Around the Yard

Spring is a happening time in our yard.  Here are some of the sights to be seen on a pretty night like tonight.

Flowers awaiting planting

 Fuschia from the City Market

A New Lily

 Strawberries!  Our harvest this year will be at least five strawberries!  I believe that is twice the size of last year's harvest. 

Chris hard at work planning our next vacation

 The evening's refreshment

  

Friends

This weekend we got to spend some time with our friends Ellen, Keegan, & Sophie.  This was a special treat because they live in South Korea, so visits are not very frequent.  If they lived nearby, Asher & Sophie could totally be bff.

Reptile Walk

One advantage to waking up at 6:15 on a Sunday is that you get to take a walk at the park while it's still cool & the wild critters are still out and about.  We were pretty surprised when we came across this guy on the trail.

 Anyone know what kind of snake he is?  Chris took these pictures as I was standing quite a bit farther away from the snake! 

Then a few minutes later we saw this guy!

Mr. Turtle seemed to enjoy posing for the camera!

Sharing Food

Asher thinks it is so funny to share his food with others!!  Rambler loves to wait beside the high chair, and Asher is happy to oblige him with a treat.  In fact, he's perfectly happy to give all his food to Rambler!  If Rambler's not around, he also likes to share with Daddy!  What a generous little guy!

http://youtu.be/pRUUupT14CE

A Sunday Morning

Lovely morning.  We all woke up nice and early at 6:00 thanks to Asher. 

Decided to make the most of it by
sitting outside on the deck
drinking coffee
     with lots of chocolate creamer
reading the newspaper
watching Asher play in his high chair
watching the birds
enjoying a nice leisurely morning

CRASH

Chris' chair collapses underneath him.
Chris falls to the ground.
Asher starts screaming.
End of quiet, leisurely morning

Goodbye, Peep

Today I attended a memorial service for Peep, the chick.  It was probably the most hysterical memorial service I will ever attend!   Highlights included attendees clucking and flapping their arms like chicken wings & the eulogy, which referenced Peep's mean siblings and the fact that Peep's burial took place hours before his memorial service!  Somehow I was  nominated to read the eulogy, written by one of our teachers.  Peep hatched at school & lived with us at school this week, including a whole day in my office.  Unfortunately, poor little Peep couldn't walk.  One of my teacher friends tried to save him, and he was briefly adopted as our school pet.  We had a lot of fun with little Peep this week & were sorry to see him go.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of Peep because all I had at school was my camera phone, which didn't take very good pictures in my office lighting.  

photo from Moyers Chicks



Photos for the Day

I guess a more accurate title would have been photos for the week since I haven't blogged since last Friday!  Was it that I was too busy to write or nothing particularly interesting happened this week?  Maybe both!

As you can see from the pictures, Asher has taken to sticking his tongue out all the time!  I just love it!

Also, he can walk along a little while holding onto the couch or windowsill.  Usually he is motivated to walk along in an attempt to reach my cell phone or the tv remote!

Petting Farm Fun

Today we packed up the preschoolers and headed out to a petting farm.  It was hilarious watching the kids interact with the animals.  They were equal parts scared silly and totally excited when the camel first reached her head out to say hello!

 Chloe the Camel.

A Gigantic Pig!

A Crazy-Horned Ram

A Sweet Little Goat

Hungry, Hungry Horses

 Mr. Peacock

And even Wally, the Albino Wallaby!

Smile for the day

How could this picture not bring a smile to your face? 

11 Month Update

11 months old means only one more month until Asher turns 1!  How is that possible?  He is a little squishy bundle of energy busy exploring and learning new things every day.  Here's what's new with the little guy.

Favorite household object:  ceiling fans.  He is guaranteed to smile every time he enters a room with a ceiling fan.  From now on we are going to ask to be seated under a fan when we go out to eat. 

Favorite food:  yogurt.  Just like mom! 

Favorite word:  Dada!!  He likes the sound of saying it over and over and over again!!  He knows it's Chris' name, but he likes to use the word dada to refer to everything! 

Number of teeth:  Still holding steady at one and a half teeth! 

New skill:  pulling up to standing.  He often gets stuck standing though and needs someone to help him sit back down. 

New tricks:  patting his tummy or  head on command. 

So sweet:  Snuggling up on your shoulder or blankets.

We can't wait to see what the next month will have in store! 



Welcome, Birds!

Chris has been busy with a new project--

building birdhouses

He has had lots of fun using all the power tools, and now we now have these lovely birdhouses just waiting for little bird families to take up residence.  As far as we know, no birds have moved in yet. 

The pictures were taken from a distance because I didn't want our neighbors to think I was trying to take pictures through their windows!! 

 And his most recent creation...

a squirrel house

No, we do not want squirrels to move into our kitchen!  Hopefully this house will make it to a tree in our yard very soon!

Once the squirrel house is hung up, we will have reached our limit for animal houses in our yard!  Anyone reading this blog who owns a tree might receive some sort of bird/squirrel dwelling  if Chris continues with this hobby!

Dinner Time

Rambler is a big fan of feeding time.  He patiently waits by Asher's side for the food to start falling to the floor.  It's only a matter of time before a bite or two falls his way.  If he's lucky, Asher will even lean over at the end of a meal and invite Rambler to lick his hands clean!  They both think that is a real treat!  Rambler is starting to realize the perks of having a baby in the house!

Asher is getting much better at picking up finger foods, and we let him snack on puffs every night while I get the rest of his dinner prepared.  Despite the fact that they dissolve in your mouth, I still break the puffs into halves.  I used to break them into quarters!  I've given him bits of other foods, but I break them into such teeny tiny pieces, that they're difficult to pick up and probably even difficult to see!!  Maybe once he has three or four teeth, we'll brave (slightly) bigger pieces of food!

This glimpse of Asher holding his own cup is a rare sight.  He much prefers for someone to hold it for him.  We think he's pretty smart to realize that it's more fun to relax and let someone else do the work for you!

A Boy & His Baseball

Asher received lots of fun goodies for Easter.  He has been very busy playing with his new baseball.  Apparently, he is skipping over teeball & softball and going directly to baseball!  Look for him in the Yankees starting lineup in 2032.

Besides throwing, a baseball is also good for...

gnawing on

and even cuddling!

Happy Easter!

We hope you had a wonderful Easter!