Duck, Duck, GOOSE!

Last night Charlotte wanted to play a game with me. Henry was in the sandbox and Dave was cleaning up dinner dishes. She said she wanted to play duck duck goose. The following is a transcript of this event.

Kate: Okay, how do you play?
CJ: You sit in a circle and touch peoples heads and say duck and then goose and then you run.
Kate: so do we need another person to play?
CJ: no, we can do it.
[we sit in a "circle" across from each other]
CJ: I'll go first
[stands up and deliberates...wheels turning in mind...]
No, you go first.
Kate: I think we need someone else. go get daddy
[dave and henry join us. CJ wants to play upstairs in our bedroom. we sit on the floor as charlotte goes around us]
CJ: Duck
Henry: Duck [gets up and follows her]
CJ: duck
Henry: duck
CJ: goose! [as she pats Dave's head]
Henry: Goose!
[charlotte runs around the circle, dave gets up to follow her, she completes the circle then keeps going and runs into her room. Henry follows her. Dave follows her. They all come back]
Charlotte: Okay, now your turn, Daddy.
[in a whisper: call me the goose!]

This continued for about 15-20 minutes with Henry refusing to sit down always following whoever was it and repeating duck or goose. The running was in all directions and made little sense or difference whether the person who was it was gotten by the goose. Again, Playing with her is like playing with a drunk person. Just another reason why living with toddlers is like being at a frat party.

The people in your neighborhood

This afternoon as naptime approached, the kids were bickering over toys and me, so I kicked us outside. I picked some ripe tomatoes and Henry noted that the people 3 doors down had a lawn service doing some weed-wacking. So the kids and I walked down there. On the porch was the man who lived there, Mr. Zazakis. He and his wife, Marina, are from Greece though they've been here in the states since they were in their 20's. They invited the kids in right away and gave them candy. The kids made themselves at home and sat on the couch and then it was sort of awkward when the kids decided to go upstairs. But the Zazakis were so nice and welcoming. They sent me home with some candies from Greece that their daughter, who lives there, brings to them. There is a picture of the Mona Lisa on the wrappers.

I think the kids are learning that every neighbor they visit will offer them treats. What a nice neighborhood where that happens. Yesterday we visited Cele across the street and the kids played with her cats. And of course, yesterday when we got home from grocery shopping Henry got out of the car and started calling for Mary and Bernie. Mary was outside and she gave the kids popsicles. We're like the block moochers. I'm okay with that.

Garden Glory

It is a little early to really be planting stuff, but it is getting crazy out of control in my house so I transplanted almost all my seedlings today. I made sure to water them well because they looked pretty traumatized from the move. Hopefully they'll perk up soon. I see the sun is peeking out now so they might get a little warmth.

I plan on covering them with old sheets or a plastic tarp at night for the first few nights because I haven't hardened them off yet. In an ideal world, I would have left them outside for a few hours at a time to get used to the outside gradually. But all of a sudden I realized that I had the time to plant them and I needed them out, now!

My tomatoes were so darn leggy, I ended up stripping the bottom 12-18 inches of leaves and burying the stalk in a shallow trench and then tied the top to a stake so that roots will grow out of the stalk. Tomatoes are good like that. I need to buy lots more cages, though. I only had 4 cages because I used my peony cages on my
peonies this year :-)

I tied some twine up to stakes to make a half-assed fence to keep two year olds out of the garden. But I need to buy some more stakes, too. When my irises bloom, I'll really need the stakes for them and for my gladiolas.

Feels so good to be out in the yard and it is looking sharp with our new playset. If only Dave would agree to cut the lawn shorter. He says longer is better for it. That might be true, but it looks unruly to me.

Oh, biggidy-bomb is up so I'll go tend to him now. I'll post pics later.

Relaxing on a sunny day

I am enjoying a day without a nap. I finally feel good again! About two weeks ago, I got a cold. Then I concurrently got a UTI (thankfully, my dear Dr. Andy was able to prescribe me some stuff since I couldn't get to my doctor). Then Charlotte got some sort of stomach/poop bug that lasted FOUR days. Then as she got better, I got it! But it only lasted a couple of days and Henry never got it.

So I have been napping because I've been sick and miserable. But now I feel pretty good. I worked out today and then we went to see Mary and her new baby, James. He is a peanut! I can't believe babies are so small. Henry looked like Gigantatron next to baby James. My friend Rose also had a baby yesterday, her baby is Elsa. Love that nice german name.

My seed catalog from Henry Fields came today and though I wanted to use burpee (like mom always does), I find this one is slightly cheaper, and so I might use that.

The sun is coming through the windows, the kids are both sleeping and all the world is at peace. Maybe that is the margarita talking. What? A margarita in the middle of the day?? you might ask. BUT, if you think about it, it is the most responsible time for me to drink when I don't have any childcare duties. I just have to be good to nurse at about 5pm. No problem! And though "daytime drinking" is a supposed to be a sign of alcoholism, I can assure you all that I haven't been drinking a whole heck of alot lately. Just too busy/too tired to do much. I go to bed at like 9:30. Last night I stayed up til 10:10 and I thought that was late!

I'd love to post pics, but I"m using my "craptop" and it doesn't have our photos on it, so maybe another time.

Garden Fever!

Okay, quick update: Henry is getting better and better generally, though Dave still sort of dislikes him and thinks he is difficult. This is not true, he is just a baby. Henry, not Dave. Well, maybe both when it comes to this :-) Found out the hard way that his reflux meds are actually quite important when CJ managed to lose his medicine and he missed two doses and then went nuts the following day. Bought two week supply more for $24 then found the bottle in the pantry. Thanks, Charlotte.

Charlotte is super cute, talks all the time, likes to sing, loves the snow. She stomps one foot into the snow along the driveway all the way down. I'm not sure why this is so interesting, but she's been doing it for months.

On henry's three month birthday we joined the YMCA (they watch kids in childcare center for free with family membership as soon as babies are 3 months old). After some false starts, we found a good rhythm to going and now go 6 days a week at 8:30-10:00. I've lost 10 pounds and several inches and I feel much better!!

Getting out with the two kids is getting easier, or I'm just getting used to it. But I'm getting desperate to get out withOUT the kids and maybe WITH my husband. Need a date night soon!

I'm reading a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about a family who vows to eat only food that is local. They grow much of it themselves on their farm in Virginia (?) and buy local meats. Although I'm not up for that challenge (it is a holy amount of work), I'm super excited about my garden this year!! Last fall I killed a flower bed so I could do more veggies and I'm so glad. I plan to plant lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, beans, onions, garlic, maybe potatoes and I already ahve some strawberries. I'm going to do my best to do it all organically and I have a few books on hold from the library about this. I also plan to try to hit the farmers market as soon as they open this spring and do more local buying and more food from scratch. I'm reading alot about the amount of preservatives and chemicals in our foods and I don't like it! Besides, I enjoy cooking and so does Charlotte. She is a tremendous helper and makes muffins with me about once a week. Now that Henry can sit in the Bumbo on the counter, we can probably do even more! I used my food dryer for the first time since last fall and dried some kiwi. They look awful but taste pretty darn good! I plan to try to do more with tomatoes this fall and dry some and can some and freeze some. I love me my tomatoes and so does Charlotte! I'll have to plant at least three cherry tom plants this year to keep us all satisfied.

Okay, kids still napping (I have them on the same schedule for the afternoon and it was a stroke of brilliance/necessity that I am glad for every single day) so I might get some stuff done.