Robin in the Rain

This above picture is why I'm blogging right now instead of folding the pile of laundry on the bed. It seems she will only stay asleep in my arms or in this pile of clean clothes. Hm.

Yesterday we were in the living room when it just started pouring! We went out to the porch to watch the rain, but watching from the porch just wasn't good enough for Anja... she climbed down the stairs and started running around on the sidewalk, up the driveway, back to her birdfeeder, again to the porch, and all over again. She had so much fun! And she was sooooo dirty when we came in! She loves to watch the birds outside and they all come out after a good rain; she was delighted.

Anja has started picking up after herself, which is not only awesome, but hilarious. One of her favorite toys is my potato crock. She takes all the potatoes out, sometimes putting them in with her little collection of mini cooking wares, then replaces them to the crock. She is so cute. She loves to organize and re-organize, to stack things, to arrange things, to put things in their place VERY carefully. For the most part she treats everything with such care... except for the cat.

Another funny thing about Anja is the way she dresses herself up. I love it that she can make real choices. When it's time to get dressed in the morning I say "let's go find something for you to wear!" and she runs to her room and starts digging through her drawers. Sometimes she really chooses, sometimes she loses interest so I choose for her... sometimes I have something in mind and don't give her the choice, heh heh heh. But whatever she wears, it always ends up with the same accessories by mid-morning: Her raincoat, pink shoes, beads, and some kind of hat. This is yesterdays outfit:
I guess she isn't wearing her necklaces in this picture. Oh well. Maybe she thought her beads were too fancy for golfing.

We have all this ground turkey in our freezer that my mother-in-law gave us. I'd never used ground turkey before and was thoroughly disgusted when I squeezed this stuff out of its packaging. Yuck. I called my neighbor, Tara, who often eats the stuff and asked her if it was supposed to be a tube of mush. She said it's normal and that it cooks up to look more like beef... and she was right. I'm still not so sure about it though. Today I've just put it in some vegetable soup so it will only serve as filler anyway. I doubt it will change the taste of the soup too much and we can just pretend it's beef.

And there isn't really anything else going on around here, so I'll just post some pictures. And since I can't decide which ones to post I'll just give you a lot.

Enjoying lunch with a variety of beverages.

"It's for you, Greta."

You can't tell in this picture but Anja has fallen down and is sort of crying. Martin's solution? "She needs some chocolate."

Reading the "Little House" books up at the river. I cannot WAIT to read these to her in a few years!!!!!!! They are a series that Martin and I both had read to us when we were little.

Anja has learned to climb up on top of the toilet.

Another really great outfit.

Already wearing her big sister's clothes!!! It was much colder than expected at the river on Memorial Day so we had to scrounge stuff from the car to keep everyone warm!

My girls and me. Greta looks like she's laughing at us.

After playing in the rain.

Fresh out of the tub. Can you see the birdfeeder outside the door? We spend so much time at the kitchen door looking at the birds, and the feeder has become a very popular place! Squirrels visit too!

Text messaging, just like Mommy and Daddy. Heh heh heh.