Sprouts

Henry and I are pretty pleased with the growth of our tomatoes. I'm worried that maybe they need a little sun, though. The peppers are coming up too!
We're also growing some itsy bitsy basil.
Oh yeah! And I have tulips! These are the new tulips that I planted in the fall.
Henry introduced me to moon sand. He had played with it lots before, but it was new to me. It's basically like sand, but mailable. If you look at the yellow tub you can see that Henry didn't even pretend to try to keep the colors apart.
The nice thing about moon sand is that it's crumbly, not sticky. That makes it easy to vacuum up!

Where I've Been

I've been in Iowa. Last Monday, at work, I got a call from Will relaying sketchy information from Rob saying something about Mom had a fall and she's in the emergency room and she may have broken both shoulders...? Huh?!??! This is not the kind of call you want to receive. After many more phone calls trying to sleuth out some bit of information (yes, I put a video on for my students to watch) I found out that she had broken an arm, busted a lip and gotten herself several scratches, stitches and bruises. I decided to set up for a sub, pack up and leave as soon as I could get home. Henry and I got to Mom's around 10:30 PM.
Out of respect for my mother I will not post photos of her in the earlier stages of recovery...
After a few days with Mom I thought I could leave her for a bit and head down to Burlington, which was my original plan for the weekend. Henry and I stopped for lunch at La Casa with Uncle Rob:
While in Burlington we got some good quality time with Aunt Joyce and Great (that's two greats for Henry) Aunt Jean, in from California. We also saw various other aunts, unlces and cousins. Henry was a bit overwhelmed and a bit of a show-off.
Pete brought the train in on Friday night (originally I was to take the train down with Henry and Pete would drive in) so we would only have one car. We met up with Sam and Jan for some Chinese food and sushi. Sam's a chopsticks master.
We spent some more time with Aunt Jean, when she wasn't busy taking my cousins' money in cards.
We had some coffee at Mr. Moto's before heading back up to Mom's. Moto's is our favorite new Burlington spot. It's right next to the train tracks, which Henry loves, but he also frequently needs to cover his ears. The train needs to blow it's whistle lots while passing through town.
While I was away Mom decided maybe she wasn't crazy about being on her own with her injury. Due to choosing not to have the bones pinned, her arm was much more mobile, therefore needing much more support, but also allowing for more natural healing- that's my understanding anyway. The point being- she needed a little more help than one might assume a broken-armed person would need. Not to mention, when you lead the hippie lifestyle with no dishwasher and line-dried clothes, there is just so much you can accomplish with one arm. We called in Beth for support. She flew in from Atlanta and took charge. Pete and I drove home last night (arrival at home: 11:05PM) and I went back to work this morning. At last report Mom had been back to the doctor today, gotten two new casts (the second resident didn't like the first resident's work...?) and had seen a physical therapist. Sounds like things are on the mend, despite some tricky self-nursing there in the meantime.

If you really want the story behind this photo you'll have to email me. Also, is my head twice the size of my mother's?

Oh yeah, to answer the question which will surely be asked- it was a dog related injury. In trying to catch Gracie, Mom took a face-first dive over a 4' retaining wall. Thank goodness this is the worst she did! Gracie, for the one time in her life, quietly followed Mom back into the house on her own with no prompting.

Growing Boys, Sticks and Cows

Spaghetti was on the menu last night. Henry has become very inquisitive during dinner cooking time (as well as all other times). Last night he had some tastes of spaghetti before and after it was cooked. He much preferred the pasta cooked.
We got the absolute most out of the Children's museum this morning. We played, saw the chicks, did some art and listened to a musical performance by a brass quintet. Even after all that and lunch, Henry did not want to fall asleep at his usual time. So we spent a couple of hours outside. It's moderately warm again and hopefully for good. I planted my peas, carrots and some basil (what seeds I could scavenge after Henry dumped them in the carpet). I dug up a little yellow cow. We'll put this with the little army guy from last year and start a collection.
I took a tip from the Victory Garden book Ellen gave me last year (love it!) and stuck sticks in the ground to act as support for the peas...providing they actually grow. (I was so delighted to find this tip, as I will never forget that I lost my first little kitty, Gray, to a garden pea net.) I also used a legume powder to treat the pea seeds first. However, I didn't use any sort of fertilizer like the carrots called for. We'll see...it's a first real attempt at vegetable gardening for me.
I love the cute little bags-on-sticks signage, but if anyone has tips for a more permanent solution I'll take 'em.

Warning: Melancholy ahead

So long Kurt Vonnegut.
You gave me much to laugh about and think about. Your books helped me feel that my own life was perhaps not so nutty. You expanded my vocabulary. You helped me connect with my brother when I was young and perhaps had little else in common with him.
I'll be adding your books to my reading list once again.
Rest in peace.

Unclear on the concept...

So I guess that in Pete's family the kids would hide the eggs and then the Easter Bunny would trade the eggs for candy. So we sort of did that with Henry this year. He had lots of fun hiding the eggs. Then I tried to make sure he understood what was going to happen....that the Easter Bunny would come and either put something in the plastic eggs, or leave a treat. Pete added a whole new confusing dimension to the conversation.

Easter....belated

We had a busy Easter-Bunny-y kind of weekend! Saturday (after an impromptu trip to the aquarium with friend Jonah) we dyed eggs. Henry had lots of prior experience, so he was an expert. Pete was the only one to break an egg. I was a little annoyed by the nine (9!) color pellets that came with this years Paas kit. I should have left the extra 3 out, because they were worthless- except for the lime green which was pretty cool.
I love dying eggs so much it was hard to stick to just 11 (I left out the one that cracked during the boiling). In this batch please take note of Pete's happy face egg (I had that one for breakfast the next morning) and my rainbow egg (my favorite egg art) and the lovely new lime green color.
Here's Henry on Sunday morning. Can you say "dapper"?!?!?!? I wish I had a photo where you could see his socks! Think argyle.
And, lastly, here's the sad, sad lamb cake. It's head was still on when we arrived, but something devilish happened while we were all at church. Despite the apparent self-decapitation, the cake was still quite tasty.

Officially Official

Woo Hoo! I finally got my degree in the mail! Now it feels real. This might mean that I get to have my husband treat me to another celebratory meal....Dave's anyone?

Arts and Crafts

We seem to be in a bit of an artistic bent these days. I think our minds are really trying to enjoy Spring, even though the weather wants to give us snow flurries in April.
Here's a sampling of how we've been exercising our creative natures:
Pete built a set of speakers with my dad.

Don't let anybody tell you my husband can't use a power tool.

Henry and his grandma dyed some early Easter eggs.

Henry got the itch to paint last night after dinner. Notice the flower stems (marker) and the sponge-painted flowers. There's also a neon-y yellow sun in the upper right, but I'm not sure you can make it out.

While cleaning out the paint jars I was reminded of Amber's Easter egg adventure.

Today Henry and I made bird nest treats. I'm not sure what the real name is for these treats, they certainly aren't cookies. I didn't follow any sort of recipe, but boy are they delicious!
Henry's job was to place the eggs:

Oh, and to taste the eggs:
And here he was waving his fingers over the treats. I asked what he was doing and he said "my being the bird, flying over!" Brilliant.

Oops.

I was so excited about my success with getting video on the blog that I neglected to wish Will a happy birthday. He's sneaking up on being an old, old, man! Happy Birthday Big Brother!

Henry's spontaneous lunchtime conversation with himself: "...and I'll have a party and Will will come...". He also says "I want a birthday to him! I want a birthday for me and for Oscar and for.....".

Sometimes he just trails off.

Success!!!

I've figured it out! Here's a movie of Henry this weekend when we were at Dad and Kathie's house. I was getting him ready for bed and he decided to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to me. There's a little singing at the end if you can stick out the whole story.

The trouble with Tolstoy

I've begun reading Anna Karenina again. I think this time it will stick. I'm on page 231 (of 870) so that's a good sign. I mostly feel like I know what's going on. Here's what's holding me back (aside from the fact that what I really want to be reading is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, due out in 108 days) it's the fact that each character (of which there are several) seems to have seven names, all of which seem to start with A.

Here are some examples:
Darya Alexandrovna; also Darya Alexandrovna Oblonksy, also Dolly
Her husband: Stepan Arkadyevitch; sometimes called Stepan Arkadeyevitch Oblonksy, sometimes just Oblonksy, also referred to as Stiva
Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin; sometimes just Alexey or just Karenin
Of course his wife: Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (do you notice how the last name changes depending on if it's the husband or the wife?)
Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin; or just Levin or just Konstantin Levin
Kitty Schtcherbatsky; full name Katerina Alexandrovna Schtcherbatsky, who may or may not also be Princess Shctcherbatskaya (though that may be her mother)
Count Vronsky; also Alexey Kirillovich Vronksy (with a brother Alexander Vronsky), usually just called Vronsky

There are a million other very Russian names in the book as well. I can't keep track of most of them. I'm not sure if the book is giving me a headache or if it's just the cold I feel coming on...