Babysoroos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two weeks ago, it was still summer. So on a Tuesday afternoon when our swimming lesson was cancelled because the instructor was sick, we headed to the beach instead.

We started out mostly playing in the sand, with driftwood, and paddling in the shallow water.

But pretty soon there was splashing and sitting and reaching down and falling in. And the t-shirts came off.

The weather was warm, the water not so much. But the kids didn’t care. (I suppose it wasn’t too cold, really. If you’re 4.)

Ben was running and JUMPING into the water. He was getting soaked and making big splashes and having a great time.

Timothy was stomping around, investigating what was on the bottom. Picking up sand and rocks (YOCK!) and dropping them. Conducting very important scientific experiments, you know.

It was a great alternative to a swim lesson!

… means we get the pool out.

And the boys, of course, get naked, dump sand in it, and start driving trucks and planes around the edges.

Why, what else would you do in a pool of water?

Ben has wanted to ride a bus for a long time, so on Monday, his birthday, he and Timothy and I took a bus trip into Langley. He was cute. Looking around in wonder, asking what everything was for, and thoroughly enjoying himself.

We went to the thrift store (he loves playing in the toy area), the library, and then we got ice cream cones. Cones are a newly discovered treat for him, usually we’ve just done bowls. He manages pretty well really, not too messy.

Timothy, on the other hand, does not quite grasp the purpose of the cone. Yes, there are bites out of the side of it and he’s trying to eat the bottom.

Then we went for a walk on the beach in town.

Looks beautiful, huh? Idyllic, even?

Yeah. What you can’t see is that that sand sinks. When you step on it.

It wasn’t quite so dramatic for the boys, being lighter than me, but when they started getting too far out there towards the water and I had to go after them for peace of mind, I started sinking up to my knees in the sand. My knees.

At that point, I got a little freaked out and we left. Got up into town and sat down to read library books for a few minutes while mama’s heart calmed down, then went to buy new balloons to replace some that flew away at the birthday party.

Then we went home (Daddy picked us up, I wasn’t quite willing to ride the bus home too, what with balloons and library books and other errands, and a once-every-two-hours schedule) and he got his choice of dinner — curry. Because with curry comes raita, and raita is really yogurt, and the boy could eat yogurt for every meal if it was allowed.

I think it was a good birthday.

I have a couple of child laborers around here. But rather than forcing them to work, sometimes it’s hard to get them to stop!

But, you know, little boys, summer, basin of soapy water….. it’s a recipe for fun.

Today Ben mopped my kitchen floor. All by himself. Last time I tried to do it, there were three of us fighting over the mop: me, because I wanted to “do it right”; Ben, because he wanted a turn; and Timothy, because if Ben wanted a turn, it must be good. This time, I gave Ben his turn first while I did something else, and before I knew it, he’d finished the whole thing! The floor might not be perfect, but it’s better than it was when I was avoiding cleaning it so I didn’t have to fight over the mop. And he didn’t flood the place, so that’s a bonus!

Yesterday we spent the day at Choochokam, our local town’s summer festival of the arts. It was sunny and hot, busy but not unpleasantly crowded. We bumped into lots of people we know, watched the Island Strings performance (kids on violins, mostly; the same group who ran the camp Ben did last week) and other music, got coffee, got strawberry and chocolate crêpes, had pizza for dinner, and hung out for part of the Saturday night street dance. The first band (a reggae band) was too loud, so we went down to the beach where we could hear it from a distance.

The boys at around 7pm on Saturday:

The second band was much more fun, the kids loved it, we danced and laughed and ran around. It was after 8pm before the tired’n’crankies hit and we had to go home.

On the way home, Eric said something about the reggae band. Ben wanted to know what the “oregano people” looked like. 🙂

We’ve been working hard in our yard for the last few months, so we decided that with predicted hot weather (finally!) this last weekend, we needed to go do something fun, especially for the kids.

My plan was to find a U-pick strawberry farm, but that didn’t quite work out. When we eventually found one, most of the way to the north end of the island, we were one day early for the season. Still, they had strawberries for sale from their own, non-U-pick fields, so we bought a bunch to make jam. Then, since we were nearly there anyway, we headed on up to Deception Pass for our picnic.

It was glorious at the beach, but thank goodness we were early! As we were leaving, there was a constant stream of cars entering the park and I’m sure it was getting to be really crowded.

The next part of the plan worked out much, much better! I recently discovered that there is a public, outdoor pool a little south of Coupeville. Next to the water, with views of the mountains and the passing ships.

It wasn’t crowded and one of the pools has an even depth of 3ft, which is perfect for Ben to bounce around with his head above water. He had a blast. Even Timothy warmed up to it pretty quickly.

After an hour in the pool, the only way we could get Ben to leave was with the promise of strawberries in the car and that we’d come back soon.

And then…. barbeque. We’d been to the farmer’s market on Saturday and had loads of little artichokes to grill. Along with our standards of mushrooms, potatoes and tofu. And also, a few tiny onions that had been “liberated” from our garden by a certain one year old.

Ben thought he’d try some wine. (It was empty.)

Yes, it’s the end of March. Yes, we live in the Pacific Northwest where we don’t often get snow.

And yes, that’s snow.

Not much of it lying, granted, but still, good grief! It’s nearly April! We have seedlings coming up! We need sun!

The weather better start behaving and people better get healthy. I’m tired of all this winter stuff.

I’m trying to upload more pictures, but my camera’s software has started freaking out and giving me weird error messages and I’m trying to use the old version of iPhoto that’s on my computer but I’m just getting grumpy over technology and workflow. Bah.

Pictures of last week’s snow coming soon, though. One way or another.

Friday morning was gray and damp, but not actually raining. Ben didn’t want to go to school, so we decided to go for a walk in the forest instead. We were in the woods for well over an hour, and I was amazed — Timothy actually walked about half of it all by himself! It was a slow pace, but that gave us lots of time to notice the fallen trees, the odd-looking fungi, the white-tipped pinecones (lichen?), the puddles, the lack of slugs, the different types of moss. It was wonderful to spend time like that with my boys. The forest feels particularly enchanted to me in that sort of weather, and with noone else around at all, I didn’t have to worry about one lagging and one leading. (“Mama, sing the leader song!”) Not that we ever got too far apart.

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