Our house is a pig sty....

And we're fine with it, I guess....

Weekends are such a dilemma for parents of young children. Because we both work, we have no time during the week to do any deep cleaning. We come home, put dinner on the table, load the dishwasher, spend a few minutes with Sadie and the pets, and then we have to start the bedtime ritual of bath, pajamas, and a bedtime book. We end up lullabying ourselves to sleep as much as we do Sadie. Next day; rinse and repeat.

So when the weekends come along, we have two choices. We can catch up on all the cleaning and household projects we are unable to do during the week, and work on our yard. OR, we can actually recreate with Sadie and take our out into the world at large. Oh, I suppose we can divide our weekend up into some cleaning and some recreating, but once we start cleaning, it's often difficult to stop.

When Sadie looks back as an adult to her early childhood, I don't want her brief, fleeting memories as a toddler to be of her being made to play quietly in the corner by herself while Mommy scrubs the floors on her hands and knees and of Daddy obsessing over the perfect lawn. I'd rather her remember the feel of sand slipping through her fingers, of pine cones and acorns, of playgrounds, mountain air, the sound of the ocean, the sounds of other children playing, etc. I figure when Sadie gets older and wants to play with kids her own age WITHOUT Mommy and Daddy hovering, we'll have plenty of time to have a clean house and a neatly manicured yard. Today, this week, these few years when we have Sadie's undivided attention, I want to inhale every moment we have together and the heck with housework. We spend money we really don't have on a housekeeping service every other week, and spend a few minutes here and there on the basics, but we'd much rather recreate on our weekends, especially on a weekend as beautiful as the one that just passed.

Sadie has become a clown as of late. When we find something she does amusing, she does it over... and over... and over. She realized we thought it was cute that she kept putting on her sunglasses and making faces, so she kept doing it...

Aren't I hilarious?

Aren't I?

Dad paid us a brief visit this weekend, but spent much of the time helping Mom purchase and install a new printer. Sadie seems to have finally added him to the "list" of acceptable adults. Note the unsightly large scab on her forehead. It will make an appearance throughout this blog. She had a spill at Mom's. She is a daredevil and seems to have no fear, so if you turn your head one microsecond, she's practically on the ceiling fan...



On Sunday, we took a ride through Chatham County, and decided on a whim to stop at Jordan Lake for a brief visit. We found a day use beach and thought Sadie might enjoy feeling the sand between her toes... We had no bathing suits or towels, so we just stripped her down to her onesie...

Here she experiments with sand...


Whee! This is fun!


It was a lovely day at Jordan Lake...



Here's a short video of Sadie in the water. Note that she gets soaking wet, and we didn't bring along other clothing. Oops...



Here we are, back on the sand, trying to dry Sadie off in the sun before putting her romper on, sans onesie....


And here she is, dry and dressed...


After the Lake adventure, we were all starved, so we headed to Milltown Diner in Carrboro for steak frites and Belgian Ale. OK, Sadie passed on the ale, but she enjoyed our steak...





Redmond and Sadie contemplate the ceiling...

Long time, no post

It's been two weeks since I've last posted. Unfortunately, last Monday, our gray kitty Bridger was attacked by two dogs on our own back deck. Mom heard a racket and opened the back door, and Obi chased them away. Poor Bridger couldn't stand up or move and was pretty badly messed up. Mom scooped him up in a towel with one arm, grabbed Sadie with another, and raced him to our vet. Unfortunately, we had a Nor'easter passing through, and the power was off at our vet's office, so they sent her elsewhere. I left work immediately and met her there. Nobody thought Bridger would make it, and I was preparing myself to put my beloved 12 year old cat to sleep.

After days of intensive care and overnight stays, and constant trips back and forth to move him from the day facility to the overnight facility, he has recovered to the point that we were finally able to bring him home Friday night. He still has some neurological damage that we hope clears up- he's walking awkwardly and seems to be in pain, but we think he's going to make it. He's living in the small bedroom downstairs, and we're giving him many pills and homemade food and trying to nurse him back to health. At least he seems happy.

We're trying to decide what to do about our neighbors. We realized in the middle of the week that we knew where the dogs lived, and the owners are heavy drinkers and let their dogs live in a pen all the time. It's not uncommon for the dogs to escape and run through the neighborhood. I guess I need to call Animal Control, but I also think they should reimburse us for the $3000 bill we've paid thus far for Bridger's medical bills. Dream on, right?

We managed to get out and about this weekend for the 12th Annual Piedmont Farm Tour Those of you who have been reading our blog for a while probably remember our pictures from the tours last year. This year, we brought Mom along. Here are some pics....

This is Celebrity Dairy , a low impact, sustainable agriculture dairy that produces award winning goat cheese. There is also a bed and breakfast onsite. We had a yummy salad with local greenhouse vegetables, homemade cheese, and freshly baked bread.

Here is the bed and breakfast.


Sadie spots the goats. Last year, she was only six months and didn't pay much attention to them.


Her first instinct is to chew on the wire fence. Ewww.


Mom shows Sadie how to pet the goats...


Meanwhile, a baby goat is running loose. Baby goats are kid magnets...


I watch as Sadie feeds the goats to make sure she doesn't a) get eaten alive; or b) eat the straw herself...


She giggled when they inevitably nibbled on her hands...


She raids their food bin...


I believe she actually kissed a goat here. You know, I keep reading reports in the media that today's children are so protected from any kind of "germs" that they have not built up any immunity? Not our child.


Mommy, can we have one?


Okay, enough with the goats...


Sadie stalks one of the Celebrity Dairy resident cats. Apparently "Gentle, Sadie!" translates to "Pull that cat's tail, Sadie!"


Mom and Sadie check out one of the many metal sculptures on the lawn...


And on we go in the pink car...

The next day, the Ciccones came over for brunch. Sadly, I had forgotten my memory card, so I was unable to take many pictures, as my internal memory was full. I was only able to snap a couple of pictures. Here's Lucie. I didn't notice until I uploaded the picture, that you can actually see Milo getting a diaper change in the background. Oops...



Sadie and Redmond chill by the pond.



Later, we headed to Fickle Creek Farm and Chapel Hill Creamery. Fickle Creek Farm is a young operation, with free ranging egg-laying chickens, Jersey steers, sheep and goats. Redmond and Sadie both were sacked out in the car, so Mom and I went by ourselves. We have no pictures, unfortunately. After that, we headed to Chapel Hill Creamery, which specializes in several kinds of cheeses. They, too, have Jersey cows, and sell off their baby bulls to Fickle Creek. We had to walk a mile or so from the parking area in the blazing sun, so we were beginning to feel sapped by this point...

Here are some Jersey calves.



We had a constant struggle with Sadie and her sun bonnet. She is going through an anti- hat phase, and she rips them off as soon as we can put them on...


This pig was scratching his head on this log.


I wish we had found our memory card. I was limited on the number of pictures I could take this weekend.

Vacation, part deux

Before I begin with the pictures from the second leg of our vacation, here is Sadie behaving pretty much as she does... all the time. Neither Redmond nor I are quite sure where she gets this silliness gene from, as neither he nor I have a shred of it ourselves.... ;-)

So, last week, we traveled to the Tidewater area for the weekend. Now, this is the area in which I was born and grew up. I lived in Norfolk and Virginia Beach the first 17 years of my life, and returned at 21 to finish college at Old Dominion University. I met Redmond here in 1991, and stuck around until we traipsed off to Montana 2 years later. So, this is my hometown. But now, I feel like a tourist whenever I travel there. I can't even say "go home" any more, because this area hasn't been my home in 14 years. But, I find myself wanting to visit places and sights I wouldn't normally check out as someone who is "living" in Tidewater. I'd like to see the museums and explore the natural areas and enjoy the lovely Bay/Ocean ecosystem. Actually, Redmond and I were quite the nature nerds the last couple of years we lived in the area, but I guess I found the Rocky Mountains so very obviously grand and gigantic that I forgot the subtle, quiet beauty of marshlands and coves and bays, and the gracefulness of the egrets and herons. The weather was unexpectedly cold and snowy, so we weren't able to explore the outdoors on this round, but I hope to camp at First Landing State Park at some point and take in Back BayNational Wildlife Refuge, two of our old stomping grounds from our "courtin' days".

We had a wonderful visit with Dad on Friday night (Why did I not get any pictures? Aargh!) and with Robert and Marsha and darling Lucas and Lily on Saturday. Here are some pics....

Lily lays hands on the armoire...

Babies look so cute with giant binkies... I wish Sadie still used hers once in a while. She's pretty much lost all interest in them...

Lucas hangs out amidst the toys...

Here's Sadie, walking around chattering...

Lucas climbs on Uncle Redmond...

Sadie looks a bit unsure about the whole cousin interaction thing...

And now she lunges...

We're not so sure here that we like Beloved Daddy playing with this other kid...

The carpet is always greener on the other side of the baby gate...

Whee! New toys!

Baby showdown! Jerry! Jerry! Actually, the kids all seemed to get along fabulously....

Lily joins in the Uncle Redmond pile-on....

When the snow (yes, snow in April!) finally stopped, we took the kids out for a walk. Sadie rides in a wagon with Lucas...

Lucas, making cute faces and enjoying the ride...

Sadie, wishing we had a Radio Flyer wagon...

Lily, riding in Sadie's pink, non-gender-neutral car...

I think she likes it...

I think Sadie may be a bit worn out by this point... This is the longest play date she's had with other kids in some time...

Lucas looks tough... Don't mess with me! We know better- he's a sweetheart...

And on returning home, we see our dogwoods are starting to bloom... I'll have to take a picture now... They are absolutely gorgeous... We're fortunate to have five or six of them in front of our house and they are all at peak...