Tenacity

I've continued to learn something about my daughter. She is very willing to work and work and work on something until she gets it right. It started with the very tippy tricycle last year.

Then came the swing that she and I made together. She's been desperate to learn to "pump" a swing since our first trip to a playground this spring. It has caused some tears and anguish. But we made a swing out of a board we already had and hung it in a tree in the front yard.

She has spent literally hours on that thing and is getting pretty good. She is working on pumping and jumping off, and has mastered twisting it up so you spin around as it unwinds.

Then she tried and tried until she was able to hang upside down from the tree, something she saw her Dad do and has been talking about since.

And now there is this two-wheeler. I guess I have to say that I am surprised how excited she is about this bike. I got a good deal in a thrift store, and we weren't even planning to give it too her for a while. But then, she spied it "hidden" in the garage, and it was all over. She has ridden it all the way to the Elementary school playground and back while Jim and I rode next to her on our bikes. And whenever we're not currently engaged in something, she is asking to ride her bike.

I'm so glad she likes it and she's very determined to master it. Persistence will be a very useful tool for her for the rest of her life. Good for you, Laura.

Outside fun

If you have 6 minutes to waste...

Draw what you see

Ballerina

Laura's artwork is getting more impressive (at least to her Mom).

Ballerina

(painted nails, a crown, spotted tights, a picture frame around it, from Laura to Adam)

hee hee

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?