Act Three

The loading day is just around the corner and our moving help has arrived from Manitoba. We’ve spent some days showing them around, which has also allowed us to say goodbye to some of our favorite places in Massachusetts. We went to our favorite lighthouse on Cape Ann where we spent a nice hour on the beach while the tide was out. We also collected a sample of sand to take with us back to the prairies.

Yesterday we wanted to show our guests the view from the top of Mount Greylock. Unfortunately, the fog and rain made visibility about 200 ft.

Today we went for a walk in Northampton and took a last turn around the track at Smith College.

Ichnologist – someone who studies fossilized footprints, typically dinosaur footprints. Yesterday we hiked the Dinosaur Footprints trail. It turned out to be a really short hike, even L thought the walk should have been longer, maybe he just didn’t want to go home.

We found the prints of a 3 toed meat eater related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Lowell and L had fun walking in the tracks of a dinosaur.

K did fairly well on her first hike in the hiking backpack. It was close to nap time, but the hike wasn’t long enough to put her to sleep so she did complain a little.

After we had seen the prints we walked down to the river and skipped some stones. I’m not sure which L liked better, throwing rocks or being an Ichnologist.

Yesterday L and K played well together. L is getting used to having his orderly world invaded by his little sister. He tried to play with his toys above her level, but took it very well when she joined him. K is too little to play with L’s Mighty Machines (construction equipment) but she was content with a yellow and orange 4-wheeler.

Lowell took the evening off, so we enjoyed a stroll along the bike path after supper. L was pretty tired during supper but surprisingly he walked most of the way. After running/racing half way home, he did get a ride on Dad’s shoulders. K must have enjoyed her stroller ride too with just a 15 minute catnap. We found some real Mighty Machines to examine and L had great fun racing Dad on the track at the athletics field.

K’s highlight was probably the fact that I finished her Blankie. K had taken to a crocheted blanket made by Auntie I, well I lost it on Sunday. So my little girl who puts herself to sleep so nicely was trying to make due with L’s crocheted sweater, but it just wasn’t cutting it. I have spent all spare minutes this week making her a replacement. It isn’t pretty, I didn’t take the time to undo stitches to fix mistakes and it is only one colour. It isn’t special like the one made by her Aunt, but it is full of holes and big enough to wrap her fingers in and cover her face with. I gave it to her while I was getting her pajamas on last night, she immediately rolled over buried her face in it and started playing peek-a-boo with me. I was worried that she would know that it wasn’t the same one, but it seems to be an acceptable replacement.

We said good-bye to the Parent Drop-in Center yesterday. Hopefully the picnic won’t get rained out this afternoon and L will have fun playing with the kids one more time. We have visited the Center weekly over the winter. L has enjoyed playing with the toys and driving the cars and trikes. K when not being mobbed by all the baby crazy preschoolers has had fun in the exersaucers.

It feels like summer around here. The weather is hot (34 degrees Celsius), humid with thundershowers. The spring flowers are finished and the lilies and roses are in full swing. Once again I have a photo of a tree that I like but don’t have a name for.

Saturday evening after a “did you stand her there Lowell, cause I didn’t” moment, we realized that K had pulled herself to standing.

Look what I found, a box of trains.

Yes?

L received a book before K was born about being a big brother. In the story Baby learns to crawl and grabs the boys train engine, this is supposed to indicate that baby is ready to play with the boy. The fact that the baby could take his train engine was a bit traumatic for L but he still looked forward to the day that K his baby could play with him. Well now we have entered a whole new stage of life at our house, settling disputes. K has figured out forward motion, she moves quickly, and trains come in bright colours. K is grabbing his train engines over and over again; like a hurricane moving through the Island of Sodor (the home of Thomas the Tank Engine). I think L has decided that he likes to play with baby but baby shouldn’t play with him.

He is not allowed to physically remove her and he can’t move his trains fast enough so he has resorted to being a barrier.

We have had some beautiful 30 degree celsius weather the last 2 days. It’s hard to believe that Thursday I broke down and turned the furnace on and today I turned the air conditioning on. Yesterday we had our first cookout of the season.

L enjoyed his lessons in fire building. “I want to help”; he collected sticks for the fire.

K’s just cute,

and supper didn’t taste too bad either.