Go fast

As an illustration of how quickly Natalie is growing up, I've already had to re-write this blog post three times in the past couple of weeks. First it was about her favorite game, which was to pull me into the bedroom, "run 'round circle" and "fall down." But then that changed to standing in opposite corners of the room, while she counts down "ready set... GO" and then toddling towards each other at full speed. After a few passes I tackle her to the floor and tickle. "No," she giggles, "stop."

I stop.

After a moment she smiles and whispers: "More." And I tickle a few seconds more before she sternly commands me to stop. Then, ever so softly, "again." And so it goes, until she's all tickled out. And now with her language skills rapidly developing, she's moved away from single words and on to descriptive phrases. Instead of simply ordering "no," she calmly explains, "all done game."

Big Girl

I love how Natalie is metamorphosing from a helpless baby into a real little person. She is enthralled with grown-up stuff, copying everything we do and say, especially when we don't want her to. She always wants to "help daddy" and "see, see!" She's asking "oats dat?" about things she doesn't know the name for yet. And she wants to try everything "a-self!" before she lets us help her. I'm continually amazed by how many things she actually can do by herself, like climbing into chairs, fastening buckles, and new skills every day.

The last time I made pancakes, I decided to get her involved. I stood her up on a stool in front of the mixing bowl and handed her measuring cups full of ingredients to pour in. She was thrilled at this magical process and very upset when we finished and I wouldn't let her add any more. That frustration was quickly forgotten once I wrapped her little fingers around the spoon and helped her stir.

Natalie seems like a big girl most of all when she initiates reverse play, like when she decides to put me to sleep. She instructs me to lie down, folds a blanket over me, and imitates the same process I use with her at night: patting my back, shushing, and quietly singing her rendition of "twinkle diamond sky."

Landslide

Ever since we moved to the country, I keep finding ways in which life is just like my favorite farming simulation game, Harvest Moon. Fans of the series will be familiar with the concept of the typhoon day. It's an event where the weather is so bad that you are not allowed to leave your house. When you go outside the next morning, you find sticks and boulders strewn all over your field, destroying crops and requiring serious effort to clean up.

We had a typhoon night this week. All night long the rain bucketed down and the sky flashed with lightning. When I slept, my dreams were nightmares of destruction. And in the morning when I walked outside, I found this:

luckily I didn't plant on this plot yet
That used to be a wall. A massive landslide swept the rocks down into our yard and mud into our basement. For scale, the hill at the point of collapse was as tall as me.

a view of the destruction from above
Our neighbor and Jenna's parents rallied to our aid. They erected a temporary wall at the top of the hill and connected a long hose to the gutter drain to divert water away from the hole. We are thankful that it wasn't any worse. Well, gotta go... we have work to do!

Bugfest 2010

Some big dark bugs have been hanging around our garden lately. They furtively hover across the tops of plants, legs dangling underneath, but never landing... until one got into our house. I trapped it in a jar. While it was plinking around in there I got a good enough look to identify it as a great black wasp.

DID YOU KNOW? The great black wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus) digs a multi-chambered burrow for its nest. Into each chamber it lays one egg, and deposits a large insect such as a cicada or katydid, which serves as food for the hatched young. HARD CORE.

We had a friendly visitor too. One night just before bedtime we found the walking stick pictured above. Natalie spotted it on the outside of our bedroom's French doors. She was pointing, but I looked right through it at first, assuming she was talking about something in the yard. We watched for a while but it never moved. I've never seen one before so that was a lot of fun.

Just yesterday I spotted a tiny, fluffy bug. At first I thought it was a bit of down or a seed pod floating down, then I thought it was a bug that got some of that stuff stuck on it. Looks like it was actually a wooly aphid (check that photo, it's really weird-looking). On a hike we saw a butterfly weed swarming with bees, hornets, and (I think) milkweed bugs. And there was an empty cicada shell still clinging to the wall of my unfinished chicken coop. I love living in the country!

Little Funny

Look what I made! That right there is fifty copies of your Bob the Golfer issue of little funny (series II). The entire strip is below for my friends and Internet people.

Do you want your own accordion-fold micro-comics? They will be sold in adorably tiny boxes from an old cigarette vending machine at Lutefisk Sushi. Each $4 box includes over a dozen randomly selected comics. The opening reception is tonight at Altered Esthetics from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., and the show continues through most of August, with a special panel discussion after MIX!

I haven't drawn a comic in years, so returning to the world of Bob the Golfer for this one-off strip was a fun adventure. I forgot how frustrating it can be to try getting clean lines from crappy pens. And I had to set up the scanner at about 11:00 PM on the night before they were due. But I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. I hope somebody likes it!

click comic to embiggen

Premium Iced Creams

Perfect Apple Pie Recipe, originally uploaded by Pillsbury.com

I made some apple pie ice cream. It is amazing. You start with a cinnamon-vanilla base, stuff it with caramelized apples, and mix in a crushed, oatmeal cookie "crust." Truly, the ice cream that summer dreams are made of. Here's the recipe.

My mother-in-law is lactose intolerant so I've been experimenting with vegan ice creams for her to eat. The Peanut Butter Bombshell was a big hit at our housewarming party. I've been tweaking that recipe for maximum chocolateyness. Mixing in brownies made it thick as concrete. Blending a cake yielded a puddling-like consistency but a good creamy texture.

My brother is coming from Montana to visit this weekend so I'm going to give sherbet a shot. That's his favorite. I'm really getting a kick out of ice cream making. We offer free tastings for all visitors!

Baby's First Surgery

Natalie had to be surgeried this week. She got cavities on all of her molars from eating dried fruit and now they're all capped and filled. It was a harrowing experience for Jenna especially, who was having flashbacks to the hospital visits of her childhood. Both mom and baby are now feeling much better.

We toured the facility on the night before so Natalie could see the space and experience some of the procedures in a non-threatening way. I think this helped put her more at ease on the day of the surgery. I know it helped me. I was not prepared for how emotional I got when her little body drooped from the anesthesia and she began to whimper in her drug-induced sleep.

She was crying when she woke up, but soon she conked out and slept most of the next four hours. By the afternoon she was running around again happy as a clam. It was sad to go through that, but quite a relief once we fixed her. Plus now she's got a mouthful of bling that will be some darn cool-looking baby teeth when they fall out. Whatever the tooth fairy brings will not be worth nearly what we spent on them!