In the Beginning and Other Unbelievable Things

The Sleeping Beauties, In the Wrong Beds, Of Course







Also, They Are Pretending

There seem to be more than a few people interested in the mundane doings of the Crawford family, so we have created this blog to cut down on the email forwards.

To bring one and all up to date:
Mat's in the Master's of Counseling program at ASU. He'll be entering his final year this fall and will be taking five classes a semester, as well as fulfilling his internship. It is our firm belief that we'll be able to survive on recently-discovered grants and loans for this period of time, as Mat will not have time to work. He might not have time to sleep, either, but at least this way he's not obligated to give up sleep to work. Sleep is important.

Karie stays home with the girls, doing her best to keep them out of trouble and relatively unscathed. This involves preventing Afton from jumping off the couch on a regular basis, and preventing Annika from hurling herself into walls while in a tantrum. She also reads like a madwoman: Currently she is in the midst of a Harry Potter reread, but hopes to finish Half-Blood Prince soon so that she can turn her attention to Twilight and New Moon (by Stephenie Meyer) before Eclipse comes out.

Annika is pretty much potty-trained--hurrah! She is also learning to read from a Hooked on Phonics set that Mat got from work (long story short: The daycare was switching from HoP to their own reading lessons and were just going to throw the unused kits away. Score!). She enjoys reading time with Karie while Afton is down for her nap. And having recently attended the baptism of a neighborhood friend, Annika announces daily that this is the day she is going to be baptized. We've tried to explain that there's a little more than four years left before the great event happens, but she refuses to believe us.

Afton still takes naps! Annika had given them up a bit before her 2nd birthday, but Afton shows no signs of relenquishing naps anytime soon. This makes for a nice 2-hour break during the day, in which Afton is not climbing on things, experimenting with sippy cups, or calling for another showing of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree or another reading of "Cindelella" or "Rella" (Cinderella). This is a kid who knows what she wants.



And now to explain the title of this blog: Karie bought a watermelon this weekend at Annika's insistence, not checking anything but the price. Later, we decided to have watermelon for dessert. Mat sliced open the watermelon and shouted in surprise. It was bright yellow! Apparently this was intentional--the sticker on the watermelon said "yellow meat," but we weren't paying attention to that, because, well, a watermelon's a watermelon, y'know? But it was new and interesting--ordinary on the outside and unusual on the inside. So enjoy the pictures, enjoy the colors, and enjoy this slice of the Yellow Watermelon.