Recently...

BFF's baby brother was born on May 2! He is absolutely beautiful! Here is my mom holding him:

Andy bought Fischer his first pair of real hockey gloves! Fischer thinks they are great but has a really hard time actually holding the stick with them on. By the way... only the best hockey players practice in their underwear and fireman rain boots!

Fisch has been wearing his fireman clothes everywhere... then complaining that he doesn't like when people look at him!

Fischer tried out mini-basketball... and HATED it. Then he tried mini-soccer and didn't like that one too much either... begged for basketball, go figure. Hopefully mini T-Ball will go well!

Fischer started survival swimming lessons and SCREAMED and CRIED through the first 5 lessons... then suddenly on the sixth, he was all smiles, high-fives and kept saying "I'm good!" Hooray... Mommy couldn't have taken one more lesson of BOTH of us crying! Here he is practicing his floating in the bathtub.

My wonderful friends threw me the sweetest baby shower... so many cute pink things! It was so much fun!

I seem to have permanently borrowed the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man's feet... I'll spare you the picture! 2 more months!

Kaia had surgery on Monday to remove a lump from her neck... $850 and 2 drain tubes later...

Mother's Day: The good, the bad and the ugly

The GOOD:

• Saturday night, Andy and Fisch took me out to a fun dinner and gave me this fabulous new video camera!!! This little guy is so portable and easy to use, I'll be posting videos!


• Sunday morning, Fischer and Andy made a delicious french toast breakfast for MamaBetsy and me. Yum!


• Sunday evening, we had a tasty barbecue at MamaBarb's and Grandpa's house. Yum again! Grandpa grilled up some fabulous pork steaks and chicken. Fischer made salad, fruit salad and ice water. Andy made his famous potatoes. Mmmm.
  

The BAD:

• The beautiful watering cans that I bought for MamaBarb, MamaBetsy, and Great-MamaPearl leaked and warped when I filled them with water and flowers the night before. Yikes! Why in the world would someone sell metal watering cans that don't work? Seriously, they must have been just for decoration. I'm going to have to return them this week. So... we had nothing to give our moms and grandma on Sunday! Grr.


• Sophie treed the neighbor's cat when she wandered into our yard. When Andy tried to rescue her, she went up, up, up till she was clinging for dear life to a spindly branch about 20 feet in the air. The poor thing was stuck there for about 6 hours!


• Andy got really sick after dinner, and had to go home before Fisch and I.
  

The UGLY:

• After dinner at my parents' house, Fischer went downstairs to watch sports with Grandpa. Well, Grandpa fell asleep while they were sitting together... and guess what happened?

I am very thankful for my beautiful boy and my wonderful hubby. Thank you for a great Mother's Day!

Fischisms

• Fischer: "Daddy, when I was downstairs, I ate one piece of dog food... and it wasn't yucky!"

• Fischer, standing normally...

Fischer: "Daddy, will you take my shoes off of me, cuz why - my arms are way up here!"

• While eating ice cream at the parlor...

Fischer: "I wish this arm (points to the right arm) was on this side (points to the left) and this arm (pointing at the left arm) was on this side!"

Mommy: "Well, when we get home I'll cut them off and try to figure out a way to glue them on the opposite shoulders."

Fischer: Inquisitively, "How will you do it?"

Loving trees

Gambel Oak

Last week was Arbor Day. Fischer and I headed up to our local botanical and ecological center to commune with the trees. Plus, they were having a FREE admission day! Fischer actually loved it. We hadn't been there since fall... and had usually always spent all of our time in the children's garden... but on this day we explored the entire garden and participated in some of the learning activities they were offering. He was so interested in the different types of trees and flowers, seriously - he wanted to know the names of the different varieties. He and I really enjoyed a few hours of tree lovin' fun. Actually, my favorite part was when we came across an empty outdoor stage, and Fisch stood up there and belted out "Finkle Finkle Little Taw" while I sat in the grass and listened. What I would have given for a video camera at that moment... or even my camera! Of course, I had to top that beautiful moment with a cowardly mommy moment... when he asked me to sing so he could watch! "Uh... let's go see what else we can find". Trust me, nobody wants to hear that (except Fischer).

They gave us a free Gambel Oak tree which is thriving on our kitchen windowsill waiting to be planted now.

Speaking of trees, we have recently fallen in love with Our Tree Named Steve, by Alan Zweibel and David Catrow. It is all about a beloved tree in a family's yard and all of the wonderful ways that tree was part of their lives, till one day when a storm hit and the tree fell. It is written as a letter from a dad to his children (who are away at grandma's when the storm hits). The book has beautiful illustrations and a thoughtful story line. It really makes for a good story about the love of a tree, but also about loss. Of course, I cried when the tree fell... but, I'm a pregnant mess... so maybe you won't. ;) Anyway, we love this story. I think that the children in the story are named after Zweibel's (the author) own children. A comedy writer by trade, it appears that this is his first children's book. He sure teamed up with a fabulous illustrator (Catrow) - we love Catrow's books!

Interested in saving the world with a tree?

• The Arbor Day Foundation has many ways to help.
• AND, don't forget about Eco Libris

Looking for more fun tree books? Click here for a few of our other faves.

Fischism

Fischer is in the bathroom too long, supposedly washing his hands.

Mommy: Fischer, what are you doing?

Fischer: I'm combing my hair with soap (hand soap). It works really really well. How do I look?