Riverview Farm

We visited this beautiful farm Wednesday in Plainfield, NH. Interestingly, if you follow that link, that site was created by a student that took one of the web design classes I taught. Anyway, the farm is Riverview Farm because it has a really nice view of the Connecticut River. I gave Dillon the option of going hiking or going to pick fruit & she chose picking fruit. So here are some pictures of our day.

Recent questions

"Would race cars be quieter if they had mufflers?" I'm wondering how on earth she knows what a muffler IS let alone what it does.

"Is that dog poop?" Said regarding the hushpuppies that were part of dinner last night. Also said as she reached out to pick it up. I almost choked I was laughing so hard!

We went yesterday to pick fruit- raspberries, blueberries and apples. We had a wonderful time & I took some great pictures that I'll try to post later on. The apple pie I made wasn't bad, either!

Question of the morning

"Why do people have tailbones if they don't have tails?"

Good question.

New Camera!

I finally have a new camera! Here's a couple of pictures that I took yesterday.















That's a lizard she's holding. We thought it was a worm when we saw it this morning, but she excitedly informed me it had legs. She, of course, reached right down to pick it up. Since it was pretty cool this morning, the lizard wasn't moving all that fast, so she got to hold it for a little while. In this picture, the lizard has both of it's front legs on her finger, which she thought was just the coolest thing ever.

Almost as cool as these- her construction trucks. Not a great picture- it was taken with the old, not too good camera. She loves these things, along with the 2 videos of Caterpillar ("Cat") machines that were lent to us from a friend. Much like with the dinosaurs, I've learned far more about construction trucks than I ever felt the need to know. I'm not sure who will learn more from homeschooling!

Compassion at it's best

me: "What are you doing, honey?"
Dillon: "I'm putting leaves over the slugs so the wind doesn't make them cold."

Being 3 1/2...

is a challenging thing, I think. Seems like there are leaps and bounds in some areas- she's doing all this "reading" all on her own now. She's using phrases from books in everyday conversation, as in "there's a plane exclaimed the cat!" one day when she was pretending to be a cat and saw a plane. The questions are as prolific as ever, but are getting more complex. But at the same time, any upset results in hysterical screaming- or if it happens to be Peaches doing the upsetting, she hits or kicks at Peaches. For a kid who has absolutely no problem with using words to express herself any other time, she seems to have lost all ability to do so when upset about something. I've been buying cheese in these individually wrapped "sticks." We've had square ones and round ones. I made the mistake of buying the square ones at the last grocery store visit when she had secretly decided that the round ones were her favorite. Almost every morning since I bought groceries, she has spent several minutes crying over the fact that I got the wrong stick cheese. Ugh.

It'll pass, I know. Please let it be sooner versus later.

"What a great dog!"

That's been the consensus thus far from those that have met Peaches. And she really is. For as much as we loved Satchmo, he was difficult. He couldn't be in public because he'd bite anyone that tried to touch him. He couldn't be out when people were around since he couldn't stop barking whenever anyone would sit or stand. Peaches, on the other hand, is a little nervous around someone new, but warms up quickly and will let anyone pet her. She perks up and stands guard when someone comes in the driveway, but then relaxes once we've let her know it's OK. She loves kids and does her best to keep up with them, even when they scatter in different directions. She was overjoyed when Dillon got up this morning, jumping around and running down the hall. It was the happiest and most playful she's been yet. Being a mostly outside dog for the last few months, she just seems to understand that outside is where she is to relieve herself. She also doesn't seem to have developed a taste for people food, which is excellent. Even if Satchmo hadn't eaten all the ham that caused his death, he was really agressive in trying to get food- often getting underfoot when I was cooking or trying to steal food from Dillon. Hopefully, we can keep her from developing a taste for it. While we probably wouldn't have gotten a dog right now if it hadn't been for Dillon's love of dogs, I'm really glad we have. She really is a great dog.

Peaches

Is she REALLY my dog?

Yep, she's really your dog, Dillon.

The first evening was a little stressful with Peaches nervously chewing on everything and Dillon alternately being hysterically happy, laughing and screaming crying. The excitement of having a dog of her very own was just so much. Yesterday was better, Peaches did a lot less chewing and has already seemed to bond with us some, Dillon in particular. She wants to know where Dillon is at all times and will just sit down and subject herself to the various pokes and pets and tickles by various stuffed animals that Dillon seems compelled to do to her. To Dillon's credit, she is very gentle with her and has only required a little guidance of dog body language ("When she moves her face away, that means she wants a little space." "But I don't want to give her space, I want to love on her!") Last night they layed on the floor while Dillon fed her dog food piece by piece. Poor dog can't get a nap in for anything since Dillon can't leave her alone long enough. On the other hand, the only place she'd sleep last night was on the bed with Dillon. For her part, Dillon's in love and tells Peaches that regularly- "I just love you so much, Peaches!" So far, she's a great dog and it feel like a good match.

Pictures at last

For whatever reason, my computer finally decided to recognize the digital camera card from our replacement digital camera. So, I'm finally able to post some recent pictures.

A quick update first- I went to the midwife on tuesday. Dave and Dillon were both able to join me- this being the first time Dillon has gotten to go. We heard the heartbeat again with no problem at all; Dillon wasas fascinated by the cool dollhouse in the office as she was hearing the heartbeat. We are scheduled for an ultrasound on September 5 at 1:15, then my next appointment is the 7th at 10:00. Dave will be on vacation, so will be able to go to the ultrasound. I'm planning on showing Dillon the video of one of her ultrasounds so she'll know what to expect.

Went to a friend's house today. She's decided she's through having kids and was wanting to get rid of all her cloth diapers. I brought home 2 rubbermaid containers full of diapers today as well as a new diaper pail. This on top of diapers and covers (32 items, some diapers, some covers) that I bought (for REALLY cheap) from a friend a few weeks ago. We are now fully stocked with cloth diapers of all sizes, for alost no money at all. I love hand me downs!

OK- the pictures- some are of a trip to a county fair that a friend of mine and her daughter Kristi (who does a good bit of babysitting for us) took Dillon on last friday while I worked. They said she had a great time- and given her love of animals, I have no doubt she did. The water picture is of a little swimming spot that is walking distance from our house. We went there twice last weekend. The water is really cold, but it didn't stop Dillon from wading right in, pretending to be a dog swimming (no surprise there!)