Red means stop

We let the kids have some mini M&Ms after dinner tonight. They were red and green (does that tell you what vintage they might be?!). Kailin immediately ate all of her red ones. Steve asked her why and she said, "Because red means stop and I don't want to stop eating these!" and then she giggled her husky, tired, hysterical giggle - the one I love the best. I love love love that little girl (and her funny logic)!

(and then Colby, who had been eating indiscriminately, immediately consumed every last one of his red ones....)

A wonderful two days...

We had a couple of really nice days last week and we did our best to get out and fully enjoy them. 60's are rare in March and they are cause for celebration - they restore our faith that spring is indeed on the way and that we again will smell warm air and the scent of the earth defrosting after a long, cold winter. On Wednesday we took a nice walk as a family (well, Colby took a ride since his attitude of late precludes him from being trusted walking as we do not have sidewalks in much of our neighborhood), and then the kids and Steve played outside while I made dinner. I couldn't resist snapping a few shots of them tooling around on their bikes (okay, the pink tricycle doesn't really belong to Colby, but it is the one he chooses at present due to it's height and ease of pedaling...). Kailin has come a LONG way since last fall. Although she still has her training wheels on, last fall she would go approximately 8" before needing to reach for Steve or me for balance and security. This year she's hard to keep track of as she cruises up and down the sidewalk with ease. I'm proud of her!
On Thursday we scrapped our walk in favor of a trip to a really awesome playground near our house. It was a surprise to the kids and they were beyond excited about it! We played and played and played. Kailin started out on the swings and Colby in the sandbox and for awhile I wasn't sure if we'd get them to play anywhere else. Then Kailin ran off to find new adventure and when she wanted to show Steve how she could go down the fireman's pole, Colby tagged along. He discovered the slides and then spent almost the entirety of the rest of our trip climbing up and going down - as fast as he could. I tried and tried to get a picture of his brilliant smile, but all I could seem to get was his shoes. And even that shot is blurred with motion. Ha ha. Kailin was big on the slides for awhile too, but instead of simply taking the stairs back up, she clambered up the rock climbing wall more times than I can count. In the end they both ended up back on the swings and in attempting to get some nice shots of them smiling, I got these artsy shots that I fell in love with. I did get the money shots, but I love these two more for some reason - maybe because they're not perfect and they are a snapshot of a split second in time and a good reminder to stop and enjoy even the tiniest moments of joy in my day.

Steve and I had a long talk one day this winter about striving to truly enjoy our kids more and spending less time trying to "get through the day" given their ages and what that means in terms of their behavior. We've been working hard at it and after our trip to the park I can say that I am truly, truly looking forward to longer days ahead and more opportunities to get out and do things as a family. To truly live our lives the whole week through and not just on the weekends, and to enjoy the kids for who they are right in this moment. Good, bad, ugly - take each day as it comes and capture every second we can with them. I know some days will be easier than others to do that and that other parts of life will get in the way sometimes, but I'm excited that we're starting a new journey and that it promises to be full of adventure - one way or another!

Up close and personal, deer...

We went for a family walk (I'd call it a hike, but due to the swampy nature of the trails at present we stick to the paved path for now...) last night at Harrington Beach State Park. We are blessed to live pretty close to this small, but beautiful park. It has so much to offer as it is literally on the shores of Lake Michigan but also has a small lake that was once a quarry, a pond, prairie, deciduous and evergreen forest, and plenty of trails. It has a large population of deer most of which are pretty tolerant of people. They are wary, but allow us to get decently close and watch them.

As she always does, Kailin wanted to go right down to the water's edge. Steve took her down, but asked me to keep Colby as the lake was pretty riled up and he is FEARLESS. I managed to get a picture of Steve and Kailin and one of Colby and me. I love them both.

Next we explored a little waterfall that is created by spring runoff every year. The kids love to watch it and Steve and I are intrigued as well.

Then we rounded a bend in the path where the terrain opens up to a beautiful grassy knoll dotted with several deciduous trees. We sometimes see deer on the knoll and yesterday we spotted a doe and her twin yearlings. They took note of us but then went on about their business. Then it almost seemed as if they were edging closer to us. Then we were SURE they were edging closer to us, but we weren't sure if we were just at a natural intersect point in their path to get across the trail or if they were truly interested. One of the yearlings got even braver and boldly walked toward us, nose in the air, sniffing. Steve turned and asked me if I really thought the deer was checking us out. I said I thought that it was. It got probably about 15 feet away and we were marveling in our encounter with it when we heard someone whistle. It was only a minute or so before the deer turned and headed in the direction of the whistle. We looked over to see a man offering the deer apple cores. So they weren't checking us out - they were waiting to see if we were their gravy train. It was still a cool experience for the kids, but I'm disillusioned and frankly a little annoyed that the guy is feeding them. There is fall hunting in that park and the deer don't have a fair chance if they have no fear at all of humans.

We rounded out our walk along the path and Colby got into a coughing fit and then said that his tummy hurt, so I picked him up and carried him the rest of the way. I'm so glad we went yesterday. It was one of those simple everyday sorts of things that end up dotting the fabric of our lives with a beautiful pattern.

Toilet humor

Here's your fair warning that this post involves toilet humor. --Not low brow humor... but actual humor involving a toilet.

Colby woke up from his nap and told me he needed to POOP! We went into the bathroom and I got him situated. He arranged himself as usual - hands tightly gripping the seat at 9 and 3, heiny hung low. The he looked up at me with bright eyes and said, "Hang on tight.....heeeeeeere we gooooooo!!!" (It's a phrase he's heard from Peter Pan in the trailer for Disney movies) I had to stifle a laugh. That boy. Upon completing his task and having been asked by me if he was all finished, his reply was "Yep. I all done. Dat make my butt SOOOOO happy!!!" Whatever will I do with this one?!

Slurping

I'm so excited! A friend had told me that blurb.com had a way for you to "slurp" your blog over and make a book out of it, but I never checked it out. Another friend just sent me a discount code to do it, and I finally took the time to check it out. I'm so glad that I did. I'm hoping that the idea of preserving it forever and of having to journal less in our family scrapbook (not that I mind the journalling, but I do mind forever having to try to trim back my words to fit on the page) will be my motivator to blog more this year. We'll see how it goes....

Pickle packer

Whose job is it to jam that last pickle into the jar? You know the one that causes you to have to put your fingers into the briny pickle water and nearly throw the whole jar trying to dislodge it? Does that person like their job? Do they secretly laugh and smirk as they jam that one in or are they remorseful and think "Oh, some poor person is going to have to put their fingers into the pickle water now, but this is my job and I have to do it. The pickles MUST be packed." Inquiring minds may never know!

Fresh air

Kailin woke up with an earache this morning. I've been blessed never to have had one myself and doubly so that neither of my kids have, either. We weren't sure how bad it was going to be or how long it was going to last, so we settled her in with some ibuprofen and a warm cloth and decided we'd better skip church. I'm not sure which did the trick, but she was good as new by noon.

It's been warm(er) lately and we decided to pack up the kids (with an ear covering hat on both of them) and take a walk at Harrington. I'm so glad we did! The fresh air did us all good, and the kids had a ball. They wore their rain boots as we anticipated a lot of puddles due to the warm(er) weather. Not so much with the puddles - but there was still snow and they felt it was hysterical to be flinging themselves around in the snow whilst wearing their rain boots. Most of the path was in fact clear, but the kids, as kids will do, stuck to the parts full of snow. Kailin told Steve she saw a deer track and he looked down at the many dog prints and said, "Where?" and sure as anything she showed him a deer track amongst the dog prints. He asked her if she was going to be his hunting pal when she's older and my answer was "only if you can promise that she won't get dirty and you'll let her wear a dress and tights in the woods..." Ha ha ha. They found sticks and then the real fun began as they used them to poke at every manner of snow, ice, mud, rock, and anything else they could...well...poke a stick at.

Around a few bends we saw a herd of deer and were able to watch them for quite awhile before we moved on. Next we came upon a large, open field still full of snow. The kids were dying to frolic and we gave them the go ahead. They ran off into the field screaming and giggling. We strolled along the path and I looked over just in time to see Colby throw himself down in the snow and make a snow angel. It was just too cute. It was also funny because he didn't have snow pants on! Lastly, it was far too fast because I couldn't get a picture of it before he was up and on to other adventures. They leaped and played until we told them it was time to go. Steve always teases the kids that deer poop is going to get them (it used to be a tactic to keep them moving instead of putzing with every single rock or stick they found). I don't know if that was a factor or not, but out of the blue, Colby declared "Ready, set, POOP!". There wasn't any deer poop in sight and thankfully, no people poop in his pants, but it did make us laugh pretty hard!

Going back up the path we again encountered the deer. This time they were on the move and we got to see them pretty close. They pretty much walked alongside us for a good piece of the trip back to the car. After the deer left us we did a little racing amongst ourselves and then Kailin had some fun throwing ice chunks. Colby, unfortunately, got himself into a bit of trouble regarding eating snow and having difficulty remembering to listen, so he held Steve's hand for most of the trip back.

It was home and warm baths for the kids while I made supper. Fun times like this afternoon make up for all the times that are...less than fun.