August 22, 2006

Summer days


Our summer has gone fast and the beginning of school and fall is just around the corner. We have had a couple play dates at the park with friends from school lately which results in a couple of really tired kids making bedtime a much easier endevor.
The weather has been nice lately with blue skies and a little rain. Not too hot, too humid and cool breezes at night coming through the windows rather than the vents!

Emma's vocabulary is blooming with the addition of new "words" everyday. Pizza, diaper, pig, baby, hat, cow, kitty, more, done, no, mine,apple,. These are the newest and most common. She also has been laughing at everything, especially if you name the thing she is pointing at. She points to her diaper when she is ready for a new one and walks up stairs when you agree to change it.

(A week or so later)Fall is coming quickly. We have had four days of rain and now it is windy and cloudy. We really would like to see the sun again. In the garden, we have picked three strawberries from our little bush. They are the first of the summer thanks to the squirrels who have been stealing them the whole time right as they are about to turn red. I built a steel cage from hardware cloth with a roof to keep them out and it seems to do the trick. The bush looks promising with many more flowers and little green strawberries waiting to ripen. The yellow squash is making many squashes but since I am pretty much the only one who eats them I think we will leave them off the list of "to be planted" for next year. We also have a voluteer pumpkin that is about the size of a lime and the same color too which I hope with reach small pumpkin size by October. It had a late start so I am hoping for the best. Also our sunflowers, cosmos and morning glories have finally flowered and it is so nice have some color in the back.

Sadie will be starting a tumbling/ballet class in September when school is back in session. We went by school to drop of some paper work and saw the newly arrived fire engine on the playground. Sadie was quite excited and had to figure out all of the tricks before we could play a short game of baseball on the field behind the school.

I can't believe it but I am wishing for some hot weather again before we descend into fall and winter. I am sure there is some on the horizon...I hope!!

August 17, 2006

Plenty of time for cutting

--Nathan's semi-occasional post--

First, I have to recount a typically great Sadie/Sara question and answer session, before I forget it forever...

Sadie: "Do snails bite, Mama?"
Sara: "No."
Sadie: "What do they do? Do they just make sticky situations on you?"
Sara: silence
Me: tripping over myself as I scramble for a pen to write this one down.

****

So, I finally feel like a real dad. Thirty-two years old, a father for four years, I've performed all the standard fatherly duties (I've even cut one umbilical chord). But not until the middle of July, 2006 had I finally uttered..."Don't run with scissors!!" Sadie has several activity and craft books that require scissors. We live in what they call a 'split-level' home. The crafting room is either two or three flights of stairs from the bedroom (depending which direction you go), and the supplies are never where the crafter needs them...you do the math. I wanted to explain to her that I did not intend to witness any more pruning of her flesh than I had in her first minutes of life, but, knowing her, that conversation would have led to more unanswerable questions, so I stuck to just the exclamation.

I'm pretty sure this is the time in parenthood where all too frequently I will be doing double-takes, thinking, "Did I really just say that??" I have to admit to a few others that left me incredulous:

"Because I said so."
"Don't play with your food."
"Taco Bell is hiring."

I know what all of you more experienced parents are nudging each other and saying..."just wait 'till those girls are 13."

August 11, 2006

Holiday


DSC01015
Originally uploaded by 1000hats.



We took a little trip up to visit the Great Grandparents on Monday, stopping first to see Grandpa and Grandma Heckman. We spent the day with them, visited the diner for dinner and returned the next day until lunchtime. For lunch on Tues, we made our way to Grandma Benson's to visit with her and Uncle Doug. Larry and Cathy came over to say hi as well.
For the most part we sat and talked with everyone, took a mini family history tour of area Schoharie with G&G Heckman, cruised through Uncle Doug's gardens and strolled around Esperance. The weather was beautiful as well as the scenery and I dreamed of having a farm house up there for a summer escape. We returned Wednesday to a cooler Jersey, our fire flies are gone but the tree frogs are louder than ever. A cold, quiet snowy night does not seem too far away.
Click on the above picture to see more of what we were up to.

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