Boondock Ramblings

The story behind the spit. . .

I uploaded this photo on my photo blog for my Weekly Winners post this week.

There is a story behind the spit. To some, the spit may be "gross" or elicit an "eeew!"

To me it makes me think of my kid and how crazy he is becoming.

This is Jonathan spitting bathwater, first just in the bath, then he tried doing it at me. I stopped the spitting when I remembered the water had bubble bath in it and also when I found myself soaked in bath water and baby spit.

Once I couldn't get Jonathan to take a bath. Now I can't get him out of the tub once he is in it. He swims, he splashes, he plays with all his super heroes that have now become bath toys. He then turns into a prune.

And yes, he spits.

 

As the snow began to melt. . .

As the snow began to melt, Jonathan, Copper and I took a walk around the block on Sunday.

We saw leaves turned into paper thin skeletons, shadows of their former selves.

We saw a group of young men outside playing basketball -- a sure sign of spring around here.

We stopped for a moment and Jonathan hugged Copper. Jonathan played Transformers, acting out fight scenes between Optimus Prime and Megatron as we walked.

Jonathan saw a snowman decoration, left over from Christmas, and wanted to hug it. It was in a stranger's yard, but I said 'yes.' Hello. He wanted to hug a snowman. Just too cute to resist. Luckily no old lady came yelling, shaking her cane at us and demanding we "unhand" her snowman.

We found snow in the back yard, made hand prints, played more Transformers and I found dead berries to photograph with my macro lens.

 

And then I found Spring.

Hey, Jen, you might not need to give her a ring after all.

 

The most awesome snow slide ever. . .

It's time for me to brag a bit about my dad.

On Sunday we visited my parents and there was still a good amount of snow on the ground. I convinced Jonathan to go outside because I wanted to build a snowman with him. I had been promising we'd build one for months, but either because we didn't get enough snow, or received powdered snow, I couldn't make one.

Fine, I couldn't make a snow man on the Friday after the storm because I had no idea what I was doing and the snow wouldn't stay together for me!

I am a snowman virgin, K? OK? Fine. There, now you know.

There ya' go. I could have used that for Jen's "confessions" Spin last week!

Where was I? Right. At my parents. Where my dad decided to roll the biggest snowball I've seen in a long time and then another one and then he built my son a snow slide, complete with steps and a snow tunnel underneath it. Memories of a snow slide and fort he built me when I was about 9 came rushing back to me. That was the most awesome snow fort ever. If I can find some photos of it, I'll post them here in a future post.

For now, here is Jonathan enjoying his snow slide and tunnel.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

(You should be able to click on those smaller photos and have them appear in the bigger slot. . .)

See? My dad is awesome.

How about you? Any fun snow or just outside activities this winter?

Part of Photo Story Friday. For more Photo Story Friday's visit Cecily at My Chaos My Bliss.

Hosted by Cecily and Kelli

Conversations about death with a 3-year old

"My twain is falling off a clift! Waaaaa!"

It was bath time and Jonathan was deep into playing with his toy train and superheroes.

"Here, the Avatar will rescue it..." I said, because I knew that at any moment he'd order me to play along with him.

"No. She dead."

The words hit me hard. Dead? Dead? Why would he say 'dead'? He's three. Why does he know this word and  use it so loosely?

"Dead? Why would you say that? We don't say that people are dead."

People die. It's not like it is a secret and Jonathan will have to learn about it sometime, but the sudden utterance of the word was was striking me particularly hard on this day because the day before we'd had our cat, Tubby Thomas, put to sleep.

"Do you know what it means when someone is dead?"

He looked at me with his big blue eyes.

"It means they're gone, they're not coming back. They're in Heaven with God and not here with their mommy and daddy anymore."

"With God?" he asked, his eyes bigger and bluer than ever.

"Yes." I said. "Honey, Tubby Thomas the white kitty, remember I said he is gone? That's because he is in Heaven. He's gone. . .He's with God."

"But I like the white kitty."

"I do too, honey."

"Whoa! My twain falling off the clift again! Whoosh!"

He was on to things of three-year olds again and I wondered if he'd understood anything I'd said. I didn't worry if he didn't. He's three, he doesn't need to know about death just yet.

I thought our conversation was over but a moment later the topic came up again, when our other cat, Smokey ran into the bathroom.

"Oh! There is Smokey!" I said surprised to see her dart past us, when usually she avoids the bathroom when the bathtub is full, as if she thinks we'll dunk her in the water too.

"He back! He back!" Jonathan said, looking too late to see that it was Smokey who had run by, not Tubby Thomas.

"No, honey, that's Smokey, not the white kitty. The white kitty is gone."

He looked up at me, then back down again, sadness spreading across his small, precious face.

"Oh," he said softly, "He's dead."

He'd understood after all. . .Shoot.

(On a lighter note...I loved that cat, but boy he did have some of the dumbest expressions sometimes!. *snort*)

For more WordFUL Wednesdays visit Seven Clown Circus.

Winter Wonderland . . . Finally

We haven't had much snow this winter, at least where I live. Everyone around us has been nailed this winter with snow. Us? Not so much. And it felt weird. So when a winter storm started to move into the area yesterday, it felt more like a normal winter around here.

I knew we would need some photographs for the next day's paper so I headed out to find some kids sledding or someone shoveling their walk. What I found was the snow hanging from the trees, making a winter wonderland.

I wish I'd had more time and could have walked through it. The world seems so quiet when the snow falls like that. 

The noise of life. . . it seems to fade away in the heavy snow. 

And I need that right now . . . to have the noise slip away. . .as I feel myself slipping into some kind of winter blues, I guess you would call it.

Luckily I have a blue-eyed, blond to keep me lifted up out of the depression abyss. I'll have to keep looking at him and remembering why I'm so lucky.

Hosted by Cecily and Amy

Also, visit Better in Bulk for Give Me Your Best Shot. . . her button isn't working for me!