First, firsts, and more firsts

What a summer for Alice! So many "firsts" happening right on top of each other. I just want to list them here for my own memory (and so I can revisit this the summer after Robert and James turn 6 years old...mwah ha ha haaaaa!).

• First piano lesson. I can't get her to stop practicing. She composed her own melody this morning and named it "The Garden." She had me write it down for her.
• First loose tooth. She's not sure she wants to wiggle it herself, but she's eating more apples to move it along.
• First summer reading program where she actually reads her own books. We count everything from picture books to chapter books.
• First time going completely underwater in the pool on purpose (the dreaded "bob"). She did it four times, but only at her new swim teacher's request. Alice is not one to say "no" to a teacher. Ever. Alice says she's afraid of the next lesson, but I'm trying to help her see bobs as an act of maturity, courage, and advanced skill. She likes the idea of being ahead of the curve ;)

Then there's Robert. The onset of summer has given him a lot more time with Alice. She's "teaching" him piano lessons and phonics. They do a lot of gross motor play (climbing, swinging, running, jumping, hiding). I'm glad they have that middle ground, at least. When they start working story lines into their play, fights can erupt over details, but I think they generally work things out one way or another.

Robert recognizes many numbers in the 0 to 10 range. Some "firsts" for him this summer include writing a few letters from his name and being able to trace letters and numbers with a pencil. He has mature days and less-mature days. On the mature days, I forget that he's only three. On the less-mature days, I wonder why my 2-year-old is SO freakishly big.

He finds James a bit frustrating. And Robert tends to get awfully bossy with younger kids. I'm still trying to understand what motivates him. He loves positive adult attention, like Alice does, but he also finds the giggles of peers irresistible. He lets Alice lead many of the games. He adores her. He lashes out when he feels slighted or rebuffed by her. Perhaps it is his peers that affect him most. Maybe that motivates him more than adult attention does. I'll have to see.

James. He's doing everything for the first time...solid foods, mobility, slobbery blowfish kisses. Yesterday, he perfected his motor boat noise. Now he scoots around the house going, "B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b!"

And a first for me this week was making my own swim suit. It's a similar design to Alice and Robert's rash guard suits. Finally, I can swim in public without feeling naked or way overdressed. Woo hoo!

Bobby used a Saws-All to cut apart a basketball hoop pole and base. Awesome!

First Firefly

I saw my first firefly tonight.

I love, love, love gardening in June. It's been cool, warm, wet, and dry at all the right times. Wahoo! Weeds haven't settled in, strawberry plants are producing like crazy (5 pints of freezer jam packed away today!), and pretty much everything I plan to grow this year is already in the garden beds. Ta da! Lots of time to sit back and enjoy.

Just a few issues, though:

Cedar Apple Rust: a mold afflicting my apple tree leaves again this year. Last year, I plucked the leaves with early signs of infection and the rest of the tree never caught it. I'm doing the same this year.

Green Aphids: again, the apple trees. Green aphids are sucking plant juices out of several leaves and causing them to curl up all wrinkly. There's a healthy host of ants "farming" these aphids for their butt sap. I'm still looking for non-toxic and organic methods for dealing with this situation.

Bunnies: I've kept them out of the garden beds this year with my tent contraption setup (pictures to come), but one bunny has taken a liking to eating fruit tree bark...again, poor apple tree.

That whole tent contraption setup ("squirrel exclosure") has been an interesting series of experiments and trials. I'm still not completely satisfied, but it's doing its job in a semi-pretty way and I'm grateful for that. I'll have to post some pictures for you.

Neighbor's new fence: *sigh* Remember when I was all tied up in knots about the neighbor's plans to put a new fence up? We talked about it, and I told them what I would prefer, and they ended up replacing PART of the fence with another split rail cedar fence *sigh*. That's NOT what I preferred. The overgrown grapevine and 6-foot high honeysuckle plants are still alive and kicking on the original, wobbly, carpenter-bee-infested fence. I'm so bothered by that decision that I've decided to mow over any grapevines the trail onto my grass this year. A burly, overgrown grapevine will only be helped by a little peripheral pruning. I've got to figure out my own grape plan...but that's for another year.

Bramble patch in the works: sort of. There's a buried gas line I need to be wary of. We had the trees removed and now the front yard looks pretty rough with all of my gardening/building junk exposed. Gotta make a trip to the dump.

Broken eggs: I've had a rash of broken eggs in the coop over the last couple weeks. It's hard to tell if the eggs are just getting roughed up accidentally or if some hen is actively pecking on them. This is something I'll be watching more closely in the near future. I have finally figured out which hen lays which colored eggs, though. Penny and Spot lay the pale brown eggs, Roo and Toe lay the darker brown eggs. It's interesting that each hen is "best friends" with the hen that lays eggs like her own. Coincidence? Hmmmmm.

Bed Bug Update

The motel had an exterminator go over our room with a black light. He found no obvious evidence of bed bugs. Whew. The motel is taking this quite seriously and has politely asked that we keep this incident off the internet. Whoops. Well, since they have taken immediate action to remedy the problem, and been very nice about keeping us posted, and seem intent on keeping this incident an isolated affair, I would say that if I ever spend the night in Nauvoo again, this motel would certainly be my first choice :)

"Bound and leap, like a zephyr set free..."

James is bounding! Sort of. When it comes to personal mobility, he's actually more like an inchworm: lunge and scrunch, lunge and scrunch. We like to watch him practice. We've tried all sorts of enticements to lure him across the room, but Alice stumbled across the PERFECT temptation yesterday after Family Home Evening...her zhu zhu pet. Not only does James go for it with gusto, but he suddenly moves in a crawly sort of rhythm (i.e. gimpy monkey style like his big bro! Please forgive my boisterous astonishment). You can hear James' squeals and giggles after we turn the zhu-zhu pet on.

Now he follows that thing around the house.

And here are a few photos Bobby failed to post from our family trip to Nauvoo, IL:

I said, "Okay, guys, show me what you'll look like after 4 hours in the car!"

 

James trying out a new finger food.

We brought Robert's balance bike so he wouldn't have to walk so far or be pushed in a stroller.

 

Alice is proving she's brave enough to touch a horse. These horses' names were Joe and Jerry.

 

Everyone showing off their new "prairie diamond" rings from the blacksmith shop

While in Nauvoo, we also encountered our first bed bug. We saw something in the hallway of our motel suite that looked kinda like a tick. I caught it (accidentally killed it) and confirmed that it had six legs, not eight, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Prematurely. Monday evening, Bobby was surfing Yahoo! news and came across an article on bed bugs. I saw the photo and instantly recognized our mystery bug. Ugh, my stomach sank. Panic ensued, on my part, and I suddenly remembered a million ways how we could have accidentally brought bed bugs home with us. We did a little research, threw all of our *still unpacked after 2 days* luggage in the chest freezer, and went to bed. Today, I've been decontaminating everything that could have come in contact with our suitcases since arriving home. Lots of hot, hot laundry to be done. I'm grateful our washer has a "sanitize" setting and our dryer has an "anti-bacterial" setting. It's taking about 5 hours per load, but what a relief. I've also filled our chest freezer with toys and soft items that are too delicate for 120-degree wash/dry temps. Any bed bugs and/or eggs on those items will die after 2 weeks at below-freezing temps.

No one received any bed bug bites during our stay. The bed bug itself was in a really weird place for a bed bug, too (i.e. hallway wall, near the ceiling). It appears to have been a mild infestation. I called the motel to let them know about it. Bobby and I will be much more diligent about this stuff in the future. *shudder*

[5 June 2013]
The motel called back to let us know they are refunding our money today and sending in an exterminator ASAP.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was rather fun, but also very tiring.  I feel like I am stating to get a handle on things at work again.  We also went to Nauvoo Saturday.  We drove up Friday night and stayed at the Nauvoo Motel. We got the suite there and it was amazingly huge for the price. It actually was not that painful to have our entire family there.

The next morning we went to the temple and then went to see some of the sights in the afternoon.  The kids got to make rope, ride in both an ox cart and a horse drawn cart, and eat some bread and a cookie.  We also got to see a blacksmith make a tiny little horse shoe for us to take home.  I think the kids liked it, but it was also very exhausting.  When we finally got home all three kids burst into tears for various reasons.  But today seems to be OK so far.

We are trying to use flickr for the pictures.  If you have issues with seeing the pictures please let us know.