While mom's away

Socks of mud. Gloves of mud. We played in the pit that will soon become our lagoon. It's got about a 12-inch mixture of water and silty mud at the bottom right now after we pumped another couple of feet of water out. Was quite the messy fun this. Amazing how transformative a coating can be. As Isaiah pulled his coated hands and forearms from the muck, they had a sheen that looked like super hero gloves and dripped in such a way that you could easily imagine super powers attached to them. Then there was this exchange:

Isaiah: Bernadette, let's fight.
Bernadette: I don't want to fight. I just want to put my mud gloves on.
Isaiah moments later a he plants his fists in the softened bank: Daddy, I'm boxing the mud.

Notes

I ask Bernadette if she's going to tell me a bedtime story. "OK, but it's scary," she says. One of the characters was named Foo Foo Fluff. A side note about the young storyteller: Sometimes she lapses into song or makes noises where you'd thing she was going to use words. There's a bit of nonsense, but I love it.

The young Mara:
Likes: mama, nursing, sleeping, snuggling, any combination of the above, Isaiah's singing in the car.
Dislikes: silverware clattering on plates, diaper changes, kittens (competition for food; just kidding; who hates kittens?).

Thinking about going rodeoing. Just got pajamas on an uncooperative 2-year-old.

Some discussion of the blood mobile today as Grandma was making brownies for the people who donated. Isaiah's theory was that the blood is squeezed from dead enemies, while Bernadette was concerned about spurting when the needles are removed and whether the people who give die.

Isaiah's prediction after the first soccer practice: By the timetbe game is over, the whole team will be on the bench.
Me: Why.
Isaiah: Too many penalties.

Isaiah: Did you know nature is a hotel?
Us, puzzled: What?
Isaiah: Well, from the perspective of animals.

Who's happy here?

The model and the milliner

Bernadette created a hat for Kateri using two hair bows and a coaster.

Moments with Mara

When his baby sister cries in the car, Isaiah starts singing at the top of his lungs. (Favorite selections include "Life is a Highway" and "I Wouldn't Have Nothin' if I Didn't Have You".)  It works.  Whether she is comforted or stunned, we can't be sure.  At any rate, she's quiet.

Apparently, Mara played her first game today.  She was lying in her bassinet while I was washing dishes, and suddenly Bernadette cried, "Mama, Mama!  She's playing with me!"

"Really?  What is she playing?"

"She's playing hands!"

"Oh.  How do you play hands?"

"You just hold hands."

Big sister

Princess, robot

While Marian and Mara rest

Lady of the lake

Sisters

Elton John day

Bernadette's very quotable day

"Look, a water castle," Bernadette says upon spotting the rural water district water tower north of Hanover from the backseat of the car.


"I'm going to be a ballerina for Christmas." 

Bernadette hands me the "Wheels on the Bus" board book to read. "Now," she says, "Schoolbus on the Railroad Tracks." Not sure what's going on in this child's fantasy life, but sounds like a title for our new youth horror series. 

Can someone explain this girl?

Stragglers

As with every fellowship, this one, too, must disperse.

Taking out the mail

Whipping cream

Birthday girl

Stories

Quotable

"My name is not Bernadette. Isaiah called me a sorceress and then he changed me into a dinosaur."

Anonymous?