Here’s an oatmeal sensory bin even the very oral Mr. C can enjoy-

And here we are, all painting clouds. Don’t worry, Mr. C’s paint is sour cream.

PB is getting better at drawing. These are people. A bit scary, but fun to see him go beyond scribbles.

And this wonderful slip’in’slide came with the apartment. Too bad a tan for PB and Joe wasn’t included.

Potty training with PB is finally gaining some momentum. Except then he got diarrhea. Fun.

We hiked up Willard canyon. When Joe and I were dating we went on a perilous journey on the south side of the canyon. The trail, if there ever actually was one, was covered in rock slides. This time we went up the north side. I thought it would be a nice easy hike. It actually involved a lot of scrambling and cardio and took an hour longer than planned.  We hiked up to the end of the trail and found a nice cascade:

Hiking back, I realized there was a turn that I had missed earlier. (It was marked in orange ties, I guess I wasn’t looking.) That trail switch backed up the side of the mountain and went to the bottom of a waterfall, but we were about done and didn’t follow it the full way. The waterfalls (there are two) were not too spectacular anyway.

PB had a blast, acting like it was giant playground. (Where better to climb around then on a hike?) Alternatively he was tired and wanted to be carried. We have big boys to lug up mountains, good thing both me and my husband are still young and athletic. After a certain point I told PB he had to walk. My legs were done carrying all that extra weight. (My husband is amazing fit and after hiking went and moved dirt around for a friend for another three hours.)

I also was able to capture some great shots of my kids.

My kids are loud. And tiring. They are so happy lately, it is hard to get them to do things like eat, put on clean clothes, use the potty, or not eat dirt. Mr. C just loves helping his mom. He helps unfold the clean laundry, empties clean dishes on the floor and snitches bread dough. He tries to pretend and do what everyone else is. He’ll demand a fork and plate just to play, while he continues to eat by handful.

PB is still into his music and cars. He’ll shut himself in his room and line up his cars in parking lots. I think both activities give his mind the down time we all need. I’m always trying to get him to do different activities. He is good enough to play along.


The play-dough pictured here was an accident. I was going to do goop, with cornstarch and water. PB put in too much water and I was out of cornstarch. So I added baking soda and flour and we ended up with a very interesting and fun sticky dough. There is room for lots of accidents when playing.

The following activity I do not recommend. Not that it wasn’t a lot of fun. It was a blast.

Vinegar kills plants. The spot where the giant volcano was is now bright yellow. I think it will recover in a few weeks.

I lost the keys this past week. Twice. The first time we were playing a game of hide the keys. On hindsight that is not a very good game, no matter how convenient and appealing keys are to hide. I lost interest and forgot to go find them after PB had hid them. They did turn up later. Later in the week, I couldn’t find the keys again.  I got the spare and went out and discovered I left them in the car. In the ignition. And turned on. Guess I killed the car with the clutch and never bothered to get keys. The battery was dead. I felt like a total idiot.

C has taken to screeching when he want anything. But he also is picking up language pretty good. He says ma-ma and da-da and a bunch of other baby words that don’t mean much. And then he’ll pop out and say stuff that sounds like “Thank you” and “Hi there” and “Bye-bye.” We sometimes attempt sign language and he’ll wave good bye and do all done when prompted.

Picture time!