Remembering my Mom

Wow, it’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since my Mom passed away. There were days when it felt like the year would never pass and yet it seems like only yesterday. On the anniversary day (Thursday) I thought to myself that I should do something that my Mom would have loved to do. Well, I don’t like chocolate malts so the next best thing was to ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl at the county fair! My mom absolutely loved this ride – the only one she would ever ride on and she would squeal with laughter. We went last night on opening day to take Aanika to ride some of the kiddie rides and to see the animals. As most of you know, I’m a ride freak – the faster, the better and if you don’t know what the Tilt-W-Whirl is, it’s one of the oldies-but-goodies of fairs. Most anyone can ride it…yup, you guessed it, I took Aanika on it with me! I can just hear you now “She did what?!” ~ but she loved it! She started clapping her hands afterwards and when we asked her if she had fun, she looked at the operator and thanked him…she’s a true child of my own!

Other than the fun of the fair, it was a pretty quiet week. The weather is great and is cooling off to the 80’s and will probably stay that way for the remainder of autumn. Aanika and I rode our bike down to the lake yesterday to feed the ducks, turtles and even some carp. She loves the animals but she keeps pretty close to me when she knows that they’re too close. At the petting zoo last night, she was having a ball. It was called the “Unique Petting Zoo” and had a lot of animals that were her size. There were fawns, baby llamas, pigmy goats and a fuzzy cow calf…very fun. She and Daddy were even brave enough to feed some of them! I was busy defending myself and the stroller from the deer…they liked the straps of the stroller and I even got my backside nibbled on a bit! Yikes.

The picture this week is of Aanika lounging in one of her favorite chairs that our friends, the Vaughan’s, gave to us before we brought her home. The funny thing about it is that she wasn’t posing for the pictures…she just likes to sit that way…she’s sure is a funny little girl.

Riverdance obsession

Watching Riverdance.....again.

Another quiet week (we’re still Riverdancing), we’ve had beautiful weather and another encounter with Mr. Opossum. Those little critters are tough! Kevin was actually thwacking him on the head and feet with a broom and he’d look at Kevin like he was crazy ~ it was quite hysterical to say the least :) He never did get him off the fence…

Aanika is still growing like a weed. She was looking pretty sassy yesterday in her neon green sandals Aunt Chrissy bought her. They’re still a little bit big for her (size 5) but she loves ‘em and will wear them any chance she gets. I think she likes them because they make a good sound on the floor when she walks. We also discovered that Aanika is double-jointed in her thumbs….I swear this child is genetically ours – Kevin’s thumbs are the same way!

The Opposum Fight

It’s been a pretty uneventful week here unless you count my 2 a.m. fight with beady-eyed Mr. Opossum in the backyard on Thursday. The neighbor dog wouldn’t stop barking and we couldn’t sleep, the more I couldn’t sleep the angrier I got! Well, I was bound and determined to find out what had this dog so fired up so I threw on my robe and went out ready for battle. Well, I only managed to pelt him with some wood chips and he scampered down the fence figuring that I’d leave him alone…. I guess he wasn’t counting on the fact that I don’t care for rodent-type critters and I came back with a broom, swung it hard like a baseball bat, and smacked him clean off the fence! Things quieted down quite a bit after that.

Aanika does have a new obsession that we’ve been dealing with…actually it was my fault that it got started. Many of you probably know that I absolutely love Riverdance (the Irish Dance production) and I have it on videotape. Needless to say, Aanika got hooked and tries to dance with it – even to the point that she moves her head like they do in the opening dance! It’s now to the point that as soon as their feet stop moving, she’s running for the remote to fast forward to the next dance…it’s cute and funny but this goes on all day long! I swear I can hear that tape in my sleep… I’ve created a monster. The picture this week is of the little one all dolled up in her new ‘pretties’ that Crazy Aunt Chris sent to her. The bracelets/ankle bracelets are a huge hit!

Oma and Opa visit

Oma and Opa Sprecher were here last weekend so I didn’t get an update out. We had a great visit with them and had some really nice weather and temperatures while they were here. Saturday we were at Kemah on the boardwalk and got rained on a bit but we had a nice lunch at Joes’ Crab Shack. We sat out on the deck over the water and were able to watch the boats come in and out of the channel while we ate. Opa was amazed at how much food one little girl could consume!

This week started with them driving home on Monday morning and they arrived safe and sound later that evening. The rest of the week had the three of us fighting the mullygrubs and feeling like we were all sick with various levels of a cold [bleah!]. Today was adventure day again so we took a drive west of Houston to a little town called Bellville. They had an open market with crafts and such (didn’t find what we were looking for) and some nice little shops and restaurants. Aanika didn’t last long after lunch so we headed home before the rains came and I had a chance to get in a nice little nap when we got home!