July 3

While Daisy napped this morning, Caleb and I decided to dig in the garden. Chris and I recently bought two butterfly bushes (the beginnings of the butterfly garden my mom dreamed up for us!), and I figured it was better to plant them while it was only 86 degrees, rather than letting the poor things suffer another day in the triple-digit heat.

It turned out that Caleb was a surprisingly good garden helper!

The Caleb-sized shovel from Grandmother was a big help. 

(See our lovely butterfly bush behind him? I may be getting a late start, but I am so excited about this butterfly garden. I spent a whole morning researching which plants attract butterflies, act as hosts for caterpillars and larvae, and are also deer-resistant. Let the plant-shopping and digging begin!)

I love the little vein bulging in his neck; it makes it look like he's really working hard.

I also love my clothes line with diapers drying in the sun. It may be one of my favorite things about summertime in this house. (Well, that, and our front porch. And the neighborhood pool. And the proximity to the lake... OK, I guess I just really like our house.)

It turned out that Caleb's skill set is more about digging, and not hole-filling. He kept trying to dump his dirt into the hole I was digging, which left me a bit frustrated. Finally, after the second bush was planted, he figured things out.

Then we watered our newly planted plants.

What? Doesn't it look like the boy is watering the plants? He may have watered himself a bit, too. But when it's this hot out, I don't blame him!

July 2

Today I attended an early-morning boot camp class for the first time. Class was from 5:30-6:30 am, which is actually the only time of day I would ever be able to do something like that. Unfortunately, Daisy decided to be a jerk about have a hard time sleeping last night. I still went to boot camp, but on much less sleep than I prefer.

So. I am exhausted, and every muscle in my body (including my typing muscles) is screaming in agony. Forgive me if this post is lame.

Dinner tonight was delicious, but a certain little girl decided she didn't want to eat any of it. I let her pick at it/push it around on her tray for about thirty minutes before I brought out our post-dinner "special treat": blueberries, strawberries, and freshly whipped cream.

Suddenly this girl was hungry. Very hungry.

Can you tell that she liked it? I can't say that she licked the bowl clean, but she certainly tried. When her bowl was empty, she noticed that I still had some berries and whipped cream in mine. Fussing ensued, but I held on to my dessert.

Look at that reproachful glare! 

Daisy pouted and tried her very best to guilt me into handing over my dessert. Where on earth does she get this from? Certainly not from her mother.

When she realized that I wasn't sharing, she immediately began wailing.

(Note: delicious dinner, still all over her plate.)

Luckily, Chris was thinking quickly and broke out our family's sure-fire fuss-buster:

The pinwheel. 

Chris and I have been using pinwheels to cure grumpiness for many, many years. It all started perhaps eleven years ago, before we were even married. He and I were shopping at Walmart, and Chris was in a foul mood. (Note: Chris is rarely in a foul mood. Really.) I was growing tired of his grumpiness, so I grabbed a pinwheel that happened to be on display nearby. I tried my best to mimic his grouchy expression while also blowing the pinwheel.

Have you ever tried to blow a pinwheel while pouting? It's pretty much impossible, and really funny to watch. That day, my antics were enough to break up Chris' bad mood. We bought the pinwheel, and ever since it's been our little joke whenever one of us is crabby.

Tonight we discovered that it works on babies, too.

No more fussing!

(And yes, I'm going to go back to boot camp tomorrow. Not sure if I'll be able to do anything, though...)

June 30

The past few days have been a jumble of playtime and hot and projects and more hot... I think the heat is making me a little grumpy and lazy. The only time I've been willing to take them outside is in the morning when it's cooler, or in the evening when we go to the pool.

Here are some photos from morning playtime the other day:

Jammies on the porch, pretending to drink from a cup.

Hmm... is it a sacred chalice?

Daisy decided to pretend the cup was a shoe. She thought this was hilarious.

See? Shoe? Funny!

Then her "shoe" fell off, which was even funnier.

I like this picture because his jammies are hilarious, and it's a pretty accurate representation of my sweet boy.

The next day, I was out hanging towels on the clothesline when I heard a rustle. It turned out that we had visitors in our back yard, and I hadn't even noticed!

Mama doe and her two fawns. I'm pretty sure I saw one being birthed in those trees just a month ago.

They didn't want to hang around and chat, and headed up the path to the hillside.

I love that I got a picture of one of the babies nursing while the other grazed. As a nursing mama, I feel a bit of a kinship with that mama doe. The kinship grew even stronger when she irritably pushed her fawn away so that she could eat a bit, too. I hear ya, mama!

What fun! 

June 28

Oh, these children.

Today was a good day. A really, really good day. No tantrums. Lots of accomplishments. Consecutive naps. Sunny dispositions. Sweet treats. A good day.

While we waited for Daddy to get home from work, I accidentally fed the kids dinner. It started as a snack, but they just kept eating...

Daisy thought it was funny to eat her foot. She also thought it was funny every time Caleb walked up, sniffed her foot, and said, "Pee-yew!"

Every. Time.

This boy took a four hour nap today. Perhaps that explains why I'm feeling so positive about the day?

I asked him to show me a smiley face, and this is what he gave me.

Daisy really likes ham.

I was cracking up at these kiddos!

Then Caleb decided to write on our chalkboard wall. This, he informed me, is a picture of Lightning McQueen's face. The pink is his face, and he is in the process of drawing Lightning's eyes.

Daisy saw what her brother was doing and had  to do it, too. Caleb gave her a lesson on the art of chalkboard drawing.

She's a quick study.

I can't even begin to tell you how happy this makes me.

Or this. Sharing the chalk, not fighting over it.

And this.

Do you see her little foot resting on his leg? Melts my heart.

My girl used all of the chalk and dumped the cup, looking for more.

Caleb: "Here, Baby Daisy! It's time to clean up! Let's clean up all of the chalk."

*sings a little clean-up song*

Seriously? Who is this child?

Then we watched a video on the computer. I follow the blog of a woman who has transplanted her family of eight to France for a year. They've created a kid-centric web TV show called "Olive Us", and Caleb loves it. Each episode is between 2 and 5 minutes long, and the most recent one was about visiting a French bakery. Caleb watched it three times. 

You can watch it here.

Happily, we have a  French bakery just down the street! After dinner we paid a visit, and Caleb even called out, "Bonjour!" as we entered.

Of all of the tasty gourmet treats, Caleb chose a white cupcake with white icing.

Why? 

The flag on top. That's my boy.

June 27

Oh, boy.

Today was one of those days. It started out frantic and crazy, had a moment of calm when Grandmother came over to watch the kids while I went to Bible study, then involved multiple temper tantrums and much screaming and unpleasantness. Caleb was over-tired today, and it showed. I was at my wits' end with him, so when he and Daisy woke up from  naps, I did the only thing a mama can do:

I busted out the water table.

It was 98 degrees today, so the kids were thrilled when I suggested that we go on the deck and play. I poured myself a nice tall drink (of water... mama can only go so far!), grabbed my Sudoku, and kicked my feed up on the table while Caleb and Daisy played happily. Suddenly I looked up and saw Caleb walking verrry carefully toward me, carrying a water-filled cup balanced precariously on a water-filled frisbee.

"Mommy, I made this for you! Don't you want to eat it?"

Of course I said yes, then went back to my Sudoku. But that little boy looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said, "Don't you want to drink your coffee and eat your food? Oh! I will get the creamer for you!"

And he ran over to the toy bin, found a block, filled it with water, ran back, and carefully added "cream" to my coffee.

"Oh! I have to whisk the coffee!"

My little boy knows that I take my coffee with cream. It's such a little thing, but such a big deal. He's going to make a good husband some day. That is, if we can ever get past the temper tantrums.

Daisy, meanwhile, scooted around, splashed, and ate leaves. The sweet little girl was happy to share her leaves with me!

Tonight as I put her to bed, I saw the most blessed thing ever: the jagged white ridges of a tooth, poking through her upper gum. Praise the Lord! Tooth #3 has arrived, bringing with it an explanation for all of the fevers of late. Hooray!

June 26

That girl of mine is nothing but trouble.

She was fine Saturday and Sunday, but her temp has been hovering around 100 for the past two days. I'm going to wager that it's unrelated to the previous sickness, and that it is actually teething-related. Low-grade fevers aside, the kids were darling today. We soaked up every minute of the beautiful weather.

 My goofy boy. I haven't posted many pictures of him lately, have I? He has been surprising me lately with how much he knows, remembers, and says. I know I'm biased, but I think the kid is something special. 

(Please disregard the dried-up gravy on his nose, leftover from this morning's biscuit-and-gravy session.)

Any guesses what Daisy is smiling about? Hint: it's Caleb.

He turned a bowl into a hat, and Daisy thought it was the funniest, most clever thing she had ever seen. 

Oh, how she adores him!

And as soon as his back was turned, she was mimicking him. I love their relationship!

Pardon me while I turn into a puddle of goo all over my keyboard.

(Barely-related side note: Caleb is in love with a darling little girl at church. Harper is a towheaded tomboy who barely tolerates Caleb's displays of affection. He spends most of church following her around, trying to give her hugs and kisses. Generally she just pushes him away or says no, which surprised her mom. Harper is known to punch or bite people who pester her. At church on Sunday, Caleb and I passed Harper and her mom on their way out the door. Caleb whispered goodbye to Harper, and she came over and gave him a - totally unsolicited - kiss, then a hug. Caleb has been on cloud nine ever since.)

Me: "Caleb, it's time to eat lunch!"

Caleb: "I'm just going to play a little basketball first!"

He nailed it.

He knew he nailed it.

Daisy loves climbing up on our fireplace hearth. I think she thinks it's a stage.

She also recently discovered that she can push a button on this schoolbus and play music. The girl grinned from ear to ear the first time she did it. Another first that I didn't manage to photograph? Today she made a tower of blocks - four blocks high! Way to go, Daisy! I'd never seen her stack any before, probably because Caleb always knocks them over. But she went ahead and did four at once, just to prove that she could. That's my girl.

June 25

At 9:30 this morning, while I was putting Daisy down for her nap, the doorbell rang. After much debate, I set the girl down and ran to answer it. I was glad I did; it was the FedEx man, delivering my fancy new camera.

I ordered it Friday afternoon.

It came Monday morning.

It was free shipping.

That's how I like my online shopping to go!

I resisted the temptation to tear open the box then and there, and instead returned to the girl's room to actually get her down for a nap. Then I spent the rest of the day playing.

I have to say - I expected to see a giant leap in the quality of my photos. But of the 31 random, haphazard pictures I took today, I don't see much of a difference.

I love my crisp, gigantic new LCD screen; I love the fact that my ISO goes up to 6400 now.

Mostly, I'm trusting that as I learn to use this shiny new camera, I'll gradually discover new ways to improve my photography. But as a very wise friend once told me, "It's the injun, not the arrow." He's right.

But boy do I love my fancy new arrow!

(I have no justification for this photo; it just made me laugh.)

(The girl woke from her morning nap with a temp of 102.8 Some pain reliever brought it back down, and it didn't go back up. Here's hoping it was just a fluke.)