Sweet Sisters

Some days I look back on my posts and feel that I write a disproportionate amount of posts about naughty children.

Some days I look back on my posts and feel that I write about such a small portion of the things that make my hair go grey that as readers you are really missing the true flavor of life here.

I’m pretty sure the direction that feeling takes  is directly related to whether or not my kitchen has undergone any flooding activity in the last 12 hours.

Today the kitchen stayed dry, and while good behavior and normal days don’t make for interesting stories they do hold some very sweet pictures.

Listening to Ivy “reading” to Clara  as she puts her down for a nap is one of my favorite things, sneaking a few pictures through the keyhole was even better!

“It’s Raining…”

One of the major problems I have staying home with three kids is that while I’m nursing the baby the other two are doing stuff. Some days they are doing nice stuff and some days are like today. Today I came into the kitchen and found that Clara discovered not only how to change the kitchen faucet from a stream to a spray but that you can also pull out the head of the faucet. I pull out the head of the faucet to wash large pans and clean the sink. Clara pulled it out, must have thought it was actually intended to be the worlds best water gun and got right to work spraying Ivy.

We’ve got good water pressure, Ivy got wet on the far side of the kitchen table.

This is sort of impressive if you don’t think about the fact that most of the water is landing on the floor, the counter, the paper, the microwave, the radio, the cell phone, the eggs, the vitamins on the shelves, the ceiling, the windows, the blinds, the leftover food waiting to go back into the fridge, the tin full of change, the chairs, the table, under the sink, under the fridge and in the cupboard.

But I’m the Mom, so I thought about all those things and was, shall we say, less impressed with Clara’s feat than Clara was, much less.

As Clara was doing her best to be a poster child for the terrible two’s and unapologetically running through the puddles instead of helping clean up Ivy chimed with, “It’s raining in here Mom.”  I looked up, saw all the water on the ceiling dripping down, took a deep breath, squashed my urge to strangle the kids, decided that while making them clean up their own mess was a good lesson it really wouldn’t do them any good if they were dead and sent them out of the room before I changed my mind.

Shortly afterwards while I was still fuming and sopping up water Clara danced through the kitchen with her underwear on her head on her way to brush her teeth. I took a picture.  As I continued cleaning I fantasized that in about ten years I could blow it up really large and hang it on my kitchen wall. Then Clara would be embarrassed and ask me to take it off the wall and I would laugh manically and say “NO! You were a rotten two year old who flooded the kitchen, the picture stays!” Unfortunately after looking at the picture I took I’m afraid I’ll hang it on my wall and everyone will tell her how cute she was even with underwear on her head. So much for that fantasy.  Next time I’ll work on something involving beaches. You know, if I closed my eyes and concentrated I’m pretty sure I could turn that big puddle on a gritty floor into the oceans edge on a sandy beach…. now where’s my drink with the umbrella in it?

Storm’s Sticks

This is Storm,

…she likes sticks.


This is Storm,

…she loves sticks.


This is Storm,

she has a stick obsession.

Obsessed as in John and I never touch sticks. Touching a stick is like sending Storm a telegraph indicating that you’d love to play fetch with her for the next three days.  Since that is never the case we don’t touch sticks. Ever.  Even when Storm drops a stick on your lap, you can’t touch it or – THREE DAYS OF FETCH!

Obsessed as in she’s got shiny white teeth from frantically chewing sticks into wood chips on peoples feet in some misguided hope that that will increase the chances of someone playing with her. Brush off those wood chips at your peril, they are actually tiny sticks and – THREE DAYS OF FETCH!

Obsessed as in even Ivy and Clara know that you can’t play with sticks when Storm is outside. Try to use a stick as a fairy wand and -THREE DAYS OF FETCH!

Obsessed as in any unsuspecting visitor to our house is greeted with the words, “Don’t touch the stick.” Sadly for most people they don’t believe John and I and before you know it there goes that Storm telegraph -THREE DAYS OF FETCH!

Like in any true obsession Storm has a huge amount focus and patience when it comes to sticks.  In Storms case this manifests itself in bug eyed, panting, staring, focus and the patience to outlast any unsuspecting victim who might be near a stick and eventually forget that Storm is there and touch it – THREE DAYS OF FETCH!

Storm, no doubt dismayed by her family’s general stick aversion, must remember that the last baby grew up into a girl who will occasionally throw a stick for her. So she is patently waiting for her next playmate to grow up.

Just to make sure she doesn’t miss the moment when Jane is ready to play every time Jane is on the ground Storm brings her a stick. It’s only a matter of time before all that stick dropping persistence pays off and Jane learns her first lesson about – THREE DAYS OF FETCH!

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

Twelve years ago John and I were dating and I was in the hospital recovering from a surgery, doped up on painkillers. John came to visit me every day I was there and one night he rounded up a TV and VCR and brought in one of his favorite movies for us to watch – The Power of One. Sadly due to all those painkillers I have a vivid memory of John sitting by my bed holding my hand, a vague memory of a TV showing up and absolutely no recollection of the movie. Nothing. Nada. In fact it doesn’t matter how many times John has told me over the last twelve years that I have seen the movie, I still don’t remember it.

Two months ago I brought home a book a friend had lent us saying it was a good “guy read” and I should give it to John. I dutifully passed the message on to John telling him it was “something about power of one?” Which then spurred on the same discussion we have repeated over the last twelve years about how I have seen that movie, and I say I don’t remember any of it and he says he loves it… yada, yada, yada.

But now our conversation has changed because now I’ve read the book and he remembers the movie and I can say things like, “What do you mean the movie doesn’t have Hoppie in it?!” Which is far better than the I still don’t remember the movie conversation we had been having.

Would I recommend it? Yes.  This is a good “guy book” in a way that isn’t just shooting people, running around and blowing stuff up.  It should also be mention that while I am distinctly not a guy myself, I thoroughly enjoyed it and have recommended it to other not guys. Although my girlyness probably came out when the boxing made me cringe, I can’t help it, I’m not a guy.

Mother’s Day

Are you a mother?

How was your Mothers Day?

Was it as good as mine?

Did you have breakfast in bed?

Did you get to shoot shotguns with your mother until due to a broken gun and lack of shells you just couldn’t shoot anymore?

Did you have lunch  out with just your mother and have ice cream for dessert?

Did you get to take a picture with four generations of mothers and daughters?

Did you have a great Mother’s Day?

I did!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

Ugh!

This weeks photo challenge was not my favorite. Ideas I had either turned out smudgy and stupid, or had me cursing my camera. Since other than it’s flash my camera and I normally get along swimmingly it was frustrating experience.

Things I have learned this week:

-While having an auto focus is usual handy/excellent/nice/wonderful/easy sometimes a manual option would be really nice!

-My camera won’t do they very cool zoom while capturing technique I read about here.

-In effort to replicate Anne’s very cool effect in her cheetah pictures I discovered that I can’t get far enough away from the neighbors cows.

-I’m never getting rid of my creeping charlie.

-Tripods are essential for taking super zoomed in pictures even when they are of moving things like butterflies.

Today making a last ditch effort for something reasonable I was trying to zoom way in on something hoping to get a similar watercolor effect as the cheetahs had. I was hoping for a “watercolor” pastoral scene, chickens, ducks, cows, sheep… no such luck. Then I realized that the creeping charlie was in full bloom and the yard was swarming with bees and butterflies. Ivy and saw seven different kinds of butterflies and four different kinds of bees, all looking for those tiny purple flowers in the lawn! Unfortunately, even though they aren’t super crisp pictures, the butterflies weren’t what I would call “unfocused.”  So I aimed my camera at the only other spot of color in the yard, which happened to be a bunch of chives, zoomed as far in as I could and finally came up with something that I think fits the unfocused bill. Completely unedited it has a bit of that painting sort of feel, just by going to the extreme of the digital zoom.  I never would have thought to try anything like that before seeing the cheetah pictures, thank you Anne for the idea!

Here is one of my fairly focused butterfly photos… …now let’s get on to the next challenge!!!