Places to sit

Last Sunday, our family sat down for our regular popcorn cheese and fruit dinner. Hudson got a bit of a smirk on his face, deciding that couches provide other options to sitting.

That same evening, Sara Beth pretended to be a baby chipmunk and crawled into Heather's lap to snack on her dinner. She kept eating and eating, and ended up having a bigger dinner than Heather. Hudson also wanted to get in on the action and sat down next to them. When I pulled out the camera to capture the sweet moment, the baby chipmunk began to his and growl.

Our neighbor came over earlier this week with a white bench that she found on the side of the road. The kids love it. Here, Hudson is reading his "beetle book" on it. He currently has 3 favorite books that he wants read. The "Beetle book" is a counting book that goes from one to ten showing blocks and kittens and then on the next page shows twenty beetles, followed on the next page by fifty dogs. But Hudson doesn't care about those other pages, he just flips it open to the beetle page and then will point to all the bugs, the ones that have pinchers, the ones that are shiny, the ones that are green, and the ones that are for his sister. He also likes to read "Good night, good night construction site", aka "Good night site". Finally, he likes the book "Superworm," but he didn't like the way I read it at bed time. He now only wants Heather to put him to bed.

Sara Beth had picture day at school. She asked Heather if we would buy any pictures. Heather said "Maybe if you're smiling in them."

We went over to my parents house for dinner last weekend. The highlight for the kids any time we go over is getting to take their bath in their "bubble tub," a bathtub with jets which really foams up a bubble bath. Hudson always screams and crys as if I am poking him with needles whenever it is time to get out of the tub. Fortunately, the screaming over the injustice of getting out of the bathtub is short lived, and he will sit with my mom, listening to a bed time story.

Hudson continues to bring his stuffed tiger, Nice, to lunch. He told Heather that Nice wanted to eat an orange. He then sectioned the pieces and fed them one at a time to his tiger while making the appropriate mouth smacking noises. After the orange was done, he asked for a napkin to clean up Nice's mouth.

Sara Beth and I worked to assemble a 100 piece puzzle on Sunday. I helped her separate out all the edge pieces and gave her tips about how to combine colors. And then I took a nap. When I checked in on her about an hour later, she had nearly completed the whole thing by herself. We worked together finishing the last tricky sections. It was mostly Sara Beth doing the work, with me providing the encouragement and the occasional suggestion. She was really proud of the end result.

Farming

This past week we went to visit Heather's mom and step dad in Alabama. Everytime we travel with the kids, it seems to get easier. Both kids fell asleep on the drive out and there was not hours of crying on the way back.

For both Sara Beth and Hudson, visiting the farm was the highlight of the trip. For Hudson, the farm meant tractors. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, Hudson began asking about the tractor he saw in the shed. When Papaw started it up, Hudson carefully observed all the levers that were used and once he felt comfortable enough, he began to reach for and pull any lever he could get his hands on. As soon as he got off the orange tractor, he asked to get on the larger green tractor that was around the other side of the shed. Once he got off that one, he ran around the farm attempting to smash his hand or foot into every cow pie that he could, while I ran around attempting to stop that.

 Sara Beth also got to go on the tractor and she was given the opportunity to steer the vehicle around the field on her her own.

 For Sara Beth, the tractor was just a side show at the farm. The main event was the donkeys, or, to be more exact, on donkey in particular, Clara. Sara Beth feed it sweet potatoes, petted and kissed it, and stayed near it as long as she could. Darwin, Papaw's brother, was surprised how well Clara acted as she normally is more skittish. I think if it was up to Sara Beth, she would have stayed out with Clara all day.

 Memaw and the kids sat on an old wooden swing under a giant old tree before we left. Hudson loves to collect sticks, and he found a doozey of one which, if you look closely, you can see on the swing with them. He was very sad when I ripped it out of his hands before putting him in the van.

 Sara Beth helped Memaw with some of the cooking. Here they are making schnitzel, which was very good.

We got back from Alabama Tuesday, and Sara Beth didn't have to go back to school until next Monday as it is spring break. The weather has been rather pleasant so Heather let the kids play at the park at Firewheel.

 While shopping, Heather saw a sale on bubbles. Hudson was thrilled now that he had some to play with again. They blew them around the yard and a little breeze carried them off over the fence. As I got home from work, our neighbor came over saying she saw the bubbles float across her backyard.

 Hudson also got his big stick back. After we left the farm, Darwin picked up the stick that I had "viciously ripped" from Hudson's hands and made sure that it got packed in the van for the trip back to Texas.