Excavating Bugs

What do I love more, my little man whacking away at a block of ice or having an ice cream mustache? 

Thanks to my obsession with Pinterest, I find all sorts of things to do with Baylor.  Some of them I excute to completion, some I get half done, and most I dream about between meals, dishes, laundry, etc.  This one took a few days to get ready and then sat in the freezer for the right day to pull out. Some layers I added color to but in each layer I added plastic dollar store bugs for him to find and excavate.

I bought out salt and water and he found tools to bash and dash the ice with. 

The sun helped out a bit as it was quite sunny. I helped out a lot because I kept pouring water over it and adding heaps of salt.   It melted in odd areas and tunnels appeared out of no where.  

Eventually all the bugs were out and it was just pieces of ice he could haul around and break up into smaller pieces.  I have another one started in the freezer now.

It was the ice cream mustache.

I found Nemo

Just call me P. Sherman because I caught Nemo.  He was struggling to dry off after a bath and I wrapped him in his towel.

Thanks to an ad for taking the kids on a trip to Disney World and seeing a kid in a Nemo towel, I went on a mission to find one.  Well, they are not available any more so my thoughts turned to making one.  A quick Internet search and I found several patterns and instructions. When I first showed it to him he asked if it had a tail. Back to the machine I went and added a tail. 

It took several stays at Mom's to get it done because my sewing machine is buried in the craft room and hers is sitting out waiting to be used.  Was able to finish it on our last trip to their house.  There is not much else for me to do when he is watching a show in the basement.  Now that this project is finished, I think I will take the knitting I started when I was pregnant to work on when I am there. I will take any Mommy points I can get. 

When I was taking his photos he wanted photos of his toes.  Are they not cute little toes?  Mommy thinks so!

Jack and Jill and Stacey, Barbie, and Ian

A few weeks, several actually because it was April Fool's weekend, Baylor and I went to Mom's because Nana Barbie was coming to town.  It was a nice day, short sleeves and no shoes kind of day.  Baylor loves to roll down hills singing Jack and Jill, his second favorite song .  The Wheels on the Bus is his favorite and has always been.

Mom had invited Stacey, Marshall, and Ian over to see Barbie.  Back in college when Stacey and I were BFFs and I had not yet gone to the dark side, we made several trips to Louisville, KY to visit Barb and Bob.  We had a lot of fun adventures back them but then my life went dark and Stacey and I did not speak for several years, and that is another story.  Barb has never meet Marshall and of course never met Ian so they all came over for dinner.  I had a craft for the kids to do and we had fun with Barbie helping the boys 

It was a nice visit.  Ian was walking and Baylor had fun chasing him around.  When it came time to leave Baylor gave Ian a big hug right in the middle of a diaper change. 

A Day at the Beach

Mom, Dad, Baylor, and I headed to the beach early Saturday morning.  We tried to go several times last year but it rained every weekend we planned to go.  It was two years ago that we took him for the first time and I knew my water baby would love it there.  At least it would be fun to play in the sand because the water would be too cold this time of year.  We stopped in Middletown, DE for breakfast and saw this tractor in the parking lot on our way out.  He still likes tractors but they are not as much an attraction as they were two years ago. 

It was sidewalk sale weekend and a gorgeous day so all of our usual parking streets were full.  We went down the north end of town and found a space two spots from the beach and five blocks down from main street.  We usually like to be closer to the public restrooms but we were happy with where we found a spot.   

Mom and I took Baylor out to find a place in the sand and Dad headed out for a walk. I was excited to see the water too and see what he would think of it all.  He loved the sand of course and was initially excited about the water.

Until it touched his feet and he found out how cold it was!

Run away! 

We were near the kite shop and the weather was great for kite flying.  . 

Of course I wanted to get a good picture of Baylor by his name but this is as close as he would get. 

Because this kept happening and he did not want to get wet again.

We were near a patch of black sand that was irresistible to him. 

We filled his bucket.

Ran it down to the water line and threw the black sand on the tan sand. 

And a few times he got caught in the water and was not very happy about it. 

Then we saw a digger coming up the beach. 

 We had a photo shoot and packed up the beach stuff. 

We did a bit of walking and shopping but not too much as Baylor was getting to the end of his patience and we were all hungry.

Mom and Dad had several orders for pizza from friends back home and we left with a lot of boxes. 

He found a shark water shooter at a shop and we just had to buy it, according to him. 

He had a great time at the beach and we had a great time seeing him enjoy one of our favorite places.

We were probably 5 lights down route 1 and he was out!  A sign of a good day. 

Garden

It has been such a mild winter and spring that the weeds are totally ahead of the plants and my ability to get rid of the them.  I spend time most nights, when not too cold or raining, pulling weeds.  And I have a lot of flower beds and it takes about an hour to do a 4 x 4 area.  I have two raised beds in the fenced in garden and I cleaned one before Easter and the other one is right behind the cleaned out one.  You can hardly differentiate it from the weedy ground!  It took forever to clean the beds!  And we are always working on keeping them cleaned out. Baylor does help in his three year old way. 

The before shot of the weedy bed! 

And several weeks later both are cleaned up and a trellis has been added for climbing beans and cucumber plants to grow on.  Thank you Pinterest for showing me the trellis idea.

Yesterday after we got home from Roots, we planted the beans, carrots, cucumber and corn seeds. Baylor's trenches are all over the place and will be interesting to see them grow in. 

I spent several hours cleaning the raspberry patches and little man tried to help but they are very prickly and he was really good about staying out and not grabbing the cut branches.  He loves to help through stuff in the compost so it was hard for him not to help. 

 This is the side gardens the end of March.  I had great ideas of taking a photo on the same day each month standing on the same spot.  Well, that turned out to be very difficult to schedule (ok, I am pretty lazy about some things) and I will have to settle with periodic check ins.

I did not cut anything back in the fall and all that winter interest was a pain to get out of all the new growth.  And because of the wet year and mild winter we had an explosion of a new to me weed.  I was going to ask my neighbor about them because I don't remember ever seeing them anywhere and this year they were every where.  Before I had a chance to ask her, she asked me. And later that day my cousin asked me also.  So I had to do some online research and found out it is called bittercress and it is taking over this spring.  It is edible if we are every looking for a snack in the garden.

 The same part of the garden as above just standing on the other side of the walk.  What a difference a few weeks can make. 

We have a giant sand pile in the yard.  I cannot wait until we put something big and blue on it.  Summer fun here we come.