August Peach Picking 2014

Lazy Days

 

1+2 looking through Mama's jewelry box
3 painting and drawing in the new upstairs studio room
4 Thursday is breakfast-for-dinner night: waffles with maple cream cheese and fresh berries
5 Millie and Emma: hours and hours spent with our good friends (picture by Casey!)
6-9 digging
10 relaxing at the edge of her fort
11 painting
12 kale chips on the couch

All pictures are from last Thursday and Friday. (As usual, blogger is giving me trouble about formatting and going back to edit- sorry!)

Portrait of a Two-Year-Old

I don't know where this child came from. Or what I did or could ever do to deserve her.
Every day I tell her... "you are my
 absolute beauty"

ab·so·lute

1. not qualified or diminished in any way; total. synonyms: complete, total, utter, outright, entire, perfect, pure, decided beau·ty  1. the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind,  whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.) ... or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest). synonyms: loveliness  She calls herself "Minnow Bea-twix". She calls the dog her "puppy-pup". Yesterday she asked me if she is the cat's Mama. She is bursting with happiness and affection and compassion and curiosity. To me, she is everything.

A new interest

Tying knots:

Other ongoing interests (in the same vein of "figuring things out" about the world and herself) include:

• jumping off of things

• shadows changing throughout the day

• snail movement

• the moon

• independently dressing and undressing (shirts are still a challenge)

• repeating words

• making up songs (original melody and mostly made up words)

Wildlife Sanctuary

Inspired by our wonderful visit with Grandma to one of Cape Cod's Audubon Sanctuaries, we looked up our closest location and found out it's right in Cold Spring! It turned out to be quite a hike, walking along bumpy trails with tree roots, rocks, and drop-offs to the water, then climbing up and down rock covered hills. The trail follows along the water at the edge of the woods. At the end is a giant boardwalk into Constitution Marsh. You can see it here: satellite map

We are so happy to have found this gem! It is absolutely beautiful and we had a great time. We didn't see any birds in the marsh (although we found water chestnut seeds, cattails, spiders, water bugs, and lots more), but in the woods we saw a bright red cardinal, woodpeckers, tufted titmice, and warblers.  Millie really wants to take her Daddy there soon. I tried to get her to say that she is a "nature baby", but she just kept correcting me, "no Mama, beach baby."

Talking Girl

Well folks, it finally happened. The baby started talking. In real words. As it's been with everything else, we knew she would wait until she was absolutely certain she could do it. Cautious, thoughtful, patient lamb. This morning on the way home from the grocery store she piped up from the backseat, "Mama needs a coffee." Oh boy.

At bedtime, usually, we both lay our heads on her pillow and she asks me to sing to her (which she does by saying "Mama, uh?" and moving her upper body in a Stevie Wonder type dance to indicate "sing"). Instead tonight she wanted to repeat words. As she laid down, facing me with her fists tucked up under her chin, grinning a twinkly-eyed grin, she began: "yellow ochre, lemon yellow... more?" I grinned back at her, "You want me to list the paint colors?". She nodded yes, clearly very pleased with her new game. So I began, and she repeated after each color, "alizarin crimson, sap green, cerulean blue..." and so on. The only one she paused on was "burnt umber", because while trying to say "burnt" she accidentally kept saying "beach". Then she would slap her forehead, saying "no no no", and try again. 

1. painting with Mama's watercolors    2. our first sunflower (ever)    3. making hollandaise sauce