Crash Obscura

Back to the Falls

"Pretty hair, Grandpa"

Greta is not the speediest hiker. She takes "stop and smell the roses" to a new level. Stop and smell the roses. Stop and collect gravel. Stop and watch the ant cross the trail. Stop and take a water break. And another.

Pork Chop!

For Greta, chop sticks = pork chops. For example, "I need my pork chops to eat my pork chops."

Futbol

Noah's first day of organized sports. Three and four year old soccer is exactly as hilarious as you think it would be.

We Are Helium

Too many rainy days in a row turns children into electrons, bouncing off the walls in completely unpredictable ways.  I guess we're all moody.  We sloshed through the swampy yard during today's six minutes of sun.  Then napped through the afternoon storms.

Wasn't it hot and sunny all May long?

The I'll Protect You Series

He calms her down at the new sitter's house by promising to take care of her. She sneaks out of her classroom to find him in the middle of the day at school. It's pretty cute.

Gymnasts

Makes me dizzy just watching them.

Could Have Been More Fun

If you think that a bunch of balloons is guaranteed to get you some good kid pictures, you might be right. Unless you disregard the first and really the only important rule for keeping kids happy: nap time.  We got them to fake a couple.

Sunday Morning

These are two of my favorites.

Please Come Home

Kevin has been gone all week and the rest of us are beginning to show the wear.  The normal weekly routines are off and some of us just don't adjust well to the unexpected.  I'm not supposed to be the daycare drop off person.  I do it all wrong.  And far too early.  We had a horrible time getting out of the house this morning followed by a very dramatic drop off, a full on drenching in a torrential downpour, a traffic jam and a two-hour-late arrival at work.  Really, I'm much better suited to be the daycare pick up person.

Kevin reminded me later in the day that my Zen hadn't really abandoned me as I thought it had.  If Noah hadn't freaked out about going to school, we would have been on time and I could have been involved in the trauma that made me late (I've never actually followed work into work before - it's eerie).  Easy for him to say.  He's been lazing around in a canoe all week centering himself.  And working, I guess.

Friday night art project.

Clean up.

Socks

I hate socks.  Despise them.  Every time my four year old says, "I'm going to get some socks," I know that our estimated time of departure has just been delayed by 45 minutes. Minutes that feel like eons of frustrated grunting followed by crying, screaming and throwing himself on the floor.  I plead with him to let me help.  I try to reason with him that no one, not even grown ups can do everything by themselves, that we all have to ask for help sometimes.  I threaten to leave without him.  All of this does nothing but to amplify the intensity of his will to get the socks on by himself.

Noah's motor development may be advanced in many ways, but this one skill is killing both of us.  It's summer, kid.  Please just wear your flip flops.

Dirty feet.
Time taken to apply socks to feet: 45 minutes.
Time spent wearing socks between home and park: 30 minutes.
Time spent searching for shoes and socks discarded somewhere on the playground: 15 minutes.

Attitudes

We tried to get the kids out to take some planned pictures like we've done in the past. It didn't go so well this year. Greta is still pretty agreeable to posing and cheesing, but Noah is... not. He has some strong opinions about what he will and will not wear - even the "Grandma got you this shirt" line doesn't work like it used to. If you can get a shot of him facing the camera, it's like catching Big Foot on film. You have to be fast and sneaky. Here are a couple of cute ones anyway.

Many Fowl

Feeding the ducks, ducklings, geese and goslings along the river downtown. Noah lured a mom duck out of the water onto the trail. Greta had difficulty parting with her Cheerios.  I worked on my nature photography skills.