Ok, so I’m a couple days late for my monthly Daphne update. That’s what happens when you are a SAHM and have no concept of the day or date. The funny thing is on Sunday I thought to myself, “Don’t forget to do a Daphne update on the 28th (which I thought was later in the week).” Oh well.

Here’s the latest-

- Daphne is such a daredevil. She’s been climbing and jumping off things for a while, but now it’s a sport. She carefully sets up her crash pad (usually sofa pillows or the bean bag) and jumps with all her might, usually from the side of the sofa, or a chair. She also has this kicking jump she does from the side of the sofa onto whoever is unlucky enough to be sitting next to her. It’s like toddler martial arts. Very strange. My mom asked me the other day if I ever thought I would have such an active child. Um, NO!!! As I’m typing this I had to pull her off the piano. She had climbed from the chair arm, onto the keys and was getting things off the top. Of the 100 year old upright piano. And she did the kicking move on her way down. Lord help me. I think I need to look into a toddler tumbling gym.

- Daphne definitely has her sweet moments. She will come up to me, say “Oh mama!” and give me a hug and kiss. And then she has her terrible two/Exorcist child moments. Yesterday was rough. I usually ask her what she wants to watch on TV, since she is so opinionated lately. She’d tell me she wanted to watch Jack (Jack’s Big Music Show) and as soon as it started she’d cry hysterically. “ELMO!” Ok, then I’d change it to Elmo and get the same reaction. And as soon as I’d pour water she’d decide she wanted milk. But not milk in her cup, milk in a glass with a straw. And she wanted to hold the glass herself (not happening kid). Of course, I had to figure all this out in stages, with tantrums in between. It’s been interesting trying to figure out what is OK for me to do just to get her happy, and what I shouldn’t do because it’s going to make Daphne think she can control every detail.

- Still waiting on her eye teeth to come in.

- One of Daphne’s favorite late night activities is going outside to say goodnight to the moon. She gets so excited when she finds it. Last week we were outside around 11 am and Daphne kept saying, “Moon! Moon!!!” and without turning around I said, “No, Daphne you don’t see the moon.” A few seconds later I realized you could see the moon. Doh.

- Daphne doesn’t mind getting dirty. Here she is covered with grass, dirt, sidewalk chalk and cherry popsicle.

Next month will be my last monthly update. Unlike Dooce, I think I’m going to wrap it up before she hits 2. Until next time…

Nothing like seeing a newborn to make you realize how HUGE your toddler has become. We got the chance to briefly visit with a new mom and her little (very little!!!) one yesterday at church. She was 4 weeks early and I think 5 lbs 15 oz, 17 1/2 in. In comparison, Daphne was 6 lbs 2 oz (5 lbs 9 oz the day we left the hospital) and 19 1/2 in. So, it was really funny for me to look at this baby and think there was no way that Daphne ever could have been that small. And then realize Daphne was actually skinnier since she was just slightly heavier but 2 inches longer. I had to go back and look at Daphne’s pics.

Wow. I barely remember her little legs being this tiny:

Ah, yes. 3 days old, swimming in her newborn outfit at the Dr.’s office. And more than a little jaundiced:

Thank goodness we have thousands of pictures documenting Daphne’s life, because it’s so easy to forget.

By now I’m sure you’ve heard that Michael Jackson passed away today. And although in the last 10 or 15 years, his physical and mental health issues eclipsed his talent, I am still a fan. Thriller was the first cassette tape I bought with my “own” money. And we WORE. IT. OUT. I still think Beat It is the quintessential 80’s song. I mean, MJ with an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo… what’s more 80’s than that? And I’m pretty sure I didn’t attend a single birthday party during the 5th or 6th grade that didn’t involve watching The Making of Thriller.

I think most younger people (ok, under 25) don’t get just how popular he was in his heyday. One of my favorite Michael Jackson memories involves my grandfather. And just so you can understand why I think this is funny, let me give you a little background on him. Poppa, as we called him, was country. He was raised in Park Hill, Oklahoma (near Tahlequah) on the same land that his Cherokee ancestors received after arriving in OK from the Trail of Tears. I think he dropped out of school after the 9th grade, but managed to make a pretty good life for himself as a master carpenter and owned his own construction company. He was an avid fisher and hunter. And the only TV shows I remember him watching were Hee Haw and Jimmy Houston fishing. So, during a camping and fishing trip to Roaring River State Park, we were all sitting around the campfire one night, being silly, when my little sister started to moonwalk. And Poppa gets up and says, “No, let me show you how to do it” and then he got up and moonwalked across the camp site. My country grandfather knew how to do the Michael Jackson moonwalk, and he was pretty good! We laughed and laughed about it.

There was always a part of me that hoped he’d get it together and make another album worth listening to, but it was not to be. RIP Michael Jackson.

We’ve had record setting high temperatures in Houston this week. 100+ degrees. It shouldn’t be this hot, this early. And usually we have random pop-up storms to cool things off and at least have a short break from the hot sun. I can’t even remember the last time it rained.

Daphne & I do spend time outside, I just limit it to early morning (for sidewalk chalk, bubbles, etc) and water activities. We spend a lot of time swimming. I think I’ve spent more time outside this year than I have in the last 5 years combined. Which is OK, as long as I’m in the shade. I have always had a lot of sun sensitivity issues, like after I spend a few minutes in the sun my skin starts to itch and sometimes I get a rash. And I burn. And freckle. And it’s unpleasant! For example, the other day I was sitting in the breezeway, watching Daphne play with her chalk, when my hand started to really burn and itch. I looked down to see the sun had shifted and was beating down on my hand. (Of course, being the sci-fi geek that I am, I immediately thought of Paul in Dune when he was being tested by the box.) Fussy, pale skin- just another lovely trait I inherited from my dad’s Irish relatives. The weird thing is no one else in my immediate family has the same issues. Everyone else tans beautifully. Including my daughter. We both go out with the same 50 spf lotion. Daphne gets a slight tan, I burn.

But like it or not, the heat is here to stay, until at least October. The heat doesn’t bother me that much, but I hate dragging Daphne around if it’s over 95. Even with the air conditioner blasting, she ends up sweating in her car seat, completely wilted by the time we reach our destination. Poor kid. Luckily, we can do all kinds of running around when it’s still 70 degrees in December. We do our hibernating in the summer here in Houston.

Summer plans? Well, maybe a quick afternoon trip to Kemah or Galveston, otherwise we will wait out the heat and hopefully head to San Antonio late this fall. I’ve done the Riverwalk/Spanish missions/Sea World thing before in the dead of summer and won’t make that mistake twice. And of course, birthday plans are right around the corner for me and Daph. Instead of having an elaborate party, I wanted to have a family day at the zoo or maybe the beach, but it’s just going to be too stinking hot in August. She’ll be happy with a pool party at home.

What do you have planned for this summer?

Daphne doesn’t watch too many different TV programs. She requests her “Jack” and “Elmo” and occasionally I let her watch Dora, but that’s about it. We DVR the shows we want to see and watch them after she goes to bed. So, what I’m trying to say is she doesn’t have variety of children’s programming (and commercials) under her belt to know about Hannah Montana and High School Musical. Yet every time she sees Hannah Montana on screen, she claps. This weekend, she sat glued to the TV singing along with High School Musical. She’d never seen it before. What is it about these shows? It’s like me and the Discovery Health Channel (can. not. look. away… which reminds me, I have Freebirthing on the DVR).

And since this is sort of related… this weekend I walked into the living room to see Daphne dancing up a storm to the “Born to hand jive” scene in Grease. Hilarious. When John Travolta throws himself on the ground and starts to walk around in a circle… Daphne tried to do the same thing. I wish I had that on video.

- Eternal Image has a line of Star Trek caskets and urns. The caskets are inspired by the photon torpedo design in Khan. I guess this is for those Trekkies who don’t have enough cash to have their ashes shot into space.

- Dear local engineers working on plans to dome the city of Houston, as long as you include Katy and don’t raise my taxes then let’s DO IT!!

- I saw someone online today who named their daughter Murray. Uh, what? Murray, the little old man’s name. I’m not a fan of gender neutral names, but I hope at least it was a family name. (Then again, is Murray gender neutral. No. ) But even then, I think it would have been better as a middle name. Unless they are pronouncing it as Marie or something. Then don’t even get me started. We are going to name our next kid, boy or girl, Hieronymus. Oh yeah. If getting the most exotic/rare name is a contest then we will play to win, people. (I’m kidding, about the Hieronymus)

- Texas A&M just fired their president. She’ll be getting $425,000/yr through June 2010, then will go back to being a professor and make $260,000. Is THAT how much professors make these days? Because if it is, I’m really kicking myself for not going to grad school. You know, somehow I don’t think anyone, anywhere pays Art History professors that kind of $$. Oh well.

I think someone needs to write a parenting handbook with helpful tips like, “Don’t let your kid draw on your siding with wet sidewalk chalk. It will stain.” Because, I didn’t know that until recently. I had to take full strength Charlie’s Soap (the all-purpose cleanser, not the laundry soap) and a scrub brush to the HardiPlank columns on the back patio. I wasn’t able to get the stains out of her clothes, no matter what I tried. Argh. So now Daphne is banned from the brightly colored, siding and concrete staining chalk and only allowed blah pastels. I don’t think she minds. It would be different if she would pay attention to me and not get the chalk wet, but with the pool, koi pond and various potted plants in the back, there is always moisture somewhere and she knows wet chalk is so much prettier. Hahaha.

So here’s my little graffiti artist now, with her tan and lilac chalk. Decorating the patio chairs:

Leaving no surface bare:

Oh, I think the column needs some color:

Yes, that’s about right:

Oh, I smudged it. Let me fix it:

Do you like her watermelon dress? It’s not usually my style, but I purchased it last year because it reminded me of Daphne’s first experience eating watermelon at a 4th of July party. She ate her watermelon and everyone else’s. And this was when I was still begging her to eat solids/baby food. Aw, she was so little and cute last summer:

Love this YouTube video done by SCAD student, Bang-yao Liu:

I realized last week that it had been a while since I picked up my camera. In fact, I couldn’t find it at first. So, I challenged myself with a 7 day photo project. A pic of Daphne each day. And for those of you who have been reading my blog, you know that is definitely a challenge!! Here are the pics-

I guess I thought growth was supposed to slow down after the 1 year point. Daphne spent most of 2008 in a 6-12 month size. She just barely got into 12-18 by the time fall/winter rolled around (which for us is November!). I thought I was safe buying mainly 18-24 month summer clothes. Um, yeah. She’s about one teeny growth spurt away from being way too tall for her tops. But, before I rush out and buy all new 2T clothes, I decided to sew a few things for her and hopefully use up some of my fabric stash.

Here’s today’s project, please excuse the crappy point & shoot camera pics:

It wasn’t meant to be a dress. That’s what happens when I sew during Daphne’s nap time and don’t have her to measure. And I didn’t have a pattern, just winged it. But, I think I like it as a dress. You can see more of the side motifs. It was nice to finally put this Amy Butler fabric to use. I purchased it to make a Frenchy bag, then promptly lost the interfacing and pattern. Then I used the lining fabric I bought for another one of Daphne’s dresses. And I think I have enough of the Belle left over to make another top.

Next up, some Heather Bailey Freshcut shirred tank tops.