Ambivalence: Toddler-style

am⋅biv⋅a⋅lence /æmˈbɪvələns/ [am-biv-uh-luhns] –noun 1. uncertainty or fluctuation, esp. when caused by inability to make a choice or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things.

Some days I want to be a baby like Josh,...
some days I want to be an old lady like my Mommy...

Most days I want to be both.

My Little Pony...

TAIL!


Tonight after bath time, Mommy asked me if I wanted a ponytail and I said "Yes!".

This is my first one ever. My hair is very, very fine so Mommy wasn't even sure it could be done. But it worked and I am an instant fan.

I couldn't stop touching it, and pointing to it and saying "See, righ heeahh!" (translations: 1. See, right here!, 2. Look at my beautifulness!, 3. Check out my sweet ponytail!).

P.S. I'm pretty sure I heard Mommy crying herself to sleep and wimpering about how her little girl is growing up.

Ughhh Peas!

Josh signing in. We've got a situation over here. And I am not happy. Please send help.
While my sister gets to enjoy eating pizza I'm force-fed pulverized peas. Please inform my caretakers that if they see any of these faces that they are to cease and desist immediately.

Final recap. If you see me making a face like this, put down the spoon.

Eatza the Pizza

Today I will show you how to make "homemade" pizza step-by-step.

Step 1: Pop open a can of refrigerated pizza dough. (Make sure to stand back until after it explodes.)

Step 2: Spread out on cookie sheet.
Step 3: Smear with marinara sauce (and spoon fight with Daddy).

Step 4: Sprinkle with cheese (and shove some cheese in your mouth when Mommy's not looking).

Step 5: Add mushrooms.

Step 6: Bake

Step 7: Slice

Step 8: Pick off mushrooms.

Step 9: Eat!

Weekend Getaway

Mommy Ambuel here. I'm happy to report that Randy (Gadget) and I had a 4-day weekend getaway in upstate New York all to ourselves (sans kids) thanks to Grammy and G-pa (who are exhausted and now in need of their own vacation)!

These are our friends, the Tubridy's, who graciously shared their home with us.
This is the view out the back of their house. Amazing!

Our biggest item on the agenda was ice climbing. Randy has been trying to convince me to do this for the 5+ years we've known each other. In a moment of insanity, I agreed to it.

The ice really is quite beautiful to look at.

A little scary to contemplate climbing.

What was I thinking?

Randy went up first to show us how its done. Of course he made it look easy.

I was the only thing holding him back from plummeting to his death. Again, what was I thinking?

I finally mustered up the nerve to give it a try.

I actually made it to the top (about 40ft. up) and made it back down in one piece. I was thrilled to have conquered the ice. And I may even do it again someday. If you look behind us, you can see that there are other crazy people out there with us. There was actually a wait for people to ice climb by the time we were done.

In addition to the harness used for any type of climbing. There are two other pieces of gear required for ice climbing.This is called an ice tool. Don't mess with anyone holding one of these.

These are ice climbing boots and crampons. They look pretty wicked right?!

My choice of activities for the weekend was cross-country skiing. At first glance, this seems like a much more subdued acitivity, but, amazingly, this proved to be more dangerous than ice climbing. This is one of the only times when both Randy (Gadget) and I are upright on our skiis.

Randy on frozen McKenzie Pond.

We were also able to enjoy some local flavor at the Seneca Lake Winter Festival. This is an ice castle and ice pirate ship. The fireworks display set the pirate shipe sail on fire and the fire department had to come out and extinguish the fire. It was quite a comedy to watch. And I'm sure that all the excitment made the front page of the local newspaper.

Me sitting on an adirondack chair made of ice.

We also caught a round of competition for the 41st Luge World Championships at the Lake Placid Olympic Sports Complex.

It was cool to be able to get to see them up close.

Hot cocoa with Schnapps was fun too!

Happy Valentine's Day

We miss you Daddy!
This is for Grandma & Grandpa Ambuel and Grammy & G-pa too!
Here are a couple outtakes.

Eat This!

Hi everyone. I love snow and every day when I wake up I want to look out the window to see if there is any snow outside.

I thought that I knew everything there was to know about playing in the snow, until I recently discovered the joys of eating snow.

Like my snow goatee?

Nyum, nyum, nyum!

Sometimes I get a little something extra.

Super Bowl

I got to stay up and watch the Super Bowl last night (just the first half). Daddy taught me how to stand in respect during the National Anthem.
I really look up to my Daddy :)

Then we all snuggled on the couch to watch the game.

Poor Josh had to dress like a loser. I didn't even want to be seen with him.
(Washington Redskins is Daddy's favorite team.)

Here are the highlights of my touchdown dance.

When I got bored with the game, I helped Mommy set up a toy that Josh is big enough to play in now. It looks very familiar.

Josh isn't sure if he likes, but I sure do.