the six minutes (yes I timed her) Charlotte stayed in this one spot just chilling.  Then she'd scoot about 20 yards and do some more homesteading.

Quick update on the walking front: I got our family an annual membership to the Children's Museum as I mentioned.  Charlotte and I have been a few times and she loves to explore and climb and she feels safe taking motor risks there.  However, her attempts to walk have come to a stand still (again, pun fully intended).  She will stand up and look and me (or Emily) and we'll encourage her to take a few steps.  You can really see the wheels turning in her head.  She thinks about taking a step but decides not to and drops down to a crawl.  Something is keeping her from trying steps.  Comfort level or convenience, or both, or something else, I don't know.  But I do know she has the ability to do more but is going at her own pace.

Gato Gordo

Seriously Nacho, have some pride.

Soaking Up the Nothing

Charlotte is always in the moment.  Always.  Make it through this video, and watch it over and over until two hours pass and that is a typical morning for us.  I'm sure that will change with age, but for now, om y'all.

Still Scooting

Today Charlotte and I went to the Children's Museum and spent all our time in the Habitot which basically just a giant Occupational Therapy gym which is exactly what Charlotte needs.

Charlotte quickly found a ramp to scoot up and down on as she has been doing for some time.  I shot some footage shown below.

Kind of fun to compare to the video Emily shot when we were at the Kansas City Children's Museum in March: http://parkernawrocki.blogspot.com/2012/06/fancy-scooting.html

Since March, Charlotte has a haircut, can scoot up and down on her own, move a lot more quickly, but is still having a lot of fun.

She also did some new things today, like using the railing to walk up and down the ramp and some steps.  Like I said, it's like informal Occupational Therapy.  You have to look at it that way for the Children's Museum to seem like a good financial deal.