Squeaker Jumps the Shark

Contrary to how it looks, Squeaker was not being put to work cleaning the deck. It just worked out that way.

While the Daddy person was away this weekend Squeaker was busy testing Aunt Brite's patience. This exercise culminated in much disciplinary action and a revelation. Last night after bath time she did everything she could come up with to keep Brite from drying her hair. She held her trusty friend blankie over her head, her books, she fled the bathroom. Finally Brite asked Squeaker, "What am I trying to do?" The answer she was expecting was the obvious one, "Dry my hair."

The answer she got was "You are trying to control me."

The Daddy person for one is happy Brite got that answer. My mouth is still flapping like a fish out of water searching for a good response...

Graduation Number Three

We have a guest poster this week.




Squeaker is on the road again!

Squeaker joined Uncle Mack & Aunt Brite on an Adventure North this
weekend for her third graduation in as many weeks. It is beginning to
affect her perspective on the world. Today she asked, "Who will
graduate next weekend?". Squeaker found it fascinating that Amanda will
be Pharmacist and she seems to be planning her own future. After
sitting quietly for a few minutes in the car today she said, "I will go
to school for a long, long, long, time and I will work very hard. Then
when I graduate I will be a DENTIST!! " She was so excited and emphatic
when she said Dentist we laughed out loud. I think Grammie's past as a
Dental Hygienist probably has encouraged this idea in Squeaker. We'll
see if she still wants to be one after she has actually had her first
dental appointment.

We had a celebration dinner at a German restaurant afterwards. They had
great music and she even danced up in front with Amanda & Tina. Grandma Z even danced with Tina for awhile. It was just wonderful. She and several other children went up to play the Chicken dance. She stood in a circle with the four other little girls and someone's mom. She moved her fingers when they began, but once they started the arm movements she had stopped. Then she said, " I live far, far away. I don't know any of your names. My name is Squeaker. That is my family." She is such a little grown up!!

The Macks have an annual Memorial Day picnic and the family enjoys lots of time outdoors. Sometimes we play Bocce Ball, but this year we played a traditional Midwestern game called Cornhole. Anyway, it was far too hard for her to throw it in the hole, but she LOVED picking up all the bean bags at the end of each round. After playing with a large ball and a paddle ball set, she sat on the swing with them pretending it was a drum. Sweet Grandma Z picked up the paddle and pretended to play the guitar. (We will post a video of this on Wednesday if you want to check back.)

Afterwards, she got to eat outside and watch everyone else play. As if
this day wasn't exciting enough, she enjoyed birthday cake and
Neapolitan Ice Cream. Sorry Daddy Person, but she's learned that there
is more than just vanilla! She also tried her first hot dog cut up and
dipped in ketchup. She often chooses a vegetarian diet, so we were
shocked when she devoured the entire thing.

Needless to say, she is having a wonderful time and continuing to add to
her family and the long list of people she loves. I think even she
would say it was worth the very long drive.

The College Tour

Squeaker continues to make the rounds of college graduations. Last week was one of her aunts (of whom we are very proud) and this week was an uncle (of whom we are also very proud).

Squeaker has begun to discover that these letter and numbers she plays with occur outside her play room. She and Brite were shopping this week when she blurted out, "Look Brite a 6! And a 5 and a 4 and 3 and a 2 and a 1!" Then silence for a bit, "Look Brite a 7 and a 8 and a 9 and a 1 and a 0."

On the other hand at her uncle's party she played with two other children her age who were jumping down a couple of steps into the play room and landing on both feet. Squeaker watched them jump and wanted to try too. She stood at the top step and got ready to jump. She stepped down a step and got ready to jump again. Squeaker looked around, and stepped down one more step. She got ready to jump and stepped quickly to the bottom. I don't think we need to worry about her mastering the triple jump (or the standing broad jump for that matter) any time soon.

Making Tracks

If you didn't notice the coming soon post finally became something, though it wasn't soon. Squeaker and I had a wonderful weekend watching her Aunt Kira graduate from college. It was a busy weekend so I don't have much of a story, but I thought you might enjoy a picture post. She asked if she could wear my ribbon. I think I did a good job tying it on her. As you can tell she was a little spaced out by that time.

If you are reading this on sunday night, come back in the morning, hopefully blogger will have accepted another video....

Coming Soon! Or Maybe Later....

We here at Squeakerpants.com are sorry that coming soon turned out to be a bit later than planned. Here is the video I promised a few weeks ago. So enjoy watching her adventures in cooking. Don't worry, no pretend food was harmed in the creation of this video.

Why is it a Mary Cat?

No Squeaker they are Meerkats. As you probably now have guessed, we made a return trip to the zoo this weekend. Her favorite animal this time was a shrew. I don't know if she liked their long opposable noses or the fact that they were hanging out in the front of their cages, but she really liked seeing them. Even with the heat, she had a good time. Also despite the heat she insisted taking her meals outside. There just happened to be a child sized deck chair at Momzie's house and once we let her sit in a 'flat' chair, there was no going back no matter how warm it was outside. A 'flat' chair, for those of you who are not familiar with the term, is one without molding or a seatbelt. In other words, like those where adults sit.

The Daddy person suggested last night that we were going to visit a zoo in our hometown, one with four cats. Squeaker got really excited at this suggestion, and ran with it all the way home. I spent most of the trip being asked to recall the other animals (stuffed) at the zoo and their names. The Daddy person was corrected many times for either forgetting animals or their names.

Have a good week.

ADDENDUM: I forgot completely (the danger of posting before I have had my coffee) about playing hide and seek with Squeaker this weekend. It has become one of her favorite games and she is getting better at it. She now picks decent hiding places (behind chairs instead of on them) and she waits a until the third or fourth time you have asked "Where is Squeaker?" to answer. She also has gotten good at looking for people too. Although when the Daddy person is hiding she cheats and only counts to two before she says "ready or not". Ok, that's really it for this week. We have some fun videos from the last few weeks, but I haven't had time to sit down and edit it for publication. Summer is coming...

About that Nap Brite....

Brite and I love Squeaker very much. We also love that she still takes a couple of hour nap almost every afternoon. That beloved tradition seems to be on the way out however. This weekend Squeaker and I headed east to hang out with her grandparents and her Aunt Bubbles. Squeaker did take a nap on either of the days we traveled and both days handled it pretty well. We are hoping that this no nap trend won't continue, but if it does, at least she will get to see her first baseball games this summer...

Have a good week.