Summerisms

Right now, Summer is supposed to be asleep. But she's not. She's in our bedroom, in her pack and play, sort of crying, sort of shouting, sort of playing with her stuffed animals. "No thank you, Mommy," she just cried out. "I'm a busy little girl." I have no idea.

Today on our road trip we saw a helicopter land in a field close by. After we hit the road again, Summer said, "Mommy, pleeeeease can I fly a helicopter? A little red one? And a BIG purple one? Please?" I think she was very satisfied by our little pretend helicopter ride.

Summer has given me many names: Mommy, Mommy Dorothy, Dorothy Allison Ward, etc. But I think my favorite is Mister Mommy. 

And in case you didn't hear on Facebook, Summer's likes to talk about "the mischievous little Jefferson Memorial." This one really confuses me.

But maybe my favorite thing that Summer has been saying lately is that I'm her best friend. I love to hear that. 

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How we did family stuff together mostly

So I finally put our pictures on our computer, and this is what we have:

Summer in Provo being cute in the car:

Mother's Day flowers:

I wasn't joking when I said that Summer eats butter whenever she can get her hands on it:

Then we took a trip in the car from Provo to DC. Summer pooped and we have the diaper-change-in-a-random-field pic to prove it:

And Daddy Nathaniel brushed her hair: 

And forced her to give him a hug:

I was trying to get some great shots of the scenery (I love wide open flat spaces - I can't help it). The problem was that I was driving. Nathaniel got sorta mad.

Summer was a doll on the way. See?

 Nathaniel hooked up the ipod to the back of the driver's seat and Summer was good enough to let Curious George entertain her the whole way:

Cars wasn't quite as successful:

Nathaniel, mad that I'm taking pictures of him:

Me:

I love windmills:

Here is one being shipped in on a truck. I get a big kick out of this sort of thing:

We ate at Cracker Barrell and Summer loved the food but what she really loved were the rocking chairs:

And our new apartment! Summer prefers to eat on the floor:

We went to the zoo and saw a cheetah:

And lots of other stuff, but we got sick of taking pictures. Summer did show everyone that I'm Mormon, though:

I made this:

And Summer is cute.

And here is our sectional that no longer smells like dog:

And I went to Georgia for my 10-year high school reunion and this is the only picture I got there:

Hmm, here Summer is being cute...in Utah:

I'm taking tips from Haley Rencher and grabbing a camera instead of screaming and throwing crap at the wall (luckily, I don't care at all about this lipstick, so I picked a good thing to start with).

And this is from President's Day weekend:

Yeah, families are good.

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How I Fell Asleep Cuddling a Juice Box

Yesterday, I planned on going to the pool with Summer, but she had a bit of, well, the runs, so I decided not to make everyone's else's pool day really lame and we stayed inside in the air conditioning instead.

Isn't it funny that a stay-at-home mom's day consists of outings?  Teaching kids that the important things in life are outings so that they stay entertained and fed. JK. A little bit.

Anyway, so instead of going to the pool, we decided to make pizza. Ha, yes, we sat down together and went through our options and mutually decided that pizza was our best plan B. Okay, so it was all my idea, but I'm sure Summer was on board once she got to watch a couple of hours (yikes!!!) of Thomas the Train and then when we had ourselves a little meal of gooey, fatty, melted fresh mozzarella on crispy crust. Yum, I might have to make another for lunch.

So what was Nathaniel doing while we made pizza and cleaned up the gigantic mess it created and watched way too much TV? Wine tasting. That's right; part of his job as a summer associate is to go sample wine and food pairings, except since he's a practicing Mormon, it turned out to be a water and food pairing event for him. And a pretty lonely night for me. I think Summer had good company in Thomas and friends, though. And Nathaniel did have a great time, so on average we are a pro social event family.

So you're probably wondering how - when we have only one car, and the public transportation in DC and the surrounding area is really lame after a certain hour - does Nathaniel get home from these social events? Yes, I knew you'd be asking yourself just that.  The answer is that I, the ever dutiful wife, head out into the city and pick him up. It's not far and it's a beautiful drive, but the hours are tough on Summer. Last night she got to bed at 10:00 PM. Awesome.

So when Nathaniel got home, I made him some pizza, because apparently the food they give you to pair with your water isn't so filling. The technique I followed for making the pizza called for heating up a cast iron skillet in a 550 degree oven , then placing the pizza on the skillet. And of course, when I took it out, I burned myself on a 550 degree skillet.

Yeah, it was pretty painful. I nursed my finger with a frozen cold pack and went to bed. But it's actually quite difficult to go to sleep when you've got something frozen on your hand. So I got up and watched Salt. Then I watched An Education. Then I read every blog I could think of. I read two pages of The Prince for this month's book club. I seriously tried to get into the Bible, but by that time it was 4 AM and The Good Book just wasn't doing it for me. So I watched No Reservations. By that point, I could keep my finger away from the ice for thirty seconds before the searing pain started, and I was really quite tired so maybe the desire to sleep could overcome the desire to avoid pain. Also by that point, the cold pack was warm. Luckily, I caved to Summer's demands for juice boxes and have 29 frozen ones in the fridge.

So I went to sleep cuddling a juice box.

Are you bored yet? Sorry, but KEEP READING! This next bit is the best part of this arguably awful blog post!

Nathaniel typically takes the metro to work. There is a shuttle that takes him from our apartment complex to the metro, except not him because either he or I or Summer stalls him every morning and he misses it and we drive. But it's a three minute drive so hey.

But one attorney who lives in the same area drives the whole way to work. He's not into the metro, which takes at least 35 minutes from the Pentagon City metro to the office. We were curious how that would be with the traffic, so we left at eight and gave it a go.

How long did it take this morning to commute from our apartment in Arlington, Virginia to his office in downtown DC? As a frame of reference, driving to BYU Law from our place in Provo took anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes, depending on lights. Last year, the commute from our place in Maryland to downtown DC took Nathaniel an hour and 10 minutes.

So how long did this one take? EIGHT MINUTES! In TRAFFIC!

It still blows my mind. I think it's fair to say that Summer and I will take the extra ten minutes out of our day to take Nathaniel to work a bit more often.

I mean, how is that even possible? If we lived in an apartment building in that area for about four thousand dollars a month, walking to his office would take the same amount of time.

(Walking would create a smaller carbon footprint, though. I'll drive less to make up the difference, I promise. Cause dang it, it's so fun to drive past all those landmarks and take Nathaniel to work, and then turn around and go home, knowing that you have just have a day full of outings ahead of you.)

(Except today, when we missed playgroup because Summer is very uncooperative when she goes to bed two hours past her regular bedtime. )

The End! Finally!

Except one more thing. For the first time since I was maybe 16 years old, I bought a giant fountain drink of soda to keep myself awake. Except now Summer's sleeping, and I can't because I feel like this:

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