Phone etiquette

Our girl loves playing with the phone. We don't really want her thinking the phone is a toy, but it is so hard to take it away when she is this cute.

Those of you who have called us recently may have heard a strange greeting on our answering machine. We were surprised to find out that the boring computerized greeting had been replaced by our daughter's very animated personal greeting. Apparently by randomly pushing buttons our girl figured out how to personalize the greeting. We are a little embarrassed that our one-year-old is more tech savvy than her parents, but you must hear the message anyway.

So far just about everyone who has called and gotten this message carried on a 30-second conversation with our daughter before they realized it was the answering machine. We really should change the greeting, but honestly we don't know how. Plus it's so fun we have no motivation to learn.

We love our firsts...

This girl could have done this a while ago, but apparently she was waiting until she was ready to go. No two step shuffle for this one! After this was taken she proceeded to walk around the house for the rest of the evening, doesn't want to be helped at all!

4th of July Dance

Here's a few highlights from our Independence Day celebration.

We went to the Fourth of July dance at Woodpecker Hall. My sister was playing with her band The Pretty Darns. Our girl was getting into the dancing with the other young people. But every time mom or dad tried to cut in she was horrified. She would scream and wave her arms for us to leave her alone. Now I've heard that children are often embarrassed when their parents act as their chaperones at a social function. Is it normal for this to begin at 14 months?

Having way too much fun at the dance.

Our baby girl's first time wading in a stream. (At the Fourth of July picnic at Pole Canyon.)

Life at our zoo

The other day I was in the kitchen and heard a disturbance outside. I went out and immediately knew where it was coming from and I had a pretty good idea what was causing it. I went down to the basement and looked in the window well, coming face to face with this guy trying to tunnel out.

 So how do you go about getting a badger out of your window well? It may look cute, but badgers are about the toughest animals alive. They'll send bears running for their lives. The most popular answer seemed to be to shoot the badger. Of course I had the option to crack the window to shoot it, or come at it from above, crawling under the porch and putting my face and arm within reach of those nasty looking claws and bone-crunching jaws. Neither option sounded like a winner. So I got my 4-ft ladder, and dropped it down the window well. Then I said a prayer and went to bed. Sometime during the night the badger figured out how to climb a ladder and let itself out. Lucky for us and the badger, it hasn't been seen since.

 We also have some friendlier neighbors. This killdeer decided to build it's nest right next to our driveway, so every time we went for a walk for the last month we were greeted by this bird.

Killdeers protect their nests by acting as decoys. They walk away from their nests, hoping you will follow them.

If you don't follow them they'll fluff their feathers or drag a wing to make it look like they're easy prey. If you still don't get away from the nest they'll try a more aggressive approach, puffing their feathers and running at you.

 Here's the nest. It's so well camouflaged you couldn't see it unless you were right on top of it.