Happy Together

There is (gasp!) occasionally some friction between my two small daughters.  Well, my small daughter and my still smaller than an adult but nevertheless bigger than the smaller daughter daughter.  Anyway, there is friction.  It's nothing terrible, but there is mild to moderate fighting, biting, hitting, screaming, and pushing.

So it's very nice when they decide to laugh and play and have fun together without one of them getting it into her head that the other of them is doing it wrong.

Not that this ever happens, ever.

Anyway, on Sunday morning, the air was crisp and clear, the birds were singing, the sun was shining, the children were wearing sweatshirts, and everything aligned to make it a marvelous morning.

Margaret came out of their hideout after a while to tell me that there was a lion in their hideout, and that it had eaten their teapot, but that she was keeping it from eating Ellie.

You have to appreciate someone who prevents their imaginary lions from savaging little sisters, you know.

I assume that she is bringing the shards of the teapot to me in this picture, though I do not recall receiving them at all.

Child Labor

Dan and Kate have moved into a new house that has substantially more acreage on it than they did previously.  They have been clearing out undergrowth and working on getting it ready to have a garden on it.

Of course, it's a big job, and who better to employ than Margaret and Ellie?  They're cheap, they're reliable (at least if you pick them up), and they certainly aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty.

They didn't make much progress, but I think with a good, solid effort, they could have the garden ready by Spring 2020.

Ellie just needs to get a little taller so that she can hold the shovel properly.  Then it'll all go much faster.

More Umbrella than Necessary

We went to the Botanical Garden on Saturday, because it was the first day that had been chilly and rainy, and so we figured that most people would not be heading off for outdoor pursuits.  It's not that we're misanthropic, exactly, it's that Margaret is a wormy, speedy little person, and we prefer not to lose her.

Anyway, it was threatening to rain, but not actually doing it.  So it was quite pleasant.  The lack of rain, however, in no way deterred our intrepid daughters form demanding umbrellas, which they couldn't (in the case of Ellie) manage, or wouldn't (in the case of Margaret).

So Leo helped Ellie.  I helped for a while, but I did have the onerous task of taking cute pictures, which is close to full-time.

Luckily, it is hard to hold an umbrella and ride sheep, so we got a respite.  Well, Leo got a respite.

And then we went to the ducks.  Margaret has gotten unaccountable large in the last few years, and can climb the railing and give her mother 17 heart attacks as she puts her feet on the next to the top railing and leans over.

Ellie didn't get the memo that we were feeding the fish; she thought we were feeding her fish if she looked like a fish, so she tried with her wide-open mouth.*

And then she tried to fall in the water in her own special way.  See?  You don't need to jump off the top.  You can go through the railing.  Eep.

*Not really.  She was just excited.  And really, can you blame her?

Places to Go, People to See

When we were in Minnesota, the car situation fell out that the best thing to do to get to the rehearsal dinner was for Dan, Kate, Ellie and I to go an hour before it began, and for Leo to follow with the rest of the entourage.  That meant that Ellie and I had an hour at a farm while the final preparations for dinner were happening.  The caterers weren't getting it right, so she had to give them what-for.

And then she had to try out the amenities.  You know, because she's the oldest of the pack of two-year-olds, and so she feels a responsibility to them and their entertainment.

She also tested out the tractor toys on the tables.  They got two tractors up, because she wasn't going to let go of them long enough to actually put her thumbs up.

Anyway, she enjoyed herself.  And the tractors.  And bossing people.  That's my girl.

Apple Picking

While at the farm last weekend, the children helped to denude an apple tree, and unlike most of their defoliation projects, this one was entirely licit.

We couldn't find the ladder, though, so they had to use Leo.

Unlike most conventional ladders, however, he had a head that could feel pain, and so getting bopped in the head every time an apple was picked began to wear on him.  

Ellie wasn't quite tall enough or strong enough to get the apples off the tree, so she was the apple carrier.  She ran them back and forth, and put them in the picnic basket with a great deal of force, until restrained.  They had a great deal of fun, and plotted apple pies all the way home.  Well, Margaret plotted them.  Ellie has gotten to wear she will eat applesauce (oh, FRABJOUS DAY), but apple pies are not on her list.  Well, Kate made carrot cake the other night and Ellie horfed if up, announcing that Grandma made the best carrots.

Training Regimen

There's a lot of ink spilled on how one should train children, but I don't think that anyone in the last century has really considered the method that Leo (and, it should be stressed, the children) came up with this weekend.

Ellie is learning how to respond to a neck rein, so that's good.  Leo, on the other hand, ran away and had to be bribed with a handful of pretend oats in order to get him back under control.

(Seriously, I don't know what was going on here; they just invented the game themselves, and spent a great deal of time leading and being led while attached to a rope.  Clearly, we're going to have to revisit the issue of leashes).

Tech Support

Leo's computer bit the dust, which was sad, but expected.  It had been making groaning sounds, and ominous clockings, and generally behaving like a computer who needed to enter hospice care.

However, we've never been people to heed the wishes of computers if there was any extraordinary measure that could wrench them back from the brink for less money than a new computer.  And so Leo decided to investigate.

We aren't computer experts, but luckily, we had Ellie to help.

Leo took care of the reading, and Ellie was the muscle.  And the supervision.  Because she's the one with the tousled hair and eclectic fashion choices of an IT professional.  She's also the one with access to plastic cups for holding teeny-tiny screws.  Clearly the best choice for computer repair.

Incidentally, it failed, and we got Leo a new computer.  But I'm sure they did their best.