Gravity

It was especially windy this morning.  After a particularly large gust blew I exclaimed -"It is so windy today!  We need to be careful or we will blow away."  Oliver stopped, turned, looked at me and calmly remarked - "Mommy, you don't need to worry.  We have gravity on our side."  He then turned back around and continued down the street.

Summer days

Last week was straight out of August - 80 degree days, the beach, blue skies, Popsicles, ice cream, the little pool, the big pool, and snakes.

Our backyard is just plain embarrassing.  Between the grubs, the dog, the kids, and the toys, it looks as though we are a missile testing site.  The scattered debris usually means Henni can occupy herself with one thing while Oliver can keep busy with something else.  Or that they can both decide they want one specific item and then try and fight to the death for said item.  Perhaps it was the weather, but last week, on their own, these two crazy kids decided to build a see-saw for frogs.  I kept out of their way and watched as they worked together to gather the wood, the buoy, and frogs.  There was no fighting, no screaming, no violence, just collaboration.  It was beautiful - and the frogs (stuffed) had a fun time too.

We did meet some real frogs last week at a Curious Creatures event.  The kids each got to hold a tree frog, corn snake, skunk, alligator, tortoise, bunnies, chinchilla, hedgehog...and a Burmese python.  Neither kid had a fear, rather they welcomed each animal into their arms.  

We spent Monday at the beach, but the rest of the week in the yard.  Our little pool saw quite a bit of use.

 We consumed many Popsicles.  Oliver and Henni thought it was hysterical to cheers their pops and then to pass them back and forth.  The melty pops combined with the finger paints (see Henni's tummy) made for messy kids.  We have some new neighbors and I am not sure if they fully appreciated the chaos of cleaning the kids off at the end of the day...step 1: take off clothes (kids, not mine), step 2: hose down kids, step 3: Charlie eats water from hose, step 4: Charlie, Oliver and Henni race around the yard, get totally muddy, step 5: go to step 1.

Sunday's are our big pool day.  Oliver wore his suit to the pool and Henni wanted to do the same.  The diaper complicated things a bit (yes, I roll the dice more often than I should regarding the diaper, but a mile walk sans diaper - even that is a bit much for me).  So she made the trek with her bathing suit over her clothes.  Fashion forward.

Charlie

Charlie is a growing boy; at 8 weeks he was 7 pounds and at 14 weeks...27 pounds!  Given his current growth rate, I am estimating that 15 week Charlie is now well over 30 pounds.  

Charlie is the most wonderful puppy.  Yes, he does have those crazy puppy teeth that hurt like crazy when they chew, but those crazy teeth only come out for maybe 40 minutes a day - total.  The rest of time Charlie is pretty docile.  He sleeps, rides in the stroller - and puts up with the little folks who think he is the best thing since sliced bread.

Henni is Charlie's best friend and his worst enemy.  When Henni wakes up she immediately goes and finds Charlie (releasing him from his crate if he is not already out) and gives him a toy.  She also tells him "good boy" whenever he goes to the bathroom, runs and finds a toy whenever his puppy teeth start to go crazy, and yells to me whenever he poops (so I can get a bag) (She has also become the poop police - any stray dog poop she sees when we are out walking she insists I pick up).  She also loves to share her food with him - even going so far as to throw her food from the table into the kitchen (where Charlie is gated while we eat) (combined with her instance that she does belong on the table, she is a real joy to eat with). She also loves to pull his tail, chase him with her baby stroller, and be a general menace.

Both Oliver and Henni like taking Charlie on walks, but these walks are...well, picture turtles out for a Sunday stroll then suddenly those turtles convert themselves into crazy Cheetahs (the fastest animals on earth) and then they change back into those strolling turtles.  Our walks generally involve me loosing hair (literally as Henni grabs clumps and pulls it out when she is relegated to my shoulders), my heart racing, no exercise, lots of exercise, and general craziness.  Did I mention Oliver likes bringing his lawnmower on our walks?  And Henni usually brings along a handful of socks, a doll, or some other really important item that can't be left behind.  Seriously, I think our neighbors think we are seriously insane (when it was out craziness and Davis snow blowing in shorts we were just insane, now that I push around a dog in a stroller and we go for our walks, I think we are now termed seriously insane).

8 weeks

8 weeks

9 weeks

10 weeks

11 weeks

12 weeks

14 weeks

On Tuesday Oliver, Henni and I took Charlie for a bath.  They were great helpers and Charlie got shiny clean.  Jealous that Charlie got a bath, the kids insisted on spending 2 hours in their bathtub when we got home from the dog wash.

Easter

The Easter bunny visited Oliver and Henni three times this year.  

His first appearance was at our neighborhood egg hunt.  Oliver ran off, with no hesitation, and filled his basket.  Henni too ran off to gather eggs, but preferred to put them in her pockets.  We were able to get a few in her basket, but she managed to fit an amazing number of eggs in her little pockets.

The bunny had filled the eggs with lots of jelly beans and chocolate...the kids consumed the majority of their eggs in seconds.

The kids clearly do not have my fear of mascots and strange adults dressed in strange outfits.

 The second visit from the bunny was in Maine.  Alice, Toren, Oliver and Henni found the 120 eggs the bunny had hidden in just a few moments.

The bunny filled these eggs with yogurt covered raisins and pretzels, goldfish, and a few chocolate covered raisins.  The kids quickly figured out which color egg held which type of treat and they all settled down to eat the chocolate filled eggs.

Happy dads

The bunny's final visit was Easter morning.  He filled the actual Easter baskets with finger paints and bubbles.  No pictures, but as one might expect - Oliver and Henni were bath-bound after their foray into their baskets.