Happy birthday John boy!

John is 1 today! He was 365 days yesterday but since it was a leap year he got an extra day to be a baby. We are celebrating this weekend but for now here are a few pictures of him enjoying some boss presents from his Baba Yaga and Grandfather. Oscar enjoyed them too, of course.

 

 

 

 

Super Oscar Robot Powers!

Oscar now has super Oscar running powers, super Oscar alligator powers, and the very best, super Oscar robot powers. Someone get this boy a cardboard box!

Snow day deux

Eric and I got the day off yesterday! There was a giant blizzard, we had no power until 11 am, and the windows were all covered with snow so we couldn't see out even if the curtains were open.

So John got to practice walking all day long! He has a fondness for leaping to my arms instead of walking like a normal human, but then he does have a lot to learn yet about being a normal human.

Johnnie Walker!

John has been launching himself with wild abandon, but today he calmed down enough to take several steps in a row! We will have a video soon, I think.

Here are pictures of the garden, before the next snow comes. The brave, indomitable peonies can now be seen. In addition to a thousand more crocuses, I also want lots of rock irises and fancy hyacinths and squill. Jaunty to the max!

John also had a grand time playing in Oscar's bed.

Happy dudes all around!

transformer

When Oscar went to bed tonight, he kept smacking himself in the head and saying, "Turn into a dragon! SXHX! Turn into a person! SHXHSH!"

Here is what that looks like when he is awake:


Also here is the classic baby-in-a-bookcase:

Tea party

Little update

I forgot to show the amaryllis! Oskar is blooming away!

And this morning Oscar looked out the kitchen window and said Mom! The crocuses! 

sunny day

We had a great outdoor weekend. Everyone's a tiny bit pink and very sleepy. The garden is doing well even though we poked around a lot, just checking!

Eric is leaving early tomorrow morning to drive to Albuquerque for the Western Weed Science Conference. He gets back late on Thursday! This time last year he was on his way to Portland and I was not quite ready to see John yet... it might be a little easier this year.

Eric and I are both working like crazy. We both have such interesting projects and are making such good projects on them that it's taking up all our brain space. It's so much better than hating your job, or working on a dead-end project! But it is nice to take a break and think about other things once in a while, like our own personal plants.

Speaking of brain space, I finished reading Remembrance of Things Past! I started it shortly after Oscar was born. Now I don't feel like I'm shirking anything when I read whatever I please! It was totally worth it, and I'm glad I read it slowly. I am looking forward to reading it again, and remembering why he ever had occasion to eat that dang madeleine in the first place.

On to the good stuff: what have we actually been up to? A garden tour is included, so there will have to be a little narration. Also I took the garden pictures with the iPad in full sun, so I couldn't see what I was doing at all. They're alright!

My musical men! If we give John a chance he will strum the guitar too. Oscar likes to ask for a plectrum. We also just taught him to throw up the horns, which he now does for the slightest of reasons, like requesting the -blue- one.

John tries out the kazoo. He's quite good!

John's preferred way to play in the sink. This way Oscar can turn on the faucet and get him wet!

The bulb garden. I like the lonely crocus in the front. I don't know how it got there! I think this fall I will just get crocuses and put them all in here, if I don't get distracted by some other project.

Underneath the hackberry. This garden is so tricky - full sun right now, but as soon as the hackberry leafs out, it's full shade. The hackberry is the tree we found the label on, "Leafs out late - not dead!"

Toba, with lots of little leaf buds swelling.

In the paramecium - snowdrops finishing up, and Eric's favorite tulips packed cheek by jowl.

Further along in the paramecium, lots of noses poking out. The one in the very front right is a rock iris, I'm very excited about it because it's supposed to be blue!

I forget what these are but they should be blue too. I put all my blue things in the paramecium, according to my spreadsheet.

The everlasting lettuce. This has been growing in this spot since we moved in. Who knew lettuce could be perennial? Eric gets very excited about it every year and is always disappointed to learn it's just lettuce. Also notice the yarrow advancing. I will show it the error of its ways soon.

In the patio garden - violets that overwintered well.

The lammia doesn't seem to realize winter ever happened!

We pulled lots of mulch off the garden and found these winter aconite noses poking up! At first I thought they were regular bulb noses but actually they're soft and fleshy, so they should bloom soon.

While I was doing all this, Oscar had his body crayons out. He wanted me to take a picture of his nice blue fingernails.

And his tummy, and his face.

These crocuses greet us when we go out the front door - they're enormous and so yellow!

The other bulb garden. I had put mulch on it but it all blew away. The weeding will be ferocious. But look at all those happy (orange) tulips!

This is not lettuce. These are fancy floofy hyacinths. You can really see all the weeds in these close-up pictures, yikes!

The shady garden against the neighbor's fence. This is full of daffodils and winter aconite, and there's a few hardy souls coming up in here too! The mulch lasted better in this garden.

Oscar made an obstacle course for himself out of these wood scraps. No one was allowed to touch it but him. It is a very dangerous obstacle course, he says.

He colored his other fingernails.

Both hands, rarr!

I even hung out the first load of laundry! Also I'm trying to think what I could put here so that the view out of the living room is more appealing. So if you have any bright ideas, let me know!

And here is our fantastic new grown-up bed. Very tall, very long, and very comfy. Room for two adults and three cats, no problem. But Pocky still prefers to lie on top of someone.

Drawers underneath so we could get rid of the dressers. It forces us to keep the floors clear, because otherwise the drawers won't open! (Or it did for a little while. Now I have piles that move from one side to the other, depending on which drawer I need to open... but they're smaller piles than before.)

Side cubbies so we could get rid of the nightstands. Now floor space abounds, although it's not good for much in a bedroom. It is nice to have a little more breathing room though. Also, I still have to be careful if I get up in the middle of the night, because the bed is a different size and my navigator hasn't picked up on that yet.

The view from the bed. As soon as I took this we decided to finally move John's dresser into the boy's room, so the furniture will all move around again just a little. We might get an enormous bookshelf, that would be quite exciting. Also I finished my painting!