Ah Ah Ah... No No No

E has learned a new word: "No". The other day I laid E down to change on the changing table and she started saying very clearly and articulately "Ah ah ah, no no no" - words Mommy and Daddy have often used to tell her not to do something. She was having fun saying it and kept saying it over and over to her daddy as he changed her diaper.

Does she know what "no" means? Yes and no. She knows what it means when we say "No" about something she wants or tell her not to do something (like go into the trash can, hmm yum). But when she answers our questions with a "no" and a head shake, I'm not sure she means it. Sometimes she'll even say, very clearly, "no" and then proceed as if she meant yes. She's probably just copying us and enjoys saying "no" with a little head wag. (Oh and she loves to copy and often likes to mimic whatever we say - or at least tries very hard it. Other new words in her repertoire are "owl" and "more" with the sign for more.)

We're also amazed daily that she truly understands most of what we say to her. Including phrases like "Do you want more?", "Do you need a diaper change?", "Let's go outside", "Go get the ball/your shoes/socks/Mr. Bear Bear..." etc. How she's growing up our little one!!

Let's just hope with all this new understanding she won't grow up too fast. Oh and hopefully this newfound interest in the word "No" doesn't mean she's beginning her "Terrible Twos" "No" Phase anytime soon.

Amgen Tour of California 2008

Last year we saw the Tour come through Davis. I doubt E remembers it, but it was pretty fun to watch for and then see. This year, we were so out of the loop that it was actually my sister who informed it it was coming through today. So amidst the rain, E and I again went out to see the Tour pass through Davis.

Pretty much I think she enjoyed the many police and CHP cars with their lights going and the sirens more than the many (and colorful) cyclist speeding by. Oh, and it also helped that we stood next to a class of preschoolers (the non-napping ones) chanting "Highway Patrol" and "Police Cars".

So, for our friends and family far away... here's a few shots of the Tour as it came through Davis (right by our apartment) once again.


Doesn't he look tired? Well, he broke away somewhere at the 4 minute mark and had been riding by himself for most of the stage. Oh, and there's a sprint coming up, so good time to take a smallish breather.


The rest of the pack a couple minutes behind. Really, the group of them come and go really quickly... maybe 30 seconds. They'll have a sprint after getting through Davis and then finish at the Capitol.

2007 Taxes - Round One

Yesterday night I decided to try to tackle my pre-run-through of our taxes. This year is quite a bit more complicated as I am legally self-employed as a sole proprietor and need to fill out, in addition to the numerous other schedules having to do with our stock investments and child tax credits, a schedule C (business loss and profit report) and a SE (for self-employment tax). This of course spawns the having to download and go through numerous other forms and publications (just so I can figure out what to put on certain lines on my 1040 or scheduled forms).

So, after about 2 hours of calculatoring, writing (in pencil), realizing I totally messed up in areas, erasing and rewriting (still in pencil) all the necessary numbers - our pre-run-through of our federal and state tax forms are done.

How did we do? Well, being that Ian makes a Teacher Assistant's salary (I think his exemptions are still set like they were when it was just him), I am self-employed but make very little (so little in fact that I didn't even pay the normal self-employed quarterly taxes this year) and E give us a big credit (well 3/4 of that pays for her diapers alone!)... we fall in a really low tax bracket (and owe very little taxes). That along with Ian paying a lot of federal taxes and a myriad of deductions (IE: my health care premiums before the net income was calculated) my pre-run-through calculation show that the government owes us just under $2,000!!

Of course, this to me looks really odd/wrong. Doesn't that seem a bit high? So I'm going to take a look over it again with Ian (in detail) and I possibly might have an accountant/HR block friend look it over. If it's right, that's great! (Ian will be changing his exemptions, either way.) We'll have a little money for my IRA, for bills and maybe for a small vacation this summer. ("Sorry Bush, extra money in our refunds rarely gets back out into purchasing stuff! We're frugal over here!!")

Here's for hoping I did the taxes correctly!

The Big One

So E has hit two of the biggest milestones these last two weeks.

The first... she's perfecting the art of walking. She is officially a toddler and toddles at the most random moments. We coerced her in the beginning, with open arms and games. But now she'll stand up in the middle of the room and just take a few steps and then sit down. I think she's trying to figure out when it's most convenient to walk (like when she has a toy clutched in hand) and when it's just easier to crawl. And of course, we thought, we have to get pictures of these first steps... but it's harder than we ever imagined. Any time a camera or camcorder comes out, all concentration is lost and walking goes out the window. Instead she just points and does her "I want" grunt at said electronic and usually immediately falls to her knees and crawls to get it. Drat! Here's a few examples of where we almost got her on video walking...





Second, E is getting her molars! She now has 9 teeth! (Yes, when it rains, it pours. Literally too. What a wet week!) She had 6 teeth for the longest time. We could see the molars and incisors making their way to the surface, but nothing happened. Then one slightly (only slightly, she really doesn't complain. It's amazing. She doesn't even sleep any worse for the wear) cranky day, we looked in and voila, there was a molar pushing through. Compared to her little mouth it's HUGE! It's on the bottom left. That was probably about a week ago (or maybe only a few days ago, but it feels like a week ago). And then just today, I felt inside her mouth... and lo and behold, there were two more teeth coming through. On the top right, another molar had pushed through quite a bit. I never noticed that one! And lastly, she's getting an incisor (I think that's what it is) on the bottom left. Pictures of those are also highly illusive. Here's our attempts at getting (unsuccessfully, I might add) pictures of her new teeth...







Phew! That's a lot of change for one little girl to go through. Three more teeth and the use of these things called legs! If you haven't seen her in a while, she's quite a sight to see. Oh and when she's standing up with her cute little bob haircut, she looks so much like a little girl and no longer a baby. Awwwww. Of course, she's still nursing (yes, even with all those teeth), so she's still my little baby girl!

Oh and while uploading these pictures, I realized, E has also been practicing and being mildly successful at feeding herself. She loves using her own fork and spoon to eat. This also happens to be the only way we could get her to open her mouth wide enough to get pictures of her teeth. :)

Oh and here's one more cute video of E when she started stacking our couch throw pillows. (Note to self: narrate less! ha lol)

One Big Step for E

This past week or so E has been taking a couple steps here or there. It started with a little game we made up where we would place her standing up next to furniture and entice her with open arms to take some steps toward us. She loves this new game and often doesn't take any steps but just collapses to the ground laughing. Silly girl!

Ah, but today... what turned into the normal game of walk a few steps into our arms... turned into walk half way across the room (well I was scooting backwards just as she was about to reach me). Of course, this is all good as a trick to get her to take more steps, but she realized "Hey I can walk quite a bit farther and not fall over. Walking is kind of fun!" So much so, that she promptly walked around the room in circles, falling every couple steps to her knees, but standing back up all by herself and going some more. This lasted about 5 minutes.

We tried to get it caught on video, but alas, when the cameras come out she forgets what she was doing and goes straight for us (on hands and knees) in order to "play" with those fun electronic gadgets. Sigh. Soon, we'll get a video and post it for all our friends and family to see.

Other news in E-land... E is starting to want to feed herself. She wants to hold the spoon and she wants to fork things and stick them in her mouth all by herself. This has made for a messier (and slower) meal time... but as long as she doesn't poke her own eyes out, we're happy that she's practicing.