"Everything I see becomes a Star Wars Ship to me!"

Little Robby has developed quite the interest in Star Wars! Especially since we bought the original Star Wars movie on tape. Lately every lego or k'nex creation is some sort of Star Wars vehicle. We realized yesterday how much this interest is taking over Little Robby's thoughts when he found Dad's new silver colored deoderant container and he told us it was a Star Wars cruiser ship! Zoom, zoom through space it flies!

Jenna and the toothbrush

Yesterday when Dad, Little Robby, and Jenna went to the store they decided to get Jenna her first toothbrush and some infant toothpaste. We unpackaged it this morning and let her see it for the first time. Dad told Jenna that this was something she could put in her mouth. As she examined it, I gently guided the toothbrush to her mouth and tried to brush her teeth with it hoping that she would get the idea. She resisted and pulled it out of her mouth because she wanted to examine it further. Dad even gave me my toothbrush so that I could demonstrate what it was used for. She watched me, but still didn't seem inclined to try her toothbrush on her teeth. After a minute or so of touching the bristles, she must have decided it had to be a hair brush because started trying to comb her hair with it! By this point she was so proud of herself that she would not give the toothbrush back. After coaxing her for a little we managed to pry it away to put on some infant's toothpaste (much to her dismay.) Then we quickly popped it in her mouth and tried to brush her teeth a little. For Jenna, the taste sensation was all that she need to convince her this tool was for her mouth, but instead of brushing she decided that sucking it was better. We cracked up because she would suck on the toothbrush for a minute and then take it out and lick her lips and then put it back in, all the while holding it with a death grip. We offered to put a little more toothpaste on it to see if she knew where the taste had come from, but she was not interested in parting with her precious toothbrush. We did manage to get her to let us put a little more on, and as Dad squeezed the tube she got excited and tried to help too! She was sure one drop was not enough! After she sucked the drop off of her toothbrush, she then decided that what she really wanted was in the toothpaste tube and she then grabbed it and tried to bite her way through to the good stuff. Unfortunately for her Dad ended her fun there by taking it away.

Jenna the comedian

Last night as I was sitting in the living room watching Little Robby and Jenna play, she started to crawl away and missed a step and did a face plant. Usually if she stumbles or falls I will try to be upbeat and laugh so that she realizes that she is okay and doesn't get upset about small bumps. So last night as she stumbled and fell face first (she was crawling so her face wasn't far from the ground in the first place), I laughed and said "Uh-oh!" When she recovered she started to giggle with me. Apparently she thought that making Mom laugh was fun, so she proceeded to repeatedly "fall on her face" and laugh with me (she was doing her imitation a little more gently, more like touching her face to the ground). I thought it was so funny that she would do something just to get a laugh. It's so fun seeing her little personality come out as she grows up. I imagine as she grows older we will see many more comedic antics from her.

A Day at Zoo

This past week was Spring Break so Little Robby, Jenna and I went to the zoo with our friend Alison and her two children Casjen and Piper (Casjen and Robby were in the same kindergarten class last year.)

Here we are posing in front of the giraffe and ostrich area.

Here Casjen and Robby were looking at the zebra below.

It was fun trying to show Jenna all the animals. I had trouble getting her to look in the right direction, but a couple of times she did point and I think she may have seen what I was showing her. (Or else she was just being cute and pointing because I was pointing too!)

This is one of the little monkeys that we all watched. I like this cage the best because it is a very large enclosure and they let the people walk inside and watch the monkeys climb all around. Sometimes the monkeys even climb over ropes suppended over the sidewalks. It's really enjoyable to watch them do their acrobatics from tree to tree.

This is one of my little monkeys!

Pi Day!

Did you know that March 14th is Pi day?! Well neither did we. That is until Robby's friend Dallin called to tell Robby that he saw it mentioned on the internet! Why March 14th? Pi is 3.14 so the date 3-14 is only appropriate. Knowing this Robby just had to celebrate ...

by wearing his Pi shirt (which is the pi symbol formed by about the first several thousand digits of pi... he is wearing it in this picture)...

and buying little personal pies from the store which he carved a pi symbol on the top of each one.

You might be wondering why would we go to the trouble of celebrating such an interesting day, well in middle school Robby along with several friends found great fun in seeing how many digits of pi they could memorize. Robby's desire to memorize pi has stood out over time in the minds of some of his siblings and close friends. Fortunately since then Robby has gone on to more worthwhile pasttimes although don't be surprised if we honor this day in the future. If you want to join us just make sure that your celebration starts at 1:59am (you know 3.14159!)

For more information on this wonderful day see the following wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_day

World Baseball Classic

On March 8th, we had fun taking a family outing to the World Baseball Classic game between the US and Canada. For those of you who have not heard of this new competition, there is now a world baseball championship where 16 countries come together and compete for the world title. You would think that the US would dominate the sport, but we were disappointed to attend a game where the US lost and was almost beaten to a pulp. For a while, Canada was beating the US 8-0! All until, the 6th inning when the US scored 6 runs (2 runs batted in, and a grandslam!) I had never seen a grand slam in a game that I was attending so that was pretty exciting. In the end, the US lost 8-6. (And they were knocked out by Mexico in the semi-final round later. Japan was the ultimate champion.) Despite the loss, Robby, Little Robby, Jenna and I still had a great time being together!

Smile for the camera!

Jenna is a Daddy's girl!
It was a little chilly that day and Little Robby forgot his jacket, so by the end of the game I was sharing my jacket with him. Jenna decided that she wanted in on the warm fun too!

Wonderful Clean Clothes!

We are really happy in this house because I FINALLY got to do the laundry! It may not seem like a moment to rejoice for many of you, but after two weeks of not being able to wash clothes (or rather dry them) we are happy to not be wearing those items in our closet that we wear only out of deparation. Why, you may ask, could I not do the laundry? Well two weeks ago I found out about the joy that comes with exploding pens in the dryer! Fortunately, the load that it exploded in was only about a half load. The unpleasant part was trying to clean the ink out of the dryer. We tried rubbing alcohol, finger nail polish, and GooGone without much success, so we had to buy 100% acetone to do the trick. I must admit that neither one of us wanted to scrub on the dryer with those fumes filling the room. So after two weeks of working on it a little at a time we managed to not pass out from inhalation and finally rid our dryer of the blue ink splatter. Now our clothes are a different matter. Unfortunately, I have not been successful at ridding them of the blue splatter marks, despite trying multiple products. Oh well, I hope we have learned our lesson!

Spring Training 2006

On March 4th, Big Robby treated Little Robby, Jenna and their cousin Matthew to a Spring Training Baseball game. They had a lot of fun sitting on the grassy hill watching the game, play a little ball themselves, and in the end the little boys really enjoyed rolling down the hill! Everyone will have to check out the videos of this day too! (Here's the link: http://robertandsharon.com/family/videoclips-9.htm)

Here they are watching the game together.

Robby came prepared with his ball and glove.

Cousin Matthew standing at the fence. At one point Matthew and Little Robby got a kick out of talking to one of the trainers on the other side of the fence.

Here's Jenna up close!

It was definitely a fun day!

Jenna loves to wear her food!

I'm Popeye the Sailor Babe...

not really, but this picture reminded me of the Popeye face!

As you can see Jenna looks particularly cute with green mush on her face!

Look who Robby's new karate teacher is!

Chuck Norris...

Just kidding... His name is Mr. Wamsley. He just looks a lot like Chuck Norris. In fact, he has a picture of him posing with Chuck Norris in his studio, and they look almost like twins!

Here's a comparison...

As you can see they look a lot alike!

(I thought Little Robby's Grandpa White would appreciate this!)