feels like summer

Sorry for even less blogging than usual. These children have been waking up in the 5-5:30 area. It is exhausting. Trey and I try to take turns "sleeping in" until 6:30 or so.

We've managed to make some progress on the garden. We decided not to expand the raised beds this year, and they're already largely planted. I am a gardener of little faith, however, so I'm already despairing because seeds that were planted 5 days ago aren't up yet.

We did decide to create a new patch for squash. Or, more accurately, we pulled a bunch of overgrown decorative plants out of a weird oval area in the lawn. We discovered a large piece of cement and didn't bother removing the stump. Looks great, right? Well, maybe after the squash has filled out a bit....

Since we're planting new squash plants, it seems like I should be sure we've used up the last of the frozen zucchini from last year. I can only get Ellis to eat it when fully diluted by chocolate, flour, and butter as in this recipe. Ellis was quite helpful in getting the batter scooped into the mini muffin pan...look how neat and tidy!

Unfortunately, Blues decided to get in on the action and grabbed the spatula. In the blink of an eye, the batter was smeared all over his face. I booted him outside onto the porch with Trey while I finished up baking the muffins. Unfortunately, he and Ellis then got to work on the sand table; Ellis mixed up a sand and water slurry and dumped it on Maddox's head. Maddox thought this was hilarious. By the end of the afternoon he was looking quite a state (I like how he's about to lose his diaper cover as well).

All in all, it's looking like summer, and we've already been on a couple creemie runs. Here are two reasonably clean children, for a change:

and trey wonders why i'm always doing laundry

While a casual glance at the map could tell you this, Burlington turns out to be a lot further north than Ann Arbor. This means the summer day is a bit longer (i.e., the kids have been waking us up at 5:30 every morning). And so everyone is crabby and exhausted by 2:30. It's a real hoot.

Today was extra fun, with Maddox tearing through 5 pairs of pants before noon.

Pair 1) got covered in smoothie during breakfast

Pair 2) this was good one, though convoluted - Trey changed his diaper from a cloth to a disposable, but then the kid's pants were a little too big because I typically select roomier pants for him when I'll know he'll be in a cloth diaper; Trey then took Maddox down to the hardware store and as they were walking through the parking lot, Maddox was walking through a puddle when Trey noticed Maddox's pants were around his ankles

Pair 3) mysteriously got very soaked...it wasn't pee and he hadn't been outside, where did that water come from? a spilled glass? over-spray from the sink while Trey was washing out brewing equipment? the world may never know

Pair 4) lasted a mere 90 seconds before he escaped the garage and fell down immediately in a mud slick

Pair 5) miraculously lasted through the rest of the day

stop, diego, stop

Ellis is now sporting his summer hairdo, one of the three approved by Ron Swanson (High and Tight, Crew Cut, Buzz Cut). Afterwards he had a reward popsicle and informed his mother, "Mom this is a Level 1 snack. I was hoping for more like a Level 4 snack."
Here Ellis is looking nonchalant in his new hairdo, not realizing that it isn't so much for the stylishness but to make it easier to detect ticks.
For mother's day, Ellis's school had a Mother's Day tea. Ellis did seem to enjoy himself but our donation, homemade maple syrup, turned out to be unneeded, because the person bringing some other aspect of the French Toast forgot their contribution, which was too bad because Rachel made a very cute label for the syrup, Grade G(ee)*.

Ellis has continued to pull out all the stops with creative story telling, "Dad, did you know we have three mouths. Believe this or not, there are two more mouths inside you. It's in my book that shows the body parts. You probably didn't notice because there were two pages stuck together and I discovered it in there." His favorite teacher, Mrs. Becky, thinks he is hilarious and creative. We think that may be the case, but see a fine line between a creative story and an all out lie.

Ellis also is a question machine. I believe he is now the record holder for most consecutive questions while still maintaining a conversational flow and also most questions in 3, 5 and 9 minutes. (The kid who owns the record for the 7 minute distance set it on his death bed and Ellis has decided out of respect for the kids parents not to attempt to take the record.) I try hard to tolerate the questions and answer them but two things about it make me nuts. The first is when question 36 is, "What?" after he has heard my answer to the previous 35 quetions spoken in the same tone of voice and volume. The second is when he is a wisenheimer while still speaking in questions. For example, he was swinging in the hammock last weekend and I asked him to help me stack some wood. His response was, "Dad, do I look like I am available?"

Lately, far too much Go Diego Go has been watched in this house. Ellis really loves it or at least loves that we hate it a lot.

Meanwhile, Blues has totally gotten over his apprehension about walking on or touching grass and is now fast and fearless outside. It's amazing to me how he just takes off and never looks back to see how close I might be. We may have to stake him out on a rope this weekend if we are to get anything done otherwise one of us will always be chasing him.

Blues's fearlessness has also been to the detriment of his forehead, which has sported a scuff or bruise for 5 straight weeks. The other morning as I got out of shower I saw blood on our comforter and a slightly spooked look on Ellis's face. When I asked how that happened Ellis told me that the scab on Blues's head looked ready to get picked off but turned out not to be ready after all. Rachel informed him that he can't pick his brother's scabs. I informed him that he can't pick anyone else's scabs, not wanting my kid to be the weird kid at school chasing other kids around trying to pick scabs .

*Good Enough for Ellis