Yardwork and Chicken Chasing

These late Winter Days with no snow on Eastport's ground have been allowing us to do yardwork under the shining sun, mulching the garden beds, working on new flower beds, watching the chickens help with scratching up the soil, tidying the winter clutter of the yard and cleaning out the garage. Cecilia helps of course, in her fleece suit, toddling around the yard, picking up stones and twigs and complaining everytime we go inside. Good stuff!

Here's a little clip of her walking through the yard:

Cecilia Drinks Some Water On My Birthday

Hey All! Yesterday was my 28th Birthday! Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! Birthdays really start with your parents, that's what you learn when you become a parent, praise your mother every day. Without kin we'd literally be eaten by wolves... or raccoons.

I had a nice birthday, it was really sunny out. I received a video camera.. it's bizarrely easy to sue and this is the first footage shot:



Fun Right?

We had 6 of our chickens go on to egg-eating chicken heaven, on Saturday 3 of them became Coq au Vin. Delicious! Really delicious. We now have 2 remaining chickens... Blaise and Rosie, very managable, sweet little laying hens. We're considering getting a few pullets at some point this summer, but oh so many projects to conquer.

The laundry list of Summer House Projects:

-Put Siding on Back of House
-Demo Front Porch and try to save existing porch roof
-Put in Bulk Head to Basement
-Paint the House? (egad!!)
-Find the sailboat a new home and regain half of our backyard!
-Grow as much food as possible and build a greenhouse if possible
-Enjoy our daughter's exploration of the great outdoors

It's a lot to do, with one Saturday at a time, plus visitors, plus being social butterflies, We'll have to manage ourselves somehow...

Independence.

Sometimes 20 minutes will have passed and I realize Cecilia and I have been quietly co-habitating, her bustling around in the domain of the floor, and I am bustling at counter height. What luxury to have a sweet companion such as herself. She makes her usual rounds, the cabinet with recent safety latches, where she used to pull out small jars, then onto the cubby that houses rolls of aluminum foil, plastic baggies and potholders; then on to her very serious work of pulling out all of the paper bags from next to the dishwasher; or maybe she'll pull herself onto the baby gate and look at the hallway; or check out the gallon jars of grains; then off to break some dishes, at which point I intervene "That's not for babies" and redirect to her very own under sink cubby with all sorts of Cecilia Safe dishes and toys.


The walking! Have you heard about the walking yet? It's been 7 days of very balanced, very cautious (and adventurous!) first steps. First it was 3 steps together, then there were 6, and today I counted 9! She's so funny, the first few times I think she was honestly unaware that she was walking, and then Raf and I put her between the two of us and encouraged her back and forth and she got it! The scrunched nose! The waving arms! The excited squeals! Since then I notice her picking her way around furniture, and then pivoting for a few cautious steps. I find her balance to be excellent, and she shows a healthy respect for walking, just as she exhibits great caution crawling around the edge of the bed. When we encourage her to walk to us, she gets excited and drops to her knees to implement her fastest movement tool... the crawl. She can really move around on those hands and knees boy, what a master!

The cuddles! The snuggles! The laughter! The affection! She now crawls up to me and Rafi with glee in her voices and hugs us! Honest to goodness hugs! She sticks carrots in our mouths and thinks this is the funniest thing ever and cracks up laughing. She rolls around gets tickles! She blather, blather, blathers all the time, telling the crayon, wooden spoon, maraca or book all about it.


And before you ask, yes that is a barrette in her hair, what long bangs she has!

The Need For Zumba...

"Can you hang out or is it a Zumba Night?" Someone recently asked my husband.

That's how important dancing exercise is to a woman in Eastport, Maine 8 and half months after having her first baby. It is necessary for the following reasons:

-Cardiovascular Exercise
-Endorphin High
-Hanging with Females
-Laughing
-Stretching
-Alone Time out of The House
-Sweat
-Coming Home

Look Closely....

Do you see anything in someone's lower gums?

The Catapult...

I've officially reached a new phase of Motherhood. Cecilia has been sick since Monday morning with a stomach bug. Rafi was also infected with the same bug on Tuesday night. I have become the caretaker of 2 sickies, 1 incapacitated Papa and 1 very clingy baby. They are both very much on the mend, but I've never experienced anything quite like a feverish baby with her glassy eyes, oftentimes Mama's Milk won't even console her! It's been exhausting personally for sure.

Today Rafi brought Cecilia down from a nap they'd been sharing and she sat so sweetly on her Papa's lap. I looked at her in her hooded sweatshirt and legwarmers that are becoming calf warmers and my goodness I noticed a BIG kid... nearly a child, holding her whole body on her own as she sat on Rafi's knee.

The Perfect Winter Day!

A snowshoe/hike to Race Point was just what the sun ordered yesterday! With a bright clear, windless day and fluffy new snow on the ground the 6 of us, Micah, Rafi, Cecilia, Joan, Adam and I, went off to enjoy the day! We got out of the house at 10:30 and all drove out in 2 cars. After a nice warming hike we lit the sauna and snacked and chatted and played with Cecilia in The Pond House. Lovely good time.

After a few hours the sauna was up to temp and we took turns in the 180 degree heat and tromping with Cecilia until she took a nap and slept peacefully on the enclosed porch bundled up in snuggily clothing, with us all looking over her. After cooling down with fistfuls of snow for the first few hits in the sauna, Adam and I psyched one another up, put our boots on and rolled in the snow!!! Woo! Hoo!

By the time we walked home there were only a few minutes of daylight left. We were of course armed with flashlights, but we didn't need them as the moonlight crept in and made a magical snowy walk home. Such a beautiful night! We stopped at the Whiting Store and purchased many exquisite chocolates, like Almond BonBons, Needhams, Peanut Butter Balls and Cowtails, we snacked/shared those like true champs. Then Adam and Joan sang in the backseat all the way to Dennysville.