Fourth of July Waterworks!

We had a nice laid back Fourth of July. Just the way I like it. Robert was in Colorado to help with a bull riding and to pick up a bunch of material. A friend of his worked for a company that got a large part of the clean up Windsor contract after all the tornadoes. They had a bunch of salvage material that Robert could use, so off he went. Sounds like he had a pretty fun trip, although he is getting better about not telling me too many details. Some things are just best left unknown, you know?

Carter and I went over to Aunty Linda's for a picnic and to play in her pool. She converted a large livestock water tank into a pool for the kids and they had a ball playing in it. I managed to find Carter's swimsuit and keep her in it long enough to get to the party. Knowing Carter, I think she really would have preferred her birthday suit. There were lots of cousins running around to play with and she had a great time. We stayed, playing in and out of the pool for several hours, then went home, good and tired!

All the mommies sat around near the pool, in the shade, chatting and relaxing. It was pretty hot--the hottest day all summer, so luckily it was a good day to sit around in the shade and have an excuse not to do too much.

Hunting Wabbits

Carter managed to turn the sole surviving bunny loose last night and some how I managed to walk outside just in time to see the white streak go tearing past with our dog Cash in hot pursuit. He, unfortunately (for him, lucky for the bunny) didn't see me and practically ran right into me. I was able to catch him as he tried to dash past, and shove him in the house. I gathered up Robert and Carter to go find and catch the bunny. In full self preservation mode, Carter promptly decided that she needed special bunny hunting gear and got decked out before mom could lecture her on turning the bunny loose. After she was dressed up, it was hopeless because I just could not keep a straight face and a lecture really seems to lose all value when you are laughing.

Oh, and Robert was able to catch the bunny, so all is well. Now if we can just keep him in the cage!

Mommy Pop Quiz

Yesterday I made a major mommy error in taking a hot tired kid into the grocery store thinking I would grab a few groceries before running home. I felt like the whole experience was something that was definitely missing from any mommy handbook I've ever read and a test to see what I've learned in the last couple years. I somehow don't feel like I passed, although the fact that the kid is still alive should count for something.

Mommy Quiz Question 1: You have crammed a hot tired kid into the special pink butterfly looking cart that is about as easy to push around the grocery store as a dump truck and about as heavy. The kid has decided to start howling because you won't give them any more candy. Do you

A. Give the kid the damn candy and hope they will shut up
B. Refuse to give the kid the candy and ignore all the non-mommy shoppers glares as the howling increases in volume
C. Spank the kid in the store and threaten to leave them there if they don't shut up right now

Ok, so I picked B. Answer C was getting pretty tempting though. The store wasn't too crowded and I figured all the other mommies have either been there before and/or had heard this enough to be sympathetic. As for the Non-Mommies, well I figured I was giving them reason to applaud their decision not to be mommies or a reason to stay on birth control a little longer. Or even better, they could pat themselves on the back like I once did and self righteously think, "MY kid will never do that!"


Mommy Quiz Question 2: You finally make it to the check out stand and said kid is now in complete meltdown. You can just barely hear the check-out clerk over the noise. Kid REFUSES to leave the pink butterfly cart and in fact is trying to push it back through the checkout (over you if possible) so that she doesn't have to leave the store. Do you

A. Try to bribe the kid into silence and/or cooperation
B. Pretend this isn't your kid anymore
C. Grab your groceries, forcibly pry kid off the butterfly cart and march out to the car

Well, the young check-out clerk tried A and I can tell you that didn't work (bet she keeps taking her birth control--heck she may have given up sex altogether) and B didn't seem like much of an option either since she was screaming out Mommy occasionally in her tirade (that has now been going on for about 20 minutes--I'm sure by now the other shoppers are telling the story in hushed horrified tones and the tantrum time has increased to hours). So that left C. The person that normally helps you take out your groceries took one look at Carter and one look at the expression on my face and disappeared. Oh, thanks for the help. So I pried Carter out of the cart and with one arm firmly clamped around her (of course she is kicking and screaming) and the other trying to push the damn cart, marched out of the store, to everyone's relief.

Mommy Quiz Question 3: Said horrible kid is now strapped into the car seat, finally quiet and drinking Gatorade. Mommy notices that kid is getting that sleepy look (oh hooray!) however, still holding an open almost full bright red sticky drink. Every time mommy tries to take the drink or put a lid on it, said kid immediately goes right back to howling and not looking sleepy. Do you

A. Take the drink anyway, put the lid on it and turn up the radio
B. Chicken out and hope the kid doesn't spill the drink when they fall asleep

Ya, B. Definitely. Probably not the right answer but I'd do it again. It was the only quiet I got the rest of the afternoon. I trained my rear view mirror on the drink and when she finally fell asleep, I slipped it out of her hands and drank the damn thing myself. There.

Mommy Quiz Question 4: Now the mommy is finally home with wonderful quiet sleeping kid. Do you

A. Take the kid out of the car seat and lay them in bed, hoping they will stay asleep
B. Roll down the windows and pray they keep sleeping

Oh to retake that quiz question. Rookie mommy mistake, I picked A. She woke up while I was trying to get her out of the car seat (she normally stays asleep...) and the fight was right back on. She started kicking and screaming so I sat her down right in the dusty driveway and left her, for about 20 minutes while I unloaded groceries, made phone calls, and then made sure all the critters had water. It had started to sprinkle a little, but she just kept on howling. She finally got tired of no audience and came to search me out. The rest of the afternoon pretty much followed the same pattern. I did call Robert and warn him that if he wanted to see his daughter again, he might want to hurry home. NOW. Oh and naturally, once he got home, she suddenly couldn't be sweeter. She was suddenly all smiles and cute little girl again for poppa. Luckily Robert has witnessed (finally) some of the Jekyll and Hyde behavior before (I suppose it's a kid survival mechanism that helps keeps them alive), so he didn't think I was completely crazy. I seriously don't know how single parents manage, I really don't. So mommy decided she'd had enough for the day and went to bed! Whew. Unfortunately I have to go back to town for my doctors appointment. Sigh. Here's hoping for an easier quiz tomorrow!

New Toy!

We stopped down at Gramma Debbie's after the baby shower for a Birthday dinner for Corinne, and there was a NEW TOY! Luckily we got to Gramma's before Cade arrived so Carter had a bunch of time to play with it FIRST, and was in a slightly more charitable mood about sharing with Cade when he showed up. Nothing like a new green tractor to get things all exciting!

Carter got a big kick out of pushing Cade around, although we had to watch pretty close to make sure it was "pushing" and not "ramming" into furniture... They actually played pretty darn good together.

Another Baby Shower

My cousin Salicia had her baby shower this Sunday. Carter was excited to go to a party and was in fine form all day. We had a busy morning with first going up to Gramma Pat's to visit with Grampa Bill, then stopping down at Aunty Gwynny's for a boat ride on the lake, which she loved. The we roared home, changed in record time, grabbed a bite to eat, then tore off to the party (late naturally). Robert's mom had sent a very cute little pink and white dress in her latest and greatest wonderful box that Carter was very excited about wearing and thankfully I remembered to put on a cute pair of shorts on underneath--which proved to be a wise decision at the party. I was very firm about telling her NOT TO SPILL on her dress while we were eating lunch and keep her dress CLEAN! So she ate her lunch very carefully, then lifted up her dress and wiped her fingers on her shorts. I may need to work on some etiquette lessons for my little heathen.

Carter's two favorite things about parties: opening presents and lots of sweets! She was really trying to be a big help to Salicia with unwrapping all her lovely presents. Her favorite thing had to be the cupcakes. Although after watching her only eat only the frosting off the top of two cupcakes, mom made the executive decision no more cupcakes--so she promptly found the cookies!

My cousin Salicia is tall, but very petite and looked very lovely. I felt like a beached whale next to her and um can wait to see all the photo's my Aunty took of us. (Naturally posted here already. A belly picture just for you, Lyndsey!) She's due about a month ahead of me, but you'd never guess looking at us. I know, I know, not a big deal, but sigh, vanity is a tough thing to beat down, even when pregnant. Oh well, one thing about it, nobody ever wonders if I'm pregnant or not when they see me--it's pretty darn obvious!

The Little Storyteller

Carter has a fantastic story about a fox that she loves to tell you about. This fox started out by jumping over the fence. Over and Over. Her favorite part seemed to be "AND THEN he jumped over fence AGAIN" which this fox seemed to do a lot. She was telling Blake and I the story about the fox all the way to Billings and that's pretty much what the fox did--right up until she decided that the fox climbed a tree and flew! Last night we were snuggling in my bed for a few minutes before she had to go to her bed and her fox story got much more involved. The fox now decided to go over to my cousin Wynne's house and Chance was riding this fox and got bucked off! Then it sounded like the fox came home so he could jump over some more fences. Fox's adventures have been growing the more the story gets told. I love this story, and so far can't hear it enough. Just listening to how her little mind works fascinates me. She's got quite the imagination already. She gets all excited while telling it and has to add lots of arm movement and bouncing around. We had seen a baby fox playing on the side of the road a few weeks back and the story has been on ever since. The fox ranks right up there with the tiger who used to follow her around and only got mean when she needed to be picked up RIGHT NOW or the TIGER would GET HER! She told me once that the tiger was running around in my car chasing rats! (It was then that I decided that maybe I needed to clean out my car just in case...I once brought my Gramma Betty, who lives in town, two little country mice who had hitched a ride in my car somewhere. My Gramma, who HATES mice, was quite horrified when they came running out of my tire well and right into her garage! I wasn't sure she was going to let me park by her house anymore.)

If you get a chance, you should ask her about the fox story. With any luck you'll get to hear it too.

Beads

Gramma Pat and Grampa Bill came over to visit last night and Carter was very excited that Gramma Pat was wearing a set of beads...JUST LIKE HERS! She has a pile of Marti Gras beads that we've slowly been collecting as she loves to wear beads and necklaces. She would race into her bedroom and you'd hear all this banging and scuffling, then pretty quick, she'd come running back to show Gramma her beads she'd managed to unearth from their special hiding spot (basically where ever they last got dropped) that matched Gramma's. According to Carter, as long as they were beads, they matched--color wasn't really a criteria used, or even shape for that matter. As soon as Gramma admired the beads Carter had dug up, off she'd go to find another set. Pretty soon she had a whole neck full of beads. It was fun to watch.

The slow gardener

I had big ambitions this year for my garden, but between being pregnant and the weather, things didn't quite go as planned. (Surprise, I know) Would you believe Robert was scraping frost off the windshield of his truck on June 6? This didn't help my efforts any. Other than a about 5 brave souls, my corn refused to come up, and the potatoes were even worse--I've only seen 2 that survived. I dug up a few and they were just moldy mush. Sigh. Otherwise, it isn't looking too bad. We will have peas, and I'm just about tired of eating spinach already (If anyone is interested...I can certainly send some by. In another week you may want to lock your door if you DON'T want any!) although I am planning to plant more, since it's about the only thing is making me look good this year. The beans are coming, but they were a bit upset about the cold, and it looks like the tomatoes are actually going to come back. I did manage to get way behind on my weeding though. After enviously admiring Aunty Linda's completely weed free garden, I figured I better get back on the ball. I actually like weeding, but it's considerably more difficult with a VERY helpful little girl who is very excited to help pull weeds, dig up worms, sit on beans, pull up the few surviving carrots, run through the poor peas, you get the idea... At any rate this is what I started with, pretty sad huh?

And how it looks now--three days later!

We had some help. My gramma Betty was wonderful enough to donate Grampa Ben's gardening tools to the cause. My grampa died about a year and a half ago, and I feel like I'm getting to know him better through his things that I've been given than I ever did in real life. He kept immaculate care of his stuff, only bought good quality and took good care of it. Everything was clean, well maintained and worked. I really appreciate what I've been given by Gramma--which also includes the great camera I'm currently using to fill up this blog with pictures.

A few of my iris managed to survive the cold, and actually bloom. Gramma Pat had sent me a fabulous box of iris bulbs last fall that I had planted in the garden. Robert managed to run over most of them when he was adding fertilizer to the garden in the form of corral manure, some didn't survive the winter, and some didn't survive the cold. But of the few that managed to come up, an even smaller number actually bloomed. This one is my favorite. I've never seen an iris quite this bright shade of sunshine yellow. It looks so pretty and cheerful. I also had some dark purple and a couple light purple ones. Here's to hoping next year is a better year for them! I really love iris and hope to get lots more planted in the next few years. They are so easy and pretty, and generally pretty hard to kill although I'm trying real hard to put that to the test!

I also figured I better add a picture of my fancy new bird feeder. Technically, it's Robert's bird feeder since he seems to be getting the biggest kick out of it. I really like the fancy pole that he made to hang the feeder on. It's so nice to have a handy man around! It didn't take the little birds very long to find it. I tried to get a picture with some of the finches on it, but they are pretty suspicious today.

Taking Baby for a Ride

Carter decided that her baby needed to go for a ride outside. She loaded up her doll in her toy bus and off they went. It was so funny. She made sure to first ask the baby if it wanted to go. Naturally, the smart baby wanted to do just what her mommy wanted her to (if only my kid worked that way!).

Making sure baby made it over the bump ok and seeing if it needed some sunblock. She was trying to decide.
Cash checking out the baby too. Earlier when she still had shoes on, I told her that they were on the wrong feet and would hurt. She looked down then looked back up at me and said "It not too bad" and off she went. Sigh. I love her so much. She's going to be every bit as independent as her mom. No worries there.

Helping Seed the Lawn

Carter loves to help do anything that you are doing (so long as it isn't picking up her messes best I can tell). Robert is particularly good at letting her help and finding jobs for her to do. So he found an extra seeder and she followed right along seeding grass with dad. We had tried to plant some grass before the monsoon, but can't tell that anything survived but the wild oats and weeds, naturally. Still, the lawn is coming along. It sure looks a whole lot better than it did for most of the winter when it was all tore up looking for the septic tank--complements of Miss Carter who flushed a box of diaper wipes down the toilet and clogged it up.

Roberts done a ton of work outside, slowly trying to get everything to look nice and it's really coming along. He says he feels like an ADD kids when he gets outside because he doesn't know where to start and every time he starts a project, he can see 4 more that seem need even more attention than than the one he's working on. Baby steps!