The tale of Scott and a snail

I do a stroller run with friends every Tuesday morning.  Scott does GREAT with Mark: holding his hand (usually not too tightly) and talking to him or "reading" him books.  We run along Steven's Creek Trail under 2 highways and over one (on a huge pedestrian bridge where I taught Scott to yell "Go Mommy!") and to the NASA Research property.  Here we let the children out for a break.  Scott has been finding snails and last week the snails were all locked in their shells!  We think this is because of the unusual freezes out here; they sealed themselves in for protection.

Ever seen snails like this?

Snuggling

Overheard from Scott

We want our boys to be aware of what they eat, but I think we may have taken this whole carnivore thing a little too far.

Playing in the kitchen on Saturday morning, Scott holds up a little toy cow.
Me: Scott, this is the mommy cow.  See her udders? 
Scott: Where her baby?
Me: Yes, where is her baby calf?
Scott: Daddy COOK it!  Take baby, put in microwave, HAMBURGER!
Me: ... ... ... oh.  Do you like hamburgers?
Scott: Yes! Sometimes I eat, sometimes I not.  Daddy COOK it!

Later, swinging at the park, we are talking about books and I ask Scott what he likes to read:
Scott: Chickens.
Me: You like to read about chickens?
Scott:  No, I like to EAT chickens.

Whoa.

Since that's not very Valentine's-y, let me leave you with something a little sweeter:

Mark is such a cute napper.  I start snapping photos.

The camera is a little loud.  He awakes.

And smiles.  What a doll.

xoxo to all.

Wedding tree

The plum tree that guards the entrance to our building has put on its dress whites and put me in the mood for a wedding.

The tree makes me think all at once of brides, mothers, and guests: 
dressed in impractically beautiful clothes,
waiving delicate embroidered cotton handkerchiefs, and
throwing tiny petal teardrops down like rice (or birdseed, or bubbles)
on us
as we play
in the square of warm Spring sunlight below.

All better!

With the exception of my hair (which will continue to look weird and remain hidden for some time, sorry dear A.), all the issues of last week are resolved.  Allow me to show you our weekend?

Scott played in our courtyard, near a very nice spiderweb:

Luke lounged near another spiderweb at baby B.'s 1st birthday party (at awesome Mitchell Park in Palo Alto):

Mark napped.  No spiderwebs involved here:

We also hiked Mission Peak.  I did the hike with the boys on Friday afternoon with some backpacking friends and carried BOTH OF THEM (Mark on front, Scott on back) for some time.  On Saturday we returned with Luke and did a more sensible one son per parent hike.  Mission Peak is gorgeous always but really great in the winter when the baby calves are all fuzzy and following their mamas around.  We also saw lots of gophers.  Come visit now.  Share our halcyon life.

Laugh

We have 3 cases of bronchitis, 2 cases of pink eye, and 1 outbreak of allergic hives among our 4 family members.  (I also have a weird haircut thanks to my impatient habit of running to the nearest walk-in hairdresser whenever I'm feeling frumpy.)


 I need a laugh: http://xkcd.com/851_make_it_better/

Amazon Prime for parents and students

(If you're not a parent/student, this is really boring.)

Check this out: Amazon has a "Prime" account sign up where parents and students get free shipping on a bunch of things.  You can also sign up for automatic refill delivery that gets you 30% off, which means I can get nice, plain, chlorine-free, eco-happy compostable diapers -- whoa that's a lot of adjectives for diapers -- delivered to my door for $15/month less than it costs to buy the least expensive Costco brand.  Students, I suppose you could order pencils and protractors in bulk, too.

Also?  When these boys get toilet trained*, we are going to be super-rich. 

P.S. -- I still wish I was awesome enough to do cloth diaps.  

*Scott's Operation Potty Train quickly became Jenn & Luke's Operation Do Lots of Laundry.  Trying again in a few weeks/months.

P.P.S. -- Did President Obama's call for teachers make anyone else out there consider looking into alternative certification?