Afternoon

The “January Thaw” appears to be upon us and we’ve been spending a lot of time at local parks with friends. The temperature rose to 40 degrees today and it was wonderful to meet up with friends at the park for some time in the sun. Isabella asked her Mom if she could push her baby in her pram this morning and all the girls (and their parents) agreed that it would be a great idea. Baby John (Isabella’s new baby brother) slept most of the playdate - apparently the sheer number of girls around him was too much to handle. His billy-goat bleets for milk amazed Claire and every noise he made called for her investigation.

Claire couldn’t decide if John, or the girl’s pretend babies were more interesting. She was especially taken with the realistic ‘piggy toes’ on Katie’s doll.Of course there were a few examples of some negligent doll parenting:

Exhibit A: Enthusiastic toddler dumps out “Huggy-Baby” in a rush to join the stroller parade.

Exhibit B: Isabella demonstrates some, errr, ‘interesting’ doll sitting techniques.

The three girls had a blast playing on the playground and walking a slow quarter mile pushing their babies. There was lots of stopping for a stroller version of bumper cars and much mud puddle squashing led by Claire. We enjoyed a sunny picnic lunch as a group and once it was Baby John’s naptime Claire and I strode off into the woods to check out the local wildlife scene.

Claire was just awestruck with this one tree’s yawning trunk. Look at the size of that hole! I’ll be she was planning a way to hole up in there for the winter much like the main character in “My Side of the Mountain.”

Claire found lots of soft moss to pet and some very cool lichen and mushrooms growing on the side of some dead trunks. The going was a bit muddy so I abandoned the stroller and let Claire walk a bit (Huggy-baby riding tandem with Claire in her own stroller at this point). I can say that having Claire traipse through the woods for a few hours is a great way to tire her out, what a sound nap Claire is having at the moment!

Fresh air and friends, a good afternoon indeed. The full album is below, lots of great picture of fellow friends Isabella and Katie so Mommies be sure to check them out and let me know if you want a full resolution version.

Above: The neat fungus we discovered (I am dubbing it tree-oyster until I identify, heehee) Below: The “still water” as Claire describes the icing river. We watched a group of ducks sliding their way across the ice…maybe they were avoiding the cold water! Brrr!!! Claire cracked up at their tail shaking, “rook Mommy, dey shake-a their butt!”

Click HERE for a link to the full album or the collage below to view the slideshow.