Day 41: Inch Worm

While we were picking blueberries in the woods, Jen found this little guy and pointed out the eggs on the back of him - I guess I should say her? I don't really know much about the reproduction of inchworms. Look how cool that is! He/she was kind enough to stand still for me so I could get this nice photo. I just had my regular lens on so I couldn't get in as closely as I wanted, but it looks pretty good up against the dark polo shirt Jen was wearing.

Day 40: Damsel in Distress

So we went to Camp again for an extended weekend . This time our dear friends, Jen and Dan, and their two boys came with us. It's always more fun when we have company. I ended up taking more pictures of the kids and all the playing around, than I did of the bugs this time, but I couldn't resist this photo. It's a damselfly caught in a spider's web and the spider is getting ready to chow down. It's not that I like looking at dead bugs about to have their guts eaten out, it's just so fascinating that I can't look away - like a gory accident on the side of the road - until I at least get a picture. For this angle I actually had to get into the bottom of the row boat and get my face real close. I should get bonus points for that. Though I love this photo, my main reason for posting it is because I couldn't wait to use the perfect title I came up with!

Day 39: Hanging the wash out to dry

Last week I walked out onto the deck for something and was struck by what I saw. It's a bunch of doll clothes and tiny baby clothes that Jacob uses for various members of his gang. I did not put those things there, which can only mean on thing: Jacob did. Sometimes I get so mad at him and so upset when it seems like he's no longer a sweet little boy. How I needed reminding on this day that he's just a sensitive kid and is just as likely to be hand-washing doll clothes in the sink as he is to be getting into something he shouldn't be.

It's all a matter of my own perception. I have to remember that Jacob's motives might not always seem to be good ones, but more often than not, they're going to lead to a scene like this. The times when I freak out on him, I'm just not seeing things clearly - his motives are the same, I just don't like the end result those other times.

In the mix here are some of my Cabbage Patch Doll clothes from when I was a kid, a newborn Yankee shirt that Pilchard likes to wear, scratch mittens, newborn bibs, Bunnies By The Bay bunny slippers that both my kids wore, and the teeny, tiny knit cap that Jacob's sister came home from the hospital in.

Day 38: Power Outage

We love power outages. And if you can guess what this drunk-looking toddler has to do with the power going out, then you win. Woohoo! Anyway, we really do love it when the power goes out because we get to do things that we'd never have the excuse to do in real life. Like, for instance, eat really mushy ice cream in bed at 10:30pm (or who knows, maybe it was even later, you don't know, your power is out!) from a cone, when normally, your parents would never-in-their-right-minds give you your own cone because you're only two and if they set the principle then you'll forever be wanting your own cone?

Yes, that's the kind of thing that happens when the power goes out.

And then in a flash, when the power goes back on and all the lights are like, "waaaaahhhh" in your face, suddenly everyone is laughing at you because they had no idea how you were faring over there on the other side of the bed with your first-ever-own-cone. And then you yourself realize what a mess you have become and stumble over to the other side of the bed for a long, cold drink of water to wash away the sticky, sugary taste in your mouth like there's no tomorrow.

Day 37: High School, the 2nd Generation

A few weeks ago I had a playgroup here for some of my high school friends and their kids. I've gotten together with high school friends since we graduated, and I've spent time with high school friends' children since they've been in existence, but this was the first time this number of us had been in one place with all of our kids at the same time. Not to mention the fact that one of the moms present was my old best friend whom I hadn't even spoken to in 10 years.

There were five of us moms/former classmates, and eight kids between us. The extra two are my niece, Marisa, and Stella's granddaughter. It was a little mind-blowing. We kept throwing around phrases like, "How the heck did this happen?!" and, "How did we even have enough time to produce all these children?" and, "Look what we did." I like that last one the best, it was sort of a proud statement and it was so different for me than it is with any of my other mom friends. These are the girls who knew me before I had kids. Actually, Jacob is the age right now that I was when I met the first of these moms....weird.

Day 36: Happy Mothers' Day to Me

I had been posting updates about My New Closet back in May. I never finished that topic up in this forum and it's one of those blog things that's always bothered me the way it was marked 'draft' on my dashboard. So here I am keeping the original title (because Zach finished it the night before Mothers' Day) but changing the date and sticking a "Day x" in front of it.

Anyway, I had that closet filled up in about three minutes flat. Seriously, Zach said, "Welp, it's done, fill 'er up" - or something to that effect - and then went to the basement to return one tool. By the time he made it back upstairs I was done filling the shelves.

Day 35: Yellow Fellow

I took this photo back in the spring out at 'The Farm', which is what my mother has taken to calling the land where they're planning to build a house. I was taking bluebird pictures that day, and this little guy, an American Goldfinch, was flying around too. This yellow fellow was easier to get close to on account of the fact that he didn't have any young ones back at the nest like the bluebirds did. I got some really good bluebird pictures that day, but I think this bird is just so beautiful.

Day 34: Tootsies

I took this photo a couple months ago. Sabine was enjoying yogurt out on the deck, just sitting there hanging out in the nice weather. Her feet were so stinking cute, I couldn't resist taking this photo. Makes me wonder about how we adults look like to little kids on a daily basis.

Day 33: Simple Pleasures

I get so locked into being anal about the house and keeping it clean, that sometimes I have to stop and consciously make a decision like I did on the day I took this picture. I told Jacob about how when I was little, running through the sheets drying on the line was one of my favorite things to do. And then I encouraged him to try it. I think he thought it was a trick, that I would yell at him for not having the common sense to ignore my stupid suggestion. But he did it and each run through he stepped it up, eventually getting out his bike and doing crazy stunts through the sheets.

Day 32: Cotton Candy

The other day at the playland we got a couple bags of cotton candy to share. There isn't really much to say here, cotton candy is one of the best things on the planet. Sabine was pretty happy with the blue. Yum, yum. I always tell Zach not to ever get me flowers, "I'd rather just have the cash." I tell him. But here's another option, instead of a bouquet of flowers, say it with cotton candy. Just show up at my door with an arm load of cotton candy and I'll be the happiest person alive.

Day 31: Scrambled Boys

Yesterday while we were with the Nate and Harry, we visited the local 'playland'. The boys went on some grueling rides; ones I wouldn't have been able to go on. Here they are on the Scrambler. Puke.

Day 30: Harry's Little Sib

We hung out with Beckie and her boys for most of the day today. It afforded me lots of opportunities to take pictures, and get some more of her belly. Beckie is such a good sport about letting me take her picture, today she even let me get some flesh ones and gave permission for me to use one on here! Don't you just love this picture?

Day 29: Paper Wasps

This nest is attached to a little shed that we keep on the side of the house. Last week it was on the other door and was only discovered when Harry got stung. I had to sneak out at night while all the little waspys were sleeping and knock down their home. Ever determined, they just picked up where they left off, but on the opposite door. I've opened it all up and have been gently taking everything out with the goal of dismantling the shed for the season. I find that I can't knock the nest down; for one, I'm the never-hurt-a-fly type, and honestly, the wasps haven't done anything wrong. They've just as much a right to live here as we do. Secondly, I find them fascinating - that's an understatement.

I go out there everyday with the excuse that I'm checking things out, seeing about a humane method to getting rid of the nest. I just end up watching them up-close for a time, getting the camera and getting in close to take some photos. I can't get close enough with my macro lens cuz about a foot and a half away from them, they start to all look up at me with a mean glare. I've tried the telephoto lens but it can't focus that close. This photo is the best I can do. I love it though; my favorite is the guy on the top left looking right at me, daring me to get closer.

Day 28: Summer Lovin'

This is Melissa, Stella's granddaughter. They were visiting for a week and it was like having a neighbor-playmate for a week. It was awesome. Everyday Jacob and Melissa played with each other. Sometimes Jacob went over to Stella's, but for the most part we had Melissa over here, and I loved having her. She's such a sweet girl, and a good influence of Jacob to boot! When they played in the house, it was so calm and quiet, relatively speaking. I'm told Melissa just loves Jacob and wants to play with him all the time - you know, that she's *sweet* on him. I think the feeling was mutual because he was a totally different kid around her - not like a little punk and whatnot. I can't really describe it; he has other little girl friends that he plays with but this was different.

They've gone home now, 1,500 miles away and I don't know that we'll be seeing them again. Melissa was really sad about leaving and not seeing Jacob anymore. At least for now they can be pen pals...

Day 27: Cousin Party

This has been a great, busy summer! The one thing that stands out the most, is that we've been hanging out with a lot of people who we don't normally see, or who we don't get to see very often. After the recent death of an aunt, some of the cousins declared that we needed to get together more often. They say that every time, but this time it took. Six of the 22 (and most of our offspring) of us gathered at my sister's last week. We took this photo just before everyone started leaving for the night. I just realized the 6th cousin didn't make it into the photo, he has to leave before we took this. The guy in the back is Kim's boyfriend/fiance(?) You'll recognize me by the white, white skin that so contrasts the rest of them.

Day 26: Footprints On My Heart

I was picking up dog poop (of all things) in the back yard the other day when Zach motioned me over to the swing set. I was annoyed at first because I just wanted to finish the dirty job that I'd started, and I was complaining about being interrupted when I was stopped speechless by these tiny footprints. Sabine had spent about 20 minutes earlier in the day over by that one swing. She must have just been playing around in that same spot, leaving her little mark on the ground below. There is just something so innocent and darling about the footprints. For one, I doubt she knew what she was doing, and in that unawareness lies the charm.

Day 25: Dirty Bean

I'm falling behind again with these daily pictures, so today you're getting a picture from last month. I love it for its obvious reasons, the mud, the spaghetti sauce, but most of all, I love it because it shows how far I've come as a mother. I would never have let Jacob get this dirty when he was Sabine's age. Well, that's not true for the dirt, we've always been dirt lovers, but I mean about the food. I don't even think I was letting Jacob feed himself at this age, for fear of getting this dirty. Now when the kids get dirty I tell them that's how they know they had a good time.

Day 24: Lunch on a Leaf

Here's another damselfly. I took this photo at 'the farm', which is to say, the large expanse of land my mom and Jamie have yet to build on. A lot of activity goes on out there, just no house activity yet. This year we've put in a good sized garden with them, making it officially a farm, or something to that effect.

We were out there a couple days ago watering the vegetable garden and I spotted this guy chowing down on a moth. While the part of me was fascinated by this brutal act of nature, the better part of me wanted to toss my cookies watching the moth struggle to escape his fate of being eaten alive. I kept snapping pictures, in the name of art, until they flew away and now I have all kinds of questions about damselfly behavior and diet.

Day 23B: Family Recipe

This is the day we made blueberry muffins from the 'camp berries' - that's what I call the wild berries we pick. Once a year I try to make blueberry muffins while being true to Nana's (my great-grandmother) recipe - which has been made into a wall hanging (pictured to Sabine's right on the counter) by someone in the family. This is no small feat for me because it means I have to stock things like white flour and sugar, and use butter instead of substituting with applesauce or adding all kinds of other grains. I love the naturalness of this photo - Sabine hanging out on the counter, eating batter off of a wooden spoon, wearing nothing but the apron my aunt just made for her. It's how I imagine what my mom would have looked like baking with her grandmother all summer long deep in the NY Adirondacks...

Day 23A: Oops & the last of the Camp pictures

Well I completely messed up on day 22 and I don't want to cheat and make it look like I didn't miss a day by retroactively posting, so I will just do two for today and call it even. It's been a very, very busy two days. Big playgroup gathering here Monday afternoon, Cousins Party on Monday night, appointment this morning, followed by another playgroup here, this time with my former high school friends, who are all grown women with their own kids - which means I must be a grown woman?

It was pointed out to me by my mother today that I didn't quite finish the text that goes along with the forget-me-nots. I just got around to visiting the page and I'm cracking up at myself. That's what happens when I stay up waaaay later than I should in an attempt to finish up any given computer-related activity. I keep falling asleep, keep waking up long enough to type a word or two, then fall asleep again. At some point during the typing of that post I must have decided to publish it already, photo explanation be damned. I'm going to leave it the way it appears because I think it's hilarious.

What I wrote is: "These forget-me-noys ran all along ty" What I meant to write is that those flowers run all along the edge of the lake, etc, ect.

Anyway, I have so many more awesome pictures from Camp, but I'll just post this one here and save the others for some time in the future.

I've got more pictures of the bald eagle, some cool dragonfly pictures, and lots of photos of us on the lake, but I'm going with the blueberry because that represents the camp experience for me the best. They don't usually ripen until early August, but it's been so hot this year that by the end of our trip Jacob and I were able to gather enough ripe ones to make pancakes with and a batch of muffins. I can't wait to go back up later in the summer and get more berries!

Day 21: Forget-Me-Nots

These forget-me-noys ran all along ty

Day 20: Damselfly

I put the macro lens on the camera and went out last Saturday to see what I could see around the grounds at Camp. My main purpose was to get one of these little guys, the Damselfly, but they are so darn quick. A quick look over at wikipedia tells me that they can't walk, only land, fly and land again. I find the to be a very interesting little fact. I know that dragonflies and the like are a favorite of many people, and I have to admit that they are beautiful in all their detail, but for some reason, the damselflies and dragonflies just creep me out. They're so alien looking or something.

Day 19: Devil's Paintbrush

I took a series of pictures of Jacob picking these flowers for me just before I mowed. It was hard to pick my favorite because they were all so natural and peaceful looking. I took this at the same time I shot the mushroom. The lawn hadn't been mowed yet this year and all sorts of beautiful things had taken over. I hated to mow it all down so I asked Jacob if he'd pick some flowers for me and he was all over that (just as I knew he would be).

The 'flowers' he's picking, I'm told by wikipedia, are considered 'noxious weeds' in several parts of Canada, the US and Australia. They have always been one of my very favorites, I just think they're so beautiful mixed in with all the wild grasses. For most of my life I actually thought they were called Indian Paintbrush and it wasn't until I was taking a plant biology class in college that I learned they're not. I still think of them as Indian Paintbrush in my head though because that sounds better to me. Also, I've also just learned from Wikipedia that it shares its name with a type of machine gun, and there's the whole invasive species aspect too. So Indian Paintbrush it is.

Day 18: Mushroom

This little guy was on the lawn at Camp and I just had to take a picture of him before mowing the lawn. I have a thing for mushrooms, they're just so cool looking.

Day 17: Bald Eagles

We got back from Camp late yesterday afternoon. It was a really great trip, with lots of cool things happening all around us. One of the cooler things to happen on our stay at Camp was that we got to see the bald eagle. We've seen the eagle up there before, and while it's always exciting, this time we spotted the adult with an (good news) immature eagle! Jacob actually spotted these guys first and called our attention to them.

The eagles were sitting atop a couple of trees on the island that's in the center of the lake. I was able to take a bunch of pictures from land of the two of them, and then some more of the younger eagle after I got in the canoe and paddled a bit toward the island. I'll post some more of these as the week goes on.

Day 16: Family of Runners

Ever since last year, Jacob loves to go for runs. He ran his first kids' mile in September, and he plans to do another one this year. As you can see from the photo, Sabine has clung on to the idea as well. I don't think she'll quite be running races this year, but she definitely gets what it means to go for a run, and you wouldn't believe the stamina both of these kids have for running. They've got skinny legs and high metabolisms, just like their father.

When Jacob asks to go for a run, I'm happy to oblige him in the name of College Scholarships...

Day 15: Sabine in Black and White

I don't really have anything 4th of July related to post today, but I wanted to do something special, so here's this classic-looking photo of Sabine when we were down at Tom and Chris's in May. Sabine ran around au natural for a while, and at one point plopped down in the walkway to pile rocks all over her legs. Perfect childhood moments.

Day 14: The Jellyfish

The jellyfish exhibit was one of the last things we did before leaving the aquarium, and then leaving town. I thought it was awesome and wanted to stay longer, but by the end Jacob was just going nuts, running around and dying to get out of there so I only had time to get a few photos. But it's definitely worth the trip to the aquarium because the pictures I got don't do them justice.

I tagged this post, as well as the alligator post, 'nature'. I realize an exhibit is the exact opposite of nature, so I've added an 'animals' tag.

This was our second family trip to Baltimore and I think that firmed it up as one of our favorite places; we'll definitely go back regularly.

Day 13: Light Tubes

I loved these tubes, or whatever you call them. I really enjoyed taking pictures of them. I did play around with this one a little to enhance the colors. I'd definitely like to have one, or several, of these in my house. Kinda like a giant lava lamp.

Day 12: A Frequenter of My Dreams

This is at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, as are the next two pictures I'll post. I've been dying to show off this picture but never got around to posting about our trip, nor did I ever post about our trip to Myrtle Beach around Easter time. I'll do a photo series for that when we go on our next big adventure.

I love this photo of the alligator (or is it crocodile?). I do know the difference between the two, but I can't tell from this picture, and I can't remember now which it was. I just think it's so cool with its eye sticking up above the water and a hint of the snout. Creepy. I often dream about alligators. They're usually in the lake up at my camp (in my dreams, I mean).