Melanie

Daniel must need a lot of rescuing. Melanie has also, twice, been concerned about Daniel crawling out of her bed, and coming over the edge in a miscalculated fashion a little too far from where the ladder is mounted. Seeing disaster near, Melanie begins to yell for help from me, and in the interim grabs Daniel protruding foot, catching him somewhere around his toes--holding on for her brother's dear life.
"Daniel!!!
Daniel, STOP!
Mommy Daniel is falling out of my bed!!
Quick!!
Mommy!!
Daniel, No! The ladder is over here, Daniel.
Daniel, DON'T!!!
Mommy, Mommy!"


Melanie loves to pretend she's only visiting us, and it's her favorite to be Jamie. She is always tickled if I play along that she's just there to visit, and she loves to ask about Melanie.

"This is where Melanie lives, right?"

"Who's Melanie?" I ask.

"The girl that lives here. She's four."

"Nope, I don't have any kids. Just the baby here in my belly."

"No!! You have Nathan--that boy over there, and Matthew--that boy over there, and Daniel, and Melanie!!"

"Do I? I thought they were just visiting!"

Melanie than changes the subject, since I'm clearly not cooperating this time.
"Look at this flower I picked! Do you have a vase? (Not waiting for an answer...) I have a big vase and a medium vase and a small vase at home, and I could put this sunflower that isn't too big into the medium or small vase. I live with Uncle....what was his name again?"

"George."
(Nathan giggles when he hears me say this.)

"Is his name really George?"


If asked about whether or not she wants me to have a girl or boy baby, Melanie is very decided about wanting a baby girl! "I want a sister!"

"Mom, I'm going to go up and down the slide now. Up and down and up and down."

At the library today Melanie was looking at books, and getting me to preview them to see if she would be allowed to take them home. "Can we take this one home, Mom? It's only a little bit silly with the pink stuff flying around on those pages. It isn't too silly is it? Can we take it home?"

Nathan

Nathan told me about an insect he saw caught in a spider web:
"Mommy, I saw a moth stuck in a spider web over there." (points) "And I saved it!"

My first response was: "Now the poor spider is going to be hungry!"
(You can tell how thoughtful and insightful I am lately!)

"But the butterfly didn't want to die!" says Nathan.

"You're right, I'm sure it is glad that you saved it!" I hastily added!



I had a cool shower once during a hot afternoon, and during it I heard a lot of crying. I cut it as short as I could, and I could hear Daniel crying while I hastily (but not too hastily lest I get sweaty again, and defeat the purpose of the shower) dried and dressed myself. I also could hear Nathan trying to comfort him. Before I was out, Daniel was settled down. I opened the door to see Nathan sitting cross legged beside Daniel, rubbing his back, and talking gently with him.
(I wonder, did any of my big brothers do this for me?) Nathan then told me the story of how one of his siblings had pushed Daniel down while he was climbing a bookshelf, and how Nathan grabbed Daniel by the head and how he got Daniel his teddy and sat with him and rubbed his back.
I cautioned against grabbing heads (even during rescue attempts!) and also thanked him for the care he took of his brother!


Nathan was given a hammer for his birthday, and hasn't used it much. But since there were so many trim ends laying around from the playset construction, he decided to use them to build things. He had became frustrated when Daniel kept breaking what he had been making, so I suggested he hammer it and make it permanent--and thus, indestructible.

He originally had made a shed to park dump trucks and tractors in, but during the process of making it sturdy and "hammer-able", it has transformed into a box, to build sand castles in. It's been a work of a few weeks, and last time I checked, needed only one more piece of wood and another nail or two.

Cicada

This bug scared me, when I first saw it. It's so big, and I didn't know what it was. Daniel didn't mind holding it though. And he said "whoh!" when it flew out of his hand.

More camping

Here are pics of the rest of the trip. These days were spent on a different lake we portaged to. Then we rested here for two days, and left the third day. Fished for our first time. Didn't catch anything--but we didn't expect to with 6 of us in a boat, and us fishing in the afternoon. But it was a good time waster. We picked the only sight on the lake that had a sort--of beach, so the kids got to play in the water too. Otherwise the trip was camping as usual--with the additional discomfort of being in my last trimester.

I Owe

Sorry I'm slow.
Chris, here you go.

Thanks again!




(Melanie does not know how to smile when asked to!)

Rain Lake

Exploring the campsite is the first most important thing to do.

And it's so much fun!

Then, once we've settled in, time to see what other options there are.
Wading was next on the list!

\




Daniel thinks: "You will be taking me back home soon, right?"

Packing up camp is also exciting--and must be done carefully since everything needs to fit back in the boat!

Melanie and Matthew wish they could help too--so for now they just make sure that they know how it's done.


One of the last things to pack up was the clothesline.

The bag hanging on it is food. Since there were no portages to get to this lake, it came with a non-shy chipmunk. Watching food closely isn't always good enough for these critters!

Back to the city.

We spent five days in Algonquin.

And now we're back.

Daniel can now say these clearly:

"Sqee-toe" (Mosquito)
"Boom!" (Hitting mosquito--which is accompanies with a big hit to whoever he can reach)
"Dot it!" (Got it!)

Both him and Matthew look as if they have chickenpox.

Playset

The playset is taking shape now. I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far.
The kids have been using it, even though there is no ladder yet. After all, aren't slides for going up too?

Already I have given many lectures about hard and heavy items going down (and up) to such heights carefully. Hopefully they get the idea.

Already Daniel fell down. I had figured there was no way he could fall from the top of the slide. I was worriedly watching that he didn't fall down by the big opening where the ladder will be. But being Daniel, he didn't do as I expected.

Down he fell, from the top.
I saw him when he was half of the way down,
and I was one step too far away.

He was quite winded and upset; so was I! Now he has is a bruise on his cheek to remind me of his close call. And now my safe yard has become another source of worry for me!

Farm

Feeling very scholarly, I decided to take a day off of school (It is summer after all!) and host a field trip at a farm that I've stopped by before. They usually host school field trips actually, so they have just enough animals around so you can see each one.

The favorite animal was the kitty of course. The pig pen had a sign saying "I bite" so now the kids (being a safe distance away) are pretending to be biting pigs. :p

And the tractor was the most fun (not so scary and unpredictable as the farm animals), though they decided to pretend it was a garbage truck 'cause it had a nice place to stand and ride on the side. (Why did we go to the farm again??)