Category Archives: Kids

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Vacation, Summed Up (lots of pictures)

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First let me say that vacations always fly by way too quickly.  Even still it seemed like last week came and went in nothing more than a short blur, despite having done so much.  It was a mixed bag, both in terms of what we did and how it all went, and I did learn some important lessons about traveling with my family (hint – there’s a reason to only do it once a year).

The week started off by taking the girls (Maddie included – she agreed to put up with a lot of tense moments in order to join us for this trip) to Knickerson Beach on the South Shore of Long Island.  It was a great day for the beach – sunny but not too bright, and very breezy by the water.  That meant I could hang back in a beach chair and enjoy the sound and smell of the beach without having to go into the water and still be comfortable.  The girls ventured into the waves accompanied by my sister – in – law (she totally gets props for making this trip worthwhile for me and the kids – thanks L!!!!).  By the time we were ready to head out it was getting very windy and we all got pretty well sandblasted.

We also all got a lot more sun than I would have liked.  I’ll be taking my sister in law’s advice and buying some L’Oreal Ombrelle, a Canadian sunscreen that you can’t get here, but works a whole lot better than the crap we have here in the US.

The next day we headed to NYC to see the Museum of Natural History.  The subway was an interesting experience with all the kids – Oona kept wanting to grab and put her mouth on the poles (YUCK!!!) and Maddie looked a little freaked out by all the various creaky noises the train makes as it rockets from stop to stop.  However, with only one minor hiccup we made it to where we were going easily (thanks again to my enterprising SIL!!) and got right into the museum.  Unfortunately, it was tough getting Emily and Neve interested in the displays.  They seemed somewhat fascinated by the fact that the animals were taxidermy and therefore had once been alive, but we had some minor meltdowns until we decided to break for lunch in the cafeteria.  Neve did however seem to really like the bones:

We brought yummy sandwiches and bottled water but upon entering the cafeteria my husband made a beeline to the food counter, thanks to a sign that read No Outside Food Allowed. And even though the rest of us were willing to risk it, he made some snarky comment about our lack of preparation and bought possibly the most expensive chicken nuggets and fries on the planet.  Neve ate part of what must have been like a $10 burger and we packed up and tried to do as much of the rest of the museum as we could before the girls completely fell apart.

The girls liked the giant clamshell.

We made sure to see the big dinosaurs and the Easter Island head from Night at the Museum but by then it was late afternoon and clearly my children had had enough.  SO we navigated the NYC bus system (very nice buses!!! It felt good to be on a transit vehicle again.  And I might add that just about everyone offered me their seat since I was holding Oona.  New Yorkers rock) and found our way to Jeckyll & Hyde, a creepy theme restaurant on 7th Ave.  This was a definite highlight of the whole week for the kids.  It was very dark, there was a lot of entertaining talking statues, and there were actors mingling with diners.  Emily and Neve were greatly amused by the butler who kept talking to them and dusting everyone.  Maddie and EMily and I wandered around to check the place out and get a better view of the band on stage, which our table was seated next to:

Clearly she was in her element.

Then it was off to Connecticut the next morning.  We had plans to meet up with my brother and have lunch and tour Gillette Castle in East Haddam before heading up to Mystic Seaport.  My brother looked great, as you can plainly see.

The castle (and the drive to it) was beautiful.

The best part was having my brother there.  It helped displace some of the inner family tension that was going on and it led to some fantastically funny Neve moments.  You see, on the way to the castle she had found the neck pillow that Paul had brought along.  In fact, here’s a picture of her wearing it:

So we’re in the van and Neve puts this thing on and says, You know what uncle KB?  I’m all grown up now and these are my boobs! and she grabs onto the pillow for emphasis.  And all the way to the castle, we’re hearing about how she has boobs now, and when we get there and get out of the van, Paul tells her to leave her “boobs” behind.  I can’t, papa.  They’re REAL!

But wait!  It gets better!

We start off to tour the castle, and Neve keeps mentioning how her “boobs” are hurting her neck, and how she needs to “feed” someone, which inevitably (at least in my family, I guess) leads to her saying Where’s the baby?  It’s boobie – sucking time!  Who’s hungry??? All of which of course gets her some big uncomfortable laughs, which just goads her on more.  And then came the best moment of all.  There we all were, having a rest on a beautiful little bench in the shade, facing the castle.  It’s peaceful and there’s a gentle breeze.  A little old lady is sitting on the bench next to us, and I can see her smiling at the girls.  But at one point she decides to butt in to the conversation by looking at Neve, and with a not quite polite but not quite rude tone of voice and says What is around your neck????

NO sooner did Neve’s mouth open up when Maddie’s hand went over it and my brother said, trying not to laugh, It’s a decorative pillow.

I’m feeling like this poor woman must think we’re all crazy because we’re all chortling with suppressed laughter.  And then Neve says But uncle KB don’t you mean those are my boobies??????

And then we ran for the van.  Good times, good times.

It was great seeing my bro – he’s fun to be around and my kids clearly love him to tears.  It was tough to leave, but Mystic awaited.  And let me tell you – that was my one true day of vacation.  The one and only day I was happily enjoying time with my family and not feeling bad.  It was paradise for me, and how could it not be?  It was my slice of New England for the summer.

Unfortunately it rained on us all day.  But not before we got to tour the big old fishing and whaling ships and take a ride on a horse drawn carriage.  The girls were mostly interested in the zillions of jellyfish.

Seriously.  I have never seen so many jellyfish so far north before.  Tons.

As for the rest of the stuff at Mystic……well, this pretty well sums it up for my  kids:

It didn’t matter.  I loved it and dragged them to everything with me.  Like the cool old house, where Maddie spied some old school knitting!!!!!

And the children’s area where Neve conjured up Deadliest Catch for me:

And of course the goofy photo – op:

We capped off the day by having a girls – only swim at the hotel pool (Paul doesn’t swim, so he stayed with a sleepy Oona) and a room service dinner.  I was very, very sad to leave Connecticut, and it was even harder when the GPS showed that from our hotel in Mystic it was only about 70 miles to the Martha’s Vineyard ferry at Wood’s Hole, MA.  So sad!!!

The last two days we stayed on Long Island, and again it was dear Sister in Law to the rescue!  We did a girls only trip to the mall (insert huge 13 year old Maddie smile here – we even tried on wedding dresses at the Jessica McClintock store!) and a girls only trip to see Old Westbury gardens, which were stunning!  We saw 3 wedding parties while we were there and lots of geese and little bunnies.  Emily loved it.  Neve was ambivalent, but cooperative anyway.  She mentioned to one of the brides maids that we passed by that she saw a “real” bride.  To which the girl replied without missing a beat: So where’s the fake one?

Just lovely.  If you’re ever out the Island, I totally recommend checking it out!

So there you are – our week in short.  I have about 300 pictures and wish I could go back to New England right this second!  But school starts in 2 weeks (absolutely ridiculous!) and now I must focus on getting everyone and everything school ready and ready for fall.  Yes, I said it.  F-A-L-L.  It’s coming sooner than you think.  And I want to be ready for it this year.  This house needs a major organization re-do.  But I’ll still be in New England in my mind anyway.

Cheers!

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Overwhelmed Much?

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I may be reaching the critical “I can’t keep up with all of this on my own” point.  Good thing vacation is near.

The weeds have completely choked out the herb garden, the veggies are so overproducing I may never eat meat again, the hanging baskets are dead.  And we’re not going to discuss the kids’ rooms.   I’ll be completely redoing Emily’s room soon – different everything and clearing it out totally – as soon as I have the go ahead from the boss (I’m guessing it should be okay to do right around when she’s ready to leave for college).   The great laundry mountains continue to defy me with their awesome size, and the fur has kicked up with a vengeance now that the temperature outside has risen to nuclear.  I gave Emily chores – including dishes – but that doesn’t seem to be working so well.  Despite all of my efforts it takes her up to 8 hours to wash one small sink full of dishes.  And then I usually have to re-wash them anyway.

All this frustration is definitely taking its toll – my will power and ability to avoid McGriddles has been severely depleted.  So sinful.  SO very bad for me.  But soooo yummy.

Anyway I’ve gotten some sewing projects done that I’m pretty happy with and the baby is doing great.  She’s now saying mama, dada, kitty cat, puppy dog, uh-oh, no, ow, and peekaboo. She’s 25th percentile for her height and 50th for her weight.  Little chunky monkey baby!

And then there’s Neve, who’s also doing great, except that she greeted the nurse at her well – child check-up by saying “I don’t want to see you pull out anything sharp.”

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When Life Hands You Lemons…..

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…you try not to smother your spouse in his sleep.

It’s been pretty stormy outside the last, well, month, so it’s been hard to get outside and run some energy out of these kids.  And my garden…..well it has exploded, between the squash and the weeds, I just can’t keep up.

We’ve been stuck inside for what feels like the whole summer so far, and I feel bad because school starts up again in 5 weeks.  !!!!!  I can’t believe it’s possible.  We did get a brief respite  – if not from the rain then from the monotony – on the 4th when we spent the day with friends.  I even made the girls festive shirred dresses:

I’m pretty proud.  It took me awhile to finish them because the tensioner on my bobbin casing is missing a screw so I can’t get proper tension on the elastic thread.  I had to zig zag with the machine and then hand thread the elastic through all 12 rows of shirring on both dresses.  But it wasn’t so bad….and it came out well and they were pleased.  (The fabric is called “Red, White and Bold” and it is made by Moda)

The 4th was fun, as I was saying.  We spent the day with our friends, whose children happen to be the same ages as mine and they love playing together.  I planted my face into some horribly- bad – for – you dip (Velveeta plus salsa plus black beans all melted together) and I swear I could have licked the darn bowl.  It rained pretty much all day but the babies fell asleep at the same time and the men folk were in the garage doing men stuff so us gals drank a bottle of wine and got to talk smack for awhile.  It was lovely! ANd even though we got rained on, we still managed to see the fireworks.  I think we found our new 4th of July tradition!

But on to lemons.

After our fab 4th we had Sunday dinner here with my family.  My uncle and grandmother are visiting (my hotel got sold!!!!  For $69k!!!!!!!!  I am so happy that someone is going to do something with it!!!!!!!) so we invited everyone to come over and I fed them some beef & broccoli lo mein and egg rolls.  I made the lo mein, but ordered the rolls.  And I made a yummy lime chiffon cake.  mmmmmmmm.  But I digress.  A good time was had by all, and I look forward to spending more time with the family before grandma heads back north.  Maddie’s back with us again, trying to help me stay sane.  And I need all the help I can get right now!!!  Gas prices, as you all know, still suck.  The economy still sucks.  So we’re stuck home.  And it’s rainy.  And stormy.  And my children are restless. And the worst part of all…….NO TV.  Yes, you read that right.  We are without tv right now.  Oh sure, we get a few crappy local stations that play nothing any of us ever watches.  Otherwise, nada. No Discovery Channel, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network. Oh yeah, we’re suffering.  I think Maddie may be re-thinking the whole “staying here” thing.

I’ve got art projects to keep the kids distracted.  It works, but only to a point.  It’s also messy and hard to supervise when you’ve got a grouchy teething wriggly baby who wants to get into everything.  Point is, we’re doing what we can, but it’s awfully quiet and grumpy around here.  Tv is a crutch, no doubt about it.  I’ve realized that we don’t actually watch it all day, but if it’s not on for background noise and distraction then things can get real uneasy real fast.  Maybe it’s just that it’s our routine and we rely on that routine to keep us structured and productive.  Without it we feel rather aimless and without anchor.  Amazing what a difference a noisy box with pictures can make!  I can’t even seem to get into a good knitting rhythm when it’s so quiet.  Even so, I managed this:

Emily’s socks are done, and I have already gotten about an inch into the next pair I am working on.  These ones are for me (good thing, too, what with all the frustrated energy I am knitting into them!) and they are going to be another pair of the Jaywalkers socks by Grumperina in Socks That Rock, in a colorway called “Little Bunny Foo Foo”.  It’s a chocolate and pink mix.  Hooray!

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Sew Hot In Here

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Well I’ve been husband – less for the better part of the month, and as we prepare for his imminent return I’ve been taking stock of how things have held up over the past couple of weeks. I think I’ve done pretty well, if I do say so myself. The house looks pretty darn good for only having one responsible adult and 3 small children (plus all the pets).

I’ve gotten a lot accomplished as well, given the circumstances. I painted the play/craft room and moved all of my “stuff” into it. I even got some stick – on “stained glass” for the palladium window over the kids’ toys:

Check out that color!!!

I’ve gotten the kids to the pool twice – I would have gone every day but it costs $20 every time we go. Each time when we left I had 2 screaming girls who wanted to stay in the pool “forever or at least every day”.

I’ve managed to feed them all decent meals and I’ve gotten to do yoga on Wii Fit every day (I make Emily help with Oona….)

And I’ve taken a break from knitting to do some sewing. Yep. I’m hot into sewing right now. I made quite a bit recently, including an orangey shirred – top dress for Neve:


And I had to make one for Oona to match:

I’ve also made a few things for me but I have no pictures yet. 8 and 5 year olds don’t make the best photographers unless you want a more “abstract” theme. I also have a quilt I am working on with some awesome fabric that has cute little VW buses on it. It’s perfect for us, of course.

In other news:

The vegetable bed has exploded in the last week, since we’ve had tons of humidity and rain:

I have a few yellow squash coming in, and the tomatoes are budding like mad. Unfortunately the japanese beetles are also back, and swarming like you wouldn’t believe. One of them traveled into the house in my hair yesterday and nearly gave me a heart attack. Speaking of which – we seem to be working on a 2 spider per day average. Happily they have not been too large, but they have been quick and I don’t like them either way. They’re probably after the colony of fruit flies that has taken up residence in my kitchen sink, despite all efforts at total cleanliness.

I’m happy to see that Ice Road Truckers is back on. The only disadvantage to being up in the craft room all the time is there is no satellite up here. I will be needing to remedy that. Can’t miss my Discovery and History channels, after all.

All in all things have been busy and active despite the lack of going anywhere much and pulling in all the spending reins to save cash. Gas and food prices being what they are has had me budgeting much tighter lately. I don’t go to the grocery store without a list and a full out plan for how we can eat well yet cheaply for as long as possible. It seems to be working fairly well – today was the first day I did a big grocery shopping in two weeks and we were still in decent shape. It does mean eating hot dogs for lunch and spaghetti for dinner more often than we’re used to, but hopefully we’ll get a bumper crop of squash and tomatoes this summer to throw on the grill!

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Trying Out A New Shade of Happy

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It’s been pretty busy around these parts lately.  School ended May 30, and Neve turned 5!!!  We had a big party for her on the 31st and invited all of her friends (and some of ours) over to play on the big inflatable waterslide and have ice cream cake (mmmm Carvel!).  I can’t believe how big my middle baby has gotten!

But little peanut or no, she’s going to kindergarten in the fall, and let me tell you how happy that makes me!  With all 3 kids at home all day now there’s a lot of referee action on my part, and when she’s here, Maddie’s.  But it was a fun day either way, and I now have to remember to get the thank yous out to everyone.  And then there’s the obligatory “sad doggy” picture.  Pippa was sequestered to avoid puppy induced insanity, and when we let her out after everyone had left, she lay forlornly under the table, snout strategically placed next to a tootsie roll.  In fact, I found that little tootsie roll later (I apparently forgot to move it after snapping the picture) and found two fang marks in it.

Just look at those puppy dog eyes.  She wants it bad.

Anyway, craziness aside, I’ve been pretty happy lately.  Happier than I’ve ever been, I think.  There’s a certain contentment that has settled in lately.  There’s a combination of things helping that to happen, I think.  Maddie’s been around a lot to help out with Oona so I don’t feel so totally overwhelmed every day.  I’ve been able to keep the house fairly decent lately.  About 2 notches above absolute pigsty, which is a huge improvement over my former 8 notches below “should be condemned”.

Also, I got Wii Fit, and I have been practicing the yoga, aerobics, and etc. that it entails.  I basically have my own virtual personal trainer, and thanks to Mads once again, I have been able to work out for 30 minutes every day.  It’s given me a lot more energy and I feel pretty good.  Thanks to that extra energy I’ve been able to stay up past Oona’s bedtime and work on some projects.  I am this close to being done with Em’s socks.  I also have been sewing a lot.  I made Emily a nice skirt and scarf:

Please ignore her scraggly hair and the fact that she’s wearing Maddie’s flip flops which are WAY too big.

I made Neve a dress for her birthday party, and I made Oona a cute little dress and bloomers set.  I have a bunch more projects in mind…..and knowing that I took steps which have greatly added to my happy state of mind.  I re-did the play room, and it is now half play space, half my “studio”.  I can’t even tell you how much I am loving it.  I even got a nice shade of fuschia for the walls that I am love love loving.

So, I have my own space, my veggies in my raised beds are growing by leaps and bounds, and we’ve been eating fresh blueberry gateau.  How can you not be happy?  Even with the day I had today:

1.  Couldn’t get any A/C people out to the house until tomorrow.  Playroom is literally 850 degrees.  I may hurl.

2.  Went to Lowe’s with Oona to buy heat blocking window tint for playroom.  Went to open van’s sliding door, and it broke.  Will.  Not.  Open.

3.  Lowe’s didn’t have exactly what I needed.  Bought only 2 boxes left, and after getting home found that one had been cut already.

4.  Spent $20 to take kids to the pool.  Swam for 5 minutes, then they blew the whistle and made us get out for a 15 minute “rest break”.  After 15 minutes we swam for 10 minutes.  THen they blew the whistle and said we all had to get out because they heard thunder and the pool was therefore now closed.  I drove home with some very unhappy children.  Most expensive 15 minutes I’ve had in a while.

5.  Tried to apply window tint.  Decided after one pane that I’d rather pull all of my toe nails off with pliers than continue.  Will wait for husband to complete the job.

But I am not complaining.  I will instead eat the last piece of this:

White chocolate raspberry tart with chocolate crust.  Yum!!!!

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Cold vs. Allergies

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Either way, I’m sick.  I ache, I’m congested, it stinks.

Mother’s Day was great – I got nice stone edging around my herb garden, and two raised beds made for veggie growing.  Yay!!!

I got next to no knitting done but considering all the landscaping, I won’t complain.  Plus I got the first ever bloom off my rose bush!

Also my peonies are doing very well so I’m excited.  You know, it was only very recently that I smelled a peony for the first time since childhood, and it was amazing how the scent made me feel.  It brought to mind immediately my grandmother.  She had huge peony bushes (and lilacs and a huge mulberry tree!) at the hotel.  I never had cause to realize how strongly peonies and grandma were connected for me.  It would probably surprise her as well.  And as I write, I just remembered it’s her birthday.  I need to call her and let her know how she’s on my mind quite a lot.  I never get to tell her with all the noise and craziness around here getting in my way.  But really I need to call her anyway, especially now that grandpa is gone, to see how she is doing.  Oona never got to meet grandpa, and I want to be sure my kids get to know grandma well.  Oona’s growing like a weed here.  Just yesterday she had some avocado and a banana cookie.

They grow too fast.

Until they hit about 3 or so – then they don’t seem to grow up fast enough.

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Mother’s Day

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You know, once a year we see all these commercials and sappy cards about how much mom means to us.  And I do buy into it – I think the mother/child bond is a pretty strong one – stronger in most cases than the father/child bond.  (Don’t get me wrong – I think dads are just as important for kids as moms, and I don’t ever want to imply that all moms are better than all dads at the whole parenting thing.  I am generalizing because this is Mother’s Day so forgive me. )

What gets me is that it’s a holiday that seems to say Wow, mom – it must be hard raising kids – thanks for being so graceful at it! The truth is, I don’t know anyone who feels very graceful at it.  And I think the hard work involved gets kind of glossed over in the name of making us feel like a crappy card and some flowers once a year makes up for all the pain & sacrifice.  And since we already know all the reasons why motherhood is worth it, I’d like to make up a list of some of the more painful truths of motherhood that not everyone may realize (hello fathers/husbands – listen up!):

Your body gets weird. Losing the weight from having babies is HARD.  And unless you’ve got the money or support to get childcare and a gym membership/personal trainer/weight set to rebuild your muscle tone…..well you’re going to be all lumpy.  And you will feel like your belly has become some sort of flabby empty pouch.  And the boobs?  Forget it.  If you’re lucky, they’ll just sag a bit.  Most of us end up with droopy skin sacks that look like they belong in National Geographic. Plus there’s stretch marks, and for many of us that nurse, the various bruises and welts that we will sport on our arms and chests from babies who like to squeeze and scratch while they eat.  You also can’t count on getting a regular shower.  So add sweaty, stinky and greasy to the list of how you feel.

Speaking of bodies….you lose your sex life.  It’s hard to get intimate when you have a barnacle hanging off you all the time.  Even when they’re not infants, most kids don’t understand the need for “personal space” or “private time”.  Then there’s the sheer exhaustion.  If all of this weren’t bad enough, many of us are insecure about our post – pregnancy bodies and don’t feel attractive enough (most men don’t seem to be bothered by our new bodies.  They just want to get naked and get it on.  The men that are bothered…well, they are immature jackasses and don’t deserve a baby mama).  No sex equals a lot of tension in a relationship…but it doesn’t matter because you don’t have time for a relationship now anyway.

You can lose your sense of self.  Your interests get subjugated to those of the family.  (no, going out alone to get your hair done does not constitute “me time” anymore than managing an hour without the kids to buy groceries or do laundry does).  You are, for better or worse, chained to creatures who don’t mind screaming and making a spectacle in public and will get in your way no matter what you try to do.  Again, only people with money for nannies or fabulous husbands get regular “free time”.  Even bathroom time is no longer sacred.

You spend great effort to clean/care for/ dress/ feed small people who will complain and fight you every step of the way.  They don’t want to wear that adorable outfit from Gymboree that makes them look sweet.  They want something garish and sparkly that doesn’t match, hasn’t been washed yet and most likely smells of pee.  And just try to brush their hair.

They also don’t want any food you make.  It’s gross.  They don’t care if it’s good for them, if it’s your specialty, or even if you prepared it because you just knew they would love it.  Just because they ate it at grandma’s doesn’t mean they’ll eat it at home.  And if they do, it’ll stain that adorable outfit 3 seconds after you’ve gotten it on them.

Forget sleep.  You’re on duty 24/7 now.  You’ll spend most nights in an awkward position, one ear open and waiting for the sound of being needed.  If you manage to nod off for a quick nap during the day you will encounter either your other child/ren making this almost impossible, a terrible crook in your neck, or your spouse remarking that you certainly don’t look overworked, what with all the snoring and drooling in front of the tv.

If you work outside your home, don’t think you’re getting off easy.  You’re still going to come home and do all the  housework and be mama all night.  It’s sexist, it’s unfair….it’s unavoidable.

The house will never be clean again.  Children are gross.  When they’re not bringing home germs and parasites they are  wreaking havoc on  any sense of order you treasure.  Books and toys scattered everywhere.  Food spilled and smeared on the windows, couch, floor and door knobs.  Crumbs and half – eaten apples under the beds.  An explosion of laundry from which you’ll never satisfactorily recovery.  And a nice little pair of poop stained undies sitting by the front door that you won’t notice until someone pays a visit.

Things you love will be ruined/broken.  It’s gonna happen.  Maybe it’s a cd, maybe it’s your necklace.  Maybe it’s your Kate Spade handbag.  Protect what you can, and be prepared to lose something.

Your patience and strength of will are continually under assault.  You will always be worried, and you will love them so much that sometimes it will hurt.  Like right now, when my 8 month old sweetie Oona is saying “Mama” and giving me kisses.  Looks like it’s payday.

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Creature Feature, Early Spring Edition

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We live in the country in Virginia.  That means lotsa critters!  I never saw this much wild animal/insect action growing up in upstate NY, I can tell you that……even when I stayed on my cousins’ farm.  Heck, I spent a lot of summers hiking around the Adirondack Park and never encountered enough to scare me into staying away from the woods.

Now that I live in a more mild (read: HOT) climate I spend most summers threatening to move to Canada.  But it’s not all bad.  Some of what I see around here is pretty darn cool.  Last August I had a flying squirrel that would come to my bird feeder every night.

Pretty cool, right???

So here is a smattering of what we’ve seen around here this spring.

As always, tons of venison deer:

(That was taken from my living room window)

There’s the territorial little finches at my feeder every day:

(I tried to get a good one of the downy woodpecker and nuthatches we also see, but no luck yet)

A few nights ago, we spotted what we think is a luna moth:

It was HUGE!!!!

This next poor little critter was long dead………we found this shell and bones down by the stream:

It was way cool, but kinda disturbing, too.  I found all of his little vertebrae and bones there.  There was a ton of little tadpoles in the stream so we’ll have some amphibian action soon!

Then yesterday when I moved the garbage can I found this guy:

What I thought was steel wool was actually a wooly bear caterpillar. After I made a call to the local wildlife and pest authority (mom) and ascertained that he was harmless, I went back out to collect him with a jar, but alas, he had gone. Freaky though, huh?

And now that we’re talking creepy / crawly, I found a redback spider in the sunroom yesterday, a lonestar tick on my living room window, and spent 3 hours picking live, crawling nasty lice out of Emily’s hair today.  No pics of those.

Canada, ho!!!!

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0 Accidents Since…..ummm……Oh Well

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For those of you keeping track, here’s another cracked skull to add to my tally.

Neve was running in the house again (totally against the rules, not that she cares) and managed to trip over her own feet (happens more than you’d believe) and fell and cracked her head pretty hard on the hinge (!!!) of the front door. That’s like a one in a million shot, there I might add….I mean, what are the odds, really?

Anyway, I am sure that the lovely nurses at our doctor’s office thought I was a nutcase when I called, frantically trying to figure out if I should attempt a drive to the ER or just call 911. All I could see was the blood dripping from her head and pooling onto her shirt and then the inch long gash and I about passed out. By the time my mother came over to help out (about the longest 10 minutes of my life) I was shaking.

As it turned out she required 3 stitches to close a nice clean hole that went clean to her skull. 3 hours later she is happily playing on Webkinz and waiting for her papa to come and cuddle her. And did I mention she is thoroughly taking advantage of her “poor baby” status? Pudding, chips, mandarin oranges, cookies, crackers……all the goodies she can stuff down her little throat. Good thing she’s cute.


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Of Dogs & Sisters

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It turns out that the “unidentified object” that our mentally challenged canine ate was one of Neve’s socks.  Fortunately for said mentally challenged dog, it was not a hand-knit sock.  She puked it up whole this morning and we were right there to collect it.  SO the drama is over and the dog is fine…..a few hundred dollars and one peed – on van seat later.

With all the happenings this week I have had woefully little time to knit, but I am chugging away on the Vincenzo socks and the first one is just about completed.  Baby socks are tres fun to knit.

This week has been spring break for the kids and we ended up having Maddie here all week….which has been mucho fantastico, because it never hurts to have another pair of hands to help with the baby and the other kids.  My sanity has been saved on more than one occasion by having someone here to help see the humor in the disasters.  And my parents got a week all to themselves (lucky!).  Sounds like a win-win to me.  She goes home tomorrow, sadly, and it’s going to be rough without her.  Back to managing things on my own.

Monday is going to be a challenge.  I have to be at Emily’s appointment at 9:30 am……and it’s quite a drive, so we’ll be having to leave here by 7 am at the latest.  But like I said, there’s a Dunkin Donuts 3 miles from the dentist’s office, so the trip home will at the very least be delicious and well caffeinated.  (Incidentally, I’d like to thank the geniuses who brought us little tv’s and dvd players for our vehicles.  Kids are much easier to manage on long trips when Dora is on.)  It’s too bad I can’t knit while Emily is being treated.  That would make these things much more pleasant for me.  But Oona just won’t allow it!

Anyway the weather’s been getting warmer and the bees have decided they like our living room a lot. We’ve had 3 in the last 2 days.  I don’t know how they are getting in, but the Dyson has proved a most valuable bee – capture – and – containment unit.  There was also one spider sighting in the same room, which means I’ll have to find their little entrance and plug it up before things get worse!  It also looks like I’ll be turning on the A/C before too long.  Yesterday was int he 80’s in here and I just could not get motivated to do anything. I totally wilt in the heat.  By evening it was perfect for a nice walk outside (saw some cool bats flying around) but it was pretty warm in the house.  Today it’s much more bearable, but if I am going to do any amount of baking it will just get too hot.

Here’s hoping for a cool and uneventful rest of the weekend!