When it rains

The ceiling in our kitchen leaks. Oh, how we miss the drought years. This has been developing in the kitchen these past few months:
Somehow, probably due to the awning attached to the back of the house, water is entering, dripping through old lathing and plaster, and now through drywall installed over the plaster. So Rich climbed up on the counter and took down all the water damage.
One dead mouse, damaged lathing, and mold later, we wait and think through the next step.


Remove the back awning? Just patch and repair? Not sure, but stay tuned for further adventures of owning a 94-year old house!

Susan

Oh, yeah?

Darn it! I knew I blogged too soon.

Yeah is back. It was all yes yesterday, and all yeah today. But at least today it was correctable.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Susan

Anything

What'cha doing Sweetpea?

Anything.

What did you do today?

Anything.

What do you want for dinner?

Anything.

Rich tried to teach her that nothing is the correct response, but I like the possibilities anything brings.

And, mostly it's any-fang.

Susan

Full

I full.

Usually means from too much food, but Elizabeth has appropriated it for nearly any circumstance.

Up, Mommy, Up. No, please walk.

I full of walking.

(Except it's usually I fuuu-uuuu-llll of walking.)

How about, Sweetpea, time to go upstairs for bath.

I full of bath.

Or, OK, time to go outside.

I full of outside.

Well, she's full of something, that's for sure.

Susan

Bye Aunt Jen

Sigh. After too short a visit, Aunt Jen goes back home. Elizabeth calls our front spare bedroom Aunt Jen's room.

She's considerate

Fu-lax, Mommy, fu-lax, said while patting couch next to her.

We've also heard, I want to fu-lax on the couch.

Herbs

The basil is doing well.

Despite some interference from a pest.

The return of yes

I had a business trip in early March. Before I left, Elizabeth always said yes in the affirmative. When I came back, two days later, yes had become yeah.

And no matter what we did, yes stayed yeah. Correcting, repeating yes, encouraging yes. None of it worked or even seemed to register.

Then, suddenly, as quickly as it came, yeah disappeared. It was sudden, right at the beginning of July. We're back to yes. Never yeah. Did we have anything to do with it? No idea.

But we're glad yes is back.

Susan

Story time

Spent yesterday at my brother's summer beer tasting, which extended into the afternoon, well through naptime. So Elizabeth and I headed upstairs to try to nap.

Let me read you a story, mommy, she said, as I feigned sleep, hoping she'd get the hint. She grabbed an adult book off the desk and began paging through.

Once upon a time (several sources), and so dear reader, let's begin (Madeline and the Gypsies), [unintelligible], the next morning (The Poky Little Puppy, a book I despise and haven't read to her in ages, though this line nearly always makes it into stories), they all went [unintelligible], never, ever dig holes again (The Poky Little Puppy), coyote went down the stovepipe (The Three Little Javelinas). The End.

Rich eventually took her back downstairs to the party while I took a real nap.

Susan

Sweetpea

When our dear daughter was born in the fall of 2005, we got into the habit of calling her Sweetpea. Or The Sweetpea, actually. Rich would call home from work - how's The Sweetpea today? I'd ask him, How's The Sweetpea doing? And it stuck. When we hired our babysitter, Gee, in early 2006, she picked up on it and called Elizabeth Sweetpea all the time. So, we have a daughter who refers to herself as Sweetpea. All our neighbors call her Sweetpea. She knows her "other name," but there's a definite preference for Sweetpea.

Say there's a picture of three birds. She'll immediately identify one as the daddy bird, the next as the mommy bird, and the smallest one as the Sweetpea bird.

So, sweetpea it is. I used to tease Rich that she'd reach and age where he'd call her sweetpea in public and she'd respond, oh, dad in that exasperated tone only kids can have, and that would be the end of it. Now, I'm not so sure.

Susan

The launch

And we're off. Having discussed this, tossed around a dozen blog names, plotted and planned for months, we're finally entering the blogging world.

So awww trouble, where does that come from? Well, who remembers when but the very first book Elizabeth ever responded to was Goosey Goose.

If you mess with Goosey Goose, you are in trouble.

Awww, Trouble.

Not with her father. Not with her mother. Not with her sister. Not with her brother.

But with her. Uh huh, uh huh. Goosey Goose. Uh huh, uh huh.

That's it, in its entirety. So one day, reading it to her, we ask where's the goose, and she points to Goosey Goose! And there was much rejoicing. We bought Chris Raschka's Thing-y Thing entire series.

Soon after that, one night at dinner, we had a little bit of acting out. First Rich, then I, said awwww trouble! And she looked from one of us to the other, her bottom lip started pushing out, and the tears flowed. Punished by Goosey Goose.

Wish it still worked.

But the fact we can't remember when exactly this all happened is reason enough for the blog. Not quite up to speed on a baby book or scrapbooking, but blogging, now that's something we can do. Welcome to Awww Trouble. Most of the time we think it's Susan and Rich in trouble. Elizabeth? Well, she's got it all figured out.

Susan and Rich