Busy day

It was a gorgeous day today. We have a big storm coming in, so the morning and early afternoon were deliciously warm.

A neighbor gave us a tricycle, so we took it to Grandma's where there's lots of room to ride it.

We're still working on the idea of pedals.

Here's little missy, attempting to stick a leaf to her foot or something. This was her "bike" while big brother rode the trike.

While the baby ate dirt, chased the dog, and watched mama and grandma chop weeds.

Chopping weeds is therapeutic, somehow. I don't know if I'll be able to move tomorrow, but it was worth it.

Warm Cali

It's been about 65-70 degrees here in Cali lately. No rain since November. The ground is hard as rock and twice as powdery. It's disconcerting to be in the middle of winter and have all this spring-like weather that nonetheless still smells like winter.

This is how warm it's been. The door is open. The munchkins running around outside. The baby comfortable in bare feet, playing with a broom.

Playground visit

On Wednesday the kids and I walked out to the playground. It was the first time since I had Claire, because it was both cool enough, and I was strong enough to walk that far.

Claire even got to ride in the baby swing. She thought it was awesome, especially when pushed by her big sister.

I loved Holly's look in this picture. We took a picnic lunch and had a nice time eating it. Ryan met us at the park later and drove us home.

This scrub jay flew to the roof of the picnic shade over us, and proceeded to try to crack open a nut. It sounded like somebody knocking on the roof.

Stormy evening

So we went outside to look at tonight's thunderstorm, and right over our apartment were some emerging mammatus clouds. We don't get these kinds of clouds in the San Joaquin valley.

The kids were thoughtful.

Holly looking ...

...at a rainbow sliver.

Alex posing with rainbow sliver.

The creepy clouds eventually billowed out into nothing.

But they continued to look creepy.

Wednesday Chats

Patrice has changed the name of her Wednesday weight-loss meme. Now it's just a fun chatty one, and what the heck, I need to write something in August. :-)

What season was your wedding? If you aren't married, the what season is your birthday?

Summer! I got married in June because we couldn't wait until September. My poor mom. My brother got married in May, so she had two weddings just a few weeks apart.

What names did you call your grandparents?(ie- grandma, granny, gran, grammie)

My grandparents were just grandma (name) and grandpa (name), but my great grandparents were Mema and Papa.

What's your favorite smell that comes from your oven?

There's lots. The smell of baking bread, or of barbecue chicken, or cookies, or banana bread.

If you eat eggs- scrambled, fried, over easy, sunny side up, or other?

Fried, scrambled, and omelets mostly. I'd like to try eggs Benedict someday, but it kind of creeps me out. That's the kind where you break the egg into the boiling water, right?

What's the tidiest room in your house? What's the messiest?

This is a 1-bedroom apartment. It's usually all messy in some form or another. The tidiest space is usually the kitchen, because that's my workspace and munchkins have less access to my counter tops.

Have an orb spider that my ornery camera actually focused on!

Pretty happy funny real

Morning adventures!

Pretty:

An opening hollyhock:

A yellow crab spider, backdropped by Holly's shirt:

Happy

Munchkins drawing pictures:

Baby inspecting the toy barn:

Funny:

Located: one grasshopper

Poking said grasshopper:

Captive grasshopper:

Real:

The baby, awake on the bed, happily kicking her legs, while the grasshopper caper was going on:

Mystery bug

I was outside with the kids this evening, and noticed these little butterfly things all over my blooming mint.

They were tiny, and when they were at rest, their antennae never stood still. They didn't have the little balls on the ends of their antennae that show that they're butterflies, and they didn't seem to have the feathery bits that show that they're a moth. But they were so tiny, it was hard to be sure.

I think these are the things that left tiny little caterpillars all over my mint. I don't mind--I mean, it's only mint--but I wish I knew what they were.

Outside

Holly 'painting' by dipping a stick in the water, then making patterns on the sidewalk.

Another hot pink hollyhock.

Claire enjoying being outside.

One of those little tiny yellow butterflies. I as amazed at how close I had managed to get.

You know, I sit down to write a blog post, and people swarm into my lap, or the baby starts fussing, and nothing much gets written. Just pictures.

I've finally pinned down exactly what breastfeeding mommy-brain is and what causes it. When the baby nurses, there's this stuff called Prolactin that gets released in my body to make more milk, and make my milk let down and all that stuff. Well, a side-effect of prolactin is that it makes me sleepy.

I was talking to my husband last night, and we were carrying on an intelligent conversation. Then I picked up the baby to let her nurse, and by the time she finished, all of my nouns and verbs had vanished from my brain. I had gone from, "David Tennant in Doctor Who" to "That one guy in the movie we like who was before the current guy." If I could even form a thought that intelligent.

And after a while the prolactin wears off and my brain comes back. Here I just thought I was turning into an idiot.

Summertime pretty happy funny real

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter, to do Pretty Happy, Funny, Real. Without further ado!

{Pretty}

Some kind of pretty purple flowers that I don't know what they are.

{Happy}

We visited Gramma's yesterday, and an uncle donated his Slip and Slide. It was tons of fun for small people.

{Funny}

I didn't even realize I had frozen that ball in midair until I was looking at my pictures!

{Real}

My second-oldest brother trying to not look creepy. He's so obviously not creepy that the baby is asleep with his finger in her mouth.

Snails on Friday

I went for another nice walk this morning at 5:30. This was the sunrise. I didn't even see that truck parked there until I was editing my photo.

I wound up talking to a new neighbor as I was cleaning snails out of the flowerbed shortly before I came inside. I had chucked about 25 of the buggers out into the road when this older man came walking up and asked what I was doing. I told him that I was "decreasing the surplus population" and we commiserated about the snail problem.

I told him about the snail trap I've always wanted to try, where you put some beer onto a small flat lid of some kind and leave it out overnight. He said he'd try it. I know snails are certainly attracted to the smell of certain marinades leftover on the grill. After it's cooled off.

I tried putting Claire in the high chair, but she's still too small. Her siblings, however, thought it was great.

Edit a few hours later:

Here is how far the snails made it before the sun hit them.

There are at least ten snails in this photo, plus one slug who slimed out to the road, tried to turn around and got caught by the sun. His demise was not my doing.

If you'd like to see why I despise snails so much, take a look at last year. My feud was long and bitter. I don't think I have pictures of what the snails did to my other pot of flowers, but they utterly destroyed my other pot. I think I was too discouraged to take pictures of the pathetic stubs that were left.

So yes. Snails. We has them.

Is it ever Monday

I was certain that today the baby had a doctor's appointment. So I got up early, got a shower and everything ... and THEN checked the appointment card. Turns out it's not for the 9th, it's for the 19th. So here I am, all showered and dressed and just wanting to crawl back in bed.

I went on a little photo-shoot a few days ago. There's a couple of butterfly bushes in the next complex, and they attract all kinds of cool insects. I was hoping for a butterfly, but instead I was menaced by a hovering wasp.

I've never seen a hover-wasp before. I've seen hover-flies, and they fly like a hummingbird, all fearless, and come right up to you and check you out. But this was a weird-looking wasp. I tried to get a picture, but I held my camera too close and he came out blurry. This was the best I could do.

I'll have to do some research to identify him. I thought he might be a predatory wasp that lays its eggs on caterpillars, but those kind look a little different. Anybody ever seen a wasp like this?

Thursday pretty

Gee, it's been a whole week since I updated, just about. This blog is in danger of becoming "let's fill out memes". It makes me take pictures, though!

Anyway, it's time for another edition of {pretty, happy, funny, real} from Like Mother, Like Daughter.

{Pretty}

This is the flower bed outside the apartment office next door to ours. These are mostly pansies and snapdragons. They're well established and look fantastic. Therefore I'm sure the gardeners will rip them out and replace them with "summer" flowers any day now.

I went on a photo tour of the blooming rosebushes around our complex, and found this bush with these odd double blooms, pink on one side and purple on the other.

I think I'm going on my tour again, this time with scissors and a vase.

{Happy}

My girls!

{Funny}

Another mystery photo I discovered on my camera this morning. I don't know what's funnier, that it seems to be a butt shot, or that the pants in question are on backwards.

{Real}

It's a clear, warm, windy day, with a sky blue enough to swim in and the mountains looking clear and much nearer than they are.

I suppose it's not as real as it should be, because I cropped out the busy road at the bottom of the picture. :-)