A Respite in the Weather

While the midwest has been getting destroyed by a huge weather system, the northeast has been reaping the benefits of some unseasonably warm weather.  Do not get me wrong, I cannot wait until the snow starts flying around here, but I will take sunny skies and upper 60's pretty much whenever I can get it.  The kids were so excited about the weather they were literally dancing for joy.



One of the advantages of the playing outside this time of year is the garden is no longer off limits.  Plus, instead of all those bothersome plants the only thing in there now is dirt.  If my kids have found something better than dirt in their lives, I'm not certain what it could be.



As some noted I recently celebrated not dying for another year, which was nice.  The missus got me all kind of lovely things and the kids got balloons.

Hiking Mt. Watatic

As midterm exams have rolled around for the missus, I figured that this weekend would be devoted to me and kids entertaining each other.  What I forgot to factor in is that she cannot sit still for that long, so on Saturday we headed over to Mt. Watatic.  The trail guide we have for the area noted that this was one of the most frequented hiking trails in the state and it was not an exaggeration.  However, we weren't looking for a wilderness experience, we wanted to get the kids to nap.



As much as he would beg to differ Ed is not quite up to mountain climbing yet, so he was stuck on my back.  The problem is that I only go so fast, especially uphill, and often that speed is too slow to allow for much other than quiet contemplation.  Ed doesn't much go for the quiet, contemplative life, so I get to sing going uphill.  Ed likes Dropkick Murphys, NOFX, and Old MacDonald.



Upon hitting the top we consumed the massive amount of stores that we have to drag up for this very purpose.  I have to say that the view from the top of the mountain was actually really nice.  You can sneak peaks of some of the larger peaks to the north and west.  There is also a view of the surprisingly close Boston skyline.  I often forget that we are only about 40 straight line miles from the city.

You recall that again when you are hiking in the area though and get to see what some people think is good attire for going hiking in the woods.  I can understand going out in sneakers and jeans, I've done it a number of times myself.  I haven't ever actually going out hiking in evening clothes.  I wonder what the people from the city think when they find a tick later on.

Looking for Thumbbuddy to Love

HRH is a thumb sucker, has always been a thumb sucker, quite likely was in utero.  Now that we are getting older, the thumb needs to go.  Unfortunately, it is her primary means of comforting herself.  The missus has tried to teach her to console herself in a more mature fashion.  I would tell her my preferred method (Irish Whisky), but I don't think that would appropriate or legal.

One day whilst doing "homework" the missus found the Thumbbuddy to Love site which markets small thumb puppets that come accompanied with a storybook.  What the heck, it wasn't too expensive and it might be something that works, so we ordered it up.  Above you can see our new friend Ballerina Sue who was our new best friend for at least half an hour before HRH realized that she couldn't suck her thumb with the silly puppet on there.  So the battle ensues, we'll see if Sue can help out or not.



All Ed knows is that we were talking about ballerinas and dancing.   When the camera came out, he had to get his performance on the record too.

There were many other adventures today involving goats, apples, pigs, and bunnies.  Alas, they were undocumented, but I assure you, they were awesome.

Visitor From Beyond

Today we were joined by the specials guest stars Mark and Matthew.  The was particularly exciting as we were guaranteed to have someone to play with when we, inevitably, wound up at the playground.  In all fairness I had come up with a number of different things we could do to entertain our guests ranging from going to the apple orchard to cleaning the bathroom.  Surprisingly, they elected to go the playground which means that the bathroom still needs tending to, but that's for later.



The various forms of transportation were explored while we are there.   House guests are always appreciated, especially when they are still excited at the prospect of pushing Ed around in the car.   Even, though there was a grisly trike accident, there were no major injuries.



This is one of the only times when all three of them were still at the same time.  It was after two hours of flat out running and scrambling, but it didn't last for long.



It has been interesting how going to the playground with the kids has really allowed me to peg exactly how they will interact with other kids.  At one point a girl came in with her sister and mom with a black dress, with pink lace trimming.  The lace was embroidered with black spider webs and the whole outfit was completed with pink "Disney Princess" boots.  When I saw her come in, I told her mom that HRH was going to be very impressed with that get up.  Not a minute later, HRH runs up to the girl, "I love your dress, let's play!"

Knitting in the Woods

Today we are continuing with our guest photographers series.  Below you can see Ed as shot by HRH and HRH as shot by Ed.  They did have a little assistance on keeping fingers out of the shot, but that is just because I have to clean the lens otherwise.





The whole point of this trip was to wander out in the woods and try to find animals.  That, of course, is never, ever going to happen with these two as they possess the stealth of a herd of elephants moving throw the woods.  Not that it made all the much difference as we only made it about 300 yards into the woods before they plopped down and started knitting with forest products.  I haven't any idea where the idea of knitting entered into HRH head as no one in her life knits, but she does it all the time.  Maybe when she is old enough to have pointed metal in her life she can learn to do it for real.

Running Free

Most girls that are HRH's age are dressing up as some sort of princess for the Halloween.  I actually know this because I got to go to a four year old's birthday party yesterday as a parental chaperone.  As an aside, don't you think that there should be alcohol at a birthday party for anyone of legal age that would like some?  I do too.  Anyway, most young girls want to be a princess on Halloween, but not my daughter, she wants to be one every single day.



Not that she always acts like a princess, far from it really.  Both the kids are good at scaling various bits of playground equipment though.





The biggest adventure that has happened lately though is the big hiking adventure that was undertaken by HRH and the missus.  Below is the photojournal of the event as taken by the ladies.  I would assume that the shots prominently featuring the photographers thumb were taken by HRH, but I'm not entirely sure that is the case with all of them.

Hard Days Work

A quick technical note on some of the photography that is used in the rants on the site.  You may notice that certain pictures of the children are blurry and have ghosting around the image.  Some shots it kind of looks like slow shutter speed, but the one used today was shot in hard, direct sunlight and there is still some blur.  This is because I use the HDR function on my phone because I think the images are slightly better looking as the stock images tend to be a little too contrasty.  The phone actually takes three images and assembles them into a composite to increase the dynamic range of the picture.

All of this leads me to the picture today.  The image has a reported shutter speed of 1/300 of a second.  We now have photographic evidence that Ed cannot sit still for a tiny fraction of a second at the playground, though the dozer he was working with did alright.  However, after pushing the dozer around the wood chip section of the playground for 45 minutes, Ed was rather stationary as the evening wore on.

A Planned Absence and Nightly Rituals

Sometimes I wonder whether certain things can be hereditary, such as dietary habits.  When I was growing up I recall my father eating a bowl of cereal fairly regularly before he went to bed.  This was only odd as the man never ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast in the entire time I've known him; cereal was a bedtime food for him.

HRH is almost exactly the same way, she hardly ever eats cereal for breakfast, but always needs to have some before bed.  Her appetite doesn't seem to be greatly impacted by how much she ate for dinner either.  Tonight, by way of an example, she ate quite a bit for supper, yet still horked down magic starts like they were going out of style.

So, after the weekend lapse in coverage, it seems that we are back on a daily schedule.  That's right, you can now count on in depth coverage of the dietary habits of my kids when I can't come up with anything more interesting to write about.

Now That Was a Speedy Recovery

The life aquatic has continued on around here this week with a day of flat out rain today.  Being the clever person I am, I took off for a bike ride this morning.  All of use need to get out and run around during the day and I don't really mind going out in the rain.



Now a lot of people think that it is cute when siblings get along.  I'm sure that I will hear about how nice they look together and how cute they are, and all kinds of things like that, which is true in this picture.  This picture occurred over 1/200 of a second.  Very shortly after this 1/200 of a second they were fighting over who got to sit in which box with no one really wanting to relinquish control of the box in which they were currently seated.

Shortly after nap time HRH feeling under the weather.  The solution is to pound fluids and relax on the couch which wasn't really that appealing to Ed.  He and I went out to run some errands in town.  I vaguely remember when going out to stop at three stores didn't consume all my energy.  I honestly thought the clock was off when I saw we had only been out for just over two hours.

The weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow and HRH has made an amazing recovery, so things are looking up.

Field Tripping

Today was the makeup data for HRH first field trip with preschool.  Now, I'm not exactly sure what contest I won, but I was chosen to not only attend the festivities, but bring Ed with me.  However, dealing with my kids at the apple orchard really isn't that difficult as it provides everything children need:

1. Dirt
2. Places to Hide From Dad
3. Food Source
4. Rotten Food and/or Poop

As this would be our fourth trip to an orchard this season both kids were stoked to go again, HRH even more so as her co-conspirators would be there as well.  I won't bore anyone with the details, but I will say that there was a wagon ride in which we went through an Okra patch.  I hadn't ever seen an okra plant before and no one else on the wagon seemed to think it was nearly as exciting as I did.

Toward the end of the trip everyone gathered under the towering hay demon to be photographed.  The raven up on the arm appeared to be an actual formerly breathing bird, which I really thought added to the whole appeal.  I think the nature of the hay demon would leave a much longer lasting impression on young children if there was a speaker hidden inside.  As it was the kids weren't really that intimidated.  HRH didn't even stop eating her apple.

Turkeys Inside and Out

Ed learned a new phrase last night to great comic effect.  A few weeks ago the word, "noodle" was just as hilarious to him.  He couldn't eat his dinner from laughing so hard whenever anyone said the word.  Things won't be that funny to him again until college.



As the kids were working on their second or third breakfast this morning, it is hard to keep track, HRH ran into the kitchen yelling, "The turkeys are coming to visit!"  I wandered over to the window to try and figure out exactly what that meant in her world and it was pretty straight forward.  There were two turkeys browsing through the front yard. Of course our crack watchdogs didn't notice the birds for well over twenty minutes, but that is to be expected.



As I'm finishing up chores in the house tonight, I hear HRH milling about in the living room.  I look over to see she had dragged the bear out and was starting to tuck it in to bed on the floor.  She proceded to "read" the book to the pumpkin and bear announcing, "I'm going to sleep here" when she was finished.  I had to talk her in to going upstairs by explaining that Ed was going to get up much earlier than she was in the morning, so she could sleep in if she went to her own room.  I wish that someone would give me that kind of option.

Fall is Settling in Properly

Ed is going to be sadly lacking in pictures again today, though that is largely due to the fact that while HRH and I went out to pick up dinner Ed went for a walk with the missus.  Before I get too far into this post, I would like to mention that I'm writing it from the fire pit, which is pretty awesome.  Like I mention up top, fall is starting in properly right now.  It was chilly last night and we are supposed to be in the 40's and 30's this week at night.  That means we can start looking forward to snow which makes me very happy indeed.

But, as I was saying before I got distracted, HRH and I went to pick up supper tonight and we stopped off at a little roadside trail to kill time while waiting for the pizza.  The leaves have been turning for a couple of weeks now, but the high winds from the last couple of days have knocked a lot onto the ground.  After a couple exciting rounds of Pooh sticks from the bridge we were off to get the pizza.  Unfortunately, the establishment not only sold pizza but also had ice cream which was advertised by a large ice cream cone shaped sign in the parking lot.  If you think that escaped notice, you would be incorrect.



Also not eluding the notice of HRH was the people sitting in front of their fire pit as we were driving home.  The rest of the ride home was constant debate over whether there was going to be a fire tonight.  As soon as I got out of the car the missus asked if we were going to have a fire tonight, which pretty much sealed the deal.  However, everyone else has better things to do, so I'm left keeping an eye on the fire, which is really alright with me.

In Which There are No Pictures of the Children

Now, I am in no way qualified to determine whether something is truly organic, which has to do with the ingredients which compose the finished product.  However, if something is packaged in an aerosol container which doesn't really need to be in aerosol form, then the organic tag should be removed.  Seriously, how hard is it to make pancakes that you need to dispensed UNDER PRESSURE.

This post is brought to you by the fact that I went shopping this afternoon while HRH was not napping.  The really nice thing about the lack of nap is that she is comfortably asleep at 8:20 PM.  So I have that going for me.  Which is nice