4-20

Oscar has started insisting on reading books by himself. He does a nice job of narrating, or sometimes even sitting very quietly staring at an interesting page for a while. I'm a big fan of the quiet staring.

Pop-pop came up this weekend to help Eric fix a pipe, and in the fixing of it they even made some improvements! He got in some good Oscar time too.

Today Little John and I hung out outside in a shady tent! I can just sit up inside it, and I think there will be room for Oscar too. It sets up almost instantly and is easily moved to wherever I happen to be sitting and weeding. We sat and stared at all the flowers that are still going, and then I decided it was time to take some pictures of all of them, including the very twirly lilies of the valley and what is absolutely, definitely a crocosmia, as well as our friend Mr. Snake. I even took a picture of the laundry - Johnnie isn't the only one with a lot of diapers on the line!

Garage keeps trying to steal Little John's breath but I think he's got it a little backwards.

Today I am grading and I have gotten through two! of the fourteen papers I have to read. They're only 2 pages each, so it really won't be bad. But there are all these distractions of tents and flowers and laundry, so we'll see how far I get before LJ wakes up.

 

4-18

All my boys are snoozing away! I have completed a draft of Chapter 1, aka my first first-author paper. It's not particularly good towards the end, but at least it's complete.

Oscar decided he needed some naked time this morning, and kindly allowed John-boy to join him in his tent. Then we went to the park before the rain started again. I saw an interesting dedication on a sculpture, and Eric made Oscar dizzy on all the spinning devices. (Oscar will only sit on the green area of the big wheel.) They're thrill-seekers, those two!

And now I get to think about my data for Chapter 2!

4-16

The snow has arrived as promised, although it's still holding above freezing for now so maybe we can just be pleased about the precipitation.

I got about 15 minutes of work done yesterday in between feeding John, changing his diaper, feeding him, and teaching. But hey, that's still progress!

Oscar learned that wood floors are slippery, and John is a very cute sleeping baby.

Alright thesis, round two here we go!

April, cruelty, the same old story.

There's snow in our forecast for the next week, but it should only just go below freezing tonight. I'm glad I haven't moved any house plants outside yet, and that only the cherry tree has bloomed so far. With a little luck we may have peaches this year!

Oscar is being a good big brother so far. He has decided that he is Finn, I am Jake, Eric is the princess, and John is the Ice King. These are the characters from Adventure Time, Eric and Oscar's current favorite cartoon. Eric would really prefer that I be the princess, but Oscar won't hear of it! He played with trains this weekend, and almost understands that they go around the track. He also had a rocking dance party with some nice yoga moves thrown in.

John is also showing signs of being a cat baby. He had his first checkup yesterday - a whopping 8 pounds 4 ounces, so a gain of almost a pound since his last weight check. The doctor said he's a perfect baby, so we're all very pleased. They did not do anything exciting like measure his head or his length, but he managed to pee all over everything so he made it exciting. He did not pee on the doctor (yet).

Now I'm actually going to work on my thesis. Wish me luck!

We pay spot cash for ash logs.

A better version of Oscar's wickedness:


Also, on Tuesday we found ourselves at the real end of an era. We had taken Juniper the bunny in to the vet on Monday to see about treating her sudden eye infection. The vet ordered some bloodwork, pretty normal. But on Tuesday she called back and said Juniper was in the end stages of kidney failure. So Eric took her back down to the vet to be put to sleep.

It's weird to be without a bunny in the house. The cage is still in place, largely because the top of it is covered with plants that aren't quite ready to go outside yet. But there is no one in the cage! There are no crazy scratching noises as the bunny jumps around! There is no one eagerly waiting to eat some banana or strawberry tops!

Eric has started browsing the pages of adoptable bunnies from the House Rabbit Society. I think if we do get more they should be dwarf and short hair. The angoras were more than I could really deal with, even though their hair was so very soft.

In further news, I have a defense date! Friday August 28th, 10 am. Be there or be square. I set it up a few weeks ago but kept forgetting that other people would be excited about it also.

He wasn't born yesterday you know.

More photos of the gentlemen! Oscar in the baby seat (very wicked), John in the baby seat (very good - wearing Aunt Janet's lovely blanket!), attempting liftoff on Eric's legs, proof that Baba Yaga was really here and was allowed to hold the baby, Oscar wearing goo-goo goggles and eating delicious food from Mohammed, and finally a sweet baby sleeping on his Dada.