The school year is winding down.

As a treat, the preschool arranged a field trip to the zoo.  They have each kid a little book with pictures of animals, with the idea that the children would put a sticker on each animal they'd seen.  Outside the tiger exhibit (the tiger was being shy) there is a little platform for kids to play on.  The boy found another little boy that was as into growling, punching, and rablerousing as much as he is.

At the penguin tank.  Of all the animals we saw, I think the sea lion was his favorite.  We stood to watch it swim back and forth taking breathes for several minutes.

Andrew has scrounged several of these wooden boxes from a customer with the idea of turning them into benches or raised garden beds.  Of course, the boy thought they were a perfect spot to cozy into, being part cat.

And then in the suspenders our friend gave the boy a couple years ago.  He's finally big enough to fit in them.  He looked so cute, but would only wear them long enough to take pictures.

Happy mother's day

The boy lost one of his favorite toys.  Andrew and I had looked for a week, under things, over things, calling every store and library we'd been to (that was mostly me) and we still couldn't find it.  As a last weird resort, I decided we should look down the heat grate.  The grate comes off easily and the boy has taken it off several times.  I thought vacuuming down there would somehow get a large plastic toy out.  It didn't work, but the boy had fun anyway.

It was a cold rainy day.  Hopefully the the last of the season.  Beef stew sounded good.  The boy thought it sounded fun to play with. 

Now the fun stuff is out of the way, I've been thinking about something someone said a couple weeks ago, about mothers.  It wasn't complementary.

You know, my pregnancy was tumultuous.  I didn't know I could get pregnant, and so it was a surprise when it happened.  And then, between the statistics of miscarriages in the first trimester, and my geriatric age, and then his development issues, I spent about 6 months out of the 8 I was pregnant thinking I wouldn't be much longer.  And then the day he was born, it was because if he hadn't been, there "wouldn't be a baby to take home."  I had about an appointment every other week, and an ultra sound at almost all of them.  

Thankfully I had good insurance, access to good healthcare, a reasonable employer, general good health, and a consenting supportive marriage.  A lot of things many women don't.  Even so, it was difficult.  

And after all that, it still could have ended sadly.  Like if that last appointment had been 2 hours later, or if I'd missed it for some reason.

And it isn't a big leap for some people to make, from an unsuccessful pregnancy to "conspiring to murder a baby."  It's a heartless statement from a heartless man. 

Fun 2 ways

Fun on the Best Buy shelves.

Fun in the reeds by the creek in the park.

Easter 2019

The boy posing with his two current favorite cars in front of the macarons I made for dessert.  The large green ones were filled with watermelon buttercream, and the small pink ones are filled with buttercream I flavored with peach juice I boiled down to a syrup.  

On Sunday morning, we did a one kid egg hunt.  He had a blast.

See the new green Crocs?  A gift from Andrew's brother and sister-in-law.  He instantly loved them.

We mixed together chicken eggs and plastic eggs and some toys that would have gone into the basket.

It was a very sunny bright morning.

Look at all the lovely flowers that have come up with all the moisture we've gotten lately.

Look at my potato plants!!!  By far the biggest thing I've grown this year so far, though not even close to the first thing I planted.

Two in one

I sewed up a long piece of knit fabric to make a circle.  The idea was it could be a way to get that pull/stretch/pressure thing he seems to need.  I was hoping it would save me a few concussions.  I was imagining tug of war type thing.  This is what we got.

A couple randoms

I got called to be assistant leader of the Webelos.  I came home from a weekly den meeting and the boy wanted to wear my shirt and kerchief.

He loves playdough.  It gets allover sometimes, so usually we play with it on the kitchen floor, but this day, he set up a play area on the end table and dragged over one of his stools.  He played happily mostly alone for at least 45 minutes.

Train museum

For the first time in a long time, we had a weekend that didn't involve chores or snow, so we decided to have some fun.  We went to see trains.

In Golden, there is a train museum with lots of old trains mostly to enjoy from the outside.  There was a couple toy train tables set up inside of one car for kids to play with.  Naturally, we spent some time there.

We rode on a "galloping goose" train they used to run down in southern Colorado.  It has a gasoline truck engine.  The "engineers" took a quick break to eat lunch, so I gave the boy box of raisins explaining that the guy was having a snack and would be right back.  The boy popped a raisin, and said "I'm having a snack, too."  A 5 word sentence!  Milestones!!

And we got to ring a bell.