He Loves Babies

....sometimes he loves them a little too.....hard......but he does love them nonetheless......any baby.  Every baby.

I have this baby doll that I received on my very first Christmas, we call her sad baby.  When David first found her amongst our boxes her legs and arms were taped on, she was hemorrhaging stuffing and she had a bit of a lazy eye--he loved her anyway.  He practiced 'gentle touches' with her in anticipation of each new baby and held her close when we found out one of those babies wouldn't be coming home after all.

Once I realized sad baby wasn't going back to her box anytime soon, she made her way to the local doll hospital for a little repair work and is no longer sad baby--okay she's still called 'sad baby' but she doesn't look like a sad baby........

.....well really she looks creepily like our actual baby.  I've been known to have mini panic attacks after walking into a room and finding her face down under a 'pillow nest' or laying head first in a box of blocks.  Mostly David just keeps her in his bed, though occasionally he wants to do something like wear her to the park just like mom.  I'm pretty sure this was mostly a ploy to impress the neighbor girl (whom he says he wants to marry because quote "she lives the closest to me").

On that note, we recently had to clear up a little misunderstanding when David started telling me he wished I were in heaven already.  Apparently he thought that in order for him to get married and have his own family I had to be 'in heaven' first.  Why it was just me and not Chris and I, I still don't know.  Well, much to everyone's relief I explained that mommies don't have to be in heaven first for their sons to get married--although I suppose there are many who would prefer it :)  And that if he gets married I want to be there to see it and celebrate, to which he responded that if that were the case he wants to build his new house right next to mine and he and his wife will make me lobsters for dinner--with macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and tuna fish, and also lunchables "for the kids."

Delicious :)

PS Don't tell Chris I put pictures of his eldest son baby-doll-wearing on the internets....he would not be amused :)

PPS Isn't he precious?

We've Got Legs

Can I just say that watching a tadpole grow legs is really fun?

David named him "Tom, Tom the Piper's Son" which is probably a good indicator of the amount of Beatrix Potter audio books we've been listening to in the car--this particular name comes from the The Tale of Pigling Bland--they sing it in the audio book version....I have no idea if it's in the actual book or not.  I do know that the version they sing in the book is an incorrect though commonly sung version of this nursery rhyme:

Tom, Tom, the piper's son,

Stole a pig, and away did run;

The pig was eat

And Tom was beat,

And Tom went crying 

Down the street.

Pigling Bland Version (to the best of my child-ruined memory):

Tom, Tom, the piper's son,

Stole a pig, and away did run;

And all the tune that he could play,

Was over the hills and far away.

Clearly I'm putting all of my previous education to good use here--I think everyone would agree that motherhood makes you smarter in a tremendous variety of ways, although none that anyone commonly awards degrees in.  Although I suppose knowledge of obscure nursery rhymes with an emphasis in tadpole development could make for an interesting course of study...........

Tales From Our Garden: vol.3 {Memorial Day Weekend Edition}

Over the three day weekend we did a little work in the garden.....the biggest excitement being these amazingly wonderful tomato cages we made out of some found bamboo and string.

The cage for the tomato plant on the left is really more the invention of wishful thinking than necessity.  That particular plant is our saddest tomato plant....but maybe just seeing his new tomato cage will inspire him to fill out to his own glorious potential.

We also did some more weekend adventuring and found the first real, teach-your-kids-the-laws-of-physics see-saws we've seen in Florida.  David loved it.  Henry was terrified........mostly of David.....combined with the laws of physics.

John Michael also had fun.......

......with me in the car.......................

......trying to take pictures of him in my lap.......

......nailed it.  

Through the Driftwood Forest

We decided to do a bit of adventuring this morning and set out for Blackrock Beach in Big Talbot Island State Park up here in Northern Florida.

Once we arrived and Chris was loaded down with all of our necessities he declared himself to be Samwise the Brave....I'll let you decide if he was being dramatic or not.....but I certainly don't think that he looks as if he's packed enough to get himself to Mordor.......

You can tell that we are not professional adventurers by the fact that we forgot to bring both sunscreen and bug spray and we most definitely needed bug spray.  The lovely shaded path we started down was home to approximately eleventy-billion mosquitoes and David was not pleased.   Adventuring lesson number one: mosquito bites + salt water = burning fire legs of death.

I thought the trail ended with a path down to a regular beach.  In reality the trail led to this:

An amazing driftwood forest/tree graveyard.  It was a bit of a scramble to get down to the beach but it was so worth it.  We promptly abandoned our shoes and got down to the business of exploring.

The pictures don't really do justice to the surrealness of this place.  It was wonderful and quiet and pretty much totally abandoned.

We found hermit crabs, regular crabs, and tiny schools of fish.  We also had a bit of a surprise in the shallow water.......

The hammerhead was swimming right by our feet when we noticed him which was amazing.....and also a little frightening......but also solidified this beach's reputation as our most amazing place visited in Florida.  Of course after the shark sighting we were a little more careful with the kids in the water :)

I think we'll definitely be revisiting soon.

Fishing for Tadpoles

There's a little creek that occasionally turns into a lake near our house.  One morning this week when it was in full on lake mode we happened to notice this:

There were so many tadpoles David was catching them with his hands to get a better look at them and I promised we would bring daddy back to show him once he got home from work.

Unfortunately for me there must have been some kind of tadpole massacre while we were gone because there was not a tadpole to be seen when we came back after dinner with all of our tadpole catching apparati (I mean really, if David could catch them I'm sure there were any number of more nimble predators who could have gotten to them in our absence).

I finally managed to redeem myself and found a measly two little tadpoles and we brought them home for further study.

I remember catching tadpoles with my grandpa in the creek behind his house as a little girl, but I don't think we ever had one that made it into full fledged frog status....I'm pretty sure the best we ever managed was to watch one grow two legs.

Hopefully we'll have better success with these guys--although I think we may already be down to one tadpole in the bowl unless we have one regular tadpole and one master of disguise.

Luckily (or sadly?) we had an open fish bowl since Howard (aka the fish who lived.......and lived.....and lived) passed away last month after three long years as the most neglected pet in our family--which was mighty impressive considering his beginnings as a party door prize.

We haven't named him yet, but I think he is my favorite found creature that's been brought into our home....not that I didn't enjoy all of the lizards/frogs/giant cockroaches that proceeded him but....well, they were gross and they couldn't metamorphosize sooooo they pretty much have nothing going for them.......