Lego

This weekend we didn't get up to much exciting, giving Bluet an opportunity to play in her room. Thus, she built her first ever Lego car all by herself. I am very proud. I think that this means it is time to start indiscriminately buying lego in vast quantities.

And then....

.....we returned to Nana and Wayne's house, where Bluet once again had fun, but most importantly, Bluet's great Aunt Kathy gave Bluet a haircut, viz:

Before

During

After

From the back

Bluet also played some more in the garden. Here she is pretending to eat huckleberry nuts with a plastic spoon

   talking to the cat 

Riding a bicycle

  running around the library

And just generally exploring

She also got Wayne to read her 'Goodnight Moon' about 35 times. One time Nana asked her "Who wrote it? [Goodnight Moon] and Bluet said 'Wayne'. She also enjoyed this Curious George book, but not quite as much

As well as having a haircut, when we returned to St Louis on the way home, Emily painted Bluet and Lila's toes purple.

 

Messing about on the river

Last Saturday in Missouri we headed off on the annual Corse family summer float trip. This involved a whole bunch of people getting into canoes and spending two days without home comforts such as mobile telephones; fortunately we did take cameras.

Bluet particularly enjoyed 1) being around several other, slightly older kids, 2) spending more time with her cousins Lila and Nate, 3) going in the water, 4) touching the fish that everyone caught (even me, I caught my first three fish ever!)  and (most of all) 5) riding in Wayne's canoe. On the Sunday Bluet and Lila were both riding with Wayne when it started to rain. Hard. We covered the two girls up with a tarpaulin, and they sat under it, totally covered and giggling to each other as we continued downstream. As the thunder and lightning got closer, we pulled the boats ashore to shelter, and eventually camp. It was an experience.

On Monday at the end of the trip we took the boats out at an old water mill. We went and looked at the wheel with Bluet riding on my shoulders. She thought it was a bicycle wheel, despite the enormous size. More interestingly, she said 'I riding on my Dadn's shoulders' rather than 'Bluet riding on Dadn's shoulders' which was the first time we really noticed her using the first person rather than third person to refer to herself. She seems to have gotten the hang of using 'I' and 'my' over the last week.

Oh, and we also saw this copperhead "'nake".

And some butterflies

Missouri Part II

We had a very pleasant time flying with Bluet - this was the first time she has had a seat to herself rather than travel for free, which we all enjoyed. When we arrived at the airport she stood at the window and looked at the planes coming and going for about 45 minutes. She is currently fascinated by the things that have wings and the things that don't, and has learnt that wings are for flying.

E.g. "Does Bluet have wings?" "No, Bluet have hands"

"Does eagle have hands?", "No, eagle has wings. Fly in the sky"

Stopping briefly in St Louis, Bluet caught up with her cousins (she also learnt that Nate was her cousin, but hasn't yet worked out that one can have more than one cousin.

Then we headed down to the family farm. Bluet was really excited to see all the animals - she learnt the names of the dogs, and counted how many dogs there were. She also heard us telling the dogs to go away, so started to say things like "Go way, Dingo", which was very cute, if ineffective.

She also got to try out some new forms of transport, including a tractor that was a birthday present for Emily, back in the day.

And of course there was plenty of opportunity to play outside with water (although for some reason she thought the water pistols were 'cameras'. She also really liked it when I used the water pistols to squirt her. At least I think she did.

She also practised wearing her life jacket for the float trip - more about that tomorrow. At first she liked it so much we couldn't get it off her. This changed at times when we were out in canoes and she actually needed it, obviously. Then Emily had to hold it on to stop her undoing it. Yes, she has mastered the zip (at least in the undoing direction)

 
  The life jacket also came in handy when she went to play with another cousin, Thane

And at some points she almost combined her love of water and love of animals - fortunately she did not jump in this pond, despite the fascination

Tomorrow: What happened whilst canoeing

Still to come: Bluet gets a haircut