Month: June 2012

Smelter Mountain Hike

Mags and I decided to take on Smelter Mountain this morning.  All in all an absolutely beautiful day to be out hiking/rock scrambling
We got to see a coyote (who ran too fast to get a pic), lots of lizards, a few snakes, pretty wowers, and some interesting geology:

The great thing about climbing Smelter is the view from the top. You get a pretty encompassing view of Durango and the surrounding area (Mags got an eagle eyed vantage point of the trains coming and going)

 

Maggnificent Monday

What is Maggie doing? Making candy canes and caterpillars of course. The best $1 I ever spent to lure my child out a store and into the car has been these craft pom poms. She thinks they’re really fun to manipulate, step on, dole out, sort, and when she gets tired of playing and starts chucking them at me, they don’t leave a mark.

Mags’ current modus operandi (a la 2-year-old) is to claim starvation whenever she’s presented with an odious task. “Maggie, it’s time to put crayons away please.” Crying commences followed by “I’m so hungry instead!” “Maggie, no spilling your cup on purpose.” Tears and “I’m so hungry!” “Alright, Mags, let’s get your jammies off.” Hysterics plus “But I’m so hungry!” “Ni-night Maggie. I love you.” “Mommy, I’m so hungry! I’m so hungry, Dada!” You can tell just by looking at her the child is malnourished, right?

Maggnificent Monday

We’ve been spending time at the river this week. We attempted a float down with Mags, but after Mommy fell off the tube and accidentally dunked her, she wanted nothing but Daddy on dry land (way to go, Mom). On the shore is where she likes to be. It’s still pretty chilly water, so she prefers to find a stick and draw in the mud. She does like to find interesting rocks under the water, and she will tell you all about the plants that live in the river (“they got stuck to mama’s toes”). She also thinks it’s funny to see a boat go by with a dog in it, and she’ll blow kisses if instructed to. In another month when the water is warmer and lower, I think she’ll be more inclined to walk and wade and explore actually in the river. Until then, we’ll keep doing more of this:

Maggnificent Monday

Look at that perfect curl. Not staged, I promise.

One of my favorite times of day is right before I go to bed, when I check in on Mags in her room and make sure she’s not half off her mattress or some such thing. She almost always has something wacky going on. The other night she was serenely, angelically asleep, clutching her favorite yellow plastic level (yes, a real workman’s level) under one arm. The night after that she has positioned herself in the corner of her bed and had piled up every single stuffed animal she could reach over her head like a pitched fort. Next time she was completely perpendicular to her mattress at the absolute tip top of her bed, on top of the bolster that we keep there to discourage climbing or falling at that end. Sometimes she’s gotten underneath her pillow, so that all we can see are her toes. More nights than not, I step to the bathroom door and whisper to Bill, “You have to come see your daughter.” Even in her sleep, she keeps us on our toes.