More of that cute little sleep-stealing squawker

The new wee one

Miss Ivy Sophia in living color...

All nine pounds three ounces of her.

A Riddle

Eyes of blue
Nine pounds three
Black hair, too
Who could she be?

Pictographic answer to follow in a couple of days.

Making some new friends?

After drawing and naming them, she played with them the whole afternoon. She needs to get out more.

In other news, our smoke alarms are fully functional as we found out this morning during breakfast. We checked the house for smoke, flames, and the like, but found nothing. They all went off for more than ten minutes, so Peter took the traumatized kids (and himself) for a walk while I called the fire department and explained the situation. Just to be safe, they sent someone over with an engine to check things out and gave us the all-clear.

There is no other news.

The Lorax part II

We read the Lorax together last week and Bryn started silently crying as we neared the end because it was such a mess still (reminiscent of our Wall-E experience). So we drew a picture of what it would look like if the Truffula forest regrew and all the animals came back.

I helped with the Truffula trees, Bryn drew the Lorax, the happy non-polluting Oncler and the Swomee-Swan, and Calvin did the Humming-Fish and the Brown Bar-ba-loot. Happy earth day!

My beautiful Grandmother Reba

You've always been an inspiration and a hero to me. Your guidance in my life has meant more to me than you'll ever know. Happy Birthday!
A few ways Grandma has set an example for me:

• Overcoming obstacles- The dairy farm my grandparents were tri-owners of burned to the ground and they had to start their lives again from scratch. Not only did Grandma support my Grandfather in his teaching degree, she got a matching one of her own. They both taught Special Ed for years and years.
• Raising children- Grandma successfully raised ten wonderful children. Enough said.
• Patience and kindness- I watched Grandma take care of Grandpa for years and years with a love and tenderness that never ceased to bring a tear to my eye.
• Attention to detail- Even though she has something close to a bazillion grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she sends me a birthday card every year and calls me on occasion. She even sent my kids a get-well card when we had the flu this winter.

Mount Misery

We took a Patriot's Day hike up Mount Misery. Along the way we found a cool hollow tree. The kids could have spent the entire time throwing billy goats (that bore a striking resemblance to small rocks) into the water, but were good sports about hiking (most of the way).

I'm not sure why the gently sloping hill with no view from the top was called Mount Misery, but it was a lovely hike and a pleasant way to spend a morning.

And why was Peter up at 4:30am?

For this of course. And he was almost in a couple of these clips (this is from the Boston Globe, so he would have been totally famous).

Half a kilo of gold

Peter's friend from school went to Europe last week, and Peter had him buy these for us and bring them home. This is the kind of chocolate that you have to refrigerate or else it goes bad. Let's just say there aren't very many left. And my face has brown smudges on it.

War (huh) what is it good for?

Bryn was asking about why we celebrate Patriot's Day (a Massachusetts state holiday coming up this Monday)-- more specifically why would would celebrate something as terrible as a war (she knows it's the anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary war).

We told her about how we are actually celebrating our country's freedom which was won by the colonists, not the fighting itself. She seemed to understand this, and said, "right, because now we get to make our own rules, like..." and then she laid forth her version of our country's constitution and the "rules."

Fortunately, I had a pencil and paper in my purse so I could jot them down (we were in the car and Peter was driving) as she spit them out one after the other:

1. No dogs are allowed at the playground
2. No hunting skunks
3. Don't try to ride on a deer
4. Dogs should not mess with bear cubs
5. Never go into the road without a grownup until you're 14 or 15
6. Never go for a walk alone when you're young
7. Never ride a bike near potholes
8. Never drive backwards in a car for too long
9. Never try to bam into a car on purpose
10.Don't fly an airplane with your eyes closed

I think the founding fathers would be proud.

Hitting the slides

We went to a park with huge slides, and Calvin was excited and a little nervous to give them a try. This is his second attempt:

One year older and wiser, too

Some Favorites:
*Dinosaur- Parasauralophus
*Show- Reading Rainbow; "the sports one"
*Dinner (besides candy)- Ravioli
*Rainy Day Activity- Pulling out the hide-a-bed to watch a movie (a recent discovery- you can't imagine his joy upon learning there was an actual bed hidden in our couch)
*Simple Machine- the pulley
*Name to call an enemy- Codfish

And more annual wishes

To my dad, who's done a lot of thrilling and exciting things in his life (yes, he built the hang-glider himself), yet knows that true joy can be found in simple things like taking grandchildren to feed the local ducks and enjoying a cool summer evening with a picnic up a canyon.

Tastes like Easter

And Home Before Dark

We planned an evening constitutional after dinner, and on the way to our destination, saw another family out perambulating, except here family = a harem of lovely ladies + 2 macho looking males. Bryn counted 14 in all, and I was happy to have my camera with me to document it:
After our photo pullover, we finally arrived and were quite pleased with the destination (Willard Woods).
And I'm going to stun/make you jealous with more amazing shots of my children, but they're just so darling I can't help it:
Can you tell how thrilled Bryn is to be sitting on a log covered with potentially poisonous fungi?

A thing to let go

"He knew it wasn't anybody's snow glory.
Just a thing to let grow.
And if someone ate it,
it was just a thing to let go."

-Henry and Mudge in Puddle Trouble


Our crocuses (croci?) emerged last week to the delight of the kids, particularly Calvin. Well, an unknown perpetrator stepped on one of them and Calvin sobbed over it's fallen blossom.

Then Bryn reminded him of the above passage and repeating it seemed to placate Calvin. Ah the wisdom found in Henry and Mudge.

Who talks like that?

The kids went bezerk today and messed up everything they could get their hands on. Peter had them clean their room, but when he went back an hour or so later, they were going bezerk again and the room was completely messy.

Bryn looked at him surveying the scene and said, "heh heh heh heh." Peter asked her what that meant and she said, "it's a nervous chuckle."

Batman Schmatman

Introducing your newest superhero...BOOTMAN. Watch out, criminals.

Just in case you weren't impressed yet, here's a shot of him on the job:
But here's the deal: he needs a slogan (like "stomping out crime across America," but tougher sounding). So if you feel creative, leave a comment with your suggestion.

April Updates

Our family had a council this morning, and here are the major updates:

Peter has decided all his work toward a doctorate is silly and is instead going to try his hand at an online venture he spotted on some ads at a site he was visiting. Apparently you can make pretty good money just by surfing the internet.

I've decided that to earn a little extra cash (not like we'll need it with Peter's new job), I'm going to sell both my road bike and my mountain bike on Craig's List. I've never really used them anyway, so it's no big deal. In fact, maybe I'll just put them out on the curb with a sign that says "free." Biking just makes you dirty. Ewww.

Bryn announced that she has no major plans for the future, near or far, and would prefer to spend her days taking naps and eating onions. She would also like us to stop pestering her about going to school in the fall; she's just not ready for that yet and realistically will drop out by the second grade.

Calvin sat quietly during the whole council, and only spoke when called upon. He suggested that our family try to be a little less violent, and stop trying to engage him in sword fights with random household objects. Other than that, we barely noticed he was there.

So happy April, everyone; here's to a fresh new month.