Dad's First Haircut

Fields of Flowers

A partly sunny, 79-degree day in Northern Virginia during July is a rarity. Since the weather was nothing less than gorgeous and perfect out today, I just had to find something to do with the kids outside. But what? Go to a playground? Nah, been there done that about 983 times already. Go for a walk? Eh. Tired of the all the same ol' routes but keep forgetting to find new ones. Fields of Flowers in Purcellville has been on my to-do list for quite some time, but it seems like every time I think of going, it is either raining or scorching hot. Today was our lucky day!

We pulled up to a cute, New Englandesque-looking property around 1:15 and parked adjacent to a fence that said, "Beware of attack bird." Okay...

I got the kids out of the car, and walked in the direction of the fields, ready to grab everyone and jump in one of the bushes of flowers in case the bird made an appearance. There were handwritten signs everywhere explaining how things work since apparently we were on our own for the day: Fill a glass jar for $10 or a bucket for $20-30 (depending on the size of the container). Don't forget to take some clippers! Put your money in the red coffee container before you leave. Make your own change. Small town feel and honor system - I like it!

After gathering our supplies - I had Olivia in one arm, the wire basket with the jar and clippers in the other, and my camera dangling around my neck - we arrived in the fields of flower gardens. I wish I knew the names of flowers so that I could write them down here, but I know a sunflower when I see one. Collin took off running up and down the rows of flowers, eager to find the perfect ones to pick. Bless his heart, he kept going to the wimpy or dying ones. His favorite flower was a browning yellow head of crumpled petals with hardly a stem; he carried that thing around everywhere and exclaimed he couldn't wait to show Daddy.

I'm not really sure how I managed to hold a baby, cut flowers and put them in the jar, and take pictures all while instructing Collin which flowers to pick and not to pick as well as where to pick and how to pick a flower properly. Hey, I'm not paying for a handful of squished, broken, short flowers! If the attack bird had decided to eat us, I'm not sure I could have put up much of a defense, as my hands were full.



Here is our $10 vase of flowers, hand-picked by my Collin Monster and me (Olivia tried to help but her version of helping was eating the leaves, petals, stems, etc.). I tried to pretend I was a florist and make the prettiest arrangement possible. Ahh, I can smell those stargazer lilies now...mmmm....

Social Butterflies

Pool date with Jo, playdate with Adelyn, impromptu concert

7-11-11 = Free Slurpee!?

As promised to a little boy who ate all his salmon and carrots at dinner, I ventured out to the various 7-Elevens this evening with Collin to obtain his very first Slurpee because they were giving away free ones. Yes, I put a plural 's' at the end of 7-Eleven. I suppose I was a little naive to think we could just zip over to the one three minutes from our house after dinner, get the cup of sugary goodness, and go home. After waiting in line for what seemed like a day, the machine ran out of the icy stuff that differentiates a Slurpee from just a cup of syrupy juice. No problem, I think. We'll just go to the other location in Ashburn. Six-minute drive and still no Slurpee later (machine said 'out of order'...uh-huh...), I had a tired 2-year-old who was still optimistic. "We'll just try a fixed machine, Mommy," he said with reassurance. Easier said than done, son. Not wanting to disappoint my boy, I plugged in 7-Eleven into the GPS, praying the next closest one wouldn't be more than ten minutes away. It was 12. "Okay, Collin, we can try one more place." So I drove across two towns in search of the store. When we got there, people were walking out with Slurpees - good sign! So, to make a long story short, Collin got to have his coveted blue Slurpee, even though it was in a Styrofoam coffee cup because they ran out of regular Slurpee cups and even though I had to drive through a thunderstorm for 30 minutes to get home. Hope he liked it!

The kids played in the kiddie pool together for the first time today. It was cute. ;)

And Collin continues with his classic one-liners. After nap I asked him, "What would you like to have for snack?" to which he replied, "Just get me something from up there (pointing to the pantry cupboard), and I'll eat it," to which I replied, "May I have something out of the cupboard to eat, please?" to which he replied by repeating me. Good boy. We settled on cottage cheese with blueberries out of the fridge, though.

She's Holding Out!

 Olivia just turned 8 months old two days ago. Does she sit on her own? Oh yeah, that's her specialty! Sit and smile sweetly in one spot for long periods of time. Does she roll over? She can, but she won't. Not interested unless she absolutely has to. Does she crawl? No, she can push herself backwards on her tummy or bottom, but refuses to bend her knees for the crawling position, and the backwards deal just frustrates the heck out of her. She'd rather sit and play with toys or people watch. Does she pull herself up to stand? No, not yet, but she enjoys standing very much. She does pretty well as long as she's holding on to something stable.

I try not to compare kids, but I couldn't help but go back and see what Collin was up to at Olivia's age. He was doing all of the above, including a little cruising using the furniture. We had to lower the crib mattress for him because we were afraid he'd try to climb out. Is it a boy-girl thing? A second child thing? Or is Olivia just a unique personality who is content to sit and watch the world go by? I know her time will come, but I'm a little anxious for her to start moving to relieve some of her frustration when a toy she wants is out of reach or when she gets bored of the same scenery. Of course as soon as she starts crawling, I am going to be faced with breaking up fights over who gets what toy. Collin already has a conniption if she gets her hands on one of his trains. Fun, fun!

Too Smart for Their Own Good

Ever since Olivia started saying "cat" when she sees Sampson and now the Hello Kitty appliques and the stuffed cat with nursing kittens in her room, I am starting to pay more attention to other words that she knows even if she can't say them. Apparently she knows more than I have been giving her credit for. For instance, if she's wearing a dress or has a blanket within reach, and you tell her to "play peekaboo," she will promptly cover her face with the fabric, wait for you to say, "Where's Olivia?", remove the fabric, and smile/giggle when you say "Peekaboo!" or "There she is!" Best game ever invented in her 8-month-old opinion. She's also into turning the pages of her books as long as someone helps her by lifting up the desired page a little so her fumbling fingers can get a hold of it to turn. If you tell her to "turn the page," she does. I started to teach her some basic signs for eat, drink, more, and all done today at lunch, and she was very interested in what my hands and mouth were doing. I wonder what else she knows?

Collin's smarts are in the form of Aleck, at least today that was the case. He was all ready to go to his friend's house to play in her sprinkler, pool, and new playhouse when I informed him that his baby sister needed to nurse before we left, and he could do a puzzle or play with his trains while he waited for us to finish. About ten minutes later, he marches into Olivia's room and declares, "YOU are all done milking Olivia. Let's go to Johanna's house now." What? Are we cows now? I think technically she was milking me, but whatever.

Happy 4th of July!

Two Big Milestones!

Olivia has been fascinated with our cat, Sampson, since she was three months old. On February 19, I wrote in her baby book that she was staring at him with great interest and even reached out to pet him, which he let her do. When she was six months old, she would immediately search the room for Sampson if she heard someone say the word 'cat' or meow. So here we are just shy of eight months, and her first official word is cat. She makes a hard C sound followed by a T sound (no short A yet, but she's working on it) completely unprompted by any of us as soon as she sees Sampson. If you say it back to her and start talking about the cat, she'll repeat her version of the word with excitement and smiles like she's so happy to be understood finally. It's really cute! I can't wait to hear what she'll say next.

Collin has been doing wonderfully with the potty training with only a couple of accidents a day, including naptime. That's pretty impressive considering the boy has to use the bathroom 10-13 times a day. We were at the park with Collin in underwear, not pullups, and he said he had to pee. Mike took the opportunity to teach him the fine art of choosing the perfect tree to use for cover. Of course when they found the tree, Collin got scared because they were in the spooky woods, and that just wasn't cool with him. So we told him to hold it until we got to the grocery store because we had to stop there anyway to pick up some things for dinner. I was skeptical because 1. when he has to go, he has to go...holding it hasn't happened yet and 2. public toilets have been a total failure. But guess what? Not only did he manage to stay dry for an extra 12 minutes, he also went in the grocery store toilet with no issues (probably since he had to go so badly he didn't care at that point). Hooray! Then the next day, Collin wore underwear all day, including a trip to a friend's house where he used their big toilet twice, and only had one accident right before bed. I am cautiously optimistic that he's getting close to being trained, but I don't want to speak too soon. It's only been three weeks. Knocking on some wood right now!!