Ants

Peter has decided to do his nature experience about ants. I might have been somewhat involved in that decision. So I've been researching ants. I also wrote a mock paper about outlining the experiment. Here's the introduction, since I know you were all interested.

Ants are a rather endearing sort of insect. I think probably everyone has watched them scurry down the side walk and admired their diligence and strength. As I’ve thought about my interactions with ants, I’ve wondered just how far do ants travel and how long does it take them to get where they’re going.
While in this experiment I do not measure how far ants actually travel, I will determine at what speed they travel. Ants and their habitats are very complex creatures, thus, while I try to eliminate as many outside variables as I can in this experiment, many variables simply cannot be accounted for in the scope of my experiment.


While it's probably not as exciting as breeding table grapes it sounded fun to me.

Hanging out with Daddy

Peter took care of Brita so I could take a shower last night. Here's a little of what they did together:

My Daughter is Average

We just got back from the doctor. Brita's height and weight are average and her head is in the 40th percentile.

She got five shots and a vaccine in the mouth. The one in the mouth she really liked. The others it took her a minute to realize they hurt so they were over by the time her face got all squished up and bright red and she started to scream. So then I picked her up and she was fine. What a brave little girl.

Then she slept when we came home so I could do the dishes. See, she's thoughtful, too.

Now we just have to go to the post office and we'll be done with errands for the day. (I never thought I would be a person who did errands. It always seemed like old responsible people were the errand runners of the world.)
These are of Brita when we got back.

Posted before it's time

Blogger decided to post an empty post for me. So I decided to write something in here, so it wouldn't just be empty. But I don't know what to write....

Once, when I was little, I was afraid of dragonflies. So my mean older siblings threw me into a wall that was covered in dragonflies.

That might be my earliest memory. Or it might be when I saw my mom talking to my nursery leader by the door to the library and they started to argue. I think that they might have been joking with each other, actually, but it seemed like they were arguing. I was the best colorer in my nursery class, in case you were wondering.

Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday was great. The night before Brita fell asleep in her crib around 10, so I cleaned the house. It was lovely. Three and a half hours later my living room and kitchen were clean. And I read the Relief Society lesson. Ook ya, as they say in Russian. So I woke up on my birthday to a clean house. Happiness in a clean sink.

Church was good, too. I even made a comment in Relief Society. I made a bunch of comments in Sunday School, too, but they were mostly just obnoxious. We had a really good lesson about scripture study. It was based on a talk that wasn't about scripture study, but I guess it worked.

We ate food after church. That was nice.

Then I baked some cakes so that Peter could make my birthday cake. I guess before that I called a bunch of people to borrow some eggs. My friend Dani was nice enough to give me six eggs and invite us over for dinner.

Then I went to a fireside on finance. All about being a millionaire. It was good. We were supposed to go to dinner at seven but the fireside was still going, so I drove home, found out that Peter wasn't done with my cake, called to see if we could be late to dinner, and drove back to the fireside. I only missed about ten minutes of it.

Then I came home and we went over to Dani and Todd's house for dinner. It was only about three hours after they wanted us there. Dinner was really good. Really good. Then we played Fluxx. They let me win because it was my birthday. I won two games and had the winning card in my had for the other game, but I'm spacey so I didn't play it.

And then I went to bed.

That was my birthday. It was fun. I'll post pictures of my cake when I get them. It's so cool. It was a castle with the floor plan of our apartment. And the candles were in binary. It was a very nifty cake.

Brought to you by Brita

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Brita Smiles

It can't just be me....This girl is cute.

Laundry

I have a lot of laundry to fold. There are two more batches in the washer and dryer, too. How can three people have so much laundry?

Two hands for beginners

"You've got to stop dropping things--hamburgers, plates, keys..." --Peter

Yep, I just dropped my keys in the dumpster. Brilliant, I know. They were on my finger and I just dropped them in. Peter found them and got them for me. I asked if he had to go dumpster diving to get them and he said just a little bit.

He was nice enough not to mention the bucket of water. I dropped a bucket in the bathroom this morning. It had a lot of water in it. It made a mess.

I also dropped a plate yesterday and broke it. Don't worry, Scott--it wasn't one of the John Deere ones. :)

After dad picked us up from the airport in Chicago we ate at Fuddruckers. We all got our hamburgers and I dropped mine on the floor. I don't know how it happened: one minute it was on the counter the next it was on the floor. And on my pants. The nice girl at the counter told the chef to make me another one. She tried to be so nice about it.
He asked why he had to redo it.
Nice girl: "It fell."
Chef: "What?"
NG: "It fell."
C: "What?"
NG: "SHE DROPPED IT, OK?"
It made me laugh.

Night and Day

I think I just threw my little girl for a loop. I was really tired, so we took a nap. I didn't turn the light on and it was really dark when we woke up. I'm pretty sure Brita thought it was night time because she looked really upset when I turned on the light. She's just raising her eyebrow at me now and looking annoyed. And now she's smiling. She got over that one quickly. Or maybe she just thinks we're having a late night party. :)

Pictures

While we were in Illinois we had some pictures taken. The proofs are online and I was wondering if you could take a look at them and tell me which ones you like. Linda's website is throughherlensonline.com. You click on the picture and then click on proofing, then type brita in the little box. Let me know which numbers you like. Thanks.

My Family

Aren't they cute?

Tuxes

These are the penguins I (read mom and Peter) made for Peter's brothers for Christmas. I think they turned out really well. Peter did the eyes, so they had to wait until after finals. We made one for Peter, too, but he didn't know about it, so we had to only have two out at a time.

We didn't make the little plastic one. The dog bone sticker is the one Stephanie gave Peter a long time ago. I'm sure you were wondering.

Something important

Well, it's not really important (as I'm sure you guessed), but it is recent. I got my thesis in the mail two days ago. I think that means I graduated. It's all bound and lovely (as lovely as an orange book can be).

Here's me and Dr. Kolb (my adviser) after I defended.

We Love Visitors

These are some of the people who have visited us. We like visitors.

Infinite Potential

So I got a Christmas present the other day. It's a beautiful highchair that matches my beautiful rocking chair. Peter's mom bought them both for me as presents because the acorn was the family symbol on our newsletters. Right now Brita uses the highchair for her dance parties in the kitchen--dancing on the table as such a young age--I don't know what we're going to do with her.

Peter was explaining what a highchair was to Brita before we got it. He said that you used it to eat and it was like a table and a chair in one. Then we realized that we don't really have either one for her to reference from. It was kind of funny.

Anyways, thanks for all the great presents, Mom. We appreciate them.

Funny Picture

I just think this picture is funny because she never makes this face. Maybe she does and it just looks different to me in real life. Anyways..I think it's funny.

Granuloma Pictures

A couple of weeks ago (or so).
A couple of weeks ago (or so).
Today.

There are new pictures up on gallery (there's a link on the side), by the way. Not these,though--these are blog exclusives.

I'm a Bad Blogger

Well, it's been a long old time since I've written anything. I have an excuse for last week--I read th entire Harry Potter series. I heard that some people read books while they fed their babies. I thought that Harry Potter would take me a while. It's amazing how having a baby doesn't really change your nature--I still can't stop in th middle of a book. And the last two books are really like one book, so I finished those at five in the morning. Luckily I'm married to Peter and he kept us alive by making dinner.

As a side note, I bought chicken for 55 cents a pound and for 74 cents a pound one day. It made me happy.

We've been to the doctor three times in the last two weeks. Once for my six week checkup and twice for Brita's granuloma. We went twice in one day, even. Her granuloma is a lot smaller now, so hopefully it will go away all the way. We go in for her 2 month checkup when we get back from Illinois.

We leave on Friday for Illinois. Karen and Andrew are having another reception out there. It'll be fun to hang out at Peter's parents house. I like it there. I also get to see Monica. :) Brita will get to meet another aunt. We just got the link to Andrew and Karen's wedding and reception pictures. I look fat. It's just so sad to see.

Did I mention that Peter gave me pictures to put in our picture frames for Christmas? It was about the best Christmas present ever. We no longer have a random family in our living room.

I started paying medical bills yesterday. There are over five thousand dollars worth. Crazy. It's a good thing we're rich. Oh--I guess I should say were rich. :)

It's amazing how many times you have to cut baby's fingernails. It's also amazing how there is never time to cut your own fingernails. I had Peter hold Brita one time just so I could cut my fingernails because they were bugging me so bad.

Well, I should go change a diaper. This post is just to make you grateful that I don't post very often I guess. :)