Thomas Tidbits...: Beating the Heat

We're trying really hard to keep Eleanor entertained in blistering triple digit weather (usually 100 degrees by 10:00 am), and it's proving to be quite the chore. For an outdoorsy girl, she's ready to lose her mind. We have tried just about everything, random trips to Target to walk around, baiting her with stickers and tape, playing in the shower (without running water), hide and seek, chase, and unfortunately, more TV than we care to admit.

We're typically pretty strict about limiting TV watching, and so far, it's worked well. She really didn't know what she's missing. But, the heat, coupled with some aggressive teething moods, we've had to resort to our quick fix. You can tell Eleanor is getting used to this new routine because she hands the remote to us, says "show," settles into her spot on the couch in her "relaxing" stance, and promptly sticks her fingers in her mouth. The good thing is that we can only have it on for 10 minutes, and she thinks she's watched a full movie.

Last week, Justin and I were lucky enough to sneak in a weekday date night. We were a little ashamed that we'd never been to Blues on the Green before, so we ventured out for some music, beers, and sweat. It's at Zilker Park and basically a smaller (and free) version of ACL. We started out with dinner at Shady Grove, and walked to Zilker. We had so much fun relaxing, people watching, and not chasing our daughter around.

The very opposite of the aforementioned relaxing evening - We went to Bubblepalooza last weekend at the Long Center, and it was a total bust. We could have recreated the bubble action in our backyard and avoided the crowds and overall mayhem. We thought we were smart to get there by 9:30 am, but it was already 95 degrees by then, so our stay there was short lived. Eleanor ran around chasing bubbles, danced at the live "kindie" music, and aimlessly walked around dodging hundreds of other kiddos.

We also went on a bike ride and to Barton Springs last weekend. Again, due to the heat, these activities are very brief. Is it Fall yet? We're in countdown mode to Watercolor - 2 weeks to go! The upper 80s will seem so refreshing...

New EJT Tidbits:

: New vocabulary: show (TV), open, water, wet, Walter, (music teacher), um, oooOOOOoooo (when she finds something interesting), raisin, apple, and nana (banana). In addition to her independently speaking, she's very into repeating whatever we're saying and tries new words every day. The words she ends up verbalizing often don't sound remotely like the words she's attempting. E for effort, Eleanor!

: We have songs from music where we count. I'll start counting, and she'll mock me with voice inflections, but not necessarily count past 2. She holds up 1 hand and points to her fingers with the other hand while she counts. Pretty darn cute.

: Playing hide and go seek and chase around the house have become big hits. Eleanor is also strangely obsessed with playing in the mini shower in the downstairs bathroom.

: Picking up/sorting seems to be trending right now too. At music class, the kids put the various objects (instruments, scarves, shakers) into a bin when they're finished playing, and Eleanor was queen bee of cleaning up this week.

: We have 8 teeth now with 2 more making their way in. As you can imagine, it makes for some pretty awful, moody/whiny moments.

: E still loves to dance and has added some new moves to her repertoire, complete with clapping.

: Our daughter has been pretty into putting her bunnies (that she sleeps with) to night night when she wakes up in the morning or after naps. She kisses each of them, places them in the corner of her crib, and then covers them up with a blankie, and says "nigh niiiiight." Similarly, if we're laying on the couch, she'll put a blanket on us and put us down for night night.

: Little princess has discovered foot rubs. We randomly gave her one in the car a couple of weeks ago, and now she leans back and kicks her foot up to us. We'll rub for a minute, and then stop. She'll then kick her other foot up and say "mo." We're in trouble.

: One of the more annoying recent habits is that E somewhat refuses to sit in a grocery cart and reluctantly sits in her stroller. She wants to push what whatever contraption we are. So, we've put a moratorium on grocery visits with her - it's literally a 3 ring circus and takes 10x as long to get what we need.