Life is [a] Fair!

For the most part, my sister and I had a fairly idyllic childhood. Summers were especially special. They were s.l.o.w. and smelled of soil, grain dust, wind, not-much-rain (unfortunately), grass, grease, sweat, and vinyl pickup seats. We had time for things like suppers in the field, quietly playing after the noon meal so the men, who were already exhausted, could take ten minute naps, bouncing along with Mom on the never-ending task of lawn-mowing (perhaps not the safest idea in the world nor one I'd do with my own critters, but I loved it!), biking into town to play at the park and maybe get a grape soda from "Vince's store", or driving into the bigger town on a nice night to get a "slush" and look at the fields' progress on the backroads way home. We savored summer, and in many ways, I suppose that's why with our girls we've ended up saying "no" to a lot of the really, really good activities they could be involved in all summer (swimming lessons all summer, t-ball, dance classes, park programs, programs the children's museum, art programs, etc., etc., etc. - it's sooooo hard to pick and choose a few things to take advantage of and then to leave the rest in favor of teaching our children to just "be").  Mike's "being" time happened most out in the middle of a lake, and over the 4th we had a wonderful day spent like that (none of which was captured on camera because the silly photographer - me - left it up at the house.....).

Anyway, when my family took a vacation day or two, it often involved a fair which is probably why I braved (or "stupided"?) the trek to our county fair last Wednesday with the girls when it was 96 degrees with high humidty. I refused to even check the heat index - because it didn't matter. We brought along water and snacks and lots of sunscreen, and we headed out for an afternoon of fun at the fair!

The girls were as thrilled as I was with this hay bale display. Miss Mouse insisted we needed a picture for Grandpa Bob, the former hog producer.

There were cute little pictures for the girls to stick their heads through all over the place, but there were only two that even Miss Mouse could reach. Looks good on a tractor, doesn't she?!

She's pretty proud to be able to really reach this one.

Sunny can almost reach. Almost!



This is a duckling water slide. There is a kiddie pool at the bottom that they "slide" down into and splash around in. We didn't see any use the actual slide, which really did have water running down it, but they walked down frequently to splash.

It's maybe hard to understand what this is from just a picture, but they are all little peeps of some sort (some are chickens, some are button quail, etc.) that are meandering around a miniature "fair" scene. The light you can see is a heat lamp for the babies.

More of the fair scene.



This is the bottom of a tree house. Can you see the little chick thinking about entering? You can't tell very well, but he's actually green. He was dyed with food coloring (it doesn't hurt them, and they don't care!).



If little green peep is brave enough to enter, he can climb all the way up the tree house from level to level through these little tunnels. At each level there is a sort of flat "play area" for the peeps. It's hilarious!



I thought Grandpa Dick would particularly appreciate this peep display; there aren't any babies in this picture, but the display is an airport crawling with peeps!



They're all hanging out in the hangar! I think it was mostly button quail in this display.



The girls are fascinated by each display. We tend to stay in this agricultural education barn for at least 45 minutes.



These peeps have a castle!



Miss Mouse answered a question correctly, so she got to race a remote controlled car. She thought it was pretty awesome, especially when she ran into a little boy's car and was able to push his back by moving hers forward. It wasn't that they were actually "racing"; she just thought it was hilariously funny that her car was deciding where his should go! The question she answered was "what is a female chicken called?". She looked at the girl asking it and said, "Um, a hen" really sweetly, but sort of as if the girl must have been from Mars or something to ask her a question like that!



More brightly-colored chickens! I wonder what they think about themselves.....



Apparently last year there was a big stink about the coloring of the chickens/peeps because some people thought it was horrible and cruel. I'm not sure why it would be, given the amount of people who dye their own hair with food coloring or kool-aid and such, but I was glad to see that the 4-H clubs (or whoever does it) stuck with it this year. They're awfully adorable!

I did nearly tip over, though, when the young 4-H girl we were visiting with (she was telling the girls about chicken ears and such - she must have been about 11) was asked by a grown woman, "So, when they grow up, are their eggs different colors, too?". At first, neither I nor the 4-H girl realized what she was asking, so the girl said, "Yes, some are brown; some are white; some have a greenish tinge; some are spotted." Then the grown woman said, "Oh, wow! So will some be purple, too?". Honestly, I nearly tipped over. The poor young girl just said, "Oh, no. Um, that's just food coloring. It wears off."

Miss Mouse was so very, very proud to be able to hold her own peep!



Around this huge round table, they had bins of nearly every kind of crop grown in our state. You were supposed to look at it and then lift the flap to see what it was. Miss Mouse got the sunflowers right, and she was impressed to see the difference between confectionary and oil (Daddy was describing that to her the other day....he has a history with sunflowers having done some rogueing (sp?) of them in his earlier days!). She also got several others correct, and Sunny just loved having her hands in all the bins. Personally, I learned that "pink beans" are grown here. Someday I would like to see a field of "pink beans", I think, and I believe I know someone who can hook me up with that opportunity....



Here Sunny is gazing at a whole box full of hatching eggs. The girls got to watch them hatch, from where they were just pecking out of their shells, to where they squirmed their wet, little bodies out into the world. When they dried off, they were taken over to the different display areas, but they made sure to keep a few dry ones for children to hold from this display.



None of the 4-H kids watching the displays would let Sunny hold a peep, an opinion of which I was completely understanding! The adult woman running the egg-hatching table, though, didn't seem concerned at all. In fact, it was I that was sweating profusely by the time Sunny finally decided she'd held the little guy long enough (I kept making sure she was holding him directly over the table so that when - not if; it happened several times - he jumped out of her hands, he didn't go *splat* on the floor). Truth be told, she'd have stood there all day with him (she would periodically put him up to her chin and "snuggle" him) if I'd let her. It took quite awhile to get her to even consider parting with her new friend. She was so proud and felt like such a big girl!



After we had toured the ag education barn thoroughly, it was time to head back out into the blistering sunshine. The only item left on the girls' agendas before seeing the rabbit and poultry barns on our way out was to ride a carnival ride.  I had told them they could each pick one, thinking that it wasn't fair to let one or the other completely decide which ride they should go on. Plus, I was afraid Miss Mouse might pick the high-flying-for-a-small-child bumblebee ride that I wasn't comfortable letting Sunny go on without an adult!

It shouldn't surprise me by this point, and yet it still does.....the girls walked around a bit and decided - together - that they wanted to go on the spinning dragon ride. I suppose at some point in the future, they'll start understanding that if they had each picked a ride, they could have potentially weasled their way into getting on two rides a piece from me, but right now, they're just so incredibly sweet and innocent in that way. It almost (almost!) makes me feel guilty!

So here they are, hand-in-hand, wearing their butterfly sunvisors from the zoo last weekend, waiting for their turns on the spinning dragons. Since their Daddy is not a big fan of carnival rides (to put it lightly!), and since I'm perfectly fine not having them running around the carnival all day when there is so much else to do at the fair, we don't get the all-day ride passes....which means it cost $6 for the two of them to go on this ride! I had a little sticker shock, but considering we made sure to arrive during the "free admission" period....



They walked in rather hesitantly but ended up picking this purple spinning dragon.  For some reason, that I think we'll just chalk up to pregnancy hormones as long as I can use that excuse, I suddenly had this humongous lump in my throat as they climbed into the dragon and out of my sight! Honestly, I was thankful for the heat making me drip sweat because it wasn't nearly so obvious that I had tears in my eyes!

Somewhat, I was scared to pieces that Sunny was going to be, well, scared to pieces. Or sick. Puking. Screaming for mommy.

I don't know why I bother worrying about that. I should know by now that Miss Mouse would hold her and take care of her! But, um, yeah, that's not exactly what I wanted to pin on a five-year-old, either.

So, they climbed in, and I cried.

Thankfully (thankfully?!) the ride ended up breaking! Chalk one up for Daddy and his distrust of carnival rides, I guess!  The girls got through about 1/2 a ride before I saw the carnival worker struggling with the machine. I continued to sweat harder as I wondered if he was trying to get them stopped and couldn't. He fumbled and pulled this switch and that switch and pressed this button and that button. Finally they all stopped, and he let the kids all off. This was, though, after I had been, ahem, privileged enough to see the girls spin by me about three times. A mom and her probably-four-year-old boy were also in the same cart as the girls, which did make me feel a lot better. Still, I was glad to see them get off!

When I asked Sunny if she liked it, she said she "wuved" it, but that the other little boy hadn't liked spinning very much. She then pointed out that he must have been a "baby" because he didn't understand that it was supposed to spin. Hmmm...yeah, I'm pretty sure he was at least a year older than Sunny, but, hey, who's counting?!

Miss Mouse was mostly concerned with whether or not they had been supposed to be spinning the table/wheel contraption. She was most relieved to find out that it had been perfectly appropriate. Sound like anyone you once knew, Grammy?



Because the other ride had broken, the carnival man gave the girls each a free ticket for another ride. It was really nice of him, and I can very, very truly say that I enjoyed watching them on this one immensely!

Doesn't Sunny look thrilled, though?!

I'm not sure if you can really read Sunny's expression in this one, but she's gritting her teeth and smiling really wide at the same time. It's an almost frightening expression, and she kept it on herself the entire rest of the ride. I still have no idea what it meant for sure, but she's not had any nightmares or anything. I guess she must have enjoyed the ride?



Miss Mouse wanted me to take this picture for someone special. I think you'll know who you are!!!!



This picture was also a Miss Mouse request for my same friend. They were such funny-looking birds that I couldn't hold the camera still. I tried to adjust my settings properly and be of a serious photographic mind, but with those silly hair-dos and their mouths hanging open (much the way I suppose mine was most of the afternoon!), I couldn't seem to hold still or to get a decent camera setting for them. But, alas, there they are in all their ridiculous glory!



Before we left for the afternoon, Miss Mouse begged me to ask how much the horse rides were. They were the sort where you ride on a pony in a circle, and there was no price posted anywhere. They were positioned next to the petting zoo, which was free, so I think she had some hope that they might be free. I told her that I didn't intend to spend much money on her riding a pony in circles when she can do that this fall at our church's Rally Sunday event.....and can ride a horse at her aunt's house, too, for that matter. Plus, privately I thought the poor animals looked horribly hot on that 96 degree day and felt sort of bad even putting 40-pound Miss Mouse on one of them!

She convinced me to say, "How much are the rides?" and then if they were too much to say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have that much cash, but thank you". So, all the way over, she asking me if I remembered what she had told me to say and if I would say it just the way she recommended. Quite the little coach, she was!

As it turned out, the rides were $5 a piece, so it would have been $10 for the girls to both ride in a circle. Not going to happen, given what I explained above. I suppose if we had no access to another horse all year, then, maybe.....still....$10 for a circular horse ride just sort of rubs a farm girl wrong, I guess.

In her last-ditch attempt to get us to stay at the fair longer, Miss Mouse begged to go "pan" for "semi-precious stones". That event was in a barn (shade!) and was advertised clearly as costing $1. I gave in, and we spent the next 30 minutes "panning" for these stones. It turned out to be really cool! There were members of the local rock club, which I didn't know we had, wandering around explaining what some of the different types of stones were, and it was really fun for both girls. Sunny was completely wilted before we were done, though, because although we had the advantage of shade, the barn had taken away all our breeze, leaving us a sweaty, weary bunch of girls. At one point, poor Sunny was standing by our table and tipped over. The grandfatherly rock expert was pretty sure he had seen her eyes close, and that she had fallen asleep! If a girl can sleep-eat, she probably can sleep-pan-for-stones, too, I suppose! Shortly after that, we left and headed for the van, though. I really do try to not wear my children out!

All-in-all, we had a wonderful time at the fair again this year. There were a few events we missed, mainly on account of my not being able to muster up enough energy to head back out there again for a cattle show or horse show, both of which the girls wished they could have seen (yes, truly, they enjoy cattle shows where you sit and listen to someone on an often-poor-sound-system explain which of the animals is better and why!), but we really did get in an awful lot in one afternoon. We even heard a one-man accordian show while we snacked under a large tent mid-afternoon. Miss Mouse leaned over at one point and commented to me, "This one is a polka.". Good girl!

It really was a fun day, a memory I will tuck away for the ages, and one I hope the girls will, too. It did, though, leave me missing my Grandpa Don, being alive, and my Grandma ,being the way I remember, more than usual this week. Wouldn't it be something to be able to have our own grandparents at the ages where we remember them as children at the same time as having children of our own? *Sigh*. Rather than focus on the impossible, I suppose, I talked to the girls both about our own trip to the fair and about how one particular set of their great-grandparents enjoyed being with their Auntie Laura and their Mommy at the fair so much so many years ago. It probably really doesn't get better than being able to create our own memories and to pass on the ones from my past at the same time!

Annual Trip to a New Zoo

Last Sunday we decided to take a day and do a family event as long as we were already on a weekend getaway. My parents drove with us into Winnipeg on Saturday night and got in a great game of Canadian bowling with the girls and me in the basement of our hotel that night while Mike stretched out on the hotel bed. Sunday, though, my parents were heading for an outdoor theater performance, and the four of us wanted to celebrate being, well, the four of us together and away from home!

Mainly this was my idea....vacation, relax, rest, rejuvenate, etc.......

By the time we had spent an hour finding the zoo entrance, I wasn't so sure those were going to be the correct words for our day.

We were incredibly hungry, so after sunscreening, we made a dash toward the first food station Mike had found on the map.

It was closed.

Onto the next one (after a short bathroom stop for one of our party....guesses as to who it was?) where we found hotdogs. All.Kinds.of.Hotdogs.

Mike ordered a dog with cheese and bacon bits and onions, I think. I couldn't get past the fear that the cheese might be processed, plastic-type goop (apologies to my father-in-law who believes that is the only truly edible type of cheese!), so the girls and I had plain hotdogs. All-beef, yes. Pretty brown-colored, yes. Still, boiled hotdogs.

As you can see, Sunny has a definite preference for meat over wheat, it seems. The evening before this, she had eaten her hamburger, which was approximately the size of her head, out of her bun. This afternoon, she daintily attempted to eat the hotdog out of the bun while holding the bun. She finally just tossed the bun aside and went with the hotdog.

Not surprisingly, her Daddy was proud and decided he and little Sunny needed their pictures taken next to this sign. I found it outside the snow leopard cage.

This is an up-close, readable version. Enough said?

Yep, that's one proud Daddy!

I'm not sure if this is readable, but it says "Smoking Corral". Apparently the zoo is not a smoke-free environment, but if you are a smoker, you have to cage yourself periodically to partake in your habit. I got the giggles. When we went on a tram ride, one of the more obnoxious men in front of us told his niece and nephew to "Look at the cage with the smokers!" It really was pretty funny.

This zoo has a serious problem with pests. I have an out-of-focus shot of a gopher that I wanted to post with the title, "Not the way Auntie Laura would shoot a gopher". The gophers and geese are horrendous. They are not cute; they are not particularly friendly; they have been way overfed by tourists/city slickers who have no idea that they're creating a hazard!

I do think this fuzzy little guy is cute. I do.

Seriously, though, when you start pecking on my daughter? You're no longer cute. You're a target, and my husband has great aim!

We had gotten some much-needed water and were resting at a picnic table in the shade before heading to the car. Suddenly, Miss Mouse jumped up, knocked her bottle of water over, and looked at me with a shocked expression on her face. She blurted out, "That goose tried to eat me!". We'd been sort of joking all afternoon, as the gophers nearly ran over our feet under the tables, and the geese hovered waiting for crumbs to drop, about how they were all "looking for free handouts", but it really wasn't very funny for Miss Mouse when the silly thing came up and pecked at her leg! She's such a trooper; she had a goofy look on her face when she made her horrified announcement about being goose-food, and when I asked her if it had scared her, she grabbed onto me and hung on crying until a couple with a baby sat at our table and started trying to feed ice cream to their 15-month old. Apparently that was entertaining enough to overcome the goose-nibbling, but Miss Mouse was definitely no fan of geese by the time we left. Personally, I kept giggling thinking about Grammy trying to sit and eat at a table with gophers running in between her feet!

We decided that we needed to stop at the tropical bird house before going to the car just so that Miss Mouse's last memory of the zoo was not being pecked by a lazy goose!

This butterfly came from the butterfly house which was a much more popular attraction for us than were the random flocks of geese and hoards of gophers.

The zoo had a lot of peacocks, too, but thankfully they weren't quite as brazen as the other roaming creatures. It was a treat to see several fanned out like this. They seemed to really like being with the antelope, so the girls started referring to the peacocks as the "friends" ("of the antelopes" is what they meant, but they dropped that last part and just used "friends").

At one point, I did ask Mike to take the girls to see the zebras because I just could not move myself out of the shade for any longer than I had to (and I knew we had a trek back to the van). I knew Sunny was pretty exhausted, and I was thankful that Mike swooped her up on his shoulders for the walk to the vehicle. I guess, though, I just didn't realize quite how tired she was.

I have never seen anyone 'sleep eat' before, but that is definitely, positively, truly what was going on here.

Beyond the fact that it scared me half to death initially because I was afraid she was going to choke on the silly chips, it really was hilarious. I kept a close eye on her, and she stopped after a chip or two. When she woke up, two hours later (around supper time), she got a big grin on her face and said, "Oh, look! More chips!" because most of the bag had spilled out next to her in her carseat. I guess it's the small things in life.....

It was a successful day, and it was a fun time. We did, however, drive out of Winnipeg listening to Sunny adamantly arguing with her sister about how we were NOT in Winnipeg. We decided that when someone is so very tired that she doesn't know what city we are in, that must be when "sleep eating" can occur. There was also the conversation in the gas station with her Daddy that went like this:

Daddy: "What would you like to eat?"

Sunny: "I want chips."

Daddy: "Okay, here's a bag."

Sunny: "No!!!! I don't wike chips!"

Daddy: "Okay, then what do you want to eat?"

Sunny: "Chips."

There were a few points where I began thinking that vacations with 3 and 5-year olds are far over-rated, but after rehydrating myself with about three 12-ounce glasses of water, I decided it was a fun time; I've laughed to tears over these pictures and the memories we made tonight. Maybe we'll do a new zoo every year.

Maybe.

Trying a Triathalon!

I'm not sure when the idea entered Mike's head, though it was probably quite some time before he ever verbalized it to me, but earlier this spring, he made the solid decision to train for a triathalon. Initially, he thought one in Duluth in August would be perfect, especially since he'd have all summer to train for it. Then we did the math and realized the "supporting party" of this duo would be around 37 weeks pregnant by that time.....so he reconsidered and found one in the small town of Morden, Manitoba.

The big day was last Saturday. It.was.Awesome.

Mike's alarm was set for 4:45 a.m. Thankfully, my parents were able to camp right near the lakeshore which meant the girls stayed in the camper with them and avoided the 4:45 a.m. wakeup call at our hotel room! They were super excited for their Daddy, but they at least did sleep until 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. Go figure that my parents got to see Mike finish his first triathalon, and that Mike's parents got to see me finish my first (okay, only so far, but I like to think that's mainly because since then we've been having babies sort of regularly!) marathon!

By 7:00 a.m., Mike had finished his stretching and preparation and had already started his swim!

Don't they look like a massive school of fish swarming in the water? Note: Not one of them is dog-paddling. I was so impressed by these people!

The girls and my mom joined us on the lakeshore to catch the last of the 1.2 mile swim. We then ran up the bank to cheer Mike on as he started the 56 mile bike ride.

 Miss Mouse was so excited for and proud of her Daddy! In the picture below, Mike is out-of-focus right above Miss Mouse's head as she adjusts her sunglasses for a better view of her hero.

The best part of the day for Miss Mouse was that just before I took this picture, she shouted, "Go, Daddy!", and he heard her and turned around and smiled. He's never been able to hear her before when she's cheered for him. She was floating on a cloud all day! In fact, during the bike ride, we went back for breakfast at the camper, and Miss Mouse spent a considerable amount of time decorating a styrofoam cup that she was turning into a "prize" for Daddy when he finished.

See how he's speeding out of the transition area? Who could tell he just finished a 56 mile bike ride! I was so proud of my smart husband; what he's doing in the below picture is finishing up reapplying sunscreen! He still got burned, likely due to having repeatedly dumped ice in his cap to keep cool, but at least he did have sunscreen on twice (and didn't overheat thanks to the ice!). Yep, he made his wife proud! Not only am I married to an Ironman (none of this "half-Ironman" stuff....if you can swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 all in one setting - you are made of Iron!), but I'm married to a smart and sensible one, as well!

There he goes out for the half marathon, the last leg of the event. I think it was about 86 degrees during the run.

I'm sure Grammy will love being featured on the blog again (not really), but I had to include this picture showing what Sunny was doing during the last portion of her Daddy's bike ride and throughout most of his half-marathon. It's not that she didn't care, she was just that tired. Miss Mouse and Grammy are laughing about how Sunny has thrown herself backwards and yet is still sleeping, I think. Miss Mouse and I only left our post at the finish line to use the bathroom or to check on Sunny.

My husband, the Ironman!!! I thought he looked really good for what he'd just put himself through! The night before the event, he'd been visiting with a couple from Australia. They were friendly and fun to visit with, but the man, who was the participant in the event, seemed fairly horrified by Mike's plan for breakfast - peanut butter on a couple bagels and some bananas. The Australian man, who had grown up in Winnipeg, told us he was so relieved that their bed and breakfast was willing to cook him quinoa (keen-wah, for those who aren't familiar with this delicacy) for breakfast.

Having a bit of a competitive nature myself, I determined to see when the Quinoa King finished the event. At the halfway turnaround point of the run, he was ahead of Mike, though not by much. I told myself that the Quinoa King, having already finished ten or so triathalons, had the advantage and that if Mike came in close to him, it would be proof that Mike's breakfast worked just fine, thank you. Well, as it turned out, I was tickled pink that Mike passed him on the last 6.5 miles of the half marathon and finished before him. Teehee. I guess pb bagels and bananas really are a match for the illustrious quinoa after all!

And just to prove that Sunny did indeed somewhat participate in the day.....

Way to go, Mike/Daddy!

29 Weeks

Obviously I haven't done so well with updating tummy pictures of myself and the new little guy monthly. I think my last update was around two months ago. *Sigh*

Here we go at around 29 weeks, though, with good intentions of posting something around week 32 or 33 again!

Cravings: I continue to have cravings for healthy food - salads, pesto, lime water, Asian coleslaw (my recipe is super-healthy and nearly as yummy as the standby Ramen noodle one!)

Interesting events: I failed my one-hour glucose test last week earning myself the opportunity to engage in a three-hour test the following morning. I had just told my neighbor how I don't really mind the thick, orange drink for the one-hour test, but I did not mean that I had any desire to go for a follow-up taste the next morning! Ick! After sitting for three hours, five blood draws in two days, and getting so sick-feeling from the second test that in three hours I read all of two chapters in my Lord of the Rings book (typically I should have finished it or at least gotten close in that time, but I could hardly focus at all!), I was called that afternoon to inform me that I had passed each and every blood draw from that day with flying colors. Yippee!!! What an experience that was! I definitely have new sympathy for those women who have gestational diabetes as a regular occurrence with their pregnancies!

Weight gain: Yikes! I've put on 17 pounds at this point which is actually one pound more than I put on the entire time with Miss Mouse! Honestly I think that my body has just done this so many times that it seems to know how to expand very "well". Hopefully it just knows how to shrink back down, too! Teehee!

Really, this is has been a very enjoyable pregnancy for me. The girls have been over-the-top-cute, rubbing my tummy constantly, kissing my tummy, talking to "Brother", talking about "Brother".  After having been through this full-term three times before, I am pretty relaxed about going back to as-normal-as-possible afterwards, and with the much more regular date nights that Mike and I have been having, the two of us are waaaaay better (more sane?!) parents/spouses than we were a few years ago. All of that just makes it so much more relaxed and enjoyable this time around. I am so excited to turn the calendar tomorrow because that should mean only two more calendar-changes before we meet this little guy!!



End of June Swimming

We went swimming today for probably the last time in June. Being that we have the freedom to go any day of the week, I generally try to avoid weekends with super-full pools (I also know the best times of the weekdays to go to avoid the biggest crowds!). So, for me, going on a Friday afternoon was pushing the crowded-scene a bit. The girls made a playdate yesterday, though, with their friends across the fence, so off we went to meet them at the nearest pool! It really was a beautiful day to be there, and the girls are always excited to go.

Anyway, my point of this short post is to chronicle Sunny's first experience under water. She does not like getting her face splashed or wet in any way. She loves the water, loves to splash in it, loves to do her "duck walk" which really is just exactly what it sounds like, but she hates to get water in her face. She asked for goggles for her birthday and got them, but they've been basically pointless to bring to the pool since she won't put her face in anyway. I'm pretty fine with this all because I figure there will be a time where she gets okay with it. We're around water a lot; we go to the pool often more than once a week; one set of grandparents lives in a lake - really, she's going to learn to swim at some point, so I'm not worried that she isn't quite as "fishy" as Miss Mouse yet!

Today, though, Sunny decided to let Miss Mouse talk her into going down the kiddie slide. Of course, the caveat was that Sunny would sit on Miss Mouse's lap for added security. I wasn't quite sure if that was allowed, but for all my rule-following as a child, teenager, and young adult, I've become sort of a rebel when it comes to my children! I decided they could go at least once before we got, ahem, "caught", and maybe it would be really fun for Sunny! I was so proud of her for being so brave!

They climbed up the slide together and got seated at the top. I ran my way through the shallow water to get to the bottom of the slide where they'd be coming out (well, as much as I could "run" my way through water at this whale-like point!) and waited for their arrival. They arrived at the bottom, both laying down, both flopping completely down under the twelve-or-so inches of water. I grabbed Sunny right away, but she definitely had time to inhale a whole bunch of chlorine! It's definitely possible that my friend's dogs that live south of us, oh, 8-9 miles heard Sunny's shrieks of displeasure. Yep, fairly sure that if those Basset buddies were yelping, it could have been Sunny's fault! So, as she was shrieking in fear and unhappiness, the alert lifeguard (who was apparently not so skilled in etiquette) barked at me, "Miss (Miss? Really?), they aren't allowed to go together!!!!".  With a still-shrieking Sunny on one hip, I looked at him and reassured him that it didn't appear that she'd be interested in doing it again, thanks.  Now, I totally get that we broke a rule and got chastised for it, but it sort of cracks me up that with a wedding ring on my finger, two little girls in my arms, and a little guy riding around in a circular shape on my tummy, that he automatically referred to me as "Miss" rather than "Ma'am". I'm just chalking it up to my ever-solidifying opinion that we really don't raise children in this area of the country to know how to interact with each other and especially not with adults. The poor guy seemed to be around high school age, and I'm sure he was really tired of being out in the sun. I appreciate that he didn't use something derogatory to address me (Miss Whale? Miss Cow? Miss Moose? Just some ideas perhaps!), but I thought it was sort of funny and could not remember the last time I've been referred to as a "Miss" (I'm positive it wasn't when 6.5 months pregnant with any of our other children.....although there was the time the Jehovah Witnesses showed up in Enderlin asking for my mom or dad when I was 8 months pregnant with Hope, but in their defense my cat was riding on my stomach at the time.....). I just wondered if he knew that I definitely fit into the "Ma'am" category.

It didn't take Sunny too long to settle down, and we enjoyed another 30 minutes in the kiddie splash area before leaving. When the girls were bathing off their chlorine and sunscreen tonight, I mentioned to Sunny how proud I was of her being able to go underwater and what a "big girl" thing that was to have tried. I told her she didn't have to do it again until she wanted to, but that it was really a "big girl" event for her. Sunny responded with, "I didn't really like it, but I liked it a little. I think." It was really cute that she tried to pretend that it was sort of fun once I told her it was a "big girl" activity! I think her "little bit" of liking helped Miss Mouse, too, because at some point, Miss Mouse figured out that the reason Sunny went under was that Miss Mouse had to hold her on her back lying down. Miss Mouse is too tall to fit down the slide sitting up! So, she slides again and again on her back and now has bruises from the joints in the slide! She says it feels "great! Like a massage!". I think she's afraid we'll stop her from sliding on that one if she admits that it hurts.  But she was feeling pretty bad about having been part of the reason for little sister's terror.

Aaaahhh. Summer and new experiences!!

Boy Meets Girl [Cousins]

The girls and I made a quick trip out West early this week. We stopped at the farm (beautiful canola field post forthcoming) to see Grandpa Bob on Sunday night and then took off Monday morning, after being good farm girls and helping move a pickup up for spraying, to visit Great Grandma, Great Auntie Linda, Great Auntie Karen, and Great Uncle Bill in Williston on our way to meet the newest addition to the family. Ta-da! Here he is!!!

Six pounds of adorable, sweet nephew/cousin!

Grammy and M-Mouse had bonded by the time I arrived with the two little, squealy, female Mice.

M-Mouse does this really well. His Mommy might not think so since she is up to feed and change him every two hours in the night, but, really, after our experience with Sunny and even with Miss Mouse, he does this sleeping thing beautifully! See how peaceful he looks? He really is that peaceful!!!!

I thought he looked like he had a smile in this picture.

This super-relaxed arm-drape was just too cute.

Sunny loves "lovin' on him". I'm not sure if he's getting his hands ready to go into a prayer position for safety in her arms, or if he's just yawning or what. It seems that he has awhile yet before getting quite comfortable in her loving little arms. She, on the other hand, can't hardly wait to carry him around!

My nephew the little doll! At least, I think he looks like a doll in this picture....not that I'm biased in any way....

He's just a little guy!

And he's soooooo soft!!

It wasn't until I put these on the computer that I noticed M-Mouse's expression. It cracks me up when contrasted with Sunny's!



Miss Mouse is a total little mommy. She even enjoyed getting in on any "shushing" that had to be done. She'd "sssshhhh" as loud as her little lungs could go!

So teeny, tiny.

Okay, I had to add some of the excitement - you know, other than the new baby. This is Sunny warming up after being drenched in a downpour and narrowly escaping a thorough pelting by hailstones. The Mice and Auntie Laura hung out on the deck and watched a storm roll in. It turned out to be nothing much of a storm, so they enjoyed getting sprayed by a little rain and then thought the heaviest part of the storm was over. Miss Mouse and Auntie Laura came back in, but Sunny needed some time to herself and stayed out on the deck with a slice of cheese. Thankfully I was watching her so that I did notice when the rain started again, in big drops, soaking her. I got the door open to the deck, but just barely because the wind was so strong! Once I got her in my arms (by that time she had been sitting in her lawn chair shouting "Help! Help! I'm soaking! Help!"), it was all I could do to get back in the door. We made it inside just in time to notice the skylight dripping. It turned out to just be a few drops, but in the short time it took for my sister to grab a cookie sheet to catch the drips, for me to wrap Sunny in this towel and grab all other available towels to mop up the water leaking in the main door from the deck, and for me to point out that the screen door had not latched (it has a latching issue - apparently this is why the main door was leaking so much - the screen really needed to be latched!).....the wind switched directions and slammed the door into the grill, shattering the bottom window of the screen door into a million shards of glass. This all took place in about 30 seconds. Thankfully it wasn't until later that the girls realized that Sunny had been seconds away from being covered in shards of glass. Phew. All's well that ends well, I guess, though I'm sure cleanup and repair haven't ended for poor Uncle Jon!!!

Speaking of Uncle Jon.....I love that in this picture, M-Mouse seems to be really smiling at his Daddy!!

Snuggled up next to his Mommy.

Yep, this little boy definitely met a couple of very loving, very hands-on girls this week!

Again, they have mirrored expressions! Impressive!!

Grandpa Bob took advantage of a 100-degree day (you can't spray a crop in that heat) to visit his grandMice. GrandMice? Anyway, he got in a few good snuggles from everybody on Tuesday which was a real treat for all of us!

Tiny little feet. Tiny little feet that really did not want to hold still!

This one's in the wrong order, but I'm too tired to change it tonight! This is the pre-storm as Auntie Laura and Miss Mouse watched it roll in. They are on top of a hill and have a gorgeous view from every single window!

They also have the most calm, sweet little baby boy! We can't wait to visit again in July!