The Zoo

Since Anya has been making several different animal noises of late, I thought we should take her to the zoo so she could learn the difference between animals and humans. However, sometimes it was hard to tell the difference . . .


Some of Anya's friends were nice enough to take us (thanks Tricia, Nathan and Timothy--we LOVED it). I'm not sure which Anya enjoyed more--the animals or the 3 year old red-headed Nathan running around everywhere.


Anya was particularly impressed with giraffes. They have long necks, Anya has a very short neck, she's working on it though. (Bonus points to those who can actually see the giraffe in this picture without squinting their eyes.)


Anya declared she would like one of these for her first birthday. I'm sure her dad won't have a problem house training one for her.


As we passed some crocodiles, Anya paused and had a moment of silence in honor of Steve Irwin (the famous crocodile hunter for those who have no idea what I'm talking about). I wasn't really thinking of Steve Irwin, I was thinking of all the small dogs (and occasional 2 year old) that disappeared on my mission due to the croc's cousin, the alligator.


However, the cutest "animal" I saw that day would have to be . . .


As we walked toward the parking lot, Anya was ready to call it a day.

Food

It's been a big food month for the Salmon family. It all started the first week of July when we had our "Meat Week." Since the fourth of July fell on a Wednesday this year I wasn't able to take the time off before or after to make a 5 day weekend and perhaps go somewhere exotic... like south Atlanta... So we decided to use a little of the money we saved to have a "Meat Week."

The plan was to eat and learn to cook some different kinds of "animal protein slabs." Among the list was scallops, duck, lamb, and (one) lobster (pricey!) along with some chicken, fish and beef recipes to round out the week for one each day. We didn't quite reach our goal to cook all the listed dishes as we were invited to some barbecues and enjoyed hamburgers and ribs during that week, but we felt that those meals were also very fitting with our theme. We still haven't cooked our lobster but we will post when that happens...

I apologize to all the vegetarians out there who are offended by our Meat Week. If you know either Lindy or me, you will know we are "carnivore extremos", whatever that means...

Anya got in on the action too by chewing on a hunk of steak one night. She was yacking on a bone for a while. But she got it down... She also loves apricots and sweet potatoes. Always mashed. Always mashed. Still, we help her to eat her rice cereal before her dessert of sweet potatoes... I would feel a little ripped off if my dessert was sweet potatoes but Anya seems to be okay with it. I'm sure that will change some day.

She does like to wipe the food all over her face. It must be a compliment to the chef in her own weird way:

Lastly, we found a wonderful sushi buffet, called Badayori, that Paul would love. Sue Ann, who served her mission in Japan, would also approve. (Has anyone ever noticed that Sue Ann rhymes with Japan?) It had 40 different kinds of sushi along with another 50 Japanese salads and dishes. Rows and rows of delicious food. It was beautiful! However, we were upset we could only eat 5 or 6 plates each. I'm a little disappointed in myself. I've lost my buffet skills. I have developed a program to get back in shape though and visit about 2 buffets per week for the rest of the year...

Now that I know how to upload videos, hopefully I'll be able to post some more that we have. Here is one of Anya eating some rice cereal. She so cute! And yes, as always, she is kicking just out of the camera's view although she is a little more calm than usual. (There is also some weird music in the background I didn't notice before... I also need to shoot these on higher resolution. Sorry about that.)

Birthday Greetings from Anya

(For those of you wondering who would name their child Bopsie, rest assured, Bopsie is Anya's nickname for her Boppa, who is her Grandpa Marler . . . did you get all that?)

Hair Accessories

We don't often put "hair things" in Anya's hair but there was that one day that we went overboard and put a barrette AND a pile of small blankets on her head...


We sometimes think we should keep more hair accessories on her (i.e. in her hair) so that people know she's a girl. Just yesterday, at a service activity a couple of people "closing in on the end of the road" at a nursing home didn't know that she was a girl. Perhaps a little hair peice would have helped. But then again, a little piece of colored plastic won't cure the poor eye sight of the elderly.... (We still love them!)

Still, Anya was a little jealous of her grandma's trip to Africa and thought that if she could carry enough weight on her head like some of the African women do, she could perhaps convince her grandma in Canada to come visit her! "Look at me, Grandma!"

She has improved quite a lot recently and can balance three quarters of her weight for 30 minutes on her head now...



Okay, just joking! The pile of blankets are actually on the couch behind her... Ha ha ha! "What great joy is to me..."

The CEO

It was time for the CEO of our family to get her "desk." She has been in this position since December 22, 2006 and it was time for her to upgrade her office furniture. She has already claimed the master bedroom while her secretary and mail-boy sleep in the hallway of her office building.

At one point during our daily share holders meeting (she is the sole share holder of the company) she leaned forward and grabbed the edge of the table and declared: "We are going to invest in a booster chair! The ROI of this purchase will be phenomenal, not to mention the options and dividends of a portable work station for myself.... I've considered high chairs, booster chairs, and infant feeding seats. The booster chair is the one for our company. Mrs. Secretary, please complete the order and make the mail-boy pick it up. That is all. Good-day."


And so we moved on with the request from our superior... Order the booster chair!

After the delivery of the "desk", our beloved CEO was sitting behind her newest investment within seconds. And what do you suppose was her first order from behind her corporate throne? "Take pictures of me because I'm cute!" ... Can't argue with the boss...


We did snap a couple of pictures to hang up on the company bulletin board before we cleaned up the packaging. As always, our CEO disapproved by sticking out her tongue at us:


Thanks, Lisa, for the hot tip. We are swimming in profits now!

Video Test - Cute Little Anya Kicking

Low resolution test


Test for video via link: link to video
use "smooth video" in google video for better picture

Happy Canada Day!

Like every other Canada Day she's been around for, Anya celebrated her Canadian heritage by eating some good Canadian home grown, rice cereal. Gotta love that Canadian rice!

(Now if you look very closely to the above picture you will notice there isn't a high chair. Okay, actually it's very easy to notice. But just this last week Anya got a special surprise! If you don't know what it is, you will have to wait for the next post... but the pictures are still being developed so we will have to show them later...)

Back to Canada Day.

This is also a very special day for Anya's grandmothers... On one side, her grandma is celebrating Canada day with a bunch of drugs... True, these drugs are all painkillers but they help with her new broken arm she is sporting... Yep, I kept telling her that if she continues to try running up escalators that are going down she would get hurt... But hey, I'm just her son... ;) So other than that I'm glad everything went well on their trip to Africa... Her other grandma, in celebration of Canada Day, was forced to give up her internet connection. Right on July 1st! Can you imagine that? A day or two, or even more, without internet? I thought they added that to the list of true essentials: water, air, food, clothes, shelter and internet... We are going to have to mail her these blog posts now...

Okay, so not the best Canada Day for them... but to everyone else: Happy Canada Day!


I also forgot to mention the baseball game we went to on her 6-month birthday. The Braves lost 0-5. Ouch! But we attribute it to the hot weather. We were all sweating in 88 degree temperatures. Apparently the Detroit Tigers were fine with it. But in general, the Braves have had a rough week. They didn't score a run in about 5 games straight.*** Ouch again! We did enjoy the one inning where the Tigers got all their runs. And yes, we made it to the top of the 8th... but no fireworks. Little Anya ran out of fuel... There's always Wednesday...

Still, Anya had a great time and got a GOOD look at the game:


*** July 2nd update: I was sent a comment from an irate reader about my accuracy of the Braves losing streak. True, the Braves did score one fluke home run by an injured man on June 23rd, but that equates to only one run in 49 straight innings!... Hardly respectable... ;)

Although they are doing better now... so that is good... Go Braves!