Yum

Nothing like sucking on plastic corn while you`re playing.

Negligence

These is very old stuff I meant to blog ages ago. BUT it is summer. Business, mugginess, happiness, grumpiness, hyper-ness, lethargy-ness and camping-ness. So here is a quick catch up, minus a whole bunch of details I'd originally intended to accompany the visual with. Lest this be forgotten longer, here it is in it's empty state. I'm sure Steve will like it though.













If we don't hear from you again, we wish you a good summer!

Initiation

To get Daniel into our holiday routine, we decided to do a one night camping trip. We had to break the news to him that, although our neighbours across the road may go to the Bahamas for a vacation, his very own family happens to do something drastically different.

I'm not sure if he really cares that he's missing the crystal blue water and pure sandy beaches. I think we convinced him that the somewhat sandy beach at Massasauga campsite 511 was just as good, if not better. After all, there weren't very many waves--only when a motorboat happened to be going through to the docks at the other side of the lake. (We had tried, rather too late, to get site 512 as recommended to us, but got second best instead. Our beach wasn't quite as sandy, since it got murky and weedy a few meters in. But the first part was very shallow, and the kids loved it, nevertheless.)

Daniel thought the cuisine was a bit lacking, so he tried "living off the land". He didn't manage to get a whole lot of nutrients this time around, but I'm sure he managed to get a fair bit of ruffage. With practice he will probably improve the nutrient to ruffage ratio.

He, like his siblings before him, found the boating accommodations to be very restful, after an initial display of dissatisfaction (presumably because of a dislike of the colour).

The rest of the gang did very well. (Excepting one bout of something or other that I'll refrain from rehashing.)

As for myself, I was enjoying the outing immensely, until my husband says;
"Guess what I just saw when I was getting this firewood?"
"Bear droppings?"
"No."
(A long list of other potentially gross things that could be found in the woods goes through my head.)
"What DID you see?"
"A rattlesnake. When I pulled out that big dead branch I heard it rattling, then I backed away from it."
The rest of the trip, which was most of it yet, had the added burden of needless motherly paranoia.

As much as I like endangered species, for my own peace of mind, we'll be avoiding The Massasauga until the kids are a bit older, and can be trusted to follow a bit of common sense when playing in the bush.

Trying to Chill

It's awfully hot here.

Laying on the floor is cooler than working around the house.

It's also cooler than packing for our one night camping trip that I have to be ready for tomorrow.

Crawling!

Behold a deadly combination of cuteness and speed:

Maybe we can get warranties that cover crawlers?

Development Spurt

Instead of a growth spurt (which is probably also happening) Nathan seems to be going through a "development spurt".

Every day it seems, there's another one, two, three, or more firsts that are being accomplished, and Nathan is reveling in all of his successes.

It is great to be the kid in the family that can do everything better than the others. It is also great to be the one who tells Melanie and Matthew what to play next (when they listen).

When he's not being competitive, Nathan can be a very thoughtful big brother. He often volunteers to cheer up Daniel when he's grumpy, and does a better job than Melanie and Matthew combined. He seems to have a knack for it.

There are still so many questions to be answered, though. So when Nathan is not tackling something new, he might be doing his research; asking Mommy those things that are on his mind.

And still there is time for building things, even three hours in one day, to put together something properly and completely, just because you can!

Snake

Here is the only snake I've seen who removes his tongue before slithering:

I suppose it's the latest safety feature.

Supper

Tonight dinner was informal.

I was very surprised that there were to messes on the couch.


As expected, there was a huge mess in the booster seat.


Daniel stopped eating only to contemplate what next to smear his grubby hands on.