Sick Day

Oh, you gross coxsackie virus! Please go away soon! (*hand, foot and mouth virus. Causes red blisters all over in babies, and sore throats/fever in older children) I hope the two boys recover quickly so Timo doesn't miss any school days, and Mattias can get started on time with his new 2 mornings a week preschool.

I didn't take any close-ups of Hawk because the blisters are really bad on his hands and feet.

Papa Bear is never far away when Mattias is not feeling well.

Timo spent all morning lying in bed, listening to an audiobook. When I went to snap a photo he looked up and smiled, surprisingly. On the wall you can see his "morning routine" poster that he made.

Meanwhile Jim has decided to go baking crazy this weekend with the extra time spent at home (since we couldn't go to church this morning). Saturday was rusks and pumpkin muffins, and Sunday was gingerbread biscotti and granola. Wait a sec, this is actually a normal baking weekend for him... No one is complaining!

Good exercise for Hawk's hands

It's hard to keep up with all the new things that Hawk is learning these days! He is 2 months post-spica cast, and really start to get more comfortable moving around and exploring, and slowly gaining more range of motion in his left hip. Meanwhile of course we continue to try to encourage him to use his hands in all kinds of ways so that his fingers can open up and gain more 'grip strength'.

Here are a couple of photos from last week - the therapist gave me lots of ideas for helpful activities, like ripping paper, hiding toys in socks and making him pull them out, lifting plastic containers out of the drawer, manipulating Duplos, squeezing balls, smushing play-doh, lifting and pouring cups of water... you get the idea! All sorts of fun for a little boy!

I had to record this moment (below) when all three boys were happily playing together in the upstairs playroom one morning. I think it was one of the first times that Hawk had joined the older two for playtime for an extended period, and I didn't have to monitor him every second. He carefully explored his way around (no easy task with Legos and cars everywhere), crawling or pulling up to stand. I even went back downstairs to do breakfast dishes and make another cup of coffee!

the Moving Truck game

"We're going to go upstairs and play the moving truck game," Timo announced this morning after breakfast. Hmm... I thought. And I let them go up on their own while I put Hawk down for a nap. I could hear banging and footsteps for 20-30 minutes, and then I carefully went upstairs to investigate.

Here's what our playroom looked like:

And here are the two very proud boys, standing in their "truck"/rug, all carefully laid out in their bedroom.

"Okay, time to drive the truck! Mattias, get in your bed! And Mommy, you pretend you are Gemma and you can sit in the truck with the stuff. We're going to our new house!"

After a few minutes of driving and chatting, we had arrived at our New House! Timo led the way as we unloaded the truck, carted it all back to the playroom, and re-arranged.

Later, downstairs I had a few quiet minutes for a cup of tea and some work on the computer (a rare thing during the day!) before Hawk woke up. And yes, that is a HUGE pile of bananas on the table. Reduced bananas that Jim bought at the grocery store, and now they are ripening further before we put them in the freezer for banana bread and smoothies.

Phew.

Mother's day and some summer planting

I'm taking a break from all of these rainy days to load pictures from the camera, including these from Mother's Day. Mattias helped with the scones, Timo made the fruit salad (all by himself), and Hawk gave his charming smile.

Later we worked on potting tomatoes, squash, and some herbs, and trimming some bushes. I have since filled up our raised planters. This week we've seen the bush pickles (small cucumbers) take OFF and they are dominating the planters, along with the onion (which were easy and fun for the boys to plant but now they are taking up a lot of room!) so I need to move the other herbs and flowers out of there. I've really enjoyed tending this small area, and in the midst of crazy days with the boys, it's always a nice break to go outside, walk with the boys doing inspections and pinching tomato suckers and munching on mint leaves. It's pretty great to live in this house with such a huge sunny yard.

Friday and warmer temps

We've slowly been getting warmer weather the last week or so, and we are all itching to be able to be outside more! Of course, true to spring, we've had some very windy days, some cold nights (still in the 30s so can't plant anything outside yet because of the risk of frost), and weekly rain. But slowly the blossoms are out and dogwood trees are blooming with pink and white and cream. When the weather is nice we are able to walk to Timo's preschool (although it's a mile each way), eat meals at the picnic table, have friends over to play outside, romp around campus and, like we did today, go for a bike ride on the Greenway.

The river is full at this time of year, and trout season is open now. Beautiful.

"I'm going to eat my snack outside because it's so lovely out there."

Saturday afternoon

Last Saturday, that is - because this week has been cold and rainy (we even had snow one day and overnight!). We had a great time raking and doing some spring yard prep, dreaming about what plants to have this summer and where we could hang a swing and where Timo should build a fort and, best of all, realizing that we have a great BIG grassy yard! So please come visit if you would like to play frisbee/t-ball/soccer/basketball/fort-building AND if you like to rake leaves!

I love the age when babies sit happily on a blanket in the yard, grabbing bits of grass and grinning around at everyone.

"Okay, Mommy, where is first base?"

Digging for fossils

the first picnic supper of the year!

Saturday morning

At Timo's initiative and Mattias's willing participation, the boys set up a cars vs dinosaurs battle scene after breakfast. Hawkins was very happy to observe. Timo has been narrating stories for many months (basically for the last 2 years already) but in recent months has started telling them to us more often throughout the day. This weekend he told us several chapters of a story featuring four characters: Card, Jacob, Sally and Nina, who found themselves transported to Jurassic Island, where they met Tom, a camo-wearing helicopter pilot, and had to battle dinosaurs while traveling around the island on various vehicles.

Timo was setting the stage before the battle began

Thanks, Mom

Thank you, Jaja, for coming to be with us for 4 days while Jim was away! Especially since we got a bit of snow & ice, and were mostly housebound for the first 3 days, we were very glad you were here. It helped keep us all in a better mood - and well-fed (and I even got to sleep in a bit), most notably!

Watching the bubbles and getting ready to punch down the bread dough

Unfortunately Hawk got another cold this week but he does love his Jaja (and for some reason looks huge in this picture! I can verify that he is still small and lightweight. I checked my notes and he is almost exactly the same weight - at 8 months - that both Gemma and Timo were at 4 months.). He particularly enjoyed the "touch and feel" truck book that Jaja brought. Very cute to see him pointing his fingers and feeling the textures.

The weather warmed up on the last 2 afternoons, so we were able to go out for walks. The first afternoon the boys had a great time showing Jaja a few spots along Main St (including the gallery where Gayle has some prints, and the antique store with a kids' play area), and the next day we all walked a bit further around the neighborhood.

Good-bye, and see you again soon!

Snow day

Jaja arrived yesterday (Tuesday) midday, to help out and be with us while Jim is gone to Cape Town for the week - and last night we had a lovely 2 inches of snowfall (with a coating of ice underneath). It was nice to wake up to the sight of beautiful snow outside! Although the temps are lower so the snow is light and fluffy (and the air is COLD on one's cheeks) and not dense enough for building or throwing. Still the boys had fun this morning brushing snow off the cars, experimenting with tracks in the snow, and walking down the driveway following after some cat paw prints. Later in the afternoon Timo and I went out again for a longer walk down Main St, seeing which businesses were open and which were closed, and knocking icicles off all the benches.

Testing out the bike to see its snow tracks

Mattias insisted on pushing the doll stroller down the driveway!

Timo followed the cat prints down the driveway and then up a hill in the neighbor's yard, and then lost the trail - and was disappointed not to find the cat hiding at the top of the hill.

standing on the fence in the backyard