The fair

We went, we saw, we conquered, we skipped our nap time! haha! Doug and I took time off from work to enjoy the Common Ground Fair...our first visit with Zaria. I'm not sure the Common Ground Fair is Doug's favorite place to be. He likes The Hippy Food, but he doesn't like The Hippy. But Zaria quite enjoyed it! At one point we were watching a live band and she got up and danced much to the delight of the other patrons. I have a 2 minute video of her dancing her sweet dance, but I can't figure out how to get blogger to let me post videos. :( I still owe Aunt Ellie a video if I can ever figure it out.
My parents went as well and my mom and I hit up the Johnny's Select Seeds tent, and the Fedco tent. My mom took Zaria over to the childrens area for a bit and Doug and I hit up Sal's Calzones..Sadly Sal wasn't there this year :( he had 4 women doing the work of 1 Sal. Doug and I made sure to hit up Dr. Pussums for some new cat nip toys for the cats. It was a cat nip orgy when Doug handed out the toys. Then Leo got mean and started pounding on everyone and taking their toys..he's a mean drunk.

I put Zari down to bed at 5pm, she did amazingly well considering she started her day by vomiting in the car. (Let this be a lesson to me: Even though you cannot comprehend a scenario when you may need a change of clothes for your offspring, pack one anyways...) Followed by an over stimulating time at the FAIR! with GRAMMY! and GRAMPY!..I'm amazed, thankful, and impressed by my little nugget. She's a trooper! And a people loving fun seeker. She's so not me. I'm so happy for that! :) I just hope she'll continue to visit me in my hermit cave in my old age. :)

Tomorrow we have swim class day 3. Blaze and Sara our friends from class, tried to teach Zaria "Knuckles" (what I call Fist Bump) and I've been working on it with Zari. We hope to impress the older, more mature toddler: Blaze. Let's hope he's impressed by blond girls that like to mash fists like it's a potato!

China Philips

I cannot get over how repulsive a personality China Philips has! I am absolutely STUNNED anyone would even stand NEXT to her! How was she ever part of a BAND?! I just had to get that out. Whew.

Apple Picking

We made it to an apple orchard (Conant's to be exact) for Maine Apple Sunday and had a blast. We picked three large brown paper bags worth of Cort's and Mac's, picked up some cheese and got a picture of Doug with the General Lee (thank you Wendi for help with the name!). :)
Zari put about 3 apples in a bag and then said she was done and sat down and age two apples under the tree...endless amounts of adorable right there. She was EXTREMELY EXCITED at the idea of going apple picking, but I guess the actual ACT of picking apples isn't that thrilling because then she asked to sit in the car so she could watch her DVD. LOL Oh well. We went to the store and got her a balloon and bought some locally made coffee and cheddar cheese <sooooo good with apples!> and headed the 20 minutes back home. I'm in process of making applesauce, and I need to find those little cinnamon red hot candies so I can make some spiced apple rings and other goodies. Has anyone seen those lately? I'm almost thinking the dollar store might have some?? I'll also be making more pie filling.. I canned blueberry a week ago and now I'll do apple, after that no more pie filling. I may do some different jams for gift giving, but other than that this canner is going BACK IN THE BASEMENT I'M DONE. lol I don't know how the ladies did it years ago but holy moly it's alot of work putting up food!
Zari started her second round of swim lessons this past weekend with her swim buddy Blaze that we  met last year in swim class. The changes in the two kids is astounding! LOL They actually notice each other this year! At one point Blaze was trying to sneak a feel of Zari's hand and leg, I just about died it was so adorable LMAO Zari pulled away and was all WHHHAAAAT do you think you're doing?! Ha! Both kids seemed to have retained what they learned last year, and I know I can speak for Zari and say that she is much more brave in terms of putting her face in the water. I even dunked her all the way under once. She had her mouth wide open laughing but didn't take in any water.. I didn't dare push it though. The instructor says to blow hard in their face right before dunking them to get them to close their mouth and eyes and hopefully NOT take in water. Zari also blew bubbles in the water which I couldn't get her to do last year to save my life! She also kicked her little legs the ENTIRE TIME we played "pick up the balls in the water" game that she adores so much. During our free time we played Humpty Dumpty ALOT so that she could climb up the pool wall and "jump" into the water. She went almost all the way under a few times doing this, and again, did fantastic! I'm thankful, and will feel much relieved when she earns her fish fins. Now if only she could breathe under water I'd feel much better! My grandmother had a hard and fast no water over the belly button rule as a child. Which is really okay with me since lakes and oceans get pretty freaking in the yuck department.
Oh oh oh I got Zari a tricycle at the thrift store today for $3. The new one I've had my eyes on is $40 locally...so $3 was a "no brainah". I also got some SUPER COOL MARTHA GREEN (Read: Jadite colored) melamine vintage coffee cups... I got 8 for myself and another 4 for Zari to play with lol. Or yeah..12 for me. And a cute wire closing jar with a retro "Popcorn" inscribed on the front. And a vintage strawberry/mushroom/egg slicer... I bought a new one a few years ago used it once and broke it. So I've never gotten to have the fun of slicing hard boiled eggs like they do in restaurants! It's the small things, folks.
My tomato plants have almost had it. I canned one batch of salsa last weekend and have a ton of fresh tomatoes on the kitchen table waiting for me to do something with.. I'm thinking Mark Bittmans Tomato Onion Salsa (YUM!) We ate GALLONS of the stuff last summer with the tomatoes from my in laws. SO GOOD!
I went to the chiro today for my ongoing back problems since "The Fall", and let a swear word slip when she had me on the table LOL needless to say the back cracking hurt, and it continued to hurt all the car ride back to work, and then while I was complaining about it hurting to my coworkers..it stopped. And then it felt GOOD! And I've been AMAZED all day about what I've been able to do without pain. I seriously cannot believe it. So very thankful..although sweet JESUS I HOPE I DON'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH PAIN LIKE THAT AGAIN TO GET HERE. It was the first time I've had it hurt while there...usually she uses a gadget on me, and the one other time I was on the table it didn't hurt. Holy Hannah I'm getting prickles just thinking about it! Eek! Anyways..another appointment on Friday, keeping my fingers crossed!
On the potty training front, Zari hasn't gone in our potty in weeks. We also haven't been home much, even on work day evenings. But she went yesterday! A biiiiiiiig ol' river of pee came streaming from that child much to every ones delight. I started ANOTHER potty chart (the 3rd and really into
I think that's all the news for now...at least all that I want to take time writing about before I have to run! Pictures later when I get some more time.
Hmm.. "alot" still isn't a word, hmm? Oh well.

Mini Vacation

My hectic summer work schedule has ended - I survived with only minor mental trauma - and we celebrated by staying with family and taking Zari to the Maine Wildlife Park.  If it involves animals, we all enjoy it. It was a nice secluded, open space. "Crowds" were extremely manageable - and they had a nice variety of animals. About halfway through we turned around to look and see what made this horrendous honking...only to find a rogue goose walking around as if he owned the place. Shortly after we found the peacock enclosure. They had a male and female and a few baby peacocks, funny little things that look like baby chicks with long necks. They had a feed machine and for .25 cents we fed the...chipmunks. The peacocks wanted nothing to do with our offerings, but those chipmunks were aggressive hoarding our corn...I saw one even take the corn directly from a young child's hand. Am I the only other parent that thinks that was stupid? Anyways...I took a few hundred pictures of the turtles sunning themselves, then we visited the fish hatchery where we all had a great time feeding the fish. I've always loved feeding fish at fish hatcheries, seeing them swarm and jump is very exciting and Zari enjoyed it very much...that is, when her food actually made it INTO the water. We need to work on teaching her to NOT throw like a girl. Because right now she's definitely got my arm! Lucky for her she has Doug's legs. :)

Sadly the day after we returned from our mini vacation my parents-in-laws dog died. The morning after Doug explained to Zari that Rusty had died, and that means he's not coming back. Unfortunately being 2 years old this obviously isn't satisfactory and she's asked me a few times now where Rusty is. Today when dropping her off at my MIL's she saw Grampy's truck in the driveway and said "Grampy and Rusty are home!" ...er...no.

Tomatoes! 3 plants fell over during the hurricane, and I had to harvest 4 completely green ones (currently residing on the windowsill) because a branch of one plant broke off while I was trying to stake it back upright..but everyone seems to be doing well - and we had no damage to our home. A piece of my neighbors tree fell on a fence...honestly I don't know WHICH neighbors tree it is, but the branch is mostly in our yard...and on this fence that is owned by the guy next door.. anyways no one has done anything with it..possibly because no one else but me realizes it's on this guys fence. OH WELL

I hope Bruen's Tree Service is keeping track of the referrals I've been sending them..our neighbors in the back had a couple very large trees fall on their neighbors fence and HOUSE. Scary stuff!

So back to tomatoes.. I have a small stash of harvested tomatoes...Unfortunately it's small so I don't think I have enough to really go through the trouble of making salsa or sauce and canning it... But I'm also chomping at the bit to make blueberry jam. I wish home canned food lasted longer than a year..for all the work I'd like it go last a food 5 years rather than the 1.

I'm getting the furnace cleaned tomorrow. It's hard to believe it's that time of year again. I should probably clean all the Cheerios out of the registers before he comes tomorrow... I wonder if he'll find any crayons or cat toys when he goes to clean the filter?

We took a break on potty training while we were away...when we got back to our normal schedule on Monday Zari ASKED her Grammy if she could use the potty, and then went on to put so much pee in the potty that Grammy started to worry a little bit because she wasn't STOPPING lol
I believe she asked the other Grammy the next day if she could use the potty too..She's coming along, that kid. :)

I put a top sheet in her crib...She's had a fleece blanket that I've caught her ACTUALLY USING...so I thought now would be a good time to introduce a sheet as well. I bought a down comforter for this winter...it's an LL Bean comforter I got from Goodwill, it's been washed and dried twice and it's still in one piece so that's good. She loves "my" green blanket that is an "alternative down" lap blanket..it's really good for playing hide and seek and peekaboo with. I like it because it's "Martha Green", from my massage office when I had such a thing, and the warmest lap blanket we own. Doug is forever trying to steal it, but I won't let him. But I DO let Zaria. She's so spoiled I know. ;) Anyways I think because of her green blanket love she'll hopefully take to the down comforter just as well. Exciting times in her crib! I still cannot get her to use a pillow to save my life. She'll read like 2 pages of a book on a pillow and then toss both out of the crib.

One last Zari tidbit... We went shopping at Old Navy the other night and she saw some pink shoes   and asked for them! She's on her third pair of pink shoes now...We've tried to be very careful about not pushing pink on her...and she doesn't care about it for anything else, but when it comes to footwear she really likes her pink shoes. Her favorite color is actually green... She's very happy to use the green crayon, to search for the green car that lives by my MIL's house, to eat a green (pistachio) muffin, receive a green balloon, etc.

Well that felt good, I had a lot swimming around in there. Thanks for the mind dump everyone! And I hope you had fun reading about my daughters pee, and her favorite color and her love of pink shoes. =P