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| Egg hunters |
Late April and the landscape is finally emerging from its cocoon. The snow is gone but the ground was bare and brown for weeks. We wait for the nights to stop freezing, for the grass to turn green and the trees to unfold their leaves. When it finally happens it feels like the view at the top of the mountain, or coming up for air. Not only is it the end of a long winter, it's the end of a long year of teaching, meetings, and waiting to breathe. First we heard the spring peepers in the pond by our house, then the daffodils and forsythia started to bloom (first in town, then up here). Now it's crisp, 60s and 70s, sunny and glorious but not humid. In other words: our two weeks of California weather.
Now that the days are long and warm we see our neighbors again, we go to parks after school, we plant seeds and go for rambles.
Ronan has been delightful all month. He's comfortable at school, he is surprisingly polite and well mannered (um, thanks daycare!), and he's both amusing and snuggly. Other than the whole waking up twice a night to pee thing, I'd be happy to stall at this age for a good long time. Of course Ro loses it, predictably, around bedtime some nights. When we had a dinner party he started crying woefully and finally announced that "the Alison who is not the lab-Allison ate my spinach crackers" [from the communal bowl]. Life can be hard, kid.
We have all finally gotten used to the lack of the midday nap (and no nap after school on the drive home). He falls asleep by 8 or so, and we have our evenings back for work and rest which makes for more relaxed parents. In the morning he wakes us up by climbing into bed and talking to us until someone gets up.
Since last month we celebrated the festival of the oviparous fairy rabbit (as D puts it) with egg dyeing and hunting. I took Ro to the festival of the young child where he got a henna tattoo from his teacher and got to use a fire hose. We went to see baby animals and not-so-baby turkeys. Both D and I had stints of parenting solo as he went to a meeting in DC and I took a quick trip to Michigan to give a talk. Ro and I planted seeds after choosing packets from their pictures at the store. This may have been a mistake! Of course Ro selected the variety of pumpkin that is bigger than the toddler in the photo. But it should be fun...I've never grown giant pumpkins before. With our luck (and the timing on the packet), we will have enormous ripe pumpkins long before the appropriate season. We've also seeded peppers, sugar snap peas, basil, and chard, which seem a little more straightforward. This year we can really get our community garden plot going after sheet mulching last summer.
Ro entertains himself with friends so well we often let him do so with little supervision, resulting in some amusing outcomes. On one occasion he and his friend were in his room when she shouted "Help Ronan!" We ran upstairs to find the two of them in his bed in a dark room, completely naked except for his shirt, which they apparently needed help to remove. The thumps overhead last weekend at another friend's house turned out to be the sounds of synchronized headboard leaps onto the bed. OK, now we know.
RoQuotes:
"Hey look, on the zero there's Siri"
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| Tonight we had a burrito picnic outside |
A: what a beautiful day!
R: yeah, and a golf cart!
A: do you see the steeple?
R: indeed I do
R: woah, that's not safe!
[any time, when upset]: You're never going to be my best friend anymore!
3-2
A: How many pancakes would you like?
R: 10!
A: One, two, or three
R: Why can I have only three?
A: That's how many will fit in the pan
R: Well, you could do them one at a time!
R: See what happens when I smile? You smile too! That's 'cause the pipes inside us are connected!
Pictures: New pics are at the bottom of this album.
