Ima Inja Ghel

Is it taking you a few minutes to decipher that title? It took me about five minutes and asking Reina to repeat herself about twenty times before I figured out she was saying, "I'm a ninja girl.". Of course she is. Reina wakes up in the morning, starts talking, talks throughout the day and then falls asleep mumbling something. She has opinions on everything from what she's wearing to what I'm wearing. ("I don't like your scarf, mom. It has writing on it.") and everything in between.  Remember how I was so worried that she wasn't talking? 

So not many photos from the last few weeks because the camera was out of batteries and I didn't have time to walk downstairs and get some fresh ones.  Yeah, I know.  Things are wild around here.  I had some day trips out of town this week, Glenn has some traveling coming up and we are both incredibly busy at work.  Will's last three days at Montessori start on Monday and then the kids have a few days off

before the new school year starts.  We have an ice cream social at the elementary school next week so we can meet Will's teacher and drop off his school supplies.  It's all very exciting and oh so very bittersweet.  But that's a post for next week.

In the meantime, here's Trigger and Tootsie.  This was the third picture of them I attempted.  Shortly after this picture was taken, they were banished outside because of extremely loud and furniture rearranging wrestling.  These two are my faithful jogging partners and if I make the mistake of putting exercise pants for non-exercise reasons, I have to listen to Tootsie whine excitedly until she finally realizes that I'm just loafing around in exercise pants instead of exercising in them.  She's a smart one. 

 Here's a quick photo of our crazy garden this summer.  For the first time since we moved in to this house, we've actually had a little time to put into yard work.  We have some giant hollyhocks that we transplanted a few years ago when we were too lazy/busy to do anything else.  I thinned them out a little this year to make room for other stuff but they are pretty tenacious.  We also have tomatoes and peppers in pots because I'm paranoid about hail storms and want to be able to move expensive plants into shelter if needed.  With this drought, we haven't had to worry too much about hail this year.  I planted a pumpkin at the beginning of the summer with the thought that I'd probably kill it off, as I've done with all of the other one's I've tried to grow, but this was a hearty pumpkin and you can see that it's taken over the backyard. 



A close up of a little baby pumpkin nestled in the pine tree.  I wonder how that will turn out?  So far so good.  You can also see another vine growing up through the pine tree. 



 It's been another smoky week in Cheyenne.  We don't have any forest fires close by but smoke from other western states has been moving through our area.  The sky was so red tonight that I tried to capture it with my little amateur camera.   

 Last Saturday, Reina had Tootsie hooked up to a leash and was walking her all of the house.  Patient Tootsie just followed Reina around but kept throwing me "save me!" glances.  I tried to take a picture of Reina pounding on the piano with one hand while holding Tootsie with the other, but that's when the last battery in the camera gave out.  I did "save" her shortly after this picture was snapped when Reina was yelling "SIT TOOTSIE" while she was trying to play the piano. 

One last highlight from the week.  Last weekend, the kids and I went down to the Farmer's Market.  On the way home, it was quiet in the backseat.  Out of the blue, Will asked, "Mom, how does the baby get in your tummy?"  I froze like a deer caught in the headlights, thought for a minute and said, "You know what Buddy?  It's complicated.  Hey look - is that a slug bug?"  Yep, total parenting fail.  But it worked.  He was sufficiently distracted and the next time the subject comes up, hopefully I'll have a better answer.  Like "Ask Daddy."