My Name Is Now Mom

Everybody Smile! We did our best to get a family photo on Easter.  It's not easy with so many squirming bodies though... I'm pretty sure TerraDactyl is mid tongue click here Even without Riley in the mix, we really struggled to get a good picture. This might be my favorite... More weird tongue action on TerraDactyl's part So stinking cute! TerraDactyl helped me weed the garden some more.  I got a couple good hours of work in.  The garden beds all look pretty good now.  But the walkways still need a lot of work.  TerraDactyl had fun crawling around and playing with the weeds, pine cones, gloves, dirt, bark chips...  pretty much everything she could get her hands on.  She even crawled into three of the four garden beds. Now how do I get back down?? While I gardened, DH worked on the creek.  There's a few dead trees in the creek which have made some standing water.  It looks like good mosquito breeding grounds...

Spiffy duds! Yesterday was Saturday, so DH took TerraDactyl's morning shift so I could sleep in.  It's nice to be able to sleep in and catch up a bit on sleep.  I don't do well on little sleep.  DH chose this absolutely adorable outfit for TerraDactyl.  She was so cute! Dada!! Unfortunately, TerraDactyl was considerably less cute later in the day when she refused to nap.  So.  No nap yesterday.  I had planned to try another nap later in the day, but we got busy and I forgot about it. Trying to figure out how to cross the grassy expanse We spent four hours outside weeding!  TerraDactyl started out in the shade on a blanket, but she was NOT happy about being alone, even if DH and I were just on the other side of a fence, and Riley was keeping her company. The site of the weeding So instead, TerraDactyl joined me while I tried to weed.  Some of the time she sat on my leg while I squatted, some of the time she stood and ...

Picnic lunch! Ah spring!  The weather is warming up, the birds are singing, people are spending more time outside, and it's time to shift to your warm weather wardrobe.  It's a beautiful time of year.  Space Baby! But some parts of spring are not as wonderful.  Our awesome dining room windows are now covered in mating Box Elder beetles.  Not exactly world ending, but it is a bit annoying.  Especially since the previous owners of the house removed all the window screens in preparation of selling the house.  Now we've got to go through and figure out which screens go with which windows.  :( Mmm, who added Leg o' Lamb to the menu?  It's delicious! And of course, it's not spring without mention of the pollen!  We have been getting an amazing amount of pollen.  The deck and car are just covered.  Our first indication of the massive amount of pollen was looking out the window and thinking someone had spray painte...

I finally got around to filling up our bird feeder the other day.  I was really impressed that over the course of the week I'd only ever seen birds at it.  I was hoping that meant there were no squirrels in our neighborhood.  (Juuuust kidding.  Of COURSE there are squirrels here). Bird feeder & bird (just to the right of the red door) Yesterday, we had our first squirrel interloper.  I saw the squirrel up on the grape vines checking out the situation.  He started climbing down the vine toward the feeder in preparation of leaping over to it. Enthusiastic tooth brushing As the squirrel readied his leap, a robin dive bombed the squirrel!  It knocked him right off the vine and onto the ground.  It was impressive.  It was a pretty big robin, but still, the squirrel was definitely bigger.  DH thinks maybe there's a robin's nest nearby which is why he was so aggressive? Dada's here!  Everybody's super excited!! At ...

Morning play session TerraDactyl really enjoys emptying things out.  Drawers, laundry baskets, bags...  Which means her favorite drawer in the bathroom is the feminine hygiene drawer.  There's just such a large number of items to remove in it.  Every day she gets to empty out all the pads and tampons and scatter them all over the bathroom.  Sometimes she'll even wander around for an hour or so clutching a tampon.  I'm hoping this is a sign of her having a healthy body image and plenty of confidence.  :) So many toys! Another favorite game right now is the "reach through" game.  TerraDactyl will reach through the slats of her crib to pull out stuffed animals.  She'll reach through the baby gate to grab washcloths or toys.  And she just discovered the futon in the basement and tried to reach through and grab... me.  I don't fit through the slats very well though. I'm coming for you... As TerraDactyl gets stronger, ...

DH and I haven't gone overboard childproofing our house.  We've mostly just made the effort to put things we don't want TerraDactyl getting into up high.  And we've got a baby gate at the top of the stairs. Why won't it open? But as TerraDactyl has gotten more confident and comfortable with opening up the cabinets in the bathroom, I decided to put all the things I want her to avoid (mostly cleaning supplies) in one cabinet and put a child lock on it.  What's IN here? I honestly was expecting a huge tantrum the first time TerraDactyl failed to open the cabinet.  But it went very smoothly.  She tried to open it for like 30 seconds and then gave up and moved on.  Emptying out all the drawers instead.  Phew!  Hi mom! I figured I'd leave the other cabinet available for exploration.  But, TerraDactyl climbed all the way inside and started messing around with the water lines at the back.  So...  we might be locking dow...

It's super yummy on ice cream! I know I said that the next thing I was going to cook was going to be Lava Cake, but after reading the recipe...  I decided it was probably a bit more involved than I had the time for.  TerraDactyl is only willing to sit nicely in her high chair for so long, and I think Lava Cake is well beyond that.  Hey ma!  Did you know that every room comes with a teething toy behind the door? So I made a Betty Crocker Brownie Brittle pouch that I had in the pantry.  I got it out of a clearance bin for like 50 cents a while ago.  It was ridiculously easy:  just add a stick of butter, mix, and bake.  Still loving the bathroom... Poor DH though.  As the brownie brittle was cooking, DH came out of his office sniffing exaggeratedly.  He looked a bit like a cartoon character floating along following his nose.  DH said that the whole house smelled like brownies.  And he can't eat them.  I fe...