Camping trip

Bee & his daddy went on a quick overnight camping trip last Friday. M's friend & his five year-old son went along. I missed out on that trip -- I was in New York on business. You don't want to hear any more about my trip -- it was from hell. But here are some camping pictures:

Bears!

I guess it started raining while they were cooking dinner & pretty much didn't stop all night long. Watching a movie on the laptop is apparently what you do nowadays when it rains on a camping trip. That was not an option back when I was a kid...

"Daddy, watch me!" I wasn't even there, and I can guarantee you this is what he was saying as this picture was taken. Climbing rocks is one of the Bee's favorite things to do in the whole wide world, and is the main reason he likes to camp.

The perfect photographic expression of the Bee's normal state of being:

Sunflowers

I passed this sight just east of Berthoud this morning:

Totally unnecessary!

Last night we were all in the car on our way home from a Rockies game (the Bee's first...he was more into the peanuts, cotton candy & four-year old boy in the seat in front of him than he was the game...oh well, I was more into talking to the woman next to me about her adoption from Nepal and can't say that I watched so much as five minutes of the game, so I can't really say much, can I?), and I told M that I'd recently lost five pounds. Not that I have a whole lot to lose, but I've had an excess 6-7 pounds hanging around since the Bee was born that I just can't seem to shake. So anyway, the Bee overhears part of this from the backseat, and pipes up with his oft-repeated "What did you say Mommy?"

Me: "I was telling Daddy I'd lost five pounds."

Bee: "But what does that mean?"

Me: "Well, you know how you're 31.5? That's 31.5 pounds. It's what you weigh." [Bee is very into weighing himself, and wants to get on the scale nearly every day. Fortunately, he's not worried by the fact that he hasn't gained an ounce since his three-year check-up in January. Can't say the same for me...] "I was telling Daddy I've lost five pounds."

Bee: "Oh. So how much do you weigh now?"

Me: "130.5." [Yep, I've just announced my weight to the world. Yippee freakin' skippy.]

Bee: "Whooooooooaaa!!!!"

M: [while laughing uncontrollably] "You've gotta put THAT in your blog!"

Totally unnecessary.

UPDATED - Oh yeah, I'm THAT kind of neighbor!

UPDATE: It's 8pm on Monday night, and I hear a weedwacker in the yard behind ours! They've actually been out there for two hours. Yep, that's how bad it was. I can no longer see the 8-foot weeds sticking up above our fence! Hurray!!!!!

I've been battling thistle in our backyard ever since we moved in to this house-- for four summers. It's never a problem in the front yard, just in the back. Well, in the last week or so, I've noticed the tops of some thistles sticking up from the yard of the house behind us. Mind you, I'm seeing them over the top of our SIX FOOT FENCE, and their house is downhill from us. I started thinking about it, and I realized those suckers must be seven or eight feet tall! What are they feeding them? Thistle steroids?!! No wonder we have so many thistles in the backyard.

Well, I got sick of watching the down drift off the tops of these doped up thistles into my backyard, so I decided to conduct a stealth attack. I got out the ladder and my clippers, and climbed up there to lean over the fence and chop off the tops of the really big ones. And this is what I saw:

Holy. Sheeeeet. This picture really doesn't do it justice. It looks like it freakin' snowed back there, there's so much thistle down. The whole backyard, covered with thistles. The baby ones are two feet tall. It used to be all juniper on that hillside, then a year or two ago they took it all out. Then never did anything with that slope. And what does thistle love? A hot, dry bed of dirt with no other foliage to disturb it. The thistle has moved in and taken over. And allllllll that down is going to blow into my backyard. The neighbors to their south also border our backyard, and it doesn't look much better over there. Why didn't they just leave the junipers?! It's the perfect lazy man's landscaping.

So what did I do? I called the city & made a complaint. They're going to give them a ticket, and if they don't fix it within seven days, the city will hire a contractor to do it and bill the homeowner. Sure, I could've gone and knocked on their door, but I'm a little scared of them. Not just because their backyard is a trash heap, but also because they have dogs that they are not kind to. I'm afraid of people who aren't kind to their pets. I'm afraid they'll hurt me too. Uh-oh. What have I started here? Oh well. At least I won't have to dig 75,000 thistles out of my backyard this fall.

What's for dinner?

Vegetable quiche, tossed salad, and lemonade. OK, so it's not lemonade, it's a margarita. I had a hard day! I may just go have another.

"What's a quiche? Egg pie, you say?!!" (He did eat it. He eats everything.)

Really? Already?!

We've had our first threat to run away. Yes, the Bee has said he's going to run away and go live at M & M's house. Why? Because they're allowed to play with guns. "The playing kind, not the eating kind" (there is some confusion over the difference between "gun" and "gum" going on here...). We went to their house on the 4th of July, and the Bee discovered the joys of squirt guns. Then just a few days later, a friend at his preschool had a birthday & brought each kid a goodie bag. Thankfully, the teachers put this up for parents to check out, rather than giving it to the kids...we left the bubble gum and the toy gun at school. (side note: WHO THE HELL gives bubble gum and guns to three year-olds?????) So the end result of my roundabout story: the Bee has developed a fascination with guns.

We've just explained it with "M and M's parents have different rules than we do. We just don't have guns in our house." This is something I've found myself saying a lot lately. "No, you can't ride standing up in the back seat of the car like Christopher does. I have different rules than his mommy does." or "No, you can't play in the street like Andrew does. I have different rules than his mommy does." Well, apparently he likes the rules M&Ms' parents have better than ours. Or at least that's what he told me.

We've also had a very brief conversation about how guns can hurt people -- give "blood owies" -- and only policemen should have them. He's not buying it.

But seriously, he's already threatening to run away at age 3.5? God help us when he's a teenager.

Thank You Mary!

This was the last month of the secret pal gift exchange for our DTC group. I can't believe a whole year has gone by! Each month there's been a theme, and some mystery person from the group has sent us a gift for our daughter to go along with the theme. This month's theme was "The Nursery," and since it was the last exchange in the program, the pals revealed themselves to each other. It turns out mine was Mary H! Mary has been so very thoughtful and generous over the last year. Our daughter has a large collection of toys to start off with, as well as jammies, hair pretties, socks, dishes, decorations for her room, a tea set, and more. Ben has gotten a couple of gifts just for him too, like a t-shirt identifying him as "the big brother" in Chinese and English. And this month, there was a special gift just for me! A very pretty-smelling set including lotion, shower gel and sugar scrub.

Here's this month's gift:

The Bee and I will paint the wall art to match the room. There's also a super-cute purple fleece blanket with appliques of butterflies and flowers, backed with pink fleece, a scrapbook, and a spa gift for me!

Mary, thank you for being so kind to my family over the past year!

I'm off to bathe the Bee, then myself. My bath is going to include a glass of wine and a luxurious sugar scrub.