Settling in to Arizona: Lego, Animals and Personal Style

 When we lived in Scotland, I could always write about cultural differences.  Or somewhere scenic we had been; as we knew we were only going to be there for two years, we were a lot more motivated to travel around and see things. However, now back in Arizona, the cultural differences are minimized (other than the occasional, "Wow, Americans are weird" moment) and we don't have much time or motivation to travel - we're busy on the weekends seeing family and friends, having playdates with new friends, and juggling schedules.

So what ARE we doing here in Arizona? Well, we build a lot of Lego creations, thanks to three Christmas-time infusions of old-school Lego - we now have 2.5 boxes of Lego bricks and a lovely rainbow carpet on which to build.   

Claire and Paul in building mode

 The Lego obsession has also sparked a science project - Audrey is investigating, for her first science project, whether she can build a taller Lego tower on the carpet or the concrete.

105 Lego bricks! (It topped out at 133, in case you were wondering)

Beyond Lego, we are of course working on our own personal styles, including accessorizing the preschool class "pet" - a stuffed chipmunk called Figaro.

Princess wearing sister's outgrown Christmas dress and Figaro sporting a pink ribbon outfit designed by Audrey

We spent nearly a week in San Diego with friends Uhrs and Christina and their daughter, leading to a number of personal style photo ops as well:

Audrey in Balboa Park

She hurt her knee, hence the rolled-up pant leg - plus the cowgirl boots. Classic. 

 Finally, we've been bonding with animals.  Audrey had a class at the zoo where she got to go behind the scenes with a zookeeper - she even got to pet a rhino ("Fireball") and clean out the giraffe house.  As a reward for scooping giraffe poo, the class got to feed the giraffes carrots - Claire and I got to, too, and as a reward this giraffe posed for me:

I never got this giraffe's name: I will call him or her #3.

In addition to getting to know wild animals, the girls were also thrilled to play with Uncle Patrick and Aunt Charlene's new dog Daisy, an older rescue dog who they are training and acclimating to hanging out with people - by bribing her with cheese.

Girls with Daisy, Uncle Patrick and Aunt Charlene

Stay tuned for further Orzech adventures...we're hoping to hike more, get out to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, and otherwise enjoy Arizona in the winter!

Arizona Girl

So I am a product of the east coast, the mid-Atlantic states, to be exact. Yes, I was born in California but we moved back to Virginia when I was 3 months old, so I consider Fairfax, Virginia to be my "home town" when people ask. I moved to Tucson, Arizona in the summer of 2001, so I'm pretty used to it here, I like the Southwest and think that the "pros" of the Southwest (mountains, beautiful sunsets practically every day, cool desert animals and plants, beautiful weather in January, February, March, April, October and November) tend to outweigh the "cons" (can hit 110 in the shade in the summer).

Sometimes I think about our daughter growing up as an "Arizona girl" and how this is going to be different from my own childhood, particularly with regard to her relationship with the outdoors. In Virginia, the outdoors was pretty friendly. I mean, you had to watch out for some things like bees and other stinging insects, and it did get pretty hot and humid (and also cold, wet and.or snowy sometimes). But in Arizona, plants and animals are adapted for life in the desert, and this means they are not the friendliest of items. You can't go out in the side yard and play "Lost Girls" which, for my sister and I and our best friends Amy and Heather, entailed a lot of interaction with plants. We pulled moss and grass and sometimes leaves off bushes to be our "beds" and our "food" and whatever else we needed to "survive in the wilderness." I can't imagine doing this in Arizona. You can't really interact with a saguaro, or a prickly pear, or any other kind of cactus. Even trees like mesquite, which provide nice shade, often come with thorns.

We used to capture wayward turtles and keep them for a few days before returning them to Burke Lake. But out here, the nearest lake is about an hour away. And the kind of animals you run across commonly (mostly lizards and doves) tend to dart away and don't really lend themselves to being captured and observed for a day or two.

And then there's the sun...as a kid, I remember putting on sunscreen when we went to the beach. Maybe if we did some other "outdoors all day" activity. But out here, you have to learn early that you never leave home without your water, sunscreen and hat. I just bought Audrey her first floppy sun hat, designed to fit 0-3 months because the smallest sun hat anyone gave us was 6-18 months and we need one before then - although my mom did give her some infant sunglasses (see photo).

I'm sure Audrey will discover the outdoors and find some friendly bits even as she learns to avoid the plants and animals that have evolved sharp and/or poisonous desert defenses. And we'll just have to do a bit of traveling - up to Mt. Lemon, to Northern Arizona, and back East - so she can experience things like grass, deciduous trees and snow. I may be a transplant, but she will be a true Arizona girl.