April 2012

When you start blogging about pictures that happened over two months ago, the pictures are all new and exciting to you, too!  Let's get poor April finished up here...

We went to the science museum in Syracuse one windy Saturday.  Lincoln had fun playing with the big building blocks...

But probably not as much fun as Evan.

Funny light.

The little kids couldn't understand most of the exhibits, of course, but they had fun hanging out with Daddy and walking all over the place.  We wrapped up our day there with an IMAX film, Born to Be Wild, that fascinated Evan and I and completely freaked Lincoln out.  It does have to be a little scary to have life-sized elephants running at you from the ceiling of some place.

 Rilla being generally fabulous, in the tutus Aunt Bet bought.

Evan, with his spiffy bunk bed.  He built one on a custom order, and decided, while he had his tools all set up, he might as well make another one.  "Because it will only take a few more hours to make two than to make one."  Ha, ha.  Well, the customers are very happy with their order, and we now have a beautiful bunk bed for sale (not cheap).

The ladder...

There's even a spiffy little shelf for the top of the bed, for a few books and a clock.  (The little boy it was destined for reads as much as my red-headed bookworm).

Another Vaughan visit, when Livie and Tori came home from Adam's Center with us.

See?  Cheyenne smiles nicely for her Aunt Livie.

Rilla, with the ever-present book (or two).

Lincoln, drawing carefully.

Cheyenne, being Vanna White for Evan's new dump trailer!

It goes up!  And down!  And dumps things!  Evan is ecstatic.  No more renting dumpsters or cadging a trailer from fellow contractors.

Evan, intent on some project...

And his little tail.

Staking up the salix alba.

A family project, as they all are.

Even making popcorn requires the family to be onlookers.  (I just noticed the fabulousness of Rilla's footie pajamas with her brown meeting shoes.)

We bought an air popper when Scottie was visiting in April, and it's become a Thing to have popcorn in the evening, whilst Daddy reads a book aloud and Mommy does dishes.  Or, Mommy sits and listens to the book and tries to ignore the general dishevelment of the surroundings.

Lincoln likes to wait for the first pop.

I just missed the excited gasp of First Popcorn in Bowl.

Coloring nicely.

I decided those little bare piggie toes were too edible not to record for posterity.

Of course, once I got the camera out, I got lots of these shots-- Lincoln hopping up to "See!  See!" what was on the camera.

The Bunk Bed Goes on an Outing.

Here it is, all painted up in its slate blue, no-VOC milk paint glory.

It really is a beauteous thing.

So is the bouquet the little chocolate-mustachioed boy presented me.

Too pretty to be called "weeds"!

Lincoln with his baby.  He's not too fussy which one of the dolls he gets to cuddle, but he likes having one with him.

The kids love climbing the crabapple tree out front.

The little stenographer.

I love how serious he gets with a notebook.

Little apple girl in the evening sun.

Lincoln doesn't want that paternalistic arm around him.

Rilla, however, perseveres.

Elliott had his kindergarten musical in April.

Elliott, with his underwhelming costume.  I thought Evan did a fantastic job, spray painting the cardboard and cutting it to look like a stink bug.  However, every other kid had much more elaborate costumes.  I'm not sure why this surprises me anymore.

However, my kid was the most amazing kid there by a long shot, so we won't worry about the costume.

Every time I asked him to say his lines at home, he slurred all the words together in a fast monotone.  Imagine my surprise when he got up there and spoke them clearly, distinctly, and at a proper volume!

This is how he spent much of the musical-- hidden behind Emily's wings.

Then there was a wardrobe malfunction-- his costume started falling off.

Yup, there he is with his hands all comfy-cozy down the front of his pants!

This little chrysalis...

Became a butterfly!  The kids were completely impressed with that.

Then, a trip up to the farm!  We walked up to the woods to pick leeks Sunday afternoon.  Here is one of the (extremely noisy at 5:00 a.m., not that I'm bitter) roosters, taking a stroll under the hay elevator.

Totes Adorb, relegated to behind the barn.

The leek-picking crew!

Rilla was in charge of the basket, which filled her with self-importance!

Hey, *I* got a fairly genuine smile from my daughter!

Pausing, before beginning the long trek across the hay field.

Rubber boots were a must.

Rilla, being extremely brave with Penny.

Gilbert, chilling out.

Elliott and Orianna, buddies just like they were when they were The Twins five years ago.

Tori Alice (not her actual name) did most of the work of digging, "helped" by young chilluns.

Dutchmen's britches!

A tree.  We wondered what kind it was, so I snapped this extremely helpful picture for future identification.

Ashley lifting Gilbert up.

Little tree hugger!

The kids really got into grubbing in the dirt.

The photog.

Then, walking home.  Alas, we had to leave right away, so I didn't get to eat any of the leeks.  But 'twas fun to go watch them being picked.

Lincoln Cooper's Super-Duper Second Birthday

As I am often reminded when I see pictures of other kid's birthday parties, I am not a good mom in the birthday celebration department.  Despite the lack of streamers, or even a real supper, though, we did have a good birthday for our baby boy yesterday.

Evan rented a rototiller to get the garden ready.  We had put black plastic on the ground last year, and this year Evan put a couple yards of topsoil in there, then a boatload of compost.  Did you know your local municipality often gives away compost free?  Evan got to use his snazzy new trailer (pictures coming soon) to haul it home.  The little garden in the background is the site of our hugelkulture experiment.

Lincoln wasn't real impressed with the noise of the rototiller, so he came running to me on the deck.

Another little girl, running up the stairs.  The only time this girl ISN'T running is when she's on her way to do something under duress.  Thankfully, that doesn't happen often, she's a pretty good little kid.

On the floor of the deck, pretending to be a cat.

"Meow!"

Then, Evan earning stars in his crown-- letting all four kids "help" in the garden.

Farmer Boy here is wearing overalls, natch.

Cheyenne with carrot seeds.  Possibly grown in Madras, OR?

I like this guy.

Rilla with the gardening tools.

 Elliott got right into the mud/dirt.

Though in this picture, he was rapidly shaking his hands, trying to get dirt off.  It's hard being a little neurotic about having dirty hands.

Reading the seed packet.  I was in the middle of a whole-house re-arranging (pictures coming soon), so I wasn't there for the whole planting session.  I just showed up to take the part of the paparazzi.  I think, though, that they planted carrots, green beans, cucumbers, summer squash, zucchini, and tomato plants.  Probably a few more I've forgotten.

"Yay!  Dirt!"

Lincoln, digging joyfully into a hill that's already been planted.  I don't know what will be the eventual final straw for this poor garden-- the squirrels, rabbits and groundhog... or my adorable children.

They're having fun, though, which is a lot of the point.

Our catalpa tree is getting ginormous.  Every year, we think it must be dead, because it will be going on the end of May without any buds.  Then, in one amazing week, it leafs out fully.  Cool tree.

Then, after baths to get the garden dirt off, it was time for presents.  Lincoln has been riding all over on his tractor trailer car storage truck (not exactly constructed for that purpose), so we decided to get him a ride-on car.

He practically had a stroke, waiting for Evan to undo the packaging.  Memo to self: kids couldn't care less if it's new or not.  Take the obnoxious packaging off before hand.

Woo-hoo!  It has lots of noisy buttons!

Bopping along to the siren sound.

Time for present number two.

 He had fun peeling the wrapping paper off.

Cheyenne wanted to give him a present, so she re-gifted some of her stuff.  She got a used gift bag out of my stash (I have no idea the last time I actually purchased a bag-- you can re-use them forever!) and wrapped up a couple things for him.

 Pulling out a little notebook dealio Cheyenne had got as a present at a fast food restaurant one time.

And, Rilla and Elliott gave him a package of "Nums!" (Lincoln's word for any snacky thing-- in this case, M&Ms.)

I don't obsess over The Last Baby thing too much, but I do take time to savor such things as edible feet.  They probably won't hold the same appeal in a few years.

Cheyenne helping him use the reciprocating saw.  It cuts a board (held together with Velcro) in half.  Lincoln mostly likes the noise.  I thought he would love wearing the safety goggles, but so far he's just scared of them.  The other kids love them, so it's all good.

My crazy little psychopath is armed and dangerous.

Licking the icing spatula.  (Whose bright idea was it to bathe these kids BEFORE the chocolate cake?)

Daddy carrying in the completely unadorned, boring chocolate cake.

Singing.

Loving the birthday song.

He's singing the "youuu!" right here.

Blowing the candles out.  This was after we re-lit them, because Elliott had jumped in and blown them out before the last note of the birthday song had a chance to die away.  After a little lecture about patience, we lighted the candles again and Lincoln blew.

Chocolate-faced big brother.

Lincoln, spending the first night in his new room. 

Some Lincoln factoids:

• He is completely obsessed with tractors.  Perhaps he is related to Andy?
• He said "I love you" for the first time Friday, in response to Rilla's "I love you."  It's all vowel sounds at this point, but it sounds wonderful.
• Lincoln, as evidenced by the picture above, thinks babies, books, and a blanket are all necessary accoutrements to sleep.  He sings to himself in the crib, a most beautiful sound.
• He is talking quite a bit, but very few sentences as of yet.  About the only time he'll use a sentence is to correct you-- "NOT wet!"
• His idea of bliss would be to have someone constantly on hand that would let him in and out of the house unhindered.  He loves being outside, but isn't quite responsible enough to be out there without supervision.  Thankfully, Cheyenne likes sitting on the porch reading a book, so they keep each other company for hours on end.  I can see that Cheyenne will be a big help this summer!

I'm sure there's more cute things to record here, but I'm pretty tired.  I stupidly overdid it Saturday, hauling furniture up and down stairs by myself, so my knee was aching badly last night and I didn't sleep well.  A lovely Sunday afternoon nap, some ice, and a day of rest later, I'm feeling much better, though.  It will be fun tomorrow to finish re-arranging stuff and purging the house of some unnecessary clutter.  Unlike most Mondays, I won't be doing any laundry.  Our washing machine died last week, and the repair guy can't get here until Tuesday.  It will be 7-8 days between laundry days, so I may have to get creative with clothing!  I think we all have enough underwear, so it won't get too unsanitary!

We heard this evening that a very special lady has gone to her final reward.  We'll be heading to that funeral, whenever it is.  I lived with Joan while I went to graduate school, and I have a lot of wonderful memories of her gracious spirit and life.  Hard to believe she's gone.

I do have lots of pictures and blathering to post here soon.  Some upcoming posts include April pictures, May pictures, my thoughts on summertime, pictures of the re-arranged house... we'll see when I get to it all, in between laundry and travel!