Ornithology 101

What do you get when you combine a snowy morning, tons of sunflower seeds and our very first non-fiction book checked out from the kiddie section at the library?

A very happy Claire who spent the morning counting birds at our feeder and marveling that her feathered friends had their very own book! Is she too young to begin studying for an ornithology degree? The book we checked out was "The Pebble First Guide to Songbirds" and it contained nearly all the birds in our area with little factoids about each species. There were a few of our frequent visitors missing -- Junco, Tufted Titmouse, Red-Breasted Woodpecker -- so I might have to improvise a guidebook of my own one of these days.

Front Door Valentine's Wreath (and why you should consider using our back door)

I do believe that everyone needs a glittery, poofy pink wreath on their front door.

This is probably proof that I've been sniffing too much polyurethane while finishing our staircase.

Three stairs down and at eleven to go...I'm sure there will be lots of crafty goodness to share in the coming weeks as this home improvement project wraps up (or as I get tired of sanding). I've got to keep this kid occupied so while I'm slaving away, Claire's been whipping up some Valentine's Day decorations.

Our Nature Table

Children are natural collectors, and I'm guilty of the same thing myself, often arriving home with just as much "treasure" in my pockets as my daughter. Rather than discourage our little naturalist-in-training, I carved out some space on an end table to display whatever bounty Claire snags on our nature walks.

Merry Christmas!

I sure hope your family had a wonderful Christmas, we celebrated with a big family gathering, lots of delicious food and much laughter. Watching Claire just enthralled by all the magic of Christmas was the best gift of all.

And snow?! Well we certainly got that. Our first storm of the season, and what a storm it was. Our family left late on Christmas day rather then risk getting caught in the blizzard. We were sorry to see everyone head out early but I won't lie and say that spending boxing day in PJs sipping eggnog and eating random leftovers wasn't fun.

I'll be so sad to take down our tree and decorations this year. Claire was so excited to help out. If there was a surface that could be covered in ornaments or greenery she was all over it! We spent evenings leading up to Christmas cutting snowflakes out of coffee filters, making evergreen wreaths and garlands and generating huge messes of glue and glitter for our paper punch ornaments. By the way - shatterproof ornaments are a fantastic invention, Claire helped me string them up everywhere! I'll have to post a tour of all our decorations but if you look carefully in the background of these photos you'll catch a glimpse of our handiwork.

I have a feeling that tossing the tree this year might be a bit of problem considering Claire is STILL decorating it. To make letting go easier, I'm thinking of having her string it with some popcorn and cranberries for our bird friends. We can watch them feast and enjoy the tree just a little longer without having pine needles underfoot in our living room for another month. Let's hope this works, otherwise there are going to be lots of tears or a tree up in February over here! I'm not sure which is worse!

If I'm not blogging before the New Year, let me take the time to wish you and yours a healthy and happy one!

A Swimming Pool...in my crawl space.

We have a crawl space under our house where our furnace (and many families of cave crickets) live.

It flooded in the wee hours of the morning and since we didn't hear the alarm going off until 4 am, it continued to fill up drowning our furnace.

I hope all of our early morning efforts getting the pumps back up and running help save the furnace (and by "our efforts", I mean Dan - I stood in the rain offering encouragement and hot cocoa and admiring my hot pink and polka dotted rain boots...Target clearance $3.24, woot!).

I'm grateful that at least it's warm enough that we won't need the heat today. Of course there is no hot water either...but maybe one of my blog readers will let my stinky self (and daughter) bathe at their place.

Morning Rhythms

Ever notice when the morning goes well the rest of the day usually follows? I love the morning rhythm Claire and I found. I started to more actively involve her in the whole breakfast process and found that things went more smoothly and were more enjoyable for the both of us. It takes a little longer to get food to the table (and ourselves out the door) but slowing the tempo of our morning been really nice.

I gather breakfast makings while Claire enjoys a morning story. I crack the eggs, hunt down the whisk (in the play kitchen again?!) and rustle up some fruit and Claire’s handy-dandy knife.

Once Claire puts her apron on (too cute, right?) she whisks the eggs while I melt some butter.

Whisk whisk whisk whisk. I swear that she is a neater cook than I am, just ask Dan.

Salt, pepper. Perfection. Just look at her work that pepper grinder! This is when I need to pay close attention, we’ve had some s-p-i-c-y eggs thanks to Miss Liberal with the Pepper Grinder.

While I cook the eggs, Claire cuts up some fruit for us. Grapes are a favorite (but a bit challenging) and cantaloupe often makes an appearance. This knife is fantastic, Grandma CaCa picked it up from a Pampered Chef party and it makes Claire really independent in food preparation. She cuts up her own cheese and fruit for lunch and snack when our schedule in the afternoon allows it.

I love the look of determination on her face in these photos. Soon she’ll be whipping up meals all on her own and delivering breakfast-in-bed to her parents on Saturday morning (let me dream, please).

Happy Birthday Grandma Caca!

We celebrated Grandma Caca’s birthday here on March 13 (she was turning 29 if you wanted to know), and while the party we were originally planning to surprise her with got rained out, we had a great little party. Linda and Sandy joined us for the weekend and Claire hammed it up as usual.

 

  See the balloons below? Caca graciously left one behind for Claire and it is STILL happily floating around the house. Claire grabs a hold of the string and jumps along shouting, “yook, I’m froating like the balloon!”

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Smile!

How did I miss posting these? Here are a few more of the kiddo:

 

 

 

A Breath of Spring

Our state might have gotten hit with a blizzard but Claire and I are enjoying just a little bit of spring in the house. About 3 weeks ago I grabbed some clippings of our forsythia bushes and then, just in time for a whole pile of snow they decided to burst into bloom, what a treat to see these flowers as we look out onto 2 feet of snow!

My little helper who is suffering from an awful cold decided to stay indoors yesterday and play gardener with me. Claire watered all the plants (multiple times) and hugged her tulip in an attempt to get it growing faster. We repotted bunches of houseplants and cleaned up the subsequent mess in a vacuuming duet, Claire choosing to push her carriage and make sounds effects and occasionally trying hand at her dustbuster.

All in all a nice quiet day at home! There’s plenty of snow left and we’ll get out there for some snow forts before it melts.

See that little stub of green? (Yes, the one Claire is trying to pinch).It’s one of the leftover tulip bulbs we planted two weeks ago.

Hopefully a few weeks in the cold garage will be enough to trick them into blooming. So far it does appear that they are sprouting, cross your fingers and perhaps I’ll have some colorful tulips to photograph in mid-March.

Morning

Put on your "jammers," tousle your hair and play with me this morning!




You'll need a paintbrush and some watercolors, and a favorite furry friend to help.



You'll need blocks for "bidding castel towers weel high," and a silly smile for knocking them down.




You'll need a noble steed to ride upon. Now rock, rock, rock with me!



You'll need to run around and around until your stomach growls.















And then it will be time for breakfast. Yum.

More photos here, click on the slideshow to view them larger:

Santa's Visit!

Claire must have been a good girl this year, Santa and company brought lots of gifts and I'm predicting a year of very exciting play!

Pretend play rules supreme right now, Claire especially loves imitating things she sees around the house. In her new play kitchen, she's making mean cups of tea for Daddy every night and we've had many treats of "happy cake" delivered right from her "hot hot oben or mikeywave." If you don't blow out the pretend candles (over and over again) the chef gets very upset. The play kitchen is a HUGE hit, just the right size for her to reach everything and attractive enough for placement in a corner of our dining room.

Huggy Baby, Teddy and Baby Baby have a nice little set up going in the living room with a choice of pack and play, bouncy seat or table side high chair (which looks remarkably like cousin Aidan's seat!). Claire's little play table is set up right near her kitchen for meals with her stuffed friends or parents.

Claire received a fantastic set of cutting foods (velcroed wooden fruits and veggies) which she cuts up and washes before throwing the whole lot in her pot for stew. These mixed up wooden meals are quite delicious especially when served by a 2 year old wearing a chef hat and apron. I'm hoping to grab a photo of Claire in her full cooking regalia today...cross your fingers that she's into them, there is no forcing a 2 year old to dress up if she doesn't want to!

In other playtime fun, the nuts and bolts are still a challenge in the wooden toolbox Santa brought. Daddy's help is sought out for those, but she is a pro with the hammer and nails enthusiastically fastening on layers of tabs and nailing them together. Dear Melissa and Doug - we LOVE you and all your wonderful wooden toys!

Thankfully even with all the excitement and new toys it doesn't look like a Toys R Us explosion in my living room (well, anymore). Right after Christmas I pared down what we had out and it really seems to focus Claire on the whole play - put away cycle.

Peaceful Mornings

I'm listening to Claire "read" to our cat, Ray. At least I think that's what is going on judging by the animal sounds (Dear Zoo, again?) . For the past few mornings Ray has woken Claire up and all I hear from the living room is "HII-EEE Ray Ray!" She's enjoying her time with the kitty and I'm enjoying some time roaming around the Internet and organizing some digital photos, here's one of Claire posing with favorite species, ROAR!

The Couch is Saved!

Remember this post: White Hand Prints on Brown Leather Couch ?

Problem solved. A little bit of elbow grease, water, a soft sponge and we were good to go (I LOVE leather's wipe off anything your toddler can dish out reputation, it's so true!)

How did it happen? Well, I didn't expect Claire to use her crazy monkey skills to climb into a cabinet, help herself to the paint and pour it into her little container at the easel. But when this girl wants to paint...I guess there is no stopping her.

Where was I? Ice-skating in our driveway trying to get the garbage out without killing myself.

And I've decided not to email Santa and tell him about Claire's trangressions. Most of the paint stayed right on the easel (she created a beautiful snowscape on paper) but then she decided to check out what Mommy was doing in the driveway and climbed on the couch to do so.

Secretly I'm proud that instead of painting my walls (as a Facebook friend pointed out HER son did) Claire went right to work on her easel and then forgot to wash her hands. Hey, she's 2...what do you expect?

I will be mellow...

I will take a deep breath
I will be mellow
I will be calm
I will be patient
I will react quietly and gently

.........

I will learn to love the new white painted hand prints all over my leather sofa

I'm Owed Two Bits!

The tangles in Claire's baby fine hair finally got the best of me today. I've been contemplating cutting it for sometime now - spurred on by our Boston visit with Alice who assured us she's be just as cute! Seriously though, Claire's hair is so fine that within seconds of taking it out of a ponytail it increases in volume about threefold! And lets not talk about the struggle to comb it once the knots have made themselves at home... ack! I was even thinking about putting it up to a vote on the blog, but like I said, today was the last straw.

Things were so bad that I took matters into my own hands. I just chopped about 2 inches off (much to the horror of my mother who was on the phone listening and cringing with every snip of my kitchen shears).

What do you think? Anyone care to let me try my haircutting skills on their head? I think Claire looks awfully cute, but then again I'm biased as both her mother and beautician!

Operation Deck the Halls!

"Operation Deck the Halls" has begun, which will hopefully be followed by "Operation Cabinet Doors." Maybe a little elf will come along and screw all my doors back on while I sleep...

one can dream.