Amazingness

I mailed out my ballot! I did a lot of research and am feeling really good about my choices. Yay for voting! Get out and vote people! :-D

I did an experiment yesterday. I left the computer off. All. Day. Long. (although, it was on this morning when we got up, so either Bella turned it on before we went to bed or we have a ghost who likes to play on the internet) It was a good day, and a productive one. I read Nights in Rodanthe (yes, a whole book, by mid-afternoon O_o) washed a couple of loads of laundry (of course, I didn't put them away...), took Bella on a walk to the park, let her run around the yard like crazy and took a bunch of pictures of her to send to Daddy. And surprisingly the only reason I really wanted to turn the computer on was to see if Tong had emailed me yet. Funny, since when it's on all day, I check my email, forums, etc. 437634573474328358 times, unless we leave the house. I guess that all the things that seem so interesting when they're right there, just don't have the same draw when I have to wait 5 minutes for the dang computer to start up.

Here are some pics from our adventures in the yard yesterday evening:

Running around with her ball

She ran too fast, and fell over- but never dropped the ball

Isn't that the cutest little vintage jacket ever?? (I'm pretty partial to the model, as well)

She was so proud that she could lift her big heavy pumpkin

Bella is in love with the construction going on a few blocks away. Every time we go for a walk, I go over that way so she can see the dump trucks driving around, and the bulldozers, and excavator (um, yeah, I totally just googled the name of that- I usually call it the "giant shovel thing"). I will stop, so she can watch the giant shovel thing [;-)] pick up dirt, swing around, and dump it into a truck. She points to the dump trucks going by and yells, "Mrem! Mrem!" The drivers seem to get a kick out of it; a lot of them smile and wave to her.

I love how excited she gets about everything. It gives me a new appreciation for things, seeing them through fresh eyes- not just anyone's eyes, but a child's, who is seeing it all for the first time, soaking everything up like a sponge. And she amazes me with how quickly she soaks things up... I mean, there is a book she has that we have read maybe a handful of times. It's a book about the farm, and has pictures of various "farm things" and the word under it. She asked me to read it, and I started to ask her what things were, and she knew them! She could point out the barn, the bale of hay... and even the parsnip and turnip- things she had never even eaten, but she knew what they look like and what they are called. Or, a couple of months ago, I was reading her a book about animals and told her the the snake goes, "Ssssssssss." The next time we read the book, a few days later, she pointed to the snake and said, "Ssssssssss." She remembered that, after only hearing it once... and I can't even remember what I ate for lunch today!

She amazes me so much.

And she makes me feel old. :-)