Daniel
Wishful Thinking
I just love how transparent three year olds are! They just completely don’t realize how much they completely give away their secret, mischievous plans.This story comes from just a few weeks before Daniel was allowed to stop taking naps (because he couldn’t get to sleep at night).
Landon’s iPod touch usually lives on his bedroom clock where it can charge and play music, but this had to change when we discovered Daniel playing with it under the covers of his bed. He was supposed to be napping, but decided games on the iPod sounded like a better idea.
The next day I took him to his bed for a nap, and we went through our usual routine: read a book, get a drink, and say “I love you”. When I finally tucked him under his blankets, he sat up with a start. “Hey, where’s Landon’s iPod?” he asked.
“Oh, he put it in a hiding spot,” I replied casually.
“Where?” He glanced about the room anxiously.
“Somewhere,” I said.
“Oh.”
Crestfallen, he allowed me to re-tuck him into bed and kiss him on the cheek. He pulled the blankets up to his chin and turned over sighing, “I do wish Landon’s iPod was here.”
New Chickens!
The baby chickens sure are getting a lot of attention around here! They are so cute though, so who could resist picking them up and petting their silky soft down. There are four of them, and they’ll be beauties when they grow up! 
This is what they’ll look like when they are big:
A barred rock:
A speckled sussex:
A gold laced wyandotte:
A columbian wyandotte:
We’re working on naming them, since so far only the gold laced has been named (Victoria). Chickens have ended up being a really fun and rewarding project, so everyone is excited about the new additions.
How Could I Refuse?
I was in the process of working on some school, when I heard Daniel’s voice coming from the kitchen. “Pumpkin,” (he calls me pumpkin), “will you come out here and drink some tea with me?”
“No Daniel, not right now,” I replied. “I’m busy with school.”
“But Pumpkin,” he protested. “If you don’t come, you will take my sunshine away!”
New Year’s Eve
Our family celebrated the end of 2012 with a parade of tasty treats. Shrimp was my favorite:
These pickles wrapped in cream cheese and corned beef were picture perfect:
Mmmm… Cheese!
Daniel’s favorite food was fruit pizza, which disappeared too fast for a photo. : )
Priceless
This picture was the result of Daniel not being a very nice photography subject. He would only sit still for three moments at a time, then jump off the couch begging to see the picture. I snapped this one when he was supposed to be sitting. Usually pictures of moving three-year-olds are blurry, but the great light from the large windows behind me made this one a keeper!
Halloween
Dominic thoroughly enjoyed the excitement of Halloween. Even though he didn’t get to go outside, he was kept busy watching out the window for the trick or treaters. When the approached the door, he would run to greet them as fast as he could. 
Maria in costume:
Alexander, Legolas from Lord of the Rings. (complete with pointy ears)
Johnathan, a righwraith from Lord of the Rings:
“Arrrrggh!”
Daniel as Gimli the dwarf from Lord of the Rings. Somewhere he misplaced his beard.
Before we went from house to house, I reminded the boys to say ‘thank you’ after they received some candy. from that point on, every time someone put candy in Daniel’s bucket, he said, “Thank you!” then immediately called to where I was standing on the sidewalk, ” “Pumpkin, (his nickname for me) I said thank you!” That made a lot of people laugh.
The boys’ pumpkins:
Relaxing with the Chickens
It has become a nightly ritual now to hold the chickens for a few last minutes before bed:
Daniel and Marigold:
Joseph and Nutmeg (Joseph is particularly fond of holding the chickens):
Alex and Beatrix:
Trip to the Butterfly House
Our local butterfly house recently added a marine cove where you can pet stingrays, sharks, and crabs.
This is a hawaiian plumeria flower, and it is supposed to be very difficult to grow in the northern latitudes (even indoors). The volunteer informed us that it is unheard of to see one blooming in this part of the country!
Dominic learned the sign for butterfly while we were there, and found plenty of times to use it.
The picture below shows a good example of butterfly wing iridescence. The patches on the black butterfly’s wings are white, but when light shines the right way it becomes blue. You can see the tinges of blue in the picture.
Joseph kept me busy running from one side of the room to another as he almost screamed, “Sarah over here! there’s a butterfly over here! Take a picture quick!” I would have missed this lovely butterfly without him. John was carrying an identification chart, and he told me it is called a Julia Butterfly.
We stopped for ice cream afterwards. See Dominic’s chocolate moustache!
Boys in the Garden
Joseph helps me water some lilies I transplanted last fall.
John plays with one of the many snakes that like to sunbathe underneath the black plastic in the garden.
Daniel making mischief helping in the garden:
Pictures from Minneapolis
We spent the last weekend of February in Minneapolis. Dominic was pretty excited about the hotel where we stayed, and he crawled over every inch of his new territory.
When we arrived at the hotel, we had Chinese food delivered to our rooms. (Daniel ate as he was getting into his pajamas)
The next day, we went to the aquarium underneath the Mall of America.
We petted starfish and sea urchins, and neither of them felt like I expected. The starfish were velvety and squishy. Sea urchin spikes were not sharp and pointy, and they were much softer and more pliable than I thought they would be.
Daniel was way too scared of the starfish to even put his hands in the water, but he was very impressed by the sharks, manta rays, and sea turtles we saw.
Dominic Crawls!
Dominic is feeling pretty proud of himself.
This week he figured out how to crawl.
But looking back at past pictures, I see that Dominic is over a month behind Daniel, who not only was crawling by this time…
But was doing this as well!
And this!
That’s all right, Dominic, I’d rather not be chasing after you climbing up the stairs.
“Not Today”
We’ve been trying to get Daniel to use the toilet for the last few days, and so far he’s been able to go every time he sits on it. We’ve been asking him if he needs to go to the toilet frequently, and the repetition must be getting a little boring for him, because last night he responded: “No, not today. I did that last year.”
Mr. Mischief
Daniel has been being a true two year old for the past few weekss. From trying to pour his own milk (thank goodness the jug was almost empty!) to drawing in school books, he has found one hundred and one ways to get into things. Here is one of his latest tricks:
Am I in trouble?