My friend Rebecca had a new baby a few weeks ago, and I’ve been over off and on to help her with some things.  Daphne has always come along, and I think it has been a total shock to her to see a baby that little.  She immediately got her mothering instict out and begged to hold the baby.

Bless Rebecca, she was totally willing to oblige the whims of my 2 year old, and she’s let Daphne “hold” Oliver in her lap two times.  The last time, Jared got a few snapshots.

Daphne was very sweet to the baby for the most part.  When she holds thing she really likes to move around a lot and let them know that she is in charge and in control, and that made it a bit stressful for the mamas watching.  All I can say is that I can see my future.  I am glad that Daphne really likes babies, but it is clear that her and her sibling wont be allowed together alone for a few years.

Daphne has been modeling more and more for me. I guess that means that she is willing to take some direction in front of the camera without it being upsetting. I took these photos while I was trying to get some other photos. She insisted that I let her model for me. I don’t really mind. After all, she was wearing a skirt I made for her
that hadn’t appeared in any photos yet really.

I am still working on the fingers in the mouth thing. Isn’t that skirt lovely. I think that the wide white waist band really helps to accentuate the skirt.

Doesn’t this have a supermodel flare to it? Her tongue is NEVER in her mouth where it belongs. Maybe she will be good at basketball.

We still have some work to do, but the model thing definitely isn’t a strange concept for her.

When I started to not feel very good during the winter, I committed to trying to find some new activities to do with Daphne out of the house. All last summer we were out milking the goat every day, and it was plenty to keep us busy. When the winter hit, we were stuck inside almost full time, and it was getting depressing. I decided that I was going to start taking her to the Toddler Story Time that they have at the library once a week. We go on Wednesday mornings from 10:45 to 11:15. That usually gives us enough time to get a snack before we head off to go to the swimming pool.

I never could have guessed how wonderful the story times are. I thought it would just be something to do, but it turns out that Daphne really, really enjoys them, and she has learned a lot from them.

At the story time, they sing songs, read books, blow bubbles and sometimes play with some musical instruments. Daphne has learned a lot of songs from the story time that she is happy to run around singing if you ask her to. I have never been much of a singer, so I haven’t ever sung songs to her. I feel like she is getting a lot from the story times that she wouldn’t necessarily get from me. Additionally, the same people tend to come every week, so I’ve been able to get to know some other moms who stay at home with their babies.

At the end of every story time, they blow bubbles. This is Daphne’s favorite part. She loves to run around and stomp on the bubbles and play. I just love seeing how happy they make her. We have a collection of bubbles at home now so that she can play bubbles at home.

Here she is with bubbles all around.

She caught one!

Bubbles EVERYWHERE!

Everyone always ends up with bubbles in their hair at the end of the bubble blowing time.

As a side note, the bubbles and the bubble wand are a Gymboree product. I’m not usually into gimmicky plastic toys, but we ended up getting Daphne this bubble set for her birthday so that she could blow the bubbles on her own. It takes little to no skill to operate the bubble wand. The Gymboree solution is also unique in that the bubbles tend to last for a long time, and they don’t all sink to the floor and pop. You should definitely try them out if you have kids that are interested in the bubble arts!

I took some photos of the Easter basket that I made for Daphne. We are trying to stay away from the extra candy and sugar. Sugar really seems to set her off on a very, very grumpy mood.

I thought a nice tradition would be to give her some kind of Easter outfit, so she got a brand new skirt and shirt as well as some new flashcards to play with. She really, really likes playing with word cards and flash cards, so it was a wonderful treat to her to get some new ones.

She did of course get a few small chocolates, but they ended up disappearing quickly because they turned on the magical grumpy switch right away!

Here she is going to get the basket. What, mama, the Easter Bunny left me a PRESENT?!?

Here is the Easter basket itself. Not too fancy, but good enough for a 2 year old.

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Our neighbors told us a few days before Easter that the local volunteer fire department puts on a little Easter celebration in town the day before Easter. We figured that we would go and give it a shot, since Daphne really seems to enjoy hunting for Easter Eggs. This one ended up being a ton of fun, and it didn’t cost us anything.

Daphne and I jumped on the bike and raced down to the local park to participate. Jared decided to drive because he thought it would be faster, but it turns out that we ended up there at about the same time, and he had to park the car really far away because of the limited parking.

Daphne was raring to go get some eggs.

She didn’t have much trouble finding them with her daddy’s help.

When the hunt was all over, she discovered that some of the eggs she had picked up had a bit of chocolate in them!

She even got a nice big hug from the Easter Bunny, who is apparently sponsored by Crayola!

Even though Easter has come and gone, she still wants to go for egg hunts, and she wonders when the Easter Bunny is going to come and see her again.

I posted a letter I had written earlier about the Easter Egg Hunt that we did at the Evergreen Aviation Museum before Easter. I just pulled some photos off my camera of the event that I thought might be nice to share.

This was the area that we had roped off for us. Note the eggs in the grass and the very eager children and parents all around the outside waiting for the hunt to begin.

Here Daphne is wondering why the rope is stopping everyone from just going and getting the eggs. I really love the shadow on her of my hand and the camera.

And the hunt is on! Daphne can’t decide what to do. She wants to open the egg to examine it, but the crowd is moving too quickly for that to happen, so we are trying to push her on.

She can’t be convinced to put the egg in the basket.

Look dad, something else exciting!

All in all, I think Daphne had fun, but the event could have been better organized, especially considering that we paid to attend the hunt.

We had awful weather today. It was doing nothing but raining sideways the whole day. The wind has been blowing and it has been non-stop pelting rain. Definitely not a fun day. I decided that it was safest to bring the babies inside during the storm. Even though they are well protected, they could still possibly get wet, and wet cold babies can perish very quickly. So, the nesting box stayed on top of the dryer all day while I checked on them and admired them. I must appreciate that Daisy trusts me so well because she didn’t mind one bit when I took the box from her. When I returned it, she made sure everything was fine and went right back to what she was doing. The babies were well fed when I went to check on them just before it got too dark.

I did clean out the nesting box for them a little bit even though it wasn’t really necessary. One of the bunnies had gotten some wool fiber wrapped around its neck pretty tightly. I was able to catch it before it became a problem, but it made it clear that it was necessary to cut the fiber up into smaller bits for the bunnies. They move quite a bit, so they can get into trouble very quickly. They went back out to their mama with a nice clean, safe nesting box.

Daphne was very happy to hang out with the bunnies while I cleaned the box. She insisted on holding and kissing them as much as her daddy would let her. I think it is good for them to get used to excited children. I like the idea of well-socialized babies, and Daisy doesn’t mind Daphne one bit either.

This little sweetheart spent about a half hour sleeping in my hand while I was getting some other work done. It didn’t mind at all, and I can’t say that I really did either.

They are getting cuter by the day, don’t you think?

I am still stalking Thing 2, but she hasn’t kindled yet. I think she realizes that I am on to her. I am worried that she might not be bred, but that is just paranoia because she IS lactating AND I palpated her and felt some baby buns about 14 days after I bred her. I hope to find a litter out with her in the morning, but you just never can predict these things.

As we were getting ready to leave Jared’s mom’s house after a nice Mother’s Day brunch, I looked out the window of the car and saw this.

I told Jared to stop so that I could take some photos and examine what was going on. Eventually, while we were looking, we collected the entire neighborhood together to watch nature at work. So, what is it?

That is a swarm of bees that was thrown off the main hive. It happens this time of year. I have limited knowledge of beekeeping, but my friend Scott is very knowledgeable, and after spending a year around him and his bees, I did learn a thing or two. The hive breeds new queens every year, and when the queens mature, it is time for them to go and make their own nest. The hive throws out the queen as well as a supporting community to go make a new hive elsewhere.

In this case, there was a hive already in a nearby oak tree, and this set of bees is looking desperately for a new home. They chose the wheel of a go-cart–not a very smart choice, nor a very viable one.

What does one do when they come upon a swarm? Call your local extension service. That is what they are there for. They keep names and numbers of experienced people who are interested in collecting wild swarms and turning them into productive hives. They will come and get the swarm and take them home happily to produce many, many pounds of honey for themselves.

In any case, any person interested in farming, gardening, water supply, etc., etc., (basically anything having to do with the land and being outside) should be familiar with their local extension service. They are supported by our land grant tax dollars to help us as a community be successful in our agriculturally related endeavors. They have Master Gardeners who can help you troubleshoot your garden. They have Master Preservers who can test your pressure canning gauge to make sure you are canning at a safe pressure etc., etc. If you have kids, they are in charge of the 4-H program. Go meet your extension service personnel, I swear, you will walk away amazed that such a resource exists.

I posted a photo the day the babies were born of Daisy so that you could see what she looked like.  However, I did manage to take a photo of her before I sheared her about a month ago.  All the photos I see people take of their Angora bunnies have them looking like lovely fluffy little things.  Not only does Daisy’s hair look totally wild in this photo, she looks kind of angry also.  Oops.

I must say that the shearing I took off her in April was by far the best shearing I have had from any of my rabbits, and I was incredibly impressed with her fiber quality.  I plan to enter it into the Yamhill County Fair if I can keep it off my spinning wheel before then.

I am planning to take some nice photos of the bunnies when they all have grown their hair back up so you can track with who looks like what.  Until then, enjoy this photo of a grumpy bunny with wild hair.

Recently Daphne has picked up a new habit.  When I ask her about how something is or how something tastes, I get a nod of a head and a, “pretty good.”  I’ll have to get it on video because it is too cute, but I know everything is ok when she tells me that something is “pretty good!”