Petey and Co. are Back!

The pelicans are back! Three of those massive birds just landed with a surprisingly graceful splash behind my house. I'll have to add pelicans to my "Now It Feels Like Spring" list.

Ignore the Dripping Noise in the Garage...

There are times when I wonder what my husband will think of next. He keeps me on my toes and laughing at the same time. Our creativity runs in different directions but as long as one can overlook two absent-minded-professors-type-people in the house it works as long as someone remembers to do the laundry. Check out my DH's newest YouTube videos on his blog, then you'll know why my garage is more his laboratory than anything. Yes, he is thinking of putting EIGHT of those fountains in the backyard...eventually. I picture human sized canals running through my backyard this summer. I was bargaining for four just to be cool but realistic, but one of the things I love about him is his ability to think BIG! It might be dangerous to show him the above newspaper clipping.

April Fools Weather

I think the weather is celebrating April Fools with us here in Utah. This morning as I looked outside, it seemed to say, "April Fools about Spring, here's a blizzard!" It has stopped snowing now, but I'm ready to start digging around in the garden. This year, there seems to be a general public interest in vegetable gardening due to the economy. I smell the fresh green smell of my puny tomato starts and dream of their summer fruits. Whether the economy or produce, everything seems to need some time. It seems like many are planted in a rocky place right now. At the health department, we see a large increase in abuse when times are hard. Plants have two choices when in this position: be apathetic and just get mad at the rock then get washed away or find a way around the rock to grow deeper, harder. I remember seeing the tree on Chapel Rock in Michigan's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I was hiking alone since my friends who were with me in the Upper Peninsula were visiting their family in the area and John was working in Utah at the time. I just sat down in the sand and contemplated that lone tree with its large root spanning to the mainland. It is such a great symbol of growth. I can't wait to take my family back there to hike, kayak and appreciate the beauty and lessons there (in the summer of course!).

Mommy Melted Moments

Now that PeaPod is speaking, I can see why moms are always quoting their kids. The things they say just melt your heart. Here are two from PeaPod this week:

This weekend we were so busy that we hadn't realized how late it was - about 9pm. PeaPod was not in bed yet! It was a perfect starry night. I decided before we started our bedtime routine we, as a family, would look up at the stars together.
I said while holding her with one arm and pointing with the other, "Look up at the stars! They are way up high!"
She looked up. Then she reached out both her arms as high as they would go and said,
"I get stars. I get 'm. I get stars."
We laughed. My heart melted and in my heart I said, "You reach for them little one!!!"
After a moment I said, "We can't hold them because they are way up high."
She looked at me and then reached back up for the stars and said turning her face to me, "Stars are stuck. Der stuck, Mommy. Stars are stuck."
Too cute.

Today was another heart melter. We were playing with the little wood IKEA trainset and rug she had got for her birthday. We set the train to go past places on the rug. We would talk about them as we pushed the train past. "Here we go past the stadium! Bye Stadium!", I would say. On the rug is what I considered a white castle. As she pushed the train past the castle she said, "Hi temple!Choo, choo! Bye temple!" Wow, she is listening and learning!

Pediatrician's Visit

We went to the pediatrician's today. This is the fourth copay I have had to make in one week! PeaPod is no longer feverish and now she is just getting rid of some gunk in her lungs. Hooray! Plus they did her 2 year checkup at the same time.
She is,at 2 years old:
22.4lbs - 5th percentile in weight (yes, she gets fed as much as she would like although requests for "cannies" candy are regularly ignored and replaced with other "real" food),
33.5 inches in height - 45 percentile in height,
and I don't remember her head, but it was in the 50th percentile.
So she's got herself a large noggin and a metabolism I'd kill for - but then she does run circles around me! Maybe I need to try to jog circles around her instead of trying to keep her in the jogging stroller...

Today' Green