afeena bwyfe

 athena blythe turned 4. for the second year running, i was a lame birthday mom. her "party" consisted of calling the neighbor kids over for cake and ice cream at 7pm on saturday. everyone had about 3 pieces of cake and then burped and bounced off the walls until bathtime. i did not bathe the neighbor kids. 

we continued our tradition of presents for breakfast. i even coordinated the gift wrap which really means it's not christmas paper.

athena blythe has had this thing with cages for quite a while. for about a year now she's been stuffing animals in tiny bird cages. when we went to florida, we had a map of all the things one can do in saint augustine and there was a picture similar to this one:

and athena blythe was so determined to see the "people in the cage".

other cage sightings, "athena blythe in a cage a the grocery store"

"athena blythe in a cage bathtub"

she loves to watch the garfield movie, which she refers to as "garfield rescuing odie out of the cage".

so naturally, we got her a cage. she still wants a real dog and chases them down whenever we see them in public. but i'm not interested in any more things to take care of. ever.

what genetic trait is visible in this picture? take a "crack" and guess.

athena blythe's favorite person in the world is "mrs. heidi" but not me, mrs. heidi, my friend, heidi. athena blythe screams and runs away from me when it's my day to do preschool pickup. it's very flattering. 

this is how the handoff normally goes. or i have to go out to mrs. heidi's van and pull her out and carry her in over my shoulders. what would it be like to have boring kids? i'll never know!

this was hilarious. it's not a good picture, but athena blythe fell down and scraped her knee several days ago. i put a bandaid on it and we were good. however, every time she wears shorts or a skirt she becomes a limping invalid. she hobbles around the house and crawls up and down the stairs on her knees but as soon as she  changes into pants, it's a miracle! she can walk again!

the transformation in progress: 

she's the baby that changed my perspective on babies. she's the child that has to be held on my lap for the entire duration of sacrament meeting to ensure reverence. i like her. i love her. i want to put her in a cage too.