Summer Activities: Part One

The summer activities of a one year old are numerous. On top of the list of fun-filled activities are: hanging out with friends.

Andre, Canaan's favorite neighbor she's ever had, enjoys swimming with her, discussing tactical maneuvers for shoveling sand--

--and driving her three-wheeler in only his skivvies. It's a difficult task seeing as how Canaan always fluffs his hair whenever she's sitting behind him. Andre tries to tell her to just simply hold on while he attempts to show her how he can drive with no hands.

Lunch with friends. Canaan enjoys talking with her mother's college buddy, Amy Morrill Younkins, and her little guy, Grant. She's mostly interested in the foundation Amy uses--wow, her complexion is fabulous!

Best girl friend: Gracie Bardin, youngest girl of Greg and Esther Bardin, also college friends. Gracie and Canaan enjoy sharing hair products--Canaan obviously did not use any hair spray that morning, while Gracie straightened her hair quite nicely. They also enjoy pretending the Lion Push Along Toy is a shopping cart at Super Target. All girls love that place.

One of Canaan's favorite girlfriend activities: getting the ladies together to play a little Bridge. Actually, that won't come for another few years. They do like to sit around and talk about how it would be fun to play Bridge, though.

Girlfriends: Joy Bardin (in the chair), Marin Jones (in the blue shorts), Hope Jones (laying on the floor), Gracie Bardin (Tim's lap), and Canaan (Baby Power.)

Finally, one of the youngest of Canaan's circle of friends, Isaac Robertson, son of Nicole and John Michael Robertson from our church's small group. Canaan enjoys giving Isaac the "Stink Face" until she realizes, it's her own diaper that stinks. How embarrassing.

Canaan also enjoyed the occasional risk this summer. Sliding down a twenty-foot Bounce House Slide (thanks to Sierra Potts' kind invitation), on her belly. We like to mix things up during the summer.

Besides playing with friends and taking risks, Canaan also spent the summer playing with her toys. Particularly those toys that provided props for her and her mother's favorite pretend game, "Desperate Housewives." So after her Grammy from Minnesota sent her every pretend food item you could possibly imagine (including but not limited to: leeks, tangerines, donuts, whole chickens, croissants, hot dogs, celery, etc) and the All-Clad-mini-pots-and-pans set, Canaan was ready to play.

Of course, she had to taste everything. (And here I am thinking the "tasting everything stage" ends at a year. No, not really.)

And what Desperate Housewife would be complete without her baby in it's very own, life-size, American Girl Doll stroller? (Thanks again, to her Grammy, my Aunt Beth, the "Original Desperate Housewife.") In the following video, Canaan's patience wears thin after a full day of cleaning, preparing food, running errands, taking the kids to soccer practice, and finally, the icing on the fondant cake occurs when her stroller crashes into the baby gate. Who, in their right mind, would put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs?

After that kind of day, we both like to end our summer night with a good "Lucky Stripe" cigarette. Also thanks to the family in Minnesota. (Particularly my cousins, Peter and John, who introduced me to the "Candy Cigarette" when I was only three. I would like to thank them for the positive influence they've had on my daughter and me. Thank you, Sweet Peter and John for teaching us how to relax after living another summer day of being a Desperate Housewife.)

And before you call DFCS on the Goodwin Gang, know that we quickly ate up the rest of the cigarettes so as not to teach her any bad habits.