Josh's Hair

Josh, being the wonderfully creative freespirit that he is, has a head entirely covered with dreadlocks. I am torn on this issue. Part of me thinks they are cool and fun, and the other part of me hates them. Regardless of my opinion though, Josh is proud of this development. He hasn't brushed his hair in almost a year now. For the record, he does wash them almost every day and they really dont smell. From a sanitation standpoint, this seems to be an acceptable do. My problem with Josh hair is that people seem to be a lot quicker to judge him than when he had nondreaded hair. Oh well. He doesnt' let it get to him so neither will I.

Marley's new life calling

Marley has recently enrolled in ballet/tap dance. She is in a class with about seven other two year old girls. It really is precious. Marley's teacher doesn't seem to know what to make of her. Any time she says anything, Marley claps and cheers. This led to the comment, "Well. There's a cheerleader in every group." I'm not sure if that was an insult or not. Another time the class had joined hands and was walking in circle. Marley flung her hands free, jumped into the center of the circle and started shaking her booty for all she was worth. I certainly don't move like that. The music just spoke to her i guess. I do have to say that Marley is the best dancer in her class. She seems to remember the moves from week to week when the other kids don't seem to remember ever being in the studio before. They have a recital at christmas , they are performing Rudolph. It should be pretty cute, but we are still waiting for her solo performance to be announced.

The pumpkin patch

Today we had an event filled day at the corn maze/pumpkin patch in Millcreek, IL. It was a family operation, quaint being the operative word. Free hay rides, three different patches and a corn maze. The maze was small, but perfect for Marley's little legs. She walked the whole way, making almost all of the directional decisions. The goal was to find six different buckets hidden throughout the maze and I am proud to say the Lanier clan accomplished this feat in under twenty minutes. We got three big pumpkins and three tickets to the corn maze for thirteen dollars. I dont think the woman's math was spot on when she added our total, but we all seemed happy with the transaction. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to carve my pumpkin into some form of respectable artwork. These pictures are the results of three hours of focused carving. Josh still has to carve his, and though he does not know it yet, we are having a carving competitiion. I will keep you posted on his results...

Our trip to Missouri

Growing up, we were blessed to have one pair of extraordinary grandparents living close enough to see on a very regular basis. And we had a set of grandparents living across the country that we got to travel to, giving us a worldly air. With our recent move to Illinois, I am lucky enough now to live much closer to the family that I used to get to see for a week or two in the summer. Last weekend Mars and I took a road trip to visit her "gramma souri" as we so affectionately call her. We stayed two nights and had a great time. Mars, Gramma Souri and I went to the drive through animal park that had some interestingly aggressive animals that frankly scared the three of us. (Missouri has more lax animal laws than the rest of the country, making it a breeding ground for upstart zoos.) We also went to the old reliable Bass Pro Shop, only to find it under complete remodeling, with all of the cool stuff off display. That was a bit of a disapointment, but we ending up taking marley to the park to play. She was instantly inducted into a wild pack of children running all over the park. They ranged from about 8 years old to 18 months old. The avidly played some intricate game that had them all laughing at specific times, but left all the parents watching them scratching their heads. It was really cute and when it was time to go, Mars ran up and kissed the only child younger than her on the lips. (She had been mothering him the whole time, making sure he was keeping up with the group.)
The next night we went to Uncle Bob's for dinner. Aunt Nancy made a wonderful meal and it was good to sit around and get caught up. The Fieldings all came and we sat around talking and laughing for quite some time. The best part is that we now live close enough to come back whenver we want. We actually have a trip planned for next week end so I am really excited!!

We didnt roll our windows down too much through this drive through.

Here is Mars climbing the tree in the front yard that we always used to climb, and the other is Marley helping Gramma Souri do her yard work.

My baby's growing up!!

You all will never guess what happened today. Little Marley Jane went poop and pee on the potty for the first time!!!!!! I have been trying so hard with her lately and she has just been strong willed. The other night I gave Marley two cups of juice and then we sat on the potty. We were there from 9 to 10 at night. I read 8 books to her and she was literally falling asleep on the pot. She kept trying to put her diaper on and refused to pee. When I took pity on my little angel, I strapped her diaper back on and picked her up to take her to bed. Well what did I feel as I picked her up but her diaper growing immediately warm. She had instantly soaked her diaper the second I put it on. I thought maybe she wasnt getting it. I had decided to back off a little, when today she was in her room and I heard her shouting. She told me she had to go poopie. She usually tells me this anywhere from ten to twenty times a day, so even though I took her, I had low expectations. Well low and behold as soon as she sat down I heard the music on the potty play. She had done a number 1 and 2 and we couldn't be prouder!!!! But now that she is one step closer to being self sufficent, I kind of want her to stay little. Such is life I guess.

twitter tweety mania

It seems like everywhere I go, every channel I watch, on the radio , etc etc, I hear about Twitter. Twitter this, Tweeting that. I heard about Ashton Kutchers million tweet thing. Oprah uses it. Regis and kelly talk about it everday as I work out. I was really beginning to feel behind the times. Mind you, no one I actually know has said a word about it. It is all through the media that I have been hearing about this. But if the anchors on E! news use it, it's got to be cool, right?

Well I went and signed up for the infamous twitter. It took a while because every user has to come up with a unique screen name that no one else has without using any non alphabet symbols. Let me tell you that if you are planning on signing up, give yourself some time. The first 150 user names i came up with had been taken. I finally stumbled upon hdlala. Dont ask. Upon signing up, I started to mess around with it, and I realized something disheartening. I have no idea what the heck people would use this for. To my understanding, basically people can post sentences up to 160 characters to be printed on a main wall that all your "followers" can instantly read. Basically a limited version of posting a bulletin with their myspace account. Well updates can also be sent to your phone. Isn't that the same as texting? I guess it would be cool if people were doing important things with it. When you sign up, Twitter picks some people for you to follow. The posts listed on my page were as inspiring as "I am going to lunch. I love pizza" from some guy in Brooklyn to "Damn the man, Fight hypocrisy" from a girl in Portland. Maybe there is some hidden message in all that, but to me it seems like drivel. Do I really want to alert all of my friends everytime I go to lunch? What happened to an air of mystery. I guess it's just one more way for people to communicate without actually talking. Kind of like this blog.

The Paci Saga Continues...

So we have still held strong with our intent to break Mars of the binky habit. It's been a little more than a week and we have yet to break down and give her one. It is still been going all right, except for the main developement of marley not taking naps. Her schedule is totally off. Staying up late, getting up early and no nap in between.

This is last night's dinner. It was just her and Pam home. Pam said she left the room for thirty seconds to get marley a juice refill, and by the time she got back, Mars was out for the count. We thought it was pretty cute. Not cute that she took a two hour nap, woke up and then stayed up until one. i guess it just goes with the territory of raising a two year old.