Camping On Hold

We were supposed to try out our tent for the first time this weekend. But as you may see, I am here at home posting to this blog.

Whilst I am blogging, I am looking out the window watching the snow clouds move across the sky. It's been snowing on and off since yesterday. What is the meaning of this? Snow in Spring? It's totally wrong! I'm just hoping my new plants won't be too upset about it.

So our camping trip has been put on hold. While I expect to encounter rain, for that is what living in Seattle is all about, I really have no desire to set up a tent in snow.

Let's hope for a nice weekend next week.

Bloomin' Spring

Spring is here. The daffodils are blooming, and all the other bulbs are about to bloom. Within a few weeks my garden will be full of tulip blooms, and soon after the roses will appear. I love this time of year.

However, this afternoon, it felt more like saying "bloomin' spring" rather than spring blooming. Just picture one child with a potted daffodil in hand, running and screaming "No, no, it's mine" with the other in chase, in tears, screaming "no, I want it!". My peaceful spring image was quite distorted, although I could not help but laugh. Once I pulled myself together I had to go and intervene. "Isaac. The daffodil is Lizzy's. She picked it out today at the nursery for her garden. Perhaps you'd like to come and choose another flower and we can work out where to put it."

Thank goodness he was willing to cooperate, and once the tears had been dried, we were back to the work of making Spring bloom.

Camping

If you have read Ben's blog today, you will have seen that we are getting into Spring. To go along with this theme we bought a tent today. We've been married for 8 years now and I don't think we've ever been camping. However, I grew up camping and have wanted to do it for awhile. Ben has finally relented and, in fact, is quite excited about the idea now.

I remember camping with a great big heavy tent, however our new tent roles up to the size of a sleeping bag and is about 8kg. It fits 6 people, giving us room to live in when it rains, because living in the Northwest means that you have to expect it to rain while you camp.

So over the next few months we are hoping to go camping at a few state parks in Washington, and enjoy seeing some more of this beautiful land.

The Jesus Sandwich

Lizzy has started to make her own sandwiches for lunch. She takes great joy out of coming up with various combinations.

Today she made a sandwich and happily annouced that it was her "Jesus" sandwich.

"Your Jesus sandwich?"

"Yes. The carrots are Jesus and the bread is the tomb."

I was so stunned that I totally forgot to ask what the cheese was. However, I am happy to annouce that yes, Jesus did come out of the tomb - although in this instance he now resides in her stomach. For the time being anyway.

Summer Holidays

"Isaac, do you know where we're going for our summer holidays?"

"Australia?"

"No..."

At this second the bottom lip starts quivering.

"But I want to go to Australia. I miss my grandparents."

Followed by a very unhappy face and some more quivering lips.

"How about we call Jan or Joe tonight?"

"OK!" And all is right with the world again.

Like Father, Like Son

I had my hair cut on Tuesday. It used to be fairly long, probably about mid-back length. I had it all cut off back up to my shoulders again.

When I went to pick Elizabeth up from preschool, she noticed straight away. "Mummy, your hair is smaller!" Usually I give advance warning to Ben when I get my hair cut, but I decided that if my 4 year old could see a difference, surely my husband would be able to.

The next test came when I picked up Isaac from school. I was not really surprised when he did not notice, so I asked "Isaac, is my hair any different?" He looked at me for a moment and said no. Groan.

So with one child noticing and one child not noticing, the odds could go either way. Would Ben notice?

Let's just say, it was a case of "like father, like son".

Adoration

Lizzy loves her brother. If Isaac does something, she wants to try it too. Her adoration became very apparent a number of months ago when she told Isaac's speech therapist "When I am five, and a boy, I'm going to do speech therapy."

Although the boy part is a little out of her league, it looks like she may achieve her goal. She has just started physical therapy, and the therapist noticed that she has low facial muscle tone and recommended some speech therapy.

She's thrilled that she is now doing PT and will start speech therapy, just like Isaac. Obviously there is nothing like following in the footsteps of an adored brother.

Girlfriends

On Valentines Day, the receptionist at Speech Therapy asked Isaac if he had a girlfriend. After moments pause he replied "Lizzy is my girl friend." There was a collective sigh and comments of "What a sweetheart".

However, obviously alot of thought has gone into this question over the past couple of weeks. We were in the car yesterday, and we got into a conversation about last names. He thought the story about how our last name came about was very cool. That turned into a conversation about how girls have the option to use thier husbands last name when they marry. In the middle of all of this he suddenly says "I'll marry Grace if she is still my friend when we grow up because she is my girl friend." Yes...he's still a sweetheart.

I'm so glad I'm dealing with girl friends rather than girlfriends. I still need a few more years to prepare for that.