Silence . . not always golden

Ten minutes without hearing from Lily, unless she's sleeping, is an unusual thing. As I was just reminded, it typically means she's up to no good. Seemingly out of nowhere, she just called to me from the stairs, "Daddy, I got some new ponies!"

Oy. The only ponies upstairs are in Avery's room, and with Avery across the street playing this definitely spelled trouble. I grabbed the camera (it's becoming a reflex these days when Lily calls out) and headed toward the front door. Look at this little monster.

Not to worry . . we've reassembled Avery's room, and hopefully she'll be blissfully unaware that anything ever happened.

Homemade Obstacle Course

"Daddy, can I snuggle you?"

"No Lily, not right now, Daddy's watching Jeopardy."

"Pleeeeeeease??"

"No Lily, maybe in a few minutes."

"OK, I'll just go jump off this obstacle course instead."

"Well that sounds great Lily, have fun!"

The following is what came next.

A couple of things:

- At the beginning, when she gives the little thumbs-up . . rewind it to there and turn the volume up. Proof positive of her propensity to encourage folks to "keep it pimpin".

- Do I sound like Bert from Sesame Street in real life? When I hear myself on video the only thing I can think of is "Rubber ducky, you're the one, you make bathtime so much fun!" Seriously . . do I? Not that I could do anything about it if I did, but I'd like to know. I think the chances of me actually sounding like Bert and not a single person I've ever encountered telling me so are very slim, but I just have to ask. Be honest, but be gentle.

TV Phenomenon

This post is not about TV. Or a phenomenon.

Today, after her nap, Lily wanted to know where her unicorn was. When she found it she told me to be very gentle with it, that it was very delicate and in fact made of gold. I obliged, agreeing not to even touch it. I left her upstairs and came down to work on dinner. Moments later she came in to the kitchen and wanted to show off the unicorn. She said "See daddy, see!" I looked and said, "Yeah Lily, that's great. Hey, what's the unicorn's name?"

"TV phenomenon", she said. No kidding. And she pronounced it perfectly. I laughed, then decided I wanted a picture to go along with the post she had created for me. Switch lenses, put it in auto mode, focus, snap a few to get the right one. Well, nobody's perfect.

Then what? I forgot the name. Seriously. "Lily," I said, "what was the unicorn's name again?"

Her: "Ummmm . . TV . . granola bar!"

Me: "No, that's not what you said."

Her: "Ummmm . . TV Scooby Doo!"

Me: "Huh? You don't even know what Scooby Doo is. What's its name?"

Her: "Ummmm . . TV . . investigating!"

I immediately thought to myself, "Self, you just done effed up and lost a great post." So I asked her one more time. "Lily, what was the unicorn's name again . . the first one?"

"TV . . TV . . phenomenon!"

Yes!!!! She remembered! I don't know how, because the utterly ridiculous nature of the 'name' had no business even crossing her mind in the first place, not to mention staying in there any length of time. But, lucky for us, it did.

A Rarity Brings Me to 138

A nice leisurely walk with Lily at the Moss Creek Nature Trail this morning got me 2 life/big year birds, bringing me to 138 species identified year-to-date. Fall migration is in full swing, and today it yielded a pair of uncommon wood-warblers. The first one I spotted was the more rare, a Golden-winged Warbler. The one I saw was a female, and she flitted around in easy view of the path for a couple of minutes, leaving no doubt in my mind of her identity. Still, when I reported it to eBird I got the "Are you sure, that's a great sighting" message, so I started to second-guess myself. A double check of my field guides and my memory and I'm confident still that's what I saw.

The second new species came at the other end of the trail, very high up in the trees. Lucky for me, this is precisely the habitat the field guide told me to expect it in, so I again feel very good about the ID. It was a Yellow-throated Warbler, although at that distance it's difficult to say whether it was a male or a female.

I'm very sorry to not have pictures of either of these two birds to share, as staying focused through the binoculars took priority with them. I'll leave you with a couple shots from our walk, however. One silly arty one I took of Lily, the other of an Empidonax flycatcher I couldn't ID because it wasn't calling or singing. Any guesses? The feature you get the best view of in this photo is the primary projection, which I'm judging to be fairly long (almost halfway down the tail). That makes me lean toward Acadian Flycatcher. Imagine my best Homer Simpson immitation (which isn't very good) . . "Stupid fall, why do you have to make birds stop singing??"

Daddy, I have a cricket in my neck

I'm going to attempt to keep the commentary on these as brief as possible, because they really don't need much. This is a collection of some of the funny things Lily's said recently. There are certainly more, but my memory will only hold on to so much.

This morning, at the breakfast table. "Daddy, I have a cricket in my neck."

At dinner the other night. "I'm going to tell you a scary story. Once upon a time there was no mascara anywhere. At two places or at one place, there was no mascara. And that was really, really, really scary. The end. The end."

In the car, anytime anybody on the radio mentions Barack Obama. "Daddy, why'd he say Barack Obama?!?" She pronounces it exceptionally well.

Anytime the ESPN theme music plays. "DA na NA, DA na NA!"

When asked what her favorite thing was about preschool. "Snack time."

When pressed farther about what she's scared of at bed time. "Monsters and ghostes and bears."

When asked whether she wants sauce on her spaghetti. "Nope, I don't like sauce. No sauce? Noooo problem!"

Just now when I was putting her shoes on. "Daddy, you're not canceling my flight, are you? You're not canceling my flight for Meema to come see me, are you?"

When we got all that rain last week and were driving by the reservoir I told Mandi that they should open the dam. "Daddy, we don't say damn!"

On the phone with her Aunt Jaime the other day. "Jaime, will you come over to my house and play blinkin' blogs with me?" Have to assume she wanted to play Lincoln Logs.

And when you shoot her a thumbs-up with a wink. "Keep it pimpin'!", accompanied by a thumbs-up and a wink in return.

Already asking for money

Seems like schools do a lot more fundraisers now than they did when I was a kid. I mean it's barely the 2nd full week of school and already I'm on the internet pimping chocolates, magazine subscriptions, and all manner of assorted knick knacks to the extended family.

I will say this though, at least these folks have decided to enter the 21st century and make the catalogs available online. You can also get free shipping of your junk, er, items, on orders over $79. How thoughtful of them.

Anyway, please click here to visit the online catalog. You will be supporting Avery's class' desire to have a pizza party, which as we all know is extremely important. Thanks!

First Day Of School Dance

As promised, here is Lily's dance routine from yesterday morning. I'm sorry there's not more audio with it, that's kind of hit or miss. Sometimes she talks all the way through the dances, other times not at all. Still impressive though. I love how she uses the oven door as her mirror. I had to permanently take down the decorative towels we used to keep on the handle because she would shove them out of the way every time she wanted to try out a new dance move.