Who loves ya baby?

Zoe does!
Captured by Grandpa Jon this afternoon out at his and Grandma Jane's house.
AWWWW.

Get the picture?

Not only is the backyard fun, just because it's outside, but it comes complete with critters.

Like worms.I'm not sure how we got on this. Oh yes, I was weeding, trying to be productive with my time outside. Then I thought I'd show them what a worm looked like. And now that spot of the yard is our worm farm.
Joy.



Time to move on. Water, and a "fountain" to drink from.



Now that's fun.


See?



And Zoe found a nice nest of ants. Buggies indeed. Birds. Bunnies. Worms. Ants, er "buggies", what else do we need?



Melmo.



Best 25 cents I've ever spent (why bother???!)



Ah, back to worm digging.



Which means...Water and dirt...



Why the heck not?



Being up to date with photos just means we need more adventure. Almost up to date- which means I better start planning for the long weekend.

Finders Keepers

A few weeks ago your dad was getting ready in the morning and had a visit from a brown-smudged Zoe.



Uh oh.
WHAT is that Zoe? Back to the kitchen, which revealled an open container of daddy's chocolate frosted donuts.



That same night I am greeted at the back door (usually one of you hears me and makes a bee-line for the kitchen to welcome me home) and I'm visited by a orange handed monster.

What?



Zo and Ro, helping themselves to Doritos, snagged from the dining room table.



Recent revelation: you two have quite the reach

Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy

We've been out trekking a little bit less this year, and with the re-siding of the house a priority these last two weeks (yes, still in progress), we've been staying close to home. I find the only shopping I can really do with the two of you is at Costco because they have a double wide two seater cart. Perfect! So that's where we went this morning to stock up on some essentials. And then a non essential... a new phone for mommy. Woo hoo. Internet enabled. We'll see. It was a good deal - the rebate is bigger than the cost of upgrading and getting a new phone, but of course there's an extra fee for the Internet...

Meanwhile, photos from the last few weeks.



Enjoying a garage sale teeter totter. Woo hoo.



And a slide grandma Jane found at a sale as well.


You both enjoy it but it's Roman who'll go up the ladder, down the slide....Up the ladder and down the slide...Up the ladder and OOPS tumble down the slide. Even then he gets right back up (unless he hears a "pane" or a bus or a bird or...), speaking of birds...

More lessons of "if you just paid attention you'd see the world is right there in front of you"... Our backyard has become a mini nature center. A robin made a nest on a wreath hanging on the wall of our garage. Back on Mothers Day there were some eggs, and shortly thereafter some little baby birdies. The other day, when it was in the 90's, we noticed the birds all sitting in the nest with their beaks open. Waiting for food? A method of somehow cooling off?



I don't know, but those birds got big fast!



Zoe is a helper. This morning I was getting Roman dressed and he saw Zoe was carrying her "juice" (juice = anything that's not milk, 90% of the time it's water). He wanted his. I asked Zoe to go get it. She paused momentarily and then ran off to the kitchen. Sure enough she comes back with it and hands it to RaRa (her pet name for Roman). Then she went back to her juice. I was half listening, but as soon as she pointed at herself I realized she was saying "Zoe". I'd never really seen her point to herself in self recognition before, so that was kind of cool.




Ah, good times, even though your Mom gets overwhelmed and tired and cranky and "AAARGH!" sometimes.

H_O_T!

From this weekend...and today it's a hot one. I took a half (or really 2/3) day to help your dad with the siding. Ah, the siding, the siding. I came in for a brief respite when he ran into an "issue". 15 minutes later it seems to be solved, so I have to go back out in it!

Not today

But what fun we had on Wednesday.


Probably my favorite part was the time I spent listening to Zoe and Roman say "are you?" while they lie on their bellies looking for buggies. I'm not sure how "bug" became "buggies", but it has. And I think Zoe said something about a buggie and I said "Buggies, where are you?". That got them going on the "are you?"...

They are both very observant of their world. The other morning they were eating breakfast in the kitchen, the windows were open and all of a sudden Roman announces "Bus" with a look that was asking for confirmation. I had to pause, and sure enough in the recall of my 5 second memory I did realize that it was a bus that went by. But I wouldn't have registered it if he hadn't said something.




It's funny how you learn to tune out noises.(or don't - I'm sure you'll learn soon enough to daddy's aversion to chewing sounds...weirdo...:) ) Since we have transportation announcements I am more cognizant of the activity going on all around us. Maybe that's part of what's interesting (and increasingly exhausting) about raising kids. You get to see it from a fresh perspective. I'm sure the buses come by every 20 minutes (in and out), but I don't notice anymore. Same with the planes. Planes are announced as well, even in the middle of bathtime! "Pane" (with finger pointing to the sky).

Progress!

A few days ago - siding off. We were actually kind of liking this look. Rustic.
(why does Grizzly Adams pop in my head when I hear that word?)



...And an hour or so ago.... Kitty helped your dad all day today and they started getting some of the siding up. Woo hoo!




Thanks Kitty!

nature.

Tulips.


Trees







Japanese Garden. This is be a lot more fun when you can wander on over the stone path to the waterfall..


Last year (!)





Beautiful!
Lots of wonderful smells, animal-y sounds (frogs?) and fresh air. And, once you walk past the immediate gardens there aren't a ton of people. Maybe that's why I like to walk out to the Rose Shrub garden.

Downsized

Just perfect for Zoe and Roman!



There are two little houses in the shade tree area of the Arboretum. Other than the "bee" (or was it a fly?) that freaked Zoe out the two of you had a lot of fun going in and out of these houses. The hill leading up to it made for some exciting exits (walking, then running then WHOAH!). Yeah, this will be better with two adults to watch you...

This doesn't happen enough

I needed this. A whole half hour of two (two!) kids on my lap.
Today I had a moment or two where I realized I've been living in a happy, life-loving, boy-am-I-lucky bubble since you two were born. Well maybe I've known that, but I remembered what it felt like to not be there. Momentary and nothing important, but it all came back to me. I like living in the pleasant bubble. Let me stay. :)

And if "'queen" (Lightning McQueen, from the Cars movie) is going to be the one to bring me back in, I'll take it.

Monty Hall stopped by and asked us if we wanted what was behind curtain #1

I'm not sure when this plan came about (maybe the week the siding went on sale and your Dad hatched a plan to re-style our facade?), but we are mid-way thru a major project. In house, so to speak. Your dad has taken it on to re-side our house and enlisted the help of a couple of friends. Holy cow, such friends who'll help tackle this one. Thanks Kitty and Mike M!

The day your Dad and Kitty started taking down the existing siding it started to rain. And rained all day. Bad. For some reason we had purchased a huge (and I mean huge) tarp some time back - it covers the whole back side of the house and more.

The next three days have been good...Tonight we have 3 walls protected from any rain that may come our way. Hopefully tomorrow all 4 will be covered! (so far, the coast is clear). Mike and Mike worked hard this weekend and got a lot done, including some niceties...like outside power in the front of the house. Woo hoo.

Meanwhile I was gallivanting around town with the kids... I find I don't do well cooped up in the house.

Testing the waters.

Rules are for...interpreting. Dipping our hands and feet leaves a majority of our body "out of the pool", doesn't it?
(see question - previous post)



We came to this particular spot and stopped last year - the Shrub Rose Garden at the MN Landscape Arboretum. Your uncle Dan (as Grandma Jane calls him "the farmer") worked here for a bit after he got his degree in horticulture. Horticulture? Is that it? Yes, a late bloomer (so to speak) to the plant world. Would any of us have ever guessed that one? No. So remember kids, life is for exploring. When you turn 30-something you just may venture off in some other direction. This is a good thing.(not necessarily easy, but a good thing)



Last year when we got to this part I noticed the statue and thought about bringing you back here as you got bigger.



I just knew it would be a good place for pictures!



And since we had a warm day it was a good place to stop and play a bit.
It started with the three of us sitting all together. Roman got the hang of sitting down and scooting up to the side pretty quickly. Good boy. Zoe sat on my lap for a bit and swung her feet, but as time progresed (what, a minute?) you two wanted to venture a few feet more from mom... Okay.



Apparently they need their "space".



What a wonderful place to walk. If it were closer I would go there a lot. And I can't wait to get your dad to come with us too! He was busy working on deconstructing our house. More on that later.