Reading with sister and Goodnight Moon

Adam's interest in books has continued to increase.

His current favorite is Goodnight Moon, which he has never cared about before. But, he is very bothered by the fact that the artist left out the red balloon on several pages. "Bubble, bubble, bubble?"

Exploring

So I had a few planned blog posts that were lost with the hard drive, but not many. And nothing that probably won't happen again, so I can retake the pictures. There was a few cute ones of the kids in the rain with umbrellas and Laura's new rain jacket. But, oh well.

I read an awesome post on another blog that applied very well to me the last few weeks and she says it so much better than I ever could. Here's my favorite part:

I deployed the Shark Parenting Method—never stop moving—to great success yesterday, with a trip to the farm, a picnic, and two epic playground visits, practically twirling my mustache with glee as they ran themselves ragged. Oh ho ho, I thought, everyone’s going to sleep great tonight. (Naturally, Dylan woke up howling at least five times between midnight and 4 AM.)

(I very much enjoy Linda's writing and empathize with many of her posts, but I wouldn't recommend her blog for the easily-offended. She's not shy with her language or imagery.)

Anyway, we've been very busy also lately. Today, we went to Valley, a playground, home for a nap and lunch, to the zoo with Michelle and Odin, to the mall for shoe shopping and the play area, and a game of ball over the fence with the neighbors. whew!

Off to explore

Thank you Apple Store and Jim

My husband and the Apple store rock. I am so impressed with the customer service at the Apple store. And Jim is awesome because he insisted on an external hard drive for back up. Our computer is home, and running perfectly fine - the next day! We did lose about a week's worth of pictures, but what a small inconvenience compared to the possibilities. Wow. Pics up soon.

Ugh. iMac hard drive failure. Those are not happy words. I had very high expectations for this computer. I mean, it is a mac. But I guess that's just the way it is. As Michelle pointed out, Apple is just better with propaganda. And Jim reminded me that there are many things we like better than our PC. So I am without a computer for a few days while it gets fixed up. We have an external hard drive that *should* have back ups of all our files. Good job on that Jim. I'm using the itouch to write this. It feels like the philippines, since I used this to write most of my blog entries while we were there. Expect some misspelled words. And no new pictures on here for a little while. Sorry mom!

What's new with us? Kim just spent the weekend with us. That was fun, except for Adam's rough night last night. Motrin finally settled him down for his nap today. I dint know why I didn't think of it last night. Tylenol was useless. Must be a tooth. But besides last night, I have decided that if all kids started out acting like a 16 month old, I would love to have more kids. They are so much fun and learn so fast. It's that first year that's such a challenge!

I'm not sure about that "duck nest" in the previous post. There was a bigger, deeper one the next day. It didn't really look like a duck's work. I would love to post a picture, but....no computer. I'm just surprised that we have an animal in suburbia that would make this kind of mess. Usually, we just see birds and rabbits, with an occasional squirrel.

I'm out of musings right now. Going to nap while I can.

Quackers

A pair of ducks have been hanging around our neighborhood lately.

We saw them yesterday under our spruce trees, and then today in the neighbors yard nibbling the bird seed that had fallen from their feeder.

And today I found this in my garden:

I'm guessing they spent the night nestled in our daffodils. Only a few were hurt, so I think its kind of cute. I wonder if they will actually nest around here, or are just visiting?

These are the the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood...

Last year, I had a run-in with the neighbor children that live next to the people right behind us (does that make sense?). They are diagonal from us, but our neighbor directly behind doesn't have a fence and the kids aren't watched too closely, so they wander about quite freely. Anyway, last year, there was an incident involving LARGE rocks being lifted over the fence and dropped in our yard and screaming in my face and climbing the fence...and then they never came back.

So I've had negative feelings for these kids for a year straight.

Then, our neighbor Steve befriended them, let them play in his yard, took them for walks around the neighborhood, and basically made me feel like dirt for not being able to get along with them.

Last week, they were hanging out with Steve and we were in our backyard. They showed some interest in our ball, so I told Laura to toss it to them and maybe they would throw it back. Well...now we have a nice running game of volleyball. Laura has been over the fence to run around with them and roll down the hill. We've been in their house to see their bird and have a cookie. Relations are restored. Laura is delighted to have playmates nearby and I am happy too.

Zoo

The kids and I went to the zoo last week. I happened to remember the camera this time, but didn't remember to use it too often.

An unguarded goose nest. Very cool to see such big eggs up close.

Laura is always saying that she wishes she were a hen. I'm not sure why or where that came from, but at least she got her wish in a few pictures.

Adam - nap?

I just laid Adam down for a nap. We were partway through singing Twinkle Twinkle, when he burped. He thought it was hilarious and spent the entire song of Jesus Loves Me trying to do it again. Needless to say, he wasn't particularly relaxed and sleepy when I laid him down. Now he is up there saying "uh oh, uh oh, uh oh". I'm guessing he dropped something out of the crib.

Cow story

Um...

Hello. Stop eating my mom's garden, please.

No really, go home.

No, the other way.

Atta girl.

One day on our most recent OK trip, Dad and I tried to convince this cow to join her own kind on the other side of a neighbor's fence. With some help from a few other neighbors who knew more about cows and fences than we do, we succeeded.

Of course, that was after I followed her down their street, by myself, in my PJs, with the whole neighborhood on their porches laughing at me. Seriously, I needed some help.

Finally, an older couple came out, with a piece of twine they use as a leash for their chihuahua. Um. OK. You rope that cow and lead her home. That can be your job, lady.

And there were some scary houses that I just stood on the road watching while she perused the backyards. I wasn't about to snoop around the broken down cars and refrigerators.

The neighbors and I sent her back down to her corner where Dad and a neighbor were waiting with a low spot in the fence. And the fun was over.

The next day, on the way to church, we saw a black cow roaming the neighborhood, but Mom wouldn't let me get out to chase her. Bummer.

Go-cart

The go-cart I got 70% off in January. Score.

San Francisco Spoonmaker

Check out the Half Cups. Love love love them. But I'm pretty sure I would be too afraid to ever use one for fear of ruining it. Maybe I'll come across one in a thrift store some day....

http://spoonmaker.com/

Poor sweet red cheeks

I'm not proud of their sunburns, but they are so cute that I couldn't resist.

Laura's first sunburn

20 months old

The Philippines

Adam's first sunburn

16 months old

Easter

Whose Easter weekend doesn't start with a romp under the house?

The Easter bunny had fun this year.

Our traditional egg tapping game. (I won)

Fancied up

Egg Hunting

Hello there, young man.

It has arrivedi

My new purse:

It is wild and I do like it.

The rest of the OK trip

I had such high hopes of separating these into different posts with stories, but its just not happening and I'm very far behind. So, in no particular order...

Waiting for the bags after we returned.

I repeat: No particular order

Sewing

OK, the planting pictures were in order.

Etsy

I love Etsy. I got this email today:

Sent by CottonCandyBoutique on April 09, 2010:

Hi Jennifer,

It's ready to ship, it's ready to ship! Your bag is boxed up and will go out tomorrow via USPS Priority Mail 2-3 day delivery. It will arrive soon.

Thank you so much,
Sandy

Target has never sent me an email when I bought a purse from them! Of course, I hope I like the bag too, but its kind of wild. So I think I'm just not going to ask anyone for their opinion cuz I don't want to hear them say "ehhh...".

Anyway, I like buying from real people instead of Walmart. Not usually possible, but its fun when it works out!

2 things

*I must have needed some change in my life. I have traded the locations of the kids car seats and rearranged the living room. Its a crazy life I lead.

*Yesterday, we saw 3 of the 5 chicks had hatched in our nest on the front porch. They must have been only a day or 2 old. Pretty cute and ugly at the same time. I didn't take a picture because I wasn't sure what a flash would do to the brand new little ones.

Cinderella

Laura's anniversary present for me:

Cinderella

Eggs! 2010

We colored eggs again, but we missed Aunt Kim this year. Adam was "helpful", of course. And we continued to hone our natural dye knowledge.

Red cabbage - excellent blue! (thanks Michelle)

raspberries - very light pink. I'll go back to beets next year.

turmeric - continues to be perfect for yellow

spinach/broccoli - yucky smell and yucky color

The last of the birthday pics

The amusement park at MOA is one of Laura's favorite places. She usually gets to ride one, maybe 2 rides every couple months. But they give you free unlimited rides on your birthday. So Jim took the morning off and we celebrated the actual day of her birthday riding whatever she was willing to try. We had a great time and enjoyed Ruby Tuesday's for lunch, Laura's favorite restaurant.