water babies

My kids both love water. Seriously. Lillie is a full on fish. She can full on swim. She would be completely good to go on her own, but she's 3 and doesn't quite have a grasp on knowing her limits. What she lacks in form (she kind of looks like she's wiggling through the water, not clear arm or leg movements but I think that comes with more muscle strength and control). She can swim across the width of the pool without help. She can come up for a breath, float, and dive for floating objects all on her own. This afternoon, she dove in, caught a toy that was sinking, swam back to the edge, climbed out and did it again by herself. Too cool. She gets tired pretty quick but tries so hard to fight it. I hope she sleeps REALLY well tonight!

Little buddy likes to put his face in the water. That's "swimming" :) He's much more cautious in the water (thank goodness!). He really likes playing sports in the water (surprise!). Nana and Grandad have a floating basketball hoop, water guns, balls, and all sorts of fun toys. The toys that sink are the best for getting them to put their faces in the water.

when it rains, it pours

Two posts in a day when I didn't even post once in over 6 months? Yes, that's how I roll.

I've had a....well, a....day. I won't call it productive nor nonproductive. It was productive in the sense that I did what I wanted to and took pictures of the kids, rolled in bed with them, played in the RAIN, and generally knocked off. I was nonproductive in the sense that I barely did any house work.

This is ONLY the second time it's rained this year. It poured, and poured, and we played and played. Lillie's still out there. I'm watching her sing to the rain. After a serious 15 minute down pour it almost stopped. She says that she made it come back by singing to it. I'm not quite sure how the song goes, but I did hear "I love you rain". Awww. We talked about how the rain is important for plants, animals, and bugs.

the L

random updates:

Lillie:

• She all about dress up, giving performances, and lots of pretending. She will walk up to you and introduce herself as all kinds of different people (popular names include Vanola, Cherry, and Ariel). I got her a microphone and some more dress up stuff. It's too cute. She dances, sings (her own made up songs!), and tells a joke for her performances. The joke is a knock-knock that consists of whatever she sees. (knock, knock...who's there...glasses....glasses who....glasses with a computer with a handband, with coffee, with a cup...hahahahaha)
• Plays well with M fairly often. They physically fight a lot these days. They really want to cause pain to one another, you can see it in their faces. It makes me crazy. When they aren't trying to kill each other, they laugh and laugh and call each other buddy. They play hide and seek, sing together, watch shows together, and go out of their way to include and be thoughtful to each other.
• She has mad skills at most physical things like riding bikes. She's still completely fearless. Willing to try just about anything, especially if she sees someone else doing it. (yes, I already fear for the teen age years).
• She's incredibly opinionated and isn't afraid to speak her mind. When people tell her to do something, she is not quick to simply just abide. Like if a kid on a playground tells her to do something or pretend like she's something, she usually won't. She either tells them that she doesn't want to or just walks off. The girl has some huevos, that's for sure.
• She seems to do a lot of testing on how far she can push people. Sometimes she tells people hurtful things to see how they will react. We have lots of talks about how our words make people feel and how to be respectful and truthful.
• Favorite color is still red although for a whole day it was pink!!!
• Keeps asking for a telescope for her next birthday. (just told me 6 times in the last 2 minutes, literally)
• Favorite book: Children's book of virtues,
• Other favorites: playing Angry Birds, matching game, playing with people's hair, most things "princess" or "ballet" related,
• Favorite Foods: carrots, pasta, corn, oatmeal, almost all fruit, broccoli
• Favorite songs: Lone Star, Lily (Matt Pond Pa),
• At last check up she is 38lbs and 38" tall. She wears a size 4 in clothes, and a 9 1/2 in shoes. She's REALLY good at any doctor/dentist visit, even LIKES to go.

neglect

I haven't intentionally neglected this blog. I use a tumblr more now to vent and rant. If you want to find me, let me know. I'll send you a link. I will also try and update this blog too. But not now, I have to finish up my summertime mix cd for our exchange today.

ooooo goodie

Wow, has it really been that long? Seriously? Too much has happened to back track now. We will keep with the randomness of things and just move on.





RIP my point and shoot digi camera. You took thousands of really wonderful photos and I really loved using all of the manual settings and trying to pretend you were a SLR. You lived a good life. Sorry about the abuse in my pocket on the beach that led to your demise. You will be missed. I hope you can take solace in the fact that I really, really love to take pictures and I have really, really wanted a SLR for a long time. btw- I think I'm in love.

look...

so, I realize that this post is very strange to most. I've had a long day, lots of coffe, and still have tons left to do. I'm hyper, in a good mood, and procrastinating. That's usually when I'm the most creative and strange. Welcome to a small glimpse of the real me.

Lillie just woke up politely saying. "Mama, please my mama". Awwww

gimmie shelter

I've never really thought of myself as being "sheltered" but something happened this week that made me rethink that. I was reading some one's facebook post about how she has always thrown egg shells in the disposal and lemon/lime peels in the trash and how her husband wants her to put egg shells in the trash and lemon/lime peels in the disposal. There were like 16 posts debating which one was better and how egg shells have salmonella, blah, blah, blah. I instantly wondered why they didn't put all of those things in the compost. For some reason I really thought more people composted. I thought it was even "trendy" to compost and have a garden. Wow, what a sheltered little world I live in! I also thought long and hard about why the hell people mash up food into tiny morsels and wash them away with water to end up with poop and all kinds of chemicals and crap in the water sewage system. WHY? Seriously! Organic compost soil is EXPENSIVE! You can make it for free, so why not?

Some how I managed to get the fall seeds in the ground today after procrastinating for over a month now. I stirred up the compost, pulled weeds in the bed, and expanded the garden to include an area for squash and pumpkin (which I hope was not too late to plant). I cleaned up and cut back some of the Roma tomato plants that had grown into a large bush. I also planted broccoli, carrots, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, kale, and two kinds of peppers. Don't let me fool you into thinking that I know what I am doing. Hell, I'm clueless. Like most things in my life, I get a shallow yet solid feel for the way things work and b.s. through the rest of it. In the spring I planted two things I knew were supposed to be too late. I actually got good production out of everything I planted, so I'm just going for it. It's a good way to learn the ropes. I dream of having a luscious, urban garden and am totally willing to take baby steps to get there. Gardening is in my blood, it's just a matter of kick starting those genes.

Grow little seeds, grow.