bird houses

We have baby robins hatching on our window seal again.  Their eggs look almost identical to Liams Easter egg only these are tiny and huddled together.  We try to leave the nest alone as much as we can, but it's fun to spy on nature.  

When I went to take these pictures I made the comment "Oh, look the mom's gone." 

To which Liam replied "What! She left?! And after I brought her snacks!"

Sure enough, Liam had stocked the inside of the window with fruit snacks. One extra incentive for the mom to stay and hatch her eggs.

The Chesapeake

Sandy Point Beach, Annapolis, MD

What's cooler than finding your own shark teeth fossils, not much.

Liam also found a plant fossil

Collecting Oyster shells

dying eggs

I came back from trying to put Elsie down for a nap to find Liam, being the enterprising kinda guy he is,  had filled the cups up with water, mixed in the colors, and dyed the Easter eggs, including a carton of raw eggs. All by himself.  They looked great.

Liam like his hands like this because it made him "look like the Hulk."

Easter

  

Easter is such a feel-good kinda day.  It's fun to see the kids so jazzed up. I love watching Liam go to great lengths to search the yard for treasure and then help Elsie fill her basket. It always brings up memories of being a carefree kid- eating my hollow, chocolate bunny,wearing my new pastel dress to church . . . Ah, good times.

A few cute things my kids do

Elsie took a few small bites out of each apple and then put them back. :)

Liam loves to run. When he runs he says "Mom, was I fast? Was I so, so fast you couldn't even see me? Was I so fast that I was a blur? Did I look like a hummingbird?"

The other day Liam rode his scooter for almost a mile while I jogged. When he got tired he said "The energy ball inside me is getting so big it's about to explode!!!"

Every morning when Liam wakes up he peaks into our room.  As soon as he gets eye contact he jumps into our bed and snuggles next to me. He whispers in my ear "Mom, I missed you SO MUCH!" then proceeds to tell me about something cool thing he learned.  This past week our snuggle topic was foxes that could hear mice underground, kinkajous, dingos, and flying draco lizards.
 
Elsie gives the greatest hugs. They are the type of embraces you really sink into.  They are the quality hugs that are normally reserved for soldiers coming home from war.

She walks around kissing stuffed animals right on the lips and kissing her baby on its bald head. . . . a baby kissing a baby, gets me every time.

She likes to play pretend cat and calls herself 'mommy meow'  She makes Liam or dad be the neighbor's dog, 'Bruce' and calls kitties "tiddies" (not to be confused with... )

Happy little flowers

        Liam spent yesterday playing outside, scaling trees, collecting flowers, sorting them into piles and then filling little cups of water for them to drink.  He gave them to me but right now he has them lined up outside on our railing waiting to get more sunshine.
       He knows exactly how to make both those pink flowers, and his mom, very happy.

on niceness

I miss nice people. You know, the type that open the door when your arms are full just when you're about to drop your baby. Shoot, these days I'd even take a forced 'have a nice day' at the grocery store.

I love living in D.C. for a hundred reasons but friendly, laid back people is not one of them.

The Washington Post quoted a survey that found Washington DC to be the 3rd rudest city in the U.S. (behind New York, of course, and Miami) and that sounds just about right. Nice people are hard to come by in this East coast town. It's nothing personal and I don't take offense. People are universally rude to everyone.

I'm sure these people probably came from mothers that taught them to share, to play nice and be helpful but they probably just grew out of their manners. I pass by drivers that look perfectly decent people honking and going road crazy at silly 1 second delays or at slow people crossing the street. 

Maybe living in a busy city makes you expect less of people. You don't go striking up conversations with strangers. You don't expect for people to smile.  If your car needs a jump in the parking lot you call AAA. There is probably something about knowing you wont ever see the same person again that makes you feel like you owe them nothing.

Now I don't want to exclude everyone from the nice person club.  There are definitely friendly people around D.C., they're just a bit watered down with a few extra grumps.  I also don't necessarily think dishing out gratuitous gestures makes you kind or genuine, for some it's not their style. I'm just saying in this tightly wound place it wouldn't be so bad if people would just relax, look outside themselves, and loosen up.