Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Bath time poetry

One gets wet
when bathing two.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Nighttime visitors

Last night I woke up to hear Reed saying in a really deep voice, "Go away bear, go away".

I looked out the window to see my husband standing on the deck, sans clothing might I add, holding a flashlight beam into the eyes of a female bear.

Reed had woken up and gone outside to check on the noises in the backyard near the chicken coop. the mama bear and her cubs (3!) had smelled the compost I left out for the chickens and had come into the yard to investigate. The mama bear was not in with the chickens, she was on the outside telling her cubs to get out.

Reed and the dogs chased them away, but about 10 minutes later the smell of the old fish I cleaned out of the refrigerator called them back. Basil went after the mama bear, getting in between her and the babies, so Reed had to get really tough.

By now Sky had woken up and added his voice to the mix. His words sounded just like his dad's only in baby garble!

The four bears eventually wandered away after knocking over the chicken fence and our neighbor's fence. After the kids wake up from the afteroon nap, I am going to walk over to their house and apologize. Our chickens were totally silent during the whole incident. Two roosters and none of them wanted to take on a bear!

Lesson learned: no compost for the chickens until the bears move on. They looked very well-fed too. How common is it for a mama to have triplets? We had thought that a reason we haven't been seeing any bucks around our house this summer was because of all the poaching, but maybe the bear family living behind us in the woods caused the deer to move away.

Neighbors!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Camping on the Mattole River

Redwoods turn into steep, grassy hills. Another steep drop (people really bike on these mountains?) back down to the coast.

Flat, beautifully quiet coastline.

Back up to the mountains, through gorgeous ranches to a lost village. My goodness, I could so live here. If I could give up Target that is.

After sleeping in the car during the drive, the kids woke up as we arrived to the campground. The kids were super excited about setting up the tent.


Reed wasn't sure about the river conditions, so I looked online to see if the stretch by our campsite was open. Reed was able to fly fish while North practiced his casting with just a bobber at the end of the line.


And although the river is strictly catch and release, I must take the blame for the killing of a fish. I distracted Reed as he was casting. As he was casting, he pulled a baby fish out of the water and bashed its brains out on the rocks.

Passed out for 3 1/2 hours after the river play.

Lazy hammock play.
The kids and I were in a boat. Periodically, I would "drop anchor" so that North could jump out and spear salmon and bass. Don't tell the warden!


Learning how to grill hot dogs.


We drove to the mouth of the river to play on the beach. We found a labyrinth from the Summer Solstice celebration.

I am working on a collection of pictures called, "North and Skyler nurse".




Totally wiped out! Camping with two young kids is exhausting! It is fun, but not exactly a mellow experience.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Musical support for the young brain cells

Found this today on Marvelous Kiddo. Cheesy camera angle, but I love the lyrics.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Skyler turning 11 months and wise words from North


Skyler will be one year old in a very short period of time. One year ago today, I was walking around with a beautifully giant belly and while I don't miss the feeling of a baby on my cervix, the last moments of a pregnancy are like no other time in life. The month before a baby is born are also a combination of agonizing slow days followed by moments of hurried panic. I don't miss that either.

But now Sky is with us at 11 months old. He moves like a little kid more then an infant. He speaks, plays, laughs, shrieks from sun up to sun down. From the moment of his emergence a short time ago, his moods, feelings and thoughts have been clearly written on his body. But now, he shows a strong INTENT TO COMMUNICATE!

When he becomes furious, he throws his head onto the floor (sometimes banging it in the process, thus bringing on more fury) in a temper. If I calmly ignore him and move into another room, he will get up and follow. Then he repeats the tragic movement until I pick him up. Poor kid! Life is so unfair!

A few days ago after he and North woke up from an afternoon nap, North sat at the little snack/art table eating food. Sky crawled into the kitchen, looked at North and decided it was time for him to eat also. He looked at me, pointed at the bananas on the counter and loudly demanded his food. What can I say? What would you do? He was so happy as he ate his well-deserved food.

Later that same day, North and I were digging on a slope. Sky couldn't get himself up the steep incline to join us, so rather then fuss he just crawled off. I looked up a few moments later and saw him heading towards the open door of the chicken yard.

"He won't go in there," I thought to myself.

Wrong.

I had to fling myself off the hill and chase him down as he rapidly (his Mama was coming to stop him, after all!) moved through mounds of chicken poop.

"Where are you going?," I asked him.

He gestured to the large, white bucket we use for geese water with strong movements of his hands and loud words.

I think we have another strong personality on our hands.


As an infant, Sky would sit on Reed's or my lap as we read stories with North. But as Sky grew older his ability to move dictated that he move away from the book-reading and toward the toy-exploration. I felt confident that no matter where he was in the room, on some level, he was absorbing the behaviors of book-sharing and would soon be interested in sitting on a lap again.

Just recently, I have become encouraged to see him turning the pages of a book as he sits on the floor. And although he is usually in the middle of a pile of books he has pulled off the shelf, the curiosity he shows towards the ideas on the page is definitely growing.

Today, as he and I were waiting at North's swim lessons, I brought two books for us to look at. We looked at the pictures and I talked about the ideas for almost 10 minutes before we moved onto the next thing. He will be a book lover yet.


Yep, those are two bottom molars showing. He has two more on the top bringing the grand total of teeth to 12.

12!


Yesterday as I was cleaning out the wood stove, North and Skyler were playing at my feet. North was pushing his toy onto Sky's hands in a way that I thought was hurtful. So I talked to him about it.

Me: " There must be a way to play your game that is respectful to Brother."

North: I don't want to be spec-ful, I want to be dangerous."

Me: "Why dangerous?"

North: (in a very simple way) "Dangerous is fun, Mommy."



Later, he and Reed came inside. Reed asked North to repeat his idea to me.

North: "Daddy will run the weed-eater and I will have the chain saw."

EEEK!



One more picture, just because I can't resist. If it wasn't swim suit season, I would be worried about his mental health....Do you think he would get up early to go to a sale?!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Home again

We have been back home for four days and boy, is it nice to feel settled in. North came down with a fever the same afternoon we arrived home, so while it was nice to stay close to the house, it wasn't as fun to have a sick kid either. I clued into North's needs a little late into the game but by day two he was laying down for a nap in the morning in addition to his normal afternoon rest. The extra healing time got him perked up enough to expel the germs. Now he is back to his feisty self.

Tuesday, I picked up our first veggies from our summer share on Eddie's farm. That night for dinner we ate a brown rice stir-fry with an egg scrambled in. Yummy! Shopping at the grocery store with many local farmers contributing to the fresh produce section is nice but not comparable to eating veggies the same day they are picked, grown by a farmer who knows his gardening. That is good food.

The next night I was inspired by a Cynthia Lair cookbook and made a polenta crust vegetable pizza. Reed is introducing more of his allergy foods into his diet, but he is very minimal with the gluten. The polenta crust was an awesome idea for a pizza! I roasted summer squash and kale with onions/garlic in chunky-canned tomato sauce with basil and oregano. The roasting with the herbs added an amazing depth to the pizza sauce.

Eating our veggie pizza made me remember a commercial I saw recently. In the clip, a man looks totally depressed as he picks at his over-boiled green beans. Over his head is a zero. After he drinks a v-8 fruit juice his number changes to a "1". The poor guy has to drink a sugary juice because no one can grow or cook veggies properly! I wish I could have shared our food from the farm with the poor guy, I think we ate at least five servings with the pizza.

On the juice front, I ordered a juicer from Amazon the other day. With so many vegetables coming into this house, I thought the summer would be the perfect time to experiment with juicing.

More changes are on the horizon for my family. A few months ago the current teacher of my preschool job asked me if I would be interested in working two mornings a week. I had an interview with some of the parents and was offered the job yesterday evening. So this fall, I will be working again.

I approach this transition with much nervousness. On one hand, I welcome and love, LOVE, the idea of working at this parent cooperative preschool. The inner workings of this school are amazing and so rewarding. Yet I also feel concerned about my own personal limitations. It is important to me that the job be only two mornings a week. I hope that the wonderful stay-at-home vibe manages to continue for my kids throughout this change. The easy flow of our days together is what makes this childhood time so rewarding and special for us all.