Chocolate and All

Because, fresh from sleep and all pink and pretty and all, there is nothing like a toddler to sweeten up your day. 

Portrait

Two 'o' my favorite peeps, piled one atop the other. Can you tell they are buddies?

Puppy Problems

Get him out of my bed!

Seriously! He's got MY chew toy

Who me?

I can't watch....

Peanut Butter

Hi, Gramma, I haz dis

See...It's dulishious

An, it's all mine

Buh Bye

Thank you, mama

This Apple

Didn't fall far from the tree

And she's the apple of her grandma's eye

Wordless Wednesday

For Great Grandma M

The Birthday Girl

Not so much

With mommy and daddy

 

Uncle Alan, Uncle Alan, get offa my airplane

That's better. Now can I ride both at one time???

As requested, Peggy's first birthday pics.....I have many, many....did I mention many....more.

Happy Birthday Peggy-Ann Marie

One year old today. And you can tell by all the baby toys and new books and all that she is popular around here.

First Dinosaur Book

Thanks for reading Uncle Alan.....it was a great big book so mama had to hold me.

Aunts and Uncles are Cool

Especially if you are a baby with a full complement of same living with you.

You get to read really good baby books, about kitties, and bunnies and firemen with hoses.

You get to snuggle on the living room floor and learn how to use the shape sorter barn.

Honorary uncles come to visit and hold you and bounce you and talk to you.

And around here you have a gramma and grandpa handy whenever you need one.

And that's not to mention mom and dad.

 All in one day. You gotta love it.

Cheerios

Are a big hit! That gooey stuff is banana. From a grandmother's point of view, one could use the cereal as structural material and the banana goo as Spackle or mortar. 

Because my Mother told me To

First Bird

Mom's doing chores

The past few months I've been having fun noting the first bird I hear or see each day. In summer this often happened before I even crawled out of bed. The honey locust by the window is popular with passing avian creatures.

Sometimes I didn't know the call and raced downstairs to go out and look up....and usually miss whatever it was. More often than not though, it was some familiar flycatcher or the Carolina Wrens.

Now that it is winter, first bird doesn't usually occur until I have been up for hours. And then it is generally a Black-capped Chickadee or a Tufted Titmouse. Today it was a flight of Canada Geese.

I'm gonna help

Thinking about this, and working on a Farm Side about introducing Miss Peggy to the wonders of nature got me trying to remember what my first bird ever was.

And I can't. I suppose it might have been a House Sparrow on my Grandma Montgomery's lawn. They were called English Sparrows then, but by whatever name....we call them Sassenachs around here...they were ubiquitous pests just like today.

Could have been a Rock Pigeon. They were just pigeons then. Or maybe a Robin. I just don't remember, although many milestone birds stand out....the Barn Swallows in the barn at the house on 5S. Barn Owls ditto, the only Barn Owls I have ever seen. 

That Cardinal on Dad's feeder that really got me interested. The Anhinga in Georgia that puzzled us all day back in the 70s when I was lucky to have one well-worn field guide. I have a box full now, and read them like novels. The Great Grey Owl on the picnic table in Medicine Bow National Forest. I will always regret not having my glasses on yet when we saw that one.

But not the first bird.

Hey, Ma, I got this

 I wonder. What will Peggy's first bird be? I am going to make every effort to be sure she knows as many as possible. With all the feeders in the yard and the wild lands all around us, it ought to be a good one. If it isn't a pigeon or a Sassenach. 

Phone Tag

Is dat my daddy in dere?

It's my daddy. I know it is

Gramma she won't gimme my daddy

Peggy mastered crawling yesterday. Well, maybe mastered isn't quite the right word. Say rather that she dipped her toes in the waters of locomotion. If you aren't watching she scoots around quite handily, ticked pink to be able to find and choose her own toys. However if you are watching she arches her back and does the fish out of water hand and foot waving thing.

"Pick me up, pick me up, pick me up!!! No not you gramma, I want my mommy. Or my daddy."

She is pretty darned funny though.

I Can Haz Dis?

If it fitz it's mine, right?

Thanks, Uncle Alan, I can already play Frere Jacques

Turkey Talkin'

See the kitty on the phone? Pet him and he'll purr.

Our boy is home for most of five too-short days. He loves to mix things up and the place is humming. He and Peggy play on the floor a lot. She used to hate to get down on a blanket in the living room, but now she loves it, and a patient playmate makes it that much better.

You should hear her growl. Her daddy taught her that quite some time ago, and she growls at her food, at her toys, and at us. She growls at towels. She growls at everything just before she grabs it and chomps on it.

When she gets a little older all she will need for 'talk like a pirate day' are a few 'Ahoys' and a couple of 'Mateys', because she sure has argghhh down pat. 

Wanna taste the lollipop?

Al came to the barn with us yesterday morning for chores and on the way back over he did some turkey talking. He is good enough with just his mouth, no call, no box, no toys atall, that he used to drive his professors crazy at college. He would get in the stairwell and do a few little hen calls and then leave. People would look all over for the turkey.

Hmmmm.....

Yesterday the birds in the turkey tractor went nuts when he called them. The toms began to gobble, feathers fluffed, tails fanned and then began to strut in earnest. The hens were utterly perplexed.

It was pretty funny. I can call well enough to get hens to come down off the hill....sometimes.... but I swear he could talk them right onto the table. He once stalked one quietly enough to walk up and touch it when it was sleeping. It woke up right quick though, I can tell you.
 

A loaf of Liz's peasant bread. Look, ma, no kneading!

Anyhow, things are pretty lively right now...nice to have him here....we will sure miss him when he has to go back to DC.

We Don't Need No Stinkin'

Naps!