A bug named Lisa

Mister bought new sand yesterday for the green plastic turtle shaped sandbox that has lived in our backyard for the past two years. Mister cleaned out the sandbox, relocated it to the front yard and filled it with fresh, clean, soft new sand... just exactly what preschoolers dream of.

Immediately G and Little guy jumped right in, digging and building and just letting the sand run through their fingers. I called them in for lunch, and when they were finished they immediately went back outside to play again. I took Little L and fed her and the two of us napped on the couch. About five minutes later, Little Guy appears in front of me, clearly distraught. "G is mad" he says. "Why is G mad?" I asked. "Because Lisa won't get out of the sand." he tells me. "Who is Lisa?" I ask. "Lisa the bug" he says "G scoops her out with the sand, but she won't get out."

Gee, THAT explains it, I think to myself. "Well that's a bummer" I say to Little Guy. "Now go play."

Later, when the rain starts to fall and G comes inside, I ask her about Lisa. "Oh." she says "there was this black and that wouldn't get out of the sand. I was scooping out the sand with the shovel but she kept coming back". Sure enough, when I looked outside there was a pile of sand outside of the sandbox, and about 10 black ants (All named Lisa, of course) crawling around inside.

Caterpillar season...

It is caterpillar season here in Georgia and we have found quite a few milling around the yard recently. In fact, we have had much nature at our house recently... caterpillars, turtles, snakes, earthworms.... There are three birds nests around our house and they all have wee baby birds in them chirping away. One brave bird family made its nest inside our garage on top of the rail for one of the garage doors. We figured this out when the daddy bird flew into our kitchen by accident.. he apparently got sidetracked on his way home from work. Now we always leave at least one garage door open for them. Ahh spring.

Anyhow, G and Little Guy found this fuzzy little guy on the big rock in front of our house the other day... I wonder what kind of butterfly he will turn into? Or maybe a moth? What do you think, Lizzie?

Two boys, one baby.

We had Curly Top over one morning last week so his mom could run errands unencumbered. It is amazing just how much more smoothly errands go when one is by oneself... it is a luxury my childless friends don't realize they have... Just wait friends, your time will come.

Anyhow, this is how the boys entertained themselves.



She really is a good humored baby.

In my garden, I would grow....

Me: "Strawberries, peppers, tomatoes and blueberries"

G: "Raspberries, blackberries, corn, green beans and peas"

Little Guy: "Jelly beans."

Garage saling

Yesterday, Mister woke us us at 7:30 am to go around town to look at other people's junk. It was a masterful feat that I was able to get the kids up, dressed, fed and in the car by 8:08. First we hit the coffee shop, because goodness knows I need my caffeine fix, and then we went trolling through the neighborhoods. We don't go garage saling much, only once or twice a year, but boy were the pickings good yesterday!

I got a tumbling mat and booster seat, both in excellent condition, for 15 bucks a piece! I found a Fraggle Rock DVD for $2 and 3 foogoo sippy cups for $1 each! Mister had no idea what Fraggle Rock was, though, so he wasn't nearly as excited as I was. I also found an adorable silk outfit from Hong Kong for G, two pairs of Hanna Andersson wiggle pants for Little L all for $1 a piece, a pair of flip flops and some shirts and shorts for Little Guy (50 cents), and a bunch of training pants with plastic covers that the other mom threw in FREE! Thank goodness, because Little Guy promptly pished all over the next driveway. So embarrassing.

For myself, I found a tea cup from London for 50 cents. Mister got a watering can to collect the water in the bathtub that is usually wasted while we wait for it to heat up.

We went to the Mellow Mushroom for lunch, then came home and realized we need to have our own garage sale now!

100 day portraits

So I am late in putting up the portraits I took when Little L turned 100 days. I will be putting them up as I finish them, so check back if you are interested, there may be more popping up randomly.

Today I got a root canal. Dr. Finot doped me up really well and I didn't feel a thing. Tomorrow is going to suck though.

She's got a little magic in her

When I was pregnant with Little L, I did a LOT of editing. I was very productive. I stayed up until 3 am working on making my images perfect (or at least pleasant) to my eye, and while I worked I listened to Pottercast. I would just listen to the same episode over and over again, not really hearing what they were saying, just catching Harry Potter tidbits here or there. It was great background noise. I must have listened to the episode with Jo Rowling's interview at least 20 times.

Now, I love Harry Potter. The books are beautifully written and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. The movies are amazing visually, a real feast for the eyes and the imagination. I am not Potter Obsessed or anything, but I do admit to my geekish affinity for the boy wizard. And the Pottercast personalities are fairly entertaining.

Well, Harry Potter must have seeped into my very being during that pregnancy, because when Little L was born, she had a perfect lighting bolt shaped angel kiss birthmark on her forehead. It is still there, but has started to fade a bit. She still must have some magic in her.

What Did I Come In Here For?

Once, when I was working part time at a Civil Engineering firm after G was born, I was running late (big surprise) and I couldn't find my car keys (shocker). I searched high and low, cursed myself for not keeping the batteries up to date in the car key finder that my cousin Steffy got me for Hannukah, and eventually had to call in sick to work.

Ultimately, I spent a lazy day at home playing with G who was about 15 months old. At lunchtime, I put her in her high chair and she started whining. It seemed like she was uncomfortable in the chair for some reason. I took her out and looked to see what the problem was... yep, there were my car keys. I still blame G for that one... certainly I didn't put the keys in the high chair. That would be like putting your sheet music in the freezer before leaving for your concert... oh wait I've done that.

Now that I have three littles, I tend to spend my days wandering around the house from room to room forgetting exactly what I was going in there for in the first place. I've turned it into an art form really... the art of the half finished task. So when I found this song on my favorite music blog, The Late Greats, I just had to add it to my player. It is just so... what was I saying again?

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

Found this site the other day. It supposedly uses facial recognition software to match your face with celebrities you look like. Claudia Schiffer? I'll take it!

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Free family tree software - Family reunion

Cohen-Huffine Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

100 Days

Today marks Little L's 100th day on earth. She is turning out to be a sweet, quiet little soul with an easy smile and a comforting presence. Her eyes sparkle in a way that makes you think she knows something that you don't. She's still got some moondust clinging to her I think.

She seems to enjoy a challenge.

In her first 100 days Little L has learned to roll from back to front and from front to back. She's discovered she can use her hands and toes to grab things, including each other. She's learned to blow bubbles and smile and laugh (her laugh is very funny, more of a yuk, yuk than a giggle). She knows who her mom and dad are and recognizes her sister and brother. She's learned to suck her left thumb whenever she needs some pacifying and loves to babble in this husky little voice of hers, but only if you are talking back to her. She's not a fan of one-sided conversations. She's simply a darling little dumpling of a baby.