Today I took my babes to one of our favorite parks in town. This was Dutchy's very first trip to the park where he could partake. He L.O.V.E.D. it.

 

 

 And somehow he grew up right before my very eyes.

 

 And this girl schemed and built the afternoon away. She built a trap, explored a hollowed out stump and went "fishing" in the creek using a branch and a variety of leaves to attract fish.

 

And this is why I work half time.

Spring Performance

 

 

Last night Little Miss had her annual Spring Performance. (Here's last year's pictures of the May Performance). We took a few pictures in front of our (nonblooming) lilac tree before heading out.

 And a couple in front of the rhodies at the performance site.  My beautiful girl.

 Dutch was held captive by the music the kids sang. Clem's class performed a few songs including This Land is Your Land, This Land is my Land; The Crawdad Song and I've Been Working on the Railroad. They also did a few songs in Spanish but by then our girl was mostly done singing and was spending most of the time on stage waving and telling her neighbors who was in the audience to see her.

 When the singing was through, Clem came back to us in the crowd. In keeping with tradition, she started borrowing everyone's camera's to capture her own memories (after the preschooler's performance, the older kids took the stage to sing, play instruments, etc.).

 At this point, Dutch had no horse in the race so he gave up on listening quietly. Cam took him to the quiet room which was located right behind our row. Cathy soon joined him. I love the picture Clem got of those two in the room with Dutch and the reflection of Clem and I outside the room laughing.

 

Mother's Day '13

 Mother's Day this year was spent down at my aunt Carolyn's house in Lakewood. Her backyard just happened to be the spot where my nephew Nolan learned to walk. Her living room the place where Dutch learned to crawl (on Christmas!). We had high hopes and expectations that Dutchy would actually take his first steps in her beautiful yard this year, but that was not in the cards for us. However, we DID get some beautiful pictures with the kiddos!

 My beautiful girl could not get enough of this wicker swing in the backyard!

 

My handsome boy couldn't get enough of the soft green grass between his fingers! 

 The baby boy cousins got a turn in the swing, too.

 Baby FREAK OUT!

 

Miles tried and tried to eat the singular tuft of hair on Dutch's head. It was pretty funny watching Dutch semi-tolerate it. 

Then Dutchy and I chilled on the bench while he tugged on green leaves, tasted the wooden back of the bench and my sister click click clicked away.
(There are still LOTS more pictures to share but I'm saving some for Dutch's one year birthday here in a few!)
THANKS SISSY!!

In His Element

 Dutch is busy working on finding his element these days, too. He is a nonstop whirl of motion now that he's mobile and this boy LOVES to rough house.

 Wrestle baby mania has been brought back to our household.

 Dutch seems pretty happy about that.

 Twice a week, Clementine has T-Ball Practice and I have been trying to figure out a system to keep this boy from shrieking. So far: no dice. Last weekend we tried the carseat/stroller combo. With snacks, that worked for a while but then there's the shrieking; always the shrieking. So we let him stand up in the stroller (with Cam holding on to him on one side and me on the other. Hypothesis: no straps=no shrieking.

Another tricky must-do we try to problem solve around here is getting this boy clean. It's a lot harder than I expected. Because of the refusal to hold still, bath time has become quite dangerous. The baby bath won't contain him any more and the big bath works for very short times as he stands himself up over and over again. He's a squirmy fellow. So I gave it a try to have BOTH babies in the bath at the same time. This was not a boy in his element. He got clean, for sure, but he also got his face in the water more during this bath than Clementine did in 16 months of swim lessons. So, these days, this boy's element is what I like to call spot cleaning. Someday he'll be a bathing beauty just like his sister is.

In Her Element

 This girl has been trying some new stuff out lately. She is bravely trying out some new experiences and is finding her little niche.

As always, Hardware Stores are one of her favorite places to go. For a special responsible big sister gift, she earned her very own pink mini-hammer; something she'd been eyeing for months. The end screws off and is also a mini-screwdriver. Later, she found an old spare wrench of Cam's lying around in the garage. That quickly went into Clem's menagerie and is loving referred to as her "French".

 We are taking a break from swimming lessons as it's nearly impossible to teach a girl who won't put her face face in the water to swim. Instead, this girl is trying out T-Ball this Spring. She's been playing twice a week for the last month or so and is doing really well!

Clem is the oldest on her team, by far the tallest and, most of the time, the only girl! But that doesn't slow her down one bit. She knows just what to do and she gives it her best.

And art. OH the art this girl produces each day. I think a typical kid her age covers the fridge's doors here and there. This girl's daily art production could be weighed by the pound. She draws and plans and sketches, cuts, glues and stickers every single afternoon.

10 Months (sob)

photo credit: Megan Clingman

My baby boy is 10 months old. I'm not even going to try to hold back the tears. It doesn't work. He's closer to one every single day. Can't deal.

Here are 10 facts about my baby boy at ten months old:
1. He sleeps through the night! 12 hours minimum. I love it. Please do this forever, Dutchy!
2. Dutch loves all things wind related. I don't know why. He loves his ceiling fan in his room, loves to watch kites and is completing enamored with flags.
3. He clearly says Mama and not so clearly says Dada and Hey/Hi.
4. He idolizes his big sister. Anything that she does/has, he wants to do/have.
5. This boy is obsessed with boobs. He will likely go to Kindergarten still nursing several times daily.
6. Dutch is a true Gemini and has a very sweet, quiet, gentle side as well as a screaming banshee side. He goes from one to the other in seconds and for apparently no reason.
7. This boy will not stop tormenting our cat. She's scratched him before and that doesn't slow him down or stop him from going after her.
8. Dutch is a natural nudist. He is happiest when stark naked. As soon as his diaper comes off, a huge grin covers his face as he races away from me.
9. This boy can sprint crawl in a way I've never seen before. See #8.
10. Once called the Moose, this boy is now more like a Mouse (ba dum dum. Clem gave me that line earlier today). He's only in the 25% for weight but 75% for height (97% for head circumference!)

Tulip Time!

 It wouldn't be Spring Break in this neck of the woods without the Skagit Valley TULIP FESTIVAL!!
(it's a tradition: 2011 and 2010!)

We met up with Aunty Kelly who was down for an adventure with her favorite niece and nephew pair. This was her first trip to the tulips.

We took a tractor pull type of ride around the farm where we learned that there are over 2 MILLION tulips planted here. Wow! And this farm doesn't need to water the tulips at all as there is enough rain through here in April. 

I so badly wanted a picture of my favorite two critters sitting amongst the flowers. Dutch so badly wanted to get out of sister's grip and crawl amongst those flowers. Clementine so badly wanted to skiddaddle so she could get her face painted. I had to take pics pretty quickly. 

 

Finally, Clem got her face painted by an artist named DUTCH!

(It's a guinea pig!)