Growing Up

I guess it is about time to do another blog posting! Time is ticking along and things are busy as usual around the Zaugg house. Preston got back on Friday from yet another business trip, this one to scenic Dayton, Ohio. I wasn't quite as envious of his travelling this time, Dayton doesn't sound quite as good as Tampa to me right about now. :) The other day I was just going through my day to day routine, and I turned around and noticed that my "baby" isn't a baby anymore! Hard to believe, but Arden is going to be two years old in less than a month! She is becoming such a big girl. It is fun to watch, but sometimes I wonder where this sweet little baby went:

Here she is now! A couple of weeks ago her little straggly hairs on the back of her head were FINALLY long enough to joint up with the little straggly hairs from the side of her head to make actual pig tails (not the antennae she usually has). Here is the grand debut pigtail picture. (Arden is kind of a cheeser when I tell her to smile...it looks less like she is happy and more like she is in pain, but I am not sure how to explain this to her. She thinks that as long as her teeth are showing, it is a smile!)

She is sooo cute and is always doing something to make me laugh. She is still deeply in love with Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. I really do like both Toy Story movies, but as with anything in life, the thrill starts to wear off after a month or so of seeing one or the other nearly every day. So, I have tried to introduce Arden to the wider world of our DVDs. I grew up in a Disney family, so Preston and I have quite a collection of Disney cartoon DVDs. So far, whenever I try to put one of the non-Woody-and-Buzz DVDs in instead, Arden will patiently watch whatever it is for a few minutes, then look at me hopefully and say "Voodeee, Buzzzzzz?!?" The other day I was trying the Lion King out. She really liked the songs, especially "Hakuna Matata." After that song was over, she ran over to me and said "More tata?" It took me a minute to figure out she wanted to watch the song again.

She was pretty much ignoring the movie (other than the songs) and playing happily with her toys. Then came the part of the Lion King where Simba is trying to figure out whether he should go back and try to save all the lions from Scar and the hyenas. He looks up into the night sky, and a huge bunch of clouds and lightning roll towards him. Then, out of the clouds, Mufasa (his father) appears, and starts talking to Simba in his big James Earl Jones voice. Arden sat down and watched this part, open-mouthed. After a few seconds, she pointed at the TV and yelled "DOD!" (in Arden-ese, that means "GOD!"). I laughed and laughed, then tried to explain to her that no, that isn't God, it is a lion. I then went on to explain how God isn't a lion, God is a man, etc. etc. She listened attentively, then looked back and the TV, pointed at the lion and yelled "Dod! Yay, Dod!" Hmmmmm.....maybe they will straighten her out in her nursery class at church.

Arden made another breakthrough last week, though I am not that excited about this one. She had been having a hard time going to sleep for her naps for a couple of days last week. Then on Saturday, she was making more than her usual amount of noise as we waited for her to go to sleep. Preston went upstairs to remind her for the 10th time that it was time for sleeping. He opened her door, and there she was, out of her crib and sitting in her rocking chair reading a book. It was the first time she ever climbed out of her crib by herself. Bummer! I think my life will never be the same.

Arden is also really starting to have fun imagining things. She loves to put her toys to bed and feed them. She says the funniest things to them. Sometimes I can hear myself in the things she tells her toys, like "Stoppit! Stoppit!" or "Close eyes!" Here she is with all of her toys in her room. She layed out a bunch of blankets on the floor and then layed down a bunch of toys and told me they were at the beach.

Hope everyone enjoyed the SuperBowl yesterday. I wanted the Patriots to win, so I wasn't too thrilled by the end result, but it is always fun to get together with family and friends to watch. It is usually fun to watch the commercials too. I think my favorite commercial was the one where the guy had a stain on his shirt that would yell gibberish whenever he would try to talk. I also thought the one where Shaquille O'Neal was a jockey riding a horse was pretty funny too.