Birthdays and Friends

I don't know what it is, but I can't blog with someone else in the room. What's up with that? Anybody else ever develop strange, blog-related behaviors?

So, anyway, it's been a busy week, here. The boys' lessons are coming along nicely. We've read a lot more this week. Not necessarily anything big, but little snippets here and there. The boys are more engaged in discussing what we've read, expounding on it, chewing on it. I play it cool on the outside, but internally I grin like a maniac, because I know where these habits lead, and it's a beautiful place. We dragged the board book basket into the living room and spent several afternoons taking turns reading to Smidge and EmBaby. (Can't do it for both at the same time. No, no. That devolves into a death match between a wolverine and rabid mongoose. Bad, bad idea.) John loves being able to read to the little ones. I love that he's not intimidated by the size of books or the size of font any longer. (I love having enough backup that everybody gets a little downtime, too!)

John and James had a birthday party to attend today. We had a heck of a time trying to figure out what to get for the birthday boy! Finally settled on a set of snap circuits, which the boys absolutely love, and wouldn't ya know it, Toys-R-Us doesn't carry them. At least not locally (the website showed them as an in-stock item, but I guess that meant on the web only). Well, pooh. I don't know what the guys ended up buying, but we were off and running again, arriving a mere five minutes late for the party. (We are SO getting there! With our current rate of improvement on arrival times, we will arrive on time for the birth of our first, possibly second, grandchild.)

Since we're not getting the winter storms everyone else is getting, we figured it'd be better to play in the 70' afternoon sunshine than lament the lack of snow in January, and that was great. Wonderful Friends invited us to stay for supper, and treated us to grilled salmon, sauteed veggies, and a great raspberry chipotle sauce they'd picked up at Costco. (Costco carries the best stuff sometimes!) We stayed far too late, and everyone was ready to collapse upon arriving home. Times like this, I do sort of wish we lived closer to town. Or kept a condo in town. Something other than arriving home so late when we've gone visiting. However, it was nice to get out.

Tomorrow I've got to get stuff done around the house. I can't tell if we're making headway or not. My fingers are crossed that the rain forecast will hold off and give me at least til lunch with the kids outside. (I want to use the pages linked the other day to try to identify a few cool things growing on the property.) Then it wouldn't kill us to get rained in, for we have a lot still to accomplish. At this point, I am giving serious consideration to moving everybody into tents in the upper meadow for a month or so come spring just so we can finish the house w/o actually living in it. (But, you know, without giving up such luxuries as the plumbing, and the stove.) Wonder if Zorak would go for that?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy