Weekend Wowzas

Well, thank goodness the world didn't end after all because we had a great time this week. The boys and I headed down to visit my folks and to help celebrate my dad's retirement. He's ending his teaching career this year--yay for him! I'm not sure I'll have the stamina to make it in education as long as he has--32 years--but he's been a wonderful example of the teacher I hope to be, who genuinely cares about his kids and their success, who doesn't rest on his laurels. Congratulations, dad.

We also went to the City Museum in St. Louis--one of the coolest places I've ever been. It's filled with sculptures and labyrinths constructed from the refuse of demolished buildings. Logan had a blast in the ball pits, which weren't filled with your typical small plastic balls, but bouncy playground balls. I was a little afraid to take him through the labyrinths. I was picturing him freaking out in the middle of the trip and having to back up, he crying hysterically, through the tunnel that is only big enough to fit one person at a time, while the other museum-goers would have to move back as well in order for him to escape. I'm looking forward to next time we're all in St. Louis. Eric, who couldn't go this time because of work, will love this place. I was really proud of myself, who's always the scaredy-cat. I actually slid down the three-story high slide, which was really fun.

And when I returned home, I was impressed to find Eric had done quite a lot around the house...in a good way! He put in a nice flower bed next to our patio, put together a small shed to house our lawn equipment since our garage was impassable from all of the stuff we've collected. He had mowed AND weed-whipped. What's more, the house was still pretty clean. Like I said, impressive!

Tonight we enjoyed a first treat from our garden: lettuce salads to accompany our pizza. The first night of the workweek, Eric always asks for pizza, so today we at least had something healthy to eat with it. I had forgotten the downside of harvesting your own lettuce though: you have to rinse every piece thoroughly! I found four teeny slugs on the leaves while I was washing the colander-full I had collected, and by the time the salads were ready to be eaten I was completely paranoid that I had missed one and would sink my teeth into it. Thankfully, that didn't happen...at least if it did, I'm none the wiser.

I'm hoping we'll have a decent crop of veggies this year. They've nearly been drowned with all of this rain we've been having, so everything looks kind of soggy and bedraggled thus far. Gardening with a nine-month old has proven challenging as well. Auden's favorite pastime is picking the heads off dandelions and popping them in his mouth. They must be delicious or the texture must be fascinating. Of course, he's also drawn to dirt. Eric's grandmother always had a saying that "you eat about a peck of dirt in your lifetime." Well, I think Auden will probably meet his allotment this summer if he keeps up at the rate he's going. Logan, on the other hand, is pretty hands-off while we're gardening. He's happy to play in his sandbox or dig for worms or rolly-polies. He even avoids crushing things we've planted...excepting that spirea he sat on while I was weeding. No worries though-it bounced back surprisingly well.

I'm Baaack

Well, I've taken a little break from blogging, as you can see. Sorry for the absence, in case you've been checking and wondering, "What the heck is taking so long for her to post an update?" The days have been chugging along, and I have new reason to take full advantage of them, since I'm going back to teaching full-time next year. I was missing the classroom, but tried to take another year off through an academic leave to pursue a master's in reading. Unfortunately, too few people applied for the cohort program I applied for, and it didn't go through. So, I'll be sad not to be home with the boys again next year, (except for those moments when Logan's once again testing boundaries, along with my sanity, and Auden is desperately struggling against a diaper change or blowing the spittiest raspberries imaginable right after he's had a mouth full of baby food) but we're excited that they'll be with Miss Dawn next year part-time and with a woman in the neighborhood for the other part. Logan will also get to do preschool at Dawn's, so I'm excited to see what he'll be learning next year.

We've been working out in the yard and garden whenever we can--a significant challenge it's been to find time to do that, since the weather's been so dodgy lately. Yesterday, we put in our 15 tomato plants. After last year's bumper crop, we vowed not to plant as many, but somehow we've done it again. (Sound familiar, Grandma Kop?) And this year, we added potatoes (yukon gold and sweet potatoes), sweet peas (which the rabbits have already decimated--time to plant another round and fence it in.), heirloom lettuce, butternut squash, banana peppers, and an heirloom variety of pumpkin. We'll see how it all comes out...Hopefully better than our yard, which looks great in strips. In case you didn't know, zebra stripes look really amazing on a lawn. Want to know how you can have some of your own? Borrow your neighbor's spreader and drop fertilizer on your yard, then take the turns a little wider than you should. Voila! We're thinking we might go for plaid next year...

As you know, Logan turned three last month, and so far, I'm thinking three is more trying than two. We've been dealing with serious melt-downs pretty frequently now. He's super crabby in the afternoon when he would usually nap. And you kind of have to pick your poison: If he does nap, your afternoon is a bit more peaceful, but you can bet that he will be awake until a little after 9PM when you want to be relaxing on the couch. Yesterday, we were supposed to play with a friend in Aurora, but he had fallen asleep in the car. When he woke up, he refused to get out of the car, despite the bribes I offered and the sweet pleadings of the girls he was supposed to play with. We ended up packing up and going home. And I enrolled him in swim lessons, but he screamed his head off the entire time because he didn't trust the instructors. Yes, threes have been tough so far. Thankfully, he's usually an angel when I'm not around...

Auden is really moving now. He crawls like a champ, but it's too funny because he goes like sixty while his head is down, trying to improve his aerodynamics or something. It's really amazing he doesn't bump into things more often. Logan and he love to have crawling races down the hall. It's so fun to hear the peals of laughter issuing from them both. And he's continuing to move on up--he'll walk a bit with you when you're holding on to his hands. Really clumsy steps, almost a march, but he's learning... And everything goes in the mouth. I'm forever searching the floor for stray bits of whatever snack Logan was eating or toy with small pieces he was playing with. Auden will crawl up to it, see if you're looking, and with a mischievous grin, he'll pop it in his mouth. Yes, he might hesitate a bit if you say "no," but you can bet his mouth is where it will end up. And it's really not fun to do the mouth sweep now that he has his four and a half very sharp new teeth, which he'll use to chomp down on your finger. My shoulder is his favorite chew toy these days, so he's been spending a lot more time on the floor, practicing his crawling skills. We're wondering how long before he's walking...