Easily Amused

This time of year, it is difficult to find things to do to a keep a toddler occupied during the winter months. Our normal summertime hobbies (sky diving, drag racing, grizzly bear hunting with Bowie knives, etc.) just aren't feasible in this type of weather, so we have had to look to alternative sources of entertainment for Maggie. This weekend, some of the snow in the backyard had melted, making it relatively easy to get back to the work shed; so, I fetched the tent and set it up for Maggie.











OK, I admit: I also got the tent so that I could have something to do as well.





Another source of entertainment for Maggie is feeding her new things. In this particular case, though, "entertainment" is more like "laziness on the part of mom and dad." Here are some pictures of her eating her first Happy Meal.








After a few bites, Maggie's smiles were larger than the one on the Happy Meal box:



I think she wants some more fries.



Here is a video of Maggie singing the itsy bitsy spider and row, row, row your boat. At some point, we'll prepare a full concert video for everyone, complete with full orchestral accompaniment and Maggie's rendition of various arias and recitatives from Madame Butterfly. Pay close attention to her hand gestures in this one as she mimics the aforementioned itsy bitsy spider and as she rows her boat.



We also just chill out around the house a lot on weekends. Here we are playing with Maggie's Pillow Pals.



Finally, one last video to show how much fun Maggie was having in her tent. Once it warms up 70 or 80 degrees, we may just have to go on a camping trip or two (dad also needs to scout out some good places to harvest meat for next year's winter).



Hope you all are staying warm - shouldn't be too hard on the gulf coast. We're expecting upwards of 1 inch of ice and 2 feet of snow over the next few days, with blizzard like conditions (30-40 mph winds at times). We'll send some pictures if really gets this bad.

Nap sleeping habits

Chris is on a break so I will update everyone about Maggie. I won't be as witty as Chris, but I think Maggie's good looks should make up for all his mumble jumble.

This past weekend Maggie decided not to take her naps in her crib or on her Daddy. On Saturday I came home from work to find Maggie fast asleep on her chair with a blanket, baby and Yo Gabba Gabba book underneath her. Doesn't look too comfortable, but we are proud team members of 'Don't wake a sleeping baby.'


Then the following day (today), I came home from work to find Maggie asleep on the couch with her elephant pillow pet.





And yes, Maggie is still in her pajamas on both days. And yes, we make her sleep in the same night gown a couple of nights in a row. I promise that she did change into play clothes b/c we ventured out to ice skate on Saturday. Will post ice skating pics soon.

Thibodeauxs on Ice....

...now that's a crazy concept, but it happened:









Maggie was OK when she was being held, but she wasn't too fond of having her own feet on the ice.





Maggie was also getting sad every time I would pass by on my ice skates.



We have been going to the library a lot, because there is not much you can do outdoors when the windchill is -20.



This library has a lot of toys and blocks that Maggie likes to play with.



Gran and Papa mailed Maggie's bowling set this past week. Check out Maggie's kamikaze bowling technique:



Maggie has also developed a very cute fake laugh since Christmas:



Finally, we are still working on her colors. She is starting to get pretty good.

Houston Zoo and Corpus Aquarium

Sorry for not posting in a while. We have been getting back into the swing of things after our great trip to Texas for the holidays. LSU won the Cotton Bowl, resigned Les Miles and got rid of Gary Crowton - all is right in the world. You heard it here first folks - LSU is going undefeated in 2011!

Today (my 31st birthday), is historically the coldest day of the year in Champaign, IL. On Thursday, our forecast is to have a high of 2 degrees and a low of -6 (I hope it is not too windy). In the past, my birthday has been associated with several not-so-good things. One year, the Gulf War started on by birthday. Another year, an earthquake in Iran killed 40,000 people. Hopefully, no cataclysmic events will happen today.

Here are a few pictures from our trip that I haven't posted yet. While in Corpus, we went to the aquarium. It was a beautiful day - sunny and breezy - and Maggie was full of smiles:



She was also having a good time with her cousins, Olivia and Drago.



When we got back to Houston, we went to the Houston Zoo and Museum. Here is Gabby and Maggie checking out the butterfly room at the museum.







Here, it looks as if Maggie is exploring the taxonomy of order Insecta but, in reality, she was just opening and closing all of the drawers.



The weather was so nice, that all of the animals at the zoo were out and about.











The big cats were especially active:





After their disappointing 5-7 season, the Texas Longhorns have apparently imprisoned Bevo.



Here's Maggie on the merry-go-round, which moved much faster than we thought it would. Gabby tells me that Maggie had a kung fu grip on the pole. I think you can see her white knuckles in this video.



We also checked out the petting zoo.



After a long day at the zoo and museum, Maggie started to get a little drowsy.



le Maggie de Jour

For those of you who have received your Christmas presents from Maggie, you know that she has crazy coloring skills. Recently, we have been trying to teach her the names of all of those colors. I think she's starting to pick up on it - we just had to incorporate the colors with something involving shapes:



We hope all of you are doing well, and we'll post again soon.

Is the orange jello edible???

So, we were all sitting around eating Christmas dinner when mom realized that no one was eating her orange jello. After a brief go around the table, it came to light that no one present at this particular dinner table had EVER eaten her orange Christmas jello - a fact that has apparently eluded mom for quite some time. Here is a picture of mom with the pooled orange jello sample. As evidence that this scene was not staged, note the empty wine glasses and plates strewn about the table.



After enumerating our various reasons for not liking the jello, which ranged from texture to being unsure of the exact nature of the components required to make such a dish, a nagging question began to fester within my head:

Would a wild Texas pig eat this stuff? It seems that a rigorous scientific approach could answer this question.


Hypothesis:

The jello is not edible. Therefore, it will not be eaten by wild pigs.

Experimental Approach:

The orange jello sample was pooled into a tuperware container and was transported to Edwards county, about 17 miles down County Road 350, just north of Barksdale, TX. At approximately 7:30 PM, the entire orange jello sample was placed underneath our pig assassination set-up at Dwayne's place:



The pig assassination set-up consisted of an unfenced corn feeder (to attract the pigs), and a motion detector and light (to illuminate the pigs to be assassinated). The motion detector was coupled to an alarm in the trailer to alert the sleeping assassins to the presence of pigs. As the alarm went off in the middle of the night, the assassins woke, walked out to the killing tree, and fired either 30-06 or 243 caliber bullets at the pigs.

Results and Discussion:

The following morning, we woke and inspected the pile of orange jello. The pig alarm had gone off periodically throughout the night (a total of 7 or 8 times). As the following picture shows, the jello pile was undisturbed:



Note the neat edges around the roughly cubicle slabs of orange jello - exactly as mom had cut them.

Here is a different perspective of the same jello pile:



Note the two large, dead boars situated at a respectable distance from the orange jello.

The following picture shows the large spotted boar at night, providing a control to demonstrate that we did not shoot it somewhere else and then drag it to the jello pile. Seriously, that thing weighed over 150 lbs, we were not about to move it without due cause. For perspective, look at the pig next to me (I weigh about 190).





Conclusion:

If the orange jello will not be eaten by wild Texas pigs - which don't exactly have the most selective palates - then it must not be suitable for human consumption. Sorry mom.

__________________________________________________________________

As it turns out, we did not just engage in experimental tomfoolery at the deer camp. We actually did some real hunting. Here are a few pictures of Jack with his first buck (a nice little 8 point).





Here is a picture of Joe with the first axis deer shot at Dwayne's place. This thing actually attacked us while we tried to track it into the brush. That's a story in itself.



Here is a picture of me with my lone kill for the weekend. It is not a spotted fawn. It is the offspring of the axis deer that Joe shot.



Here's a picture of Jack chillin' by the camp fire.

X-mas in TeX-as

Hey everyone, we took a lot of pictures and videos over the holiday, so we will break them up into several different posts (themed, of course).

We flew out of Chicago on Christmas eve. Luckily, we took off just before a winter storm blew in, and there were no delays. Since we were expecting bad weather and heavy Chicago traffic, we left Champaign really early. However, the sailing was smooth and we got through security at the airport 3 hours before our flight. So, we decided to kill a little time.

The adults drank whiskey



and beer.



Don't worry, even though it was 10:30 AM, the guy at the table next to us (also drinking whiskey) assured us that normal drinking etiquette (i.e. no drinking before noon) does not apply in airports.

While mom and dad were saucing up for a 2.5 hour flight with a toddler whose sleep routine had been disrupted, Maggie discovered that french fries can also be sauced up by dipping them in ketchup.




After eating, we did some interpretive dancing to 80's music to kill the time:




We finally got on the plane. Maggie started getting antsy and the weather started getting bad. Things looked bleak until the plane took off. As soon as we started speeding down the runway, Maggie got quiet and I think she was asleep by the time we left the ground.





After landing in Houston, we went to Gran and Papa's house. After getting some sugar from Gran, Maggie and Audrey decorated Christmas cookies.






Maggie was really excited about all of the presents under the tree. Look closely at this picture and you will see a close genetic link between Maggie and Papa (hint: look at her knees).



Maggie was also really excited about all of the fragile things hanging from the tree. Here, she is taunting Papa.



We estimate that her total ornament casualty (per house) was about 3.5 this year. We'll try to reduce the number for next year.

Soon after, Christmas began with its normal excitement and confusion:




One of Maggie's favorite presents was a mini-bowling set. Here she is tossing a few strikes.



Another really cool gift was her puzzle with deep sea creatures. Each puzzle piece has a little magnet, so Maggie took her fishing pole (also with magnet) and did some fishing with Papa.



Here's Maggie enjoying Audrey's skateboard.



A couple of obligatory X-mas pics:





Joe and Brian were also there,



as were Alice



and Jack.



When queried on whether or not she enjoyed her Christmas at Gran and Papa's, Maggie's response was the expected, "Heck Yeah!"



After leaving Houston, we went to Corpus to spend time with Honey and Grandpa and the rest of Gabby's family:



By this time in the trip, Gabby was still full of ample Christmas cheer.



While in Corpus, Maggie made more cookies (these are made of cardboard),



rang some stuff up at the cash register,



and, of course, opened more presents.









COMING SOON - a trip to the zoo (part II) and an experiment involving wild hogs and jello.