The Girl Who Scoffed at Death

We had a wonderful weekend.  It was about 80 degrees and sunny, so we went to the beach today.  The children enjoyed showing off their stark contrasts.  Gavin's preference is to wade into the water to his ankles, and if he is wearing a Coast-Guard certified life-saving water vest, he will venture to his waist and maybe hazard a doggie paddle if he is feeling very daring.  Annah on the other hand has convinced herself she has gills.  The girl has taken about 10 weeks of swimming lessons compared to her brother's 3 years of water exposure, and we were in the water not more than 15 seconds when she dived straight into the drink.  She she got the baby life vest strapped on, which was probably good, because about half an hour later she threw herself off the dock and into the water.  Her mother, who was standing right there, did not prevent the incident, but this should come as no surprise to the regular reader (see "The Gimpy Imp" entry).

In addition to being excessively "spirited", Ani has also started to communicate with her limited vocabulary in some actual conversation.  I am still deciding if this is a good thing or not, since most of what she is communicating is her unhappiness/displeasure at not completely being able to bend us to her will.  Let me illustrate with an example, as taken from a conversation between her and Ryan during her nightly bath:

Ryan: "Ani, it's time to go to bed now.  Can I have the soap?"

Ani: "No."

Ryan: "Annah, it's time.  Give me the soap."

Ani: "No."

Ryan: "Let's put the soap down now."

Ani: "No!"

Ryan: "It's bedtime, now give me that soap!"

Ani: "NO!!!"

Ryan: "Fine. I'm taking the soap."

Ani: "AaaghHHhhhhHHHH!!!!!!"

This is the stuff of memories, people.

Gavie has learned how to pedal his big boy bike this week.  He decided that his lame-o wooden balance bike with no awesome cartoon characters was no longer cutting it,  So he decided it was time to break out the Spiderman pedal bike he got from a neighbor, and figure it out.  He had it down in a day or so, and since then, he's been a pedalin' fool.  He loves to fly down the road, and I can really appreciate how great our location is for biking for a kid, at the end of a private, paved road.  It's been fun to watch.

Also this weekend was Ryan's birthday.  In true Ryan form, he spent his birthday going to the dump, mulching, and sawing a dead branch off a tree in a very perilous and precarious manner.  I decided to celebrate it by laying on the couch and eating Bon bons, but hey, we just like doing different things.  

Below are pictures of Ani enjoying some of daddy's birthday cake, daddy being super jazzed about his picture being taken, and the kids after having played in the lawn sprinkler.  You may notice one of them is somewhat clothing-adverse.  I am also including a bonus pic of Annah after she tried to dress herself.  She likes to to that all by herself now, with interesting results.....