fuzzy fuzzy cheeep cheeep cheeep

Since, really, Molly isn't nearly cute enough, we decided to up the cute quotient of our household this weekend by adding four 1-week old chicks to our family. For the last few days we've immersed ourselves in learning about brooders, chick starter, peeps, and squeaks. They're really very cute and seem to have settled in to our dining room nicely.

And yes, Molly absolutely loves them. Whenever we talk about chicks or chickens now she starts saying "cuhk-cuhk-cuhk" (her version of "cluck cluck cluck", as in "what does a chicken say?") and runs over to the brooder (chicken-eese for warm clean home for chicks) to see them. If we're not there to unlatch the door she peeks under the sheet we have hanging from the side to keep the drafts down. If we do unlatch the door she dutifully opens it and then leans over to look at the chicks, and reminds us to "shhh" if things get tooo exciting.

She's also gotten a little territorial of the chicks. When one of her kid-friends came over to see them she enjoyed showing the chicks off, but wasn't too pleased when her friend wanted to lean in and look herself. Molly tried to push her friend away.

Because the chicks need to stay warm we're keeping them in the dining room for now. Which is convenient a) because we finally moved the "guest room" into the office, and b) because we don't have a coop! This buys us some time to design and build the coop.


PS. Just kidding about Molly not being cute enough - she seems to get more and more amazing every day.

Paz

Amamos a nuestra amiga Paz...

where I work

(aka "March, revisited")

I was cleaning up some files and ran across these pictures we took back in March. I had intended to share them back then, but, as with many things, didn't get to it. So now I am!


This first one is a shot of where I work these days. Well, technically, it's just part of where I work. The agency I now work for manages almost 100,000 acres of park land in two counties. And I get to figure out how best to pave it!

The next three shots are us with the kiddo in that same park. I was hiking the trail to see whether or not it could handle some heavy equipment. And to enjoy some time outside with the family.

I must admit, I'm enjoying the work, asphalt paving and all.

And finally, those last three pictures happen to be taken in another one of our parks, in the children's farm run by the District. The third one might look a little familiar.

take a hike

The other day (a few weeks ago, really) we went for a hike in the redwoods. Zach found this great clearing where we could lay on the ground an gaze waaaay up into the tall tall trees. Which was nice for a minute, but then the little pooper trooper wanted to get moving. And who could blame her? We have places to go, things to do!

The trip back east last weekend was quick, but nice. I remembered many things I miss about the east coast (the green, the smell of green, fireflies) and a few things I don't (the sweaty, heavy humidity). All things considered, Molly was great. She was exceedingly patient... for a 15 month old. Sleep during the day was hard to come by, but at night she zonked. The plane rides were tough - and made tougher by some on-the-runway delays. I'd say newly mobile is a very tough time to ask a kid to sit for 6+ hours. We were fortunate enough to have had a seat for Molly (thanks Susie & Charly!), but even so, it was a serious juggling act.

For this flight we tried out a new car-seat gadget: wheels. In concept, great, in execution 90% great. (see picture below is similar to what we have, but our wheelz are a groovy bright orange, our carseat cover is a hip cow-moo-flage, and our baby is, well, awesome). And while I was dissapointed that the carseat didn't fit through security with the wheelz on, they did save our butts when Molly fell asleep while the plane was landing after stubbornly refusing to nap for the entire 6hr+1hr delay flight! We were able to lift her & the car seat out of the plane, wheel her to baggage claim, and wheel her out to the car.

We're off to the in-laws this father's day weekend. Hopefully, we'll remember the camera, since there will be 3 generations of fathers there!

Goose!

Home again, again

Unfortunately, we forgot our camera on the trip to NY/CT, but here are some recent pics from home. Hopefully, everyone we saw there who had a camera handy will share their pictures with us (hint hint!).

How to get what you want

1. Sign for "help"
2. You get to peek inside!
no screams necessary.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Molly's got her cool trike, cool cow leg warmers, and is just plain cool.

She also had her 15 month checkup this week. And all seems fine. Except we had to have more blood drawn to check her iron levels again. The blood draw is very much not fun. We basically have to pin her down while they stab at her with a needle to find a vein. Fortunately, this time the nurse was awesome - she got the vein, drew the blood, and even cracked some jokes about the decibel level of Molly's hollerin' all the while keeping it mellow and getting it done quicker than most blood draws that I've had.

And we're not too worried about her iron levels, seeing how she's been pretty good about taking the iron drops these last two months. We found that while she doesn't like the iron drops she does like the vitamin drops. We've been able to make it clear that she only gets the vites if she takes the iron first. Sometimes she tries to see if maybe just this once we'll give her the vitamins first. And the other day I thought she might have finally found a way around taking the iron by simply spitting it out, but that seems to have been a one time occurrence (knock on wood). Mostly, she just really wants to get to those vitamins. Hooray.