Two Behind Bars

What's Hot, What's Not

Hot: mom's temper.

Not Hot: dinner.

Hot:

Not:

Our newest acrobat

When Luke is your older brother, you've got a lot to live up to in the "tricks" department.  Luke just loves daring the heights, risking the jumps, flipping the loops.  Little Seamus has the handicap of being three years younger, but he has also not shown much interest in Sport - beyond being amused by somebody else's antics, that is.  In the last month or so he has gotten up on his hands and knees and picked up speed, although he's still faster doing the army crawl (he's got powerful obliques!).  Then he has also decided that downward facing dog is a comfortable pose and that's been a funny favorite among his audience members.  But in the last day or two he has decided the world looks better from a distance.  That's right, he's standing up!  He's not actually "cruising" yet (walking along furniture), but he's pulling himself up on anything that's just about the right height.  

Whenever he gets a chance, my baby is going up (and yes, I misspelled that on purpose).  With Luke I was so excited about these milestones that I hardly gave much thought to leaving his babyhood behind.  With Seamus I have stopped just short of knocking him down so that he doesn't learn how to walk!  He's been growing too fast since the moment he was born (the growth he did in my womb couldn't have gone fast enough.).  *sigh* Growing up is hard for a mom to allow.  Still, I'm proud of our newest acrobat. 


My Mom always made up her own appropriate words to familiar song tunes, and I have carried on the tradition.  Here's what we're singing around here:

He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring Seamus on his flying trapeze.  His actions: not graceful.  His mom he does please!  My love he has stolen away!

Looking out my back door

Friday evening in the middle of compost turning.

This morning, under a layer of snow...unpredictable Manitoba weather!

Color Hunt, a shiny evening

Madelyn told Luke, "You look like Santa Claus!"  while they made bubble beards.

If they ever get married this photo is going in their wedding slideshow!

Our color hunt wednesday evening went very well!  We cut an egg carton in half, one side for Madelyn, one for Luke.  Then I colored the bottoms of the egg holes six different colors:  red, green, blue, brown, yellow, and black.  Then we set out on our evening walk, keeping our eyes peeled for colors that we may be able to put in our box.  The city is in our debt; we picked up a lot of garbage.  I think if we do this color hunt again, we will wait until some more flowers and plants are blooming and growing.  Manitoba in early Spring is not full of color.  We did it, however!  We found a pencil (yellow), a stick (brown), grass (green), dirt (black), a broken bicycle tail light (red), and a rubber band (blue).  Then the children played at the park until the sun was nearly setting, and we headed home in a spectacular shine of sunset.

The children warmed up with some hot chocolate and the adults with some tea, and then the kids asked to take a bath...?  So we put them in the bath and visited over our tea for fifteen minutes without being disrupted by too much splashing!  All in all it was a lovely way to spend an evening.  There are so many fun things to do with Luke as he gets older, and I thank No Time For Flashcards for some great ideas, like the color hunt!  And I thank my Mom, for telling me about No Time For Flashcards.  It is sure encouraging to have resources like my Mom (a kindergarten teacher), and blogs like this, when I'm feeling brain dead as a parent.

Putting on the work boots

I moved some plants around last weekend and the boys played and played in the sunshine.  I was surprised how long Seamus stayed happy in the playpen: nearly two hours!  Luke was more enamored with the box that the sand toys were in than with the sand toys themselves!  And I got to dig around in the dirt a little.  The volunteer spinach is up and some of it is even ready to be picked.  The weeds are doing spectacularly, of course.  And the lawn looks fabulous after Derek de-thatched it.  It's going to be a great summer.  I have energy, and ideas, the children are so content to be outdoors, and we've got an early start on the yard work.  I'm planting carrots this weekend!!

Keeping up with the Joneses

Can you tell what this is out my dining room window?  

I'm frightened.  

Not because I'm scared of the injury that may be inflicted upon my child on such a contraption,  but because my child will be able to see it from my dining room window.  Can you guess what he's going to ask for for his birthday?  Can you guess what he's going to want to do everyday from now until snowfall?  Can you guess what the first words out of his mouth every morning will be?  Can you guess what will interrupt our mealtimes with pleas to go play with the neighbors?  Can you guess where I will find my child when I call for him and he doesn't answer?  

I can.

I'm frightened.