Friday, April 17, 2009

Duckling Moments

D1 and D2 draw no distinction between poems, songs, and stories told aloud, which is why I can get requested to "sing that one about the three pigs again." It's also why I got serenaded with a rather operatic (and nearly word-perfect) duet rendition of Madeline all through breakfast prep yesterday.

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Yesterday I took D3 and D4 out to play in the grass. D3 tested what happens to cute knit pastel shirts when you drag them across asphalt. D4 alternated between crawling over to the neighbor's yard and trying to climb onto her (parked, off) lawnmower, and crawling over to the porch and trying to crawl up the steps. I tried to figure out whether it was more urgent at any given moment: to pull the tiny rock out of D3's mouth or go chase down D4. It's going to be a busy summer.

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I spotted some fifth-grade girls watching younger brothers at the park a couple of weeks ago and worked up my nerve to ask them if they'd like an after-school job over here. So far it's working out pretty well; they come over twice a week and feed the babies their supper and play with the big kids outside while I try to get caught up on basic housework. The kids are just wild about them, instead of being just wild at that hour of the day. Definitely an improvement.

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I really, truly am getting my garden in. And things are coming up! Maybe we'll even get to eat something out of it. Also I got some flowers started and transplanted to fill out the front flower bed, which has a lovely array of spring bulbs but tends to get pretty ragged the rest of the year. If I can just have a few minutes here and there between rescuing babies to pull weeds and water, it should be great.

1 comment:

Wendy from Zoom said...

I think managing that much gardening with 4 wee ones is the equivalent of running the herb garden at the National Arboretum single handedly without kids.

Take a bow with a tulip in your teeth!