Just like Daddy

Storm

Yesterday we had a huge storm in the late afternoon. It seemed to come out of nowhere. One minute Stirling was sitting and coloring in his chair; the next minute a huge gust of wind blew in the double doors behind him. There were so many strong gusts that the doors kept blowing in, and I had to stand there and hold them shut. Leaves were being whipped across the yard, and large branches came crashing down. And when you get wind like that in Yuma, you get sandstorms. There was so much dirt and dust in the air I could barely see the cars on the road out front. It was awful. I went outside for 30 seconds to take a picture, and came back in coated with a fine layer of grit. Luckily the dust storm only lasted about 15 minutes before the rain came- our first monsoon of the season! Stirling and I went outside to play in the rain and it was brown from all the dirt in the air. Gross! We also heard a few peals of thunder. It was kind of fun to watch and I was very thankful the power didn't go out because it was still about 110 degrees outside and we couldn't have done without the air conditioning. A

Summer Crafts

I have been trying to think of things to do with Stirling this summer. We have fun playing, but after a while both of us get pretty tired of stacking blocks, reading the same seven books, and emptying the same pots and pans out of the cupboard. However, I have to make sure any craft project we do isn't toxic if Stirling eats it. So far I have come up with a few fun projects for us that are edible and safe.
We tried jello painting by sprinkling powdered jello on paper and then using ice cubes to paint with. Stirling liked touching the ice cubes to the jello and then licking them. Of course we did this outside and the ice cubes fell in the dirt right before they went in Stirling's mouth!
We also made slime with cornstarch and water and red food coloring. Stirling wasn't as into that one. He mostly wanted to carry the bowl of slime around the house. I wasn't excited about trying to clean it out of the carpet, so that was a short lived project.
I also bought Stirling some large toddler-sized crayons- not edible, but fun to use. He usually manages to draw a line or two and some dots before the crayons ends up with a piece bitten out of it. It is fun watching him "draw" and create!

My next plan is to make edible play-dough- either using a peanut butter recipe or one with kool-aid. That should be a big hit. Perhaps we will do some bubble painting too. I just need to get some tempera paints to mix with bubble solution.

Barf

This morning I gave Stirling his milk just like usual, skipped my own breakfast so I could get to work more quickly, (I am teaching a science/math summer camp this week and next) and got Stirling loaded up in the car. We had driven about 8 blocks and Stirling threw up a little onto his shoulder. I thought, "well, that isn't that much, I'll just clean him up when we get to daycare." Then he threw up a little more, and a little more, then a lot more! I pulled over to assess the situation, still trying to convince myself that I would just wipe him off and we'd continue to daycare. Yeah right!! It was white, curdley, yuck, and it was all over the place. Barf covered Stirling and his car seat. His milk must have been bad. I had to turn around and go home. RJ was just getting in the shower and instead he helped me get the carseat out of the car, went to the store for water since we were out, got Gatorade for Stirling, and rinsed off the carseat. He ended up being pretty late for work. I am so glad to have such a helpful husband. He was my knight in shining armor (well, knight in shining undershirt!) Eventually I got Stirling cleaned up and got him back in the car in his swim suit since the car seat was sopping wet! I was able to get him out to daycare and continue out to the summer camp only 45 minutes late. I just can't believe the milk went bad already. The whole milk seems to spoil a lot faster than the 1% that RJ and I drink. I don't have a picture of the whole barfy situation (thank goodness!), so I'll just put another one of Stirling in the blog.
This is Stirling and his bear and lion. Usually bear stays upstairs, but this morning Stirling brought him down since he wasn't feeling well.

Stirling Updates

Stirling is growing up so fast. He seems more like a little boy than a baby a lot of days. He can say some words now including:
-ball (ba)
-book (buh)
-bear (beh)
-mama
-dada
-computer (ba-puh)
-bubbles (bu-buh)

Ok, so computer is stretching it a bit! He also knows some of the parts of his body including nose, toes, belly button, and tummy, and possibly mouth. He usually likes to identify our noses, toes, etc, rather than find his own though. Stirling likes to stack objects and put things in containers and take them out again.
Stirling loves to play peek-a-boo by going into another room and then coming back to grin while we act surprised. He has learned to run (kind of!) and has so many bruises from falling while doing so, that I fear someone will think the wrong idea. In fact he ran so fast away from me that I couldn't catch him before he fell down the stairs. He bounced, I screamed, he cried, then I cried... it was very traumatic for, well, me! He recovered very quickly. I went out and bought a second safety gate for the top of the stairs that afternoon!
I am really liking being able to stay home with Stirling this summer. I only wish RJ could have more days off to be with us. Stirling is very happy and hyperactive when both of us are around. He sure likes his daddy! He even follows RJ to the bottom of the stairs and looks up waiting for RJ to come back down.

4th of July Pics