A little R&R after a hard day's work

After a big day tackling projects, Pete gets some snuggles from his little man swinging in the hammock under the pink flowers of the crabapple.



You might also see what's clutched in Austin's hand if you make the picture bigger ;)

Workin' on the yard....

So Pete has definitely made my gardening plans kick off. A couple weeks ago, he built me this bed on the left of the walk to house the 140 daffodils I got (at Walmart for $3 total in January!), the strawberry plants given to me by a friend (thanks Reg!) and some plants I traded a few strawberry plants for (chives, sage, comfrey, oregano, sedum). That's the top picture.

I'm relocating a few hostas that remain in the bed on the right (top pic), my proclaimed "veggie garden" next to the house (it's the only place that gets enough sun....we're blessed with so many trees in the backyard that veggies wouldn't grow well), to beneath two big spruce trees in the second picture. We also transplanted a volunteer maple today that was growing vigorously up between an arborvitae hedge. It was growing out of the hedge at a 30* angle or so but we were able to plant it upright. I'm hoping it survives the transplant (you don't get a sapling out of a hedge without an argument). You can see it in the second pic if you enlarge the picture (click on it) and look in the top left. Yeah, the tree isn't big, but it's probably still a 3-4 year old sapling! Okay, have to give Pete his kudos! He was in the yard digging and transplanting and sawing and hacking and yanking and hauling logs all day today!

Maiden voyage of the jacket

So, I own a motorcycle riding jacket, but I'm pretty sure I could never have guessed this would be how it would get broken in! We have an enormous maple in our front yard that looks like a tree from the black swamp with all of the dead trunks/branches on it, so today Pete went nutty on the tree. He sawed until his arms were jello, and then he sawed some more. Austin woke up in time for me to finish off the trunk....nice timing, huh :)

So, as I am handed the running chainsaw it occurs to me that chainsawing in a skirt and flipflops, though light and airy, would be STUPID! I realize that chainsaws are designed to maneuver through wood, certainly nothing a pair of jeans is going to stop, but my bright idea was to bust out the motorcycle jacket with kevlar (or whatever) plates going around some parts I'm partial to (arms, chest, etc) and the helmet would certainly be a deterrent should my face and the chainsaw meet in some horrible kickback scene...(ummm, yes, I am my father's daughter, in case that last sentence caused you to ponder the similarities ).

So, in the absence of the wonderful safety equipment encouraged by the university this was my best makeshift protection.

And Pete laughed....

And then went to get the camera thinking some of you might laugh too ;)

Momma's little helper

So our fantastic garage sale find turns into a smile-inducing photo for me. I vacuumed our rug earlier today and Austin, upon seeing me haul out "momma's vacuum" trucked over and got his vacuum and helped me vaccum our rug.

This is my Nana....

After reading the doggie story with Mom, Austin trucked over to Nana with it to read it again with a whole 'nother spin on things! Here they take a break to melt Mom's heart....oh, I mean smile at the camera.

Moon!

Austin and I are reading the book about doggies and on one page there are 9 doggies howling at the moon. Austin's pretty excited that he knows what a moon is and can sign it, so here he is signing moon, baby language version. His little palm facing out, moving it around vaguely in a circle.

Coincidentally, the sign for "airplane" looks similar and he's taken to calling any unidentified engine noise (meaning we can only hear it) an "airplane." And surprisingly, more than not he's actually right. Lawnmowers are "mo...mo..." too.

The little things we get a kick out of right? You listen to them say "bah!" for 4 months straight and a "mo!" is pretty freakin' exciting!

Hmmmm....

Time out for some rejuvination.

Hmmmm.....it would appear his hand made it down his pants again.... eh, what'r ya gonna do?

Because the face shot didn't turn out....

Here's our shot for the night ::giggle:: since our face shot didn't turn out, I thought I'd at least include this of us digging into delicious hors d'oeuvres (or however that's spelled!).

This is MY mom.....

Me and Nana...

Soooo excited!

Austin loves his Nana and Papa Ross. A LOT. I love it.

After Mom and Dad got here, Austin went back and forth between them squealing and squeaking (see picture) and then started waving furiously....his cue that he "needs" to go "driving." First with Nana in Nana's car....then with Papa Ross in Papa Ross's car....he cracks me up. It's so fun seeing your baby's tank filled and shrieking with delight.....

Lovin' for Papa Ross

Mother's Day dinner, Austin was handing out kisses and snuggles to Papa Ross.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

We had an awesome day here. Pete and I spent the day nesting and hanging out. It was rainy and peaceful and the mandatory indoors time amidst the happy chaos of spring preparations was novel and relaxing. Mom, Dad and Jonny came over for dinner. Pete prepared an amazing meal with strawberry-blueberry chicken and tupelo honey from the Savannah Crows, delicious salad, homemade bread from the farmer's market, bell peppers and hummus, and a sweet potato creation. For desert he served up shortbread with non-dairy black cherry with chocolate fleck ice cream topped with a homemade fruit sauce and the tupelo honey again. Dad brought desert too and I need to get some ice cream bars and apple pie over to their house before I eat it all! Pete and Dad hung the pot rack in our kitchen! It's AWESOME! It increases the mojo of our kitchen a lot. We had strawberry daiquiris and a fruity white wine to go with dinner. Austin made sure the floor was spic and span and gave the fam a vacuum demonstration. It was really wonderful

This year is a whole new experience in the emotion of Mother's Day. It's really quite special.

Mom sent this poem to me and I could never fathom how true it is until this year. So this is to all the moms who have been there, done that or are being there, doing that for their kids.....

Before I was a mom....
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a mom...
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a mom...
I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a mom...
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop
the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a mom...
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important
and happy.

Before I was a mom...
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every ten minutes to
make sure all was OK
I had never know the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache,
the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much

Before I was a mom......

Gonna get Papa Ross

This is the look of sheer excitement of about-to-be-gotten-by-Papa-Ross. Sooooooo excited!

Wheely assist

Austin LOVES pushing stuff around the backyard and this garage-sale find three-wheeler has an adjustable seat so he can actually ride on it. The fact that it took me, oh, about 10 months to realize this is beside the point. After we figured out how to move the seat forward we went for a spin on the sidewalk and it was awesome. Unbeknownst to us, Pete had woken up and caught it on the camera!

You can see how Austin feels about his riding toys from the look on his face here:

I'm gonna PUSH the button....revisited....

So I'm sure there are going to be many posts during the next few years that could appropriately be titled "I'm gonna PUSH the button"....and I just may use the title then too ;)

Pete and I were driving with Austin on the way to meet Papa Ross at the local farmer's market when we spied a garage sale with a bunch of kid "treasures" in the yard. With Austin's propensity towards vacuum cleaners you can imagine our excitement when we scored this one for 50 cents. Austin had to be drug away from their lawn which he was enthusiastically vacuuming, and when we got home he was enormously pleased to discover that the vacuum cleaner actually works with a fresh set of batteries. Yes!!

Another shot of the living room....

Here is the living room before/after shot looking towards the stairs! We're working on getting the right pictures/placements on the walls, but it's SOO nice and homey! I had some friends over today and we got to turn on the music (on that baker's rack) and dance around (in my skirt, of course) to some fold music (Tim O'Brian...thanks Glen for bringing that back from Sundance!).

And finally, some more pictures of our house

We continue to make the house feel like "home" and, as anyone who knows us knows, the house has been arranged in at LEAST 20 different ways since we moved there in late December. So, here is the best one so far, and what it looks like as of today! I'm standing on the steps leading upstairs, the entryway is on the left, the kitchen is at the back on the right and the doorway on the right, middle, leads to the 2nd bedroom, the 2nd bathroom, and the little closet you can see covered by the tapestry. It's so warm and wonderful! I'll get pics of the kitchen up too as soon as I clean it! Here is the before shot from a similar angle, just slightly to the right.

Hello? Hellooo?

Austin on his wee bench making some important calls with Dad's phone.

Monkey

Austin is using his free time to learn the properties of water on the floor, how different objects in the house fit in the dog's water bowl, and how to climb. Pete and Austin found the little bench in the picture at Salvation Army the other day and Austin looks pretty please with himself when he sits on it. This bench multitasks as a bench AND stool.

I'm gonna PUSH the button....

Austin discovered how to push the power button on the TV (ummmm....don't know who showed him that one.... ::ducking:: ) and will periodically exercise Daddy's patience by turning the TV on and off in the middle of the news updates, or perhaps by waking up in the morning and turning on some cartoons...then turning them off...and on....and off....

Snuggles for Momma

Getting a little impromptu Austin lovin' in the backyard. ::warm fuzzies::

Austin and Clark...

Here's Austin enthusiastically "bah"ing at something.....he looks very expedition-worthy ::giggle::

Hammock time....

Nana came over to play in the backyard with Austin and I and had to try out the hammock Pete put up recently. Ummmm....it's awesome.....Nana would not be making that happy face if it wasn't!

Vroom Vroom!

Grandma Katie sent up this ride-on toy for Austin's first birthday. Here he is enjoying the "vroom, vroom" noise it makes. He hasn't quite figured out how to make the "digger" work, but he's scooted along on it and thinks he's pretty tough stuff.

Mini-Austin

So, I got a Waldorf-doll kit and made a mini-Austin. I still need to name him, and Austin hasn't gotten into it yet, but the idea behind Waldorf dolls is that the faces are simple and pleasant and they are made out of natural fibers (cotton, wool, etc) so are nice to touch. I wanted him to have a "buddy" that he can eventually take on "adventures" or use in play therapy (ie, kids can process through their own issues through play, and having a "human" doll can help facilitate this). So, here is the end product. If you know his name, email me!! It might just have to be Tad...in honor of Austin's pre-arrival nickname from Tash ::giggle::

Playsilks

Austin loves playing on the deck since it's grass-clod free and he can view the world (backyard) from his vantage point. Here I wanted to take a pic of our playsilks we made with a bunch of friends and he thought it was great for peek-a-boo.

p.s. Playsilks are simple, bright (obviously) pieces of cloth that can be turned into anything. The red and orange get shoved through doll-house windows as "fire" the green and blue ones become "grass" and "water" for grazing/sailing. Wizard capes, knight costumes, dancing props, "food", "sauce", covers for stuffed animals, peek-a-boo, etc. They're AWESOME! And, it's SO much cheaper and fun to buy white ones and have a dyeing party with a bunch of friends!