Can you guess what this is?

If you guessed a bird cemetery, you would be right! A few weeks back, we had a really windy storm that blew quite a few baby birds out of their nests, so all the neighborhood kids spent an entire afternoon going through their yards finding and burying birds.

They buried 10 birds in all and have added the occasional dead bird since then. Each got its own brick tombstone with a name written across the top. I'm pretty sure all the decorating was done by Elena - once again, the only girl around.

I will add, for my readers who are easily grossed out by germs, that between the use of shovels and a neighbor boy with thick gloves, they all managed not to touch any of the birds with their bare hands.

Dancing Baby

As we were driving in the car the other day, a song came on that the kids liked so they asked me to turn it up.

The baby was kicking so I said, "I think the baby is dancing to the music."

...to which Sam replied, "Mom! Open your mouth so the baby can hear the music better."

No Fear

Here's a video of a typical Charlie scene: cute, adventurous, slightly dangerous and, as always, requiring constant supervision.

When it comes to swimming, as with most things, Charlie has no fear. His favorite activity in the pool is jumping in water at a depth of about 5 feet, touching the bottom, and swimming back up to the top. The only problem is he can't get his head back above water so we always need to be there to pull him up. This wouldn't be too difficult to handle - one would think you could just stand in the water to catch Charlie whenever he jumps in - if he didn't have such an "I'll do it myself" attitude. If he even suspects we are going to try to catch him, interfering with his ability to sink down and swim up on his own, he will run about 5-10 feet away from where we are in the pool and jump in where no one can catch him, making us scramble to get over to him.

I'm glad he does so well underwater, but it makes for nerve-racking trips to the pool. Last time, he spontaneously decided to do one last run and jump in the big pool just as we were headed out the door of the pool (I was already dressed and holding all our bags & pool toys and thus unable to catch him). Luckily, there was a boy in the pool not far away who was able to fish him out and hand him to me. Needless to say I have not brought him to the pool as often as I would like this summer - mainly because the water in the big pool is cold and I'm a wimp who doesn't want to have to keep jumping in after him.

And yes, we have tried floaties & life jackets (which he tolerates for no more than 2 minutes) & trying to keep him in the baby pool area (which he easily escapes) etc. etc. There's not much stopping this kid.  Apparently my brother was the exact same way at pools when he was this age so my parents never went with him unless they were both there (one in the water and one out). So thanks for that gene, Joe.

He got distracted by the camera as usual, but you can at least see him jump in once.

It's tough being 2. (But it's tougher being a 2-year-old's mom)

I wrote this about a month ago while school was still in session. Being done with school has helped a bit, but here's more or less how life has been the last couple of months:

It was tough getting stuff done when Elena was 2. It was tougher getting things done when Sam was 2 as he not only got into everything, but he also had a greater tendency to endanger himself by doing things like sticking coins in the electrical socket and climbing as high as he could get before he had the coordination to keep from falling.

But Charlie has brought things to a whole new level. He requires constant supervision in a way I don't recall with Sam and Elena (although let's be honest, I may just have blocked that out). All the kids liked to be outside at this age, but Charlie is adamant about being outside approximately 98.99% of the day. I love spending time outside with him (as long as it's not too cold, which bothers me but apparently not him), but it's rather difficult to cook supper, do laundry and clean the house from the back yard.

Unfortunately, bringing him inside and locking the doors doesn't help much because he has figured out how to unlock the deadbolts and get out. Every time I take a minute to go to the bathroom, I have to immediately locate him when I get out to make sure he hasn't escaped again. The only way to keep him inside is to stand in front of the door blocking him while he screams and cries to get out, then race him to the other door to block that one when he tries to escape that way. Since this heart-warming activity also does not lend itself to getting things done any better than being outside, we usually just go back outside.

Occasionally he'll sit and watch Frozen or Bubble Guppies, but I don't particularly like him watching much TV so I try to save that for emergencies: emergencies like it being 5:55 pm and I still have no idea what to we're having for supper. At which point the kids and I end up eating something quick like scrambled eggs and sliced apples or  Mac 'n' Cheese with frozen peas on the side (Sam and Elena won't eat them cooked). And usually as soon as I sit down to eat, Charlie is already out the door. During the average meal, I have to drag Charlie back to the table 6 times and I get to eat approximately 1/8 of a bite of hot food - the rest is cold by the time I get to it.  And poor Seth isn't a big fan of meatless meals. That combined with his gluten-intolerance, which makes throwing together something quick like a sandwich difficult, means he often comes home to no leftovers suitable for his supper. It's a good thing we have all the canned venison!

Evenings have become my most challenging time, being home on my own trying to get the kids ready for bed. For starters, Charlie often doesn't get tired until 10:00 or 11:00 pm, which means he is always awake through the entire process. Even if we can get him to stay in bed at a decent time (which only happens if I lie next to him), he will lie there and talk and sing at the top of his lungs for an hour and a half before he finally falls asleep.

He also doesn't like to sit and listen to long stories the way Sam and Elena, who enjoy reading chapter books together, do. So while I try to help Elena with her nightly homework and read stories to the older two, Charlie is usually repeatedly running out of the house so I have to get up and bring him back in again,  tormenting us by ripping the books out of our hand and yelling as loud as he can to try to get our attention on him and off the books, or wreaking havoc on the house (this has been his favorite lately).

Tonight, for example, he started trying to fix himself a bowl of cereal  while I read to Elena. So I asked Sam to help him pour his cereal and to put the milk away so it wouldn't be easily accessible to Charlie. Sam tends to only hear the first half of 2-step instructions and he did not put the milk away, Charlie then dumped out the rest of the gallon into his bowl (luckily it wasn't too full so the mess was minimal). After that he moved onto the bathroom and within 3 minutes had flooded it by plugging the sink and letting the water run at full blast until the sink was overflowing. He also had great fun splashing the water so it was not only all over the floor, but covering everything else as well. Another night he used a stool to get to a jar of cinnamon and dumped it all over the kitchen (stove, countertops, floor). It was probably during story/homework time that he stuck a toy motorcycle in the toaster as well. Fortunately I found it the next day before anything was toasted.

It's really not a question of  if he will make a mess during the 10 minutes scattered throughout the day that he inevitably wanders off without my direct supervision because I am busy trying to do something without his interference. It's just a daily adventure of finding out what the mess is going to be each day.

Through it all, though, he remains extremely charming and he makes us laugh all the time. If I had nothing else to do but give him my full and undivided attention, life would be so easy.  As it is, he gets most of my (very divided) attention all day long, while everything else (cooking, cleaning, organizing those growing piles of "I'll get to it later" stuff, my own personal hygiene) ends up getting neglected because, well....there's only one of me. If anyone has tips on how to bi-locate, I'm all ears.