Sunday Fremont Market

Johari's beautiful beaded shoes from the market

Johari collecting bottle caps and sticks in her potatohead lunch box from the market

Silly faces

This generous man gave Johari the Jimi Hendrix rainbow sweater and a deal on my Bob Marley shirt while he played Jimi on the guitar for Johari.

Ibrahim picked out some cars for his birthday

We went to the Fremont Market a few Sundays ago. It was a beautiful day. We had a good time. It is a market with lots of awesome arts and crafts and foods.

Her own decision...

One week ago today, Johari got her ears pierced. It was her decision. I had asked her about it a few different times in the past. I told her that it hurts a bit while getting pierced and that she could decide when and if she wanted to get her ears pierced. Those times she decided that she didn't. Then the other day she was holding a wallet that had two dangling things on it to her for at least 15 minutes or more. And switching it from ear to ear saying that these were her earrings. So I asked her again and by the next day she decided she was ready and wanted to get her ears pierced. When I reminded her that it would pinch a bit when she was getting it done, her response was, "I won't cry." She did cry after the first pierce but she did not stop the process. She cried through the second pierce. She got to choose the earrings that she wanted. They are rainbow sparkly flowers. On the way home from the mall later, she said, "I said that I wasn't going to cry. But I cried. That's confusing."

making graham cracker houses....

Johari saw this in one of her National Geographic kids magazines. She kept asking me if we could do it. I finally got the supplies. In the future, I will not get the generic graham crackers for this project. About 70% of them were cracked in half and easy to crumble. She had fun squeezing frosting and decorating.

I love listening to this girl

Last night, Johari said, "When we get home, I want to make banana muffins from Scrabble."

What she meant was 'scratch'.

The other day, I said, "Johari, you are hilarious!" And in her toddler style grump she said to me, "I am NOT malarious!!!"

I think the reason that I was saying that she was hilarious was because she was talking about how Barney Boy (our dog)'s mother was Chaka Khan. "Barney's mom, Chaka Khan, sells refrigerators. Would you like to buy one?" How does this all come together... I am not sure but with plenty of imagination.

This morning, Johari says, "I had a dream last night where there were 5 high chairs next to a really small table." This is the first time she has told me of a dream she had. I always wonder if she remembers some of her dreams. And coincidentally last night I was listening to NPR and there was a woman speaking who had written a book called The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik, she was saying that babies and kids dream so much more than adults and learn so much from their dreams. (I haven't read the book and I only caught the tail end of talk but it sounded like interesting stuff.)

Playing in the jewelry box

Johari had fun playing with rings from my jewelry box.

strokling....

About a month ago, Johari had some mosquito bites on her back. The bites even kept her up at night a bit. Anyway, she liked for me to scratch them or tickle them or pat them a bit. Then she started just liking me to scratch and tickle her all over her back. I was reminded of how whenever we were visiting with my paternal grandma, I would lay across her lap and she would strokle (tickle + stroke) behind my knees, all over my legs, on my back, on my tummy, in my elbow pits and all over my legs. I told Johari about this memory. After that she would ask me to tickle her... "like great grandma used to do."

dancing....

I was just watching Johari dance around the room. It is a truly beautiful sight. She is playing all the sample music clips on the keyboard in the playroom. Watching her dance around the room was reminding me of when I was a little girl, we would put on records and I would dance all around our dining room and family room. I loved to dance around the room. But I always got very self-conscious if I found anyone was watching me too closely. I hope Johari is free of that self-consciousness.

Watching her dance to different genres of music clips was making me realize we need to get more classical music into our lives over here.

A visit to see Grandpa Gary

We went out to Missoula at the beginning of the month to visit Grandpa Gary and Granny Em. And luckily we get to see Gale along the way and Kent, Bobbie and Robyn too. Johari loves her evening at Gale's place. She has her rhthym with it now and wants Gale to set up the air mattress right away and get a movie picked out. We ended up going out and renting Shrek 2. We have probably watched Shrek 1 so many times, it was nice to get to see the next one.
We had a nice time in Missoula. We went to a midday concert. Johari did a ton of triking with an awesome trike her grandpa got. She was quite zippy! And went to playgrounds. We tried out the Missoula Children's museum. That was a good time.

Grandpa Gary and Johari swinging together

Speedy Triker!

Johari doctoring at the Missoula Children's Museum

Digging for fossils

Johari's photo of her grandpa

color experiments

I wish I could say this was our 4th of July colorworks celebration, but we did this a couple weeks ago. A few times. Johari really enjoys it. Coloring the water and mixing the different colors together.

Taste testing the green food coloring.

happy

Ananda

Cheesers

Her face made up--her style. Did her eyebrows.

Ate a little bit of bun!!