poop

You know you're going through some serious monotony and blah-dom when the most exciting part of your day -- and maybe even week -- is that your 3-year old went poop on the potty. Remember...I started training her a looooong time ago....just about 5 months ago in fact. Well, this girl has known all along what to do and when to do it, but she is NOT into it and it has been a HUGE pain...not to mention all the poop I've had to mess with for the past 5 months..... I am so sick of it!!!!! (And, once again, I was spoiled by my boy who learned in one day and had about 5 accidents total in his lifetime. My girl averages about 5 accidents per day.......good times......)

But....she did FINALLY go all by herself today. But...... then she proceeded to go poop in her panties about 4 times throughout the day (how does such a small girl poop so much in one day?). However, at least she tried to make it to the bathroom each time rather than hiding to go poop and then pretending like she didn't go -- when anyone within 10 feet could smell her.

Anyway...it rained again today....so, strangely enough, this lil poopiness turned out to be one of the bright spots of the day. Here's proof in the potty:

I know...it's gross. But I had to document it. You have no idea how exciting it was to see her poop in the potty and not have to clean up her messy bum....again!!

muddy, soggy, rainy

The entire month of June has been rainy. I'm not kidding. It has been non-stop rain with a few sunny days sprinkled in to remind us that it actually IS summer. It's getting downright depressing. Really, really depressing. I feel soggy all the time.

HOWEVER, my two wee ones have not complained once. Not once. They have been incredible. I am in awe of them daily. They are always able find their own sunshine and independently keep themselves happy and playful. They make me want to be 3 and 4 again. I love being around them...even after several long weeks of being cooped up inside.....

Another bright side of these humid, rainy days in June has been Anna Clara's curls. They have been truly mesmerizing. She's almost got the Shirley Temple thing goin'. They even bounce when she runs. It is way too cute to put into words, so here are some pics:





This last photo Soren was wanting to block the picture -- unfortunately one of my favorites of my girl -- because he wasn't liking all the pictures of his sis without him in them...so I took some of him:





With rain...comes mud...lots of mud.....which they decided to use as paint and re-"paint" our back deck stairs. Nice.






As fun as mud can be, there's plenty of mud for most of the year in New England. Summer is short enough as it is, but to lose an entire month to rain...now that is downright pathetically sad. And oh so wrong. Here's hoping there are warm SUNNY! days to come in July......

a question

One of the things about motherhood I have always looked forward to is the things my child would some day ask me. I just love the questions. I love the sponge-like child's mind. I love the words they make up. I just can't get enough of it. My two lil ones are now at the perfect age for what I looked forward to most all those many years of waiting to have my own children. Soren with his 4 year old questions and Anna Clara with her delicious words ("pasquito" for mosquito is one of my favorites right now).

For example, tonight my boy had some questions that went like this:

SOREN: "Mommy, if we didn't have any food in our stomach, would we be able to grow?"
MOMMY: "No, if you didn't have food, you would not be able to grow."
SOREN: "Well then if we go potty, than how can we grow?"

It was all I could do to keep from laughing at my lil boy's sincere question. I just LOVE those moments! And I absolutely adore my questioning boy....

happy father's day!

Ok...so I know I'm going overboard with the strawberries, but I have been wanting to try this recipe FOREVER (well...maybe just a year...but still....) and I finally made it for Father's Day. It is a typical Martha Stewart recipe with lots of steps, so I was waiting for the strawberries from our garden and the perfect occasion to make it -- and yesterday was that day! Yes, it took a long time to make and yes it was divine. The fried basil with sugar was seriously yummy. So was the basil whipped cream. Oh man it was a good dessert. And pretty too....

The daddy had about four pieces of it, so apparently it was a successful daddy's day dessert. That was a good thing.

best of friends?

My lil doggie hairdresser was at it again.... I came home last night to find JoiVie like this:


I asked Soren what happened and he said Anna Clara had put all those stickers on my poor pup. I have tried all day to get them off and they are almost as bad as the Vaseline -- they will NOT come off! It's been raining all day and JoiVie and the stickers are soaked, but they are still stickin'. Poor lil pup.... Surprisingly enough, she still adores Anna Clara. A true friend!

(side note: Jim was "taking care" of the kidlings while I was out and didn't even notice the stickers until this morning....hmmmm.... I figure as long as they are alive when I come home, he can "take care" of them any way he wants! Thank you Mr. Incredible for always so willingly letting me go out!!)

berry yummy cookies

My lil girl felt so big 'n strong bringing this big bowl of berries all the way inside after we picked 'em:

With those strawberries I made these:

They are so dang yummy!!!!!

i be jammin'

Today I made these:

turn into these (20 of 'em!):

My first canning of the summer! With lots more ahead of me....

strawberries!!!!

The "red ripe strawberries" (as Soren calls them) have arrived in our garden!!!!

My farm boy worked berry berry hard...(yes, that's him bending down to the ground -- he does NOT mess around!)

...my pickers picked...



...and we enjoyed the fruits of our labor...




...and made berry funny faces at each other....



...and at the camera.

And then we had them for dessert with some yummy fondue....



Them are some berry yummy strawberries!! A big thanks to my big farm boy!

(her last gulp of milk after finishing her dessert)