Wild Kingdom

Funny, we right now live in a state that most people think of as being quite wild and natural, and most of it may be. But here in our little quasi-urban area it is decidedly not so. Our yard and immediate outside area here rate at the bottom of the list of places we've lived so far, in terms of wildlife sightings. There are no squirrels! A few birds, mostly pigeon-dove types. Lots of roaming cats. But that's about it on a regular basis. So today it was really exciting to spot this pretty gal 

 

and her two fawns(!) in the neighbor's driveway when we got back from school today. And later, while in the garden, I heard a rustling at the back fence, and spotted this funny sight:  

 

Poor little guy had just escaped a cat, who I could see pacing on the other side. I don't know which waited out the other; mouse was still up there when we went in. 

And for the indoor wildlife report, I give you this current situation: 

 

and these moments from earlier in the day: 

which could be entitled something like "moments of angelic creativity" or "the calm before the storm." Minutes after each photo was taken there was a flood of water on the kitchen floor and a whole lot of paint, well, everywhere, respectively. I love letting my kiddos do creative, free-form things, I really do. And Caroline probably does more at an earlier are than the other two did, either by personality or sheer availability of big-kid supplies, but OMG do I have to put on my patient hat when we get into this stuff, because I usually have to spend as much time cleaning up as she did on the activity. But I'm not complaining - she can correctly name all the colors now and I think that's pretty good for 21 months. 

And she really, really wanted to give those deer and that mouse big, big hugs. 

New Friends and Old Friends

We have some new (though possibly temporary) neighbors, and at long last my poor kiddos have a friend to play with in the backyard. Miss K is a soft-spoken girl just a year older than Amy, and seems to enjoy running around the yard with my crew, playing variations on tag and hide and seek. And William is in love. This crush has resulted in a new genre of drawing and writing from him - short, to the point love notes typed on the computer and printed out, or crayon pictures made in free time at school. The one on the ledge is their wedding. The age difference seems to be of no concern to him. 

Caroline thinks this new friend is pretty interesting, too, but her recent love affair is with my long-time best buddy, Pooh Bear himself. A few weeks ago I put on the classic Pooh for the kids one night, thinking that C would be of an age to fall in love, just as Amy did. Now these last few days she asks to watch the movie at every chance she gets. 

And the best part is that the big kids can't help dropping what they are doing to watch, too. 

I'm not really a big fan of default movie watching, but Winnie-the-Pooh is about as good as it gets; I never tire of this one and it delights me to see everyone spending time with such a classic bunch of old friends. 

First Week

 

Well, first week back to school is in the bag, so I guess a recap is in order, especially since I haven't touched the blog in almost two weeks...how'd that happen? 

The picture above actually pains me a little to share, because poor William was just so sad. He'd had his kindergarten meltdown a few weeks ago, and since then we really just didn't bring the subject up. We found out that his preschool teacher, whom he loved, had decided to move up and teach the kindergarten class. That fact, plus the half day program, and the class size of 9 made it seem like just too much of a good fit for him to pass up. He went along with it mostly but there were lots of tears at drop off...so sad for Mommy! 

Frankly, the whole first day just seemed weird - one of those days where everything is a little flat. I missed the kids, Caroline was crabby and we couldn't find a good groove for our short alone time. And it felt like all I really did was drive back and forth all day. But W was happy when I picked him up and looking forward to the next day after all.  Amy of course, had a great day - she has a nice, new, very young teacher and a grand total of 7 in her class, all kids she knew from last year. Again, many blessings. 

Then the twist in the story was poor W having a terrible stomach upset in the middle of the night - an isolated incident, I think stemming from stress, bad dinner choices, and possibly a migraine headache. Poor guy! But that bought him a day at home, which he completely loved - he does get a little overshadowed when A is in the picture, so this was the first day in awhile that he had just me and C all to himself. And it was a really nice day. We ended up going to our little "mini mall" at his suggestion ("mommy, it will be so quiet without Amy there!") I do love my kindred spirit boy; it was indeed a lovely and peaceful trip. I found baby clothes on the cheap at Ross 

 

while he scoped out the toy shelves. Then we visited the maternity section at Macy's and found some things for me, and lastly hit up Payless and scored matching sneakers for him and Caroline. They were both such fun to shop with. 

Anyway, that day put us all back in a better frame of mind, and Thursday finally felt right. C was up crazy early but as a result conked out in the car right after dropping off the big kids (including a happy William). Hardly believing my good fortune, I decided to stop for coffee, something I haven't done in months, after losing my taste for it early in my pregnancy. 

The caramel latte SO lovely, as was the half hour I spent in blissful silence in the grocery store parking lot, letting C nap and making a decent shopping list. 

Ahhhh. Rest of that day was good, and Friday was nice too - C and I found our rhythm at home, the kids had great school days, and I even took a moment to sew a tiny pillow for C out of two favorite baby shirts of hers that were too stained to keep whole or giveaway. 

Kind of a pointless project but quick and satisfying and C loved helping at the machine, and loved the finished product. 

So that was our week. 170 days to go, but who's counting? Recharging this weekend and hoping for a smooth stretch of weeks ahead. Things are going to start moving fast as we head into fall with holidays, birthdays, a new birthday and everything that goes with all that. Eleven weeks till my due date! 

Okay, feeling as though I am rambling now. Will sign off and report back afresh very soon!