Tag Archives: outdoor adventures

weekending 4.0

Posted in let me let me update ya, Travels by

we’re still in indiana and hopefully i’ll have something wonderful and insightful to say about what i wear and how i dance to Tennis tonight – since i never really seem to be able to focus on musical merits – but here are some of our out-of-doors doings from the weekend.

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visiting nashville, indiana

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a girl’s first chai

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grandma love

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on our way to the old fashioned nut shop. yummy.

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we named him fizzgig.

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and i took the girl creeking. it makes me sad sometimes that we live in the city and darla doesn’t get to roam the rural areas i did as a wee one. but, thankfully, we have grandma and grandpa’s. every child needs a creek.

we saw lots of animal tracks, darla found interesting rocks, we looked at trees and plants and all sorts of nature things with the highlight of the visit to the wilderness being that we saw a mink. A MINK, i tell you. it’s the only one i’ve ever seen in non-coat form.

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anchor hocking in my creek

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she took her socks and shoes off for the full effect. i love her.

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and here was the big surprise of the weekend: darla’s very own tractor from grandpa. unfortunately, i think she will have her mother’s driving skills.

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 lastly, darla’s picture of her Grandpa Tom. do you see the resemblance?

i love our retreats here to indiana. looking forward to our visits again in april when i’ll hopefully be supporting another couple’s birth of an aries bambino. i was joking with Sarah, the mother of my first doula experience, that i will just block my schedule off in april every year and advertise doulaship only for Aries babies. being a ram myself, i’m pretty partial.

dolihaze

next up: tucker christmas

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1. breakfast with grandpa at the abe martin lodge 2. displaying her latest talent which she calls “tick-tocking her eyes” 3. the beginning of a 24 hr winter wonderland 4. venturing out into the snow with grandpa 5. i want this hearth in my daily life 6. darla’s thinking ” and so this is christmas…and what have i done?….” 7. michael 8. Big Woods Brewing Company Cattail. mmmm yummy.

it’s a family affair

Posted in kiddie-do, love and happiness by

our first day back together. i gotta say it felt pretty damn good. i cried. a lot…only in the morning, though.

first, lunching at the big happy greek

then onto visiting our creature friends at the ohio wildlife center open house

one is fantastic and one is my spirit animal. can you guess which is which?

guess what? i get to be in pictures again. yippee!!!! i’m happy that these photos highlight my highlights. i got my hair did hours before mike returned. thanks again to jenna and cole for making this magical hair day a possibility. oh yeah back to my family…

the wildlife center was a pretty rad place. now i’m happy that the middle aged volunteer we ran into at mozart’s bakery talked our ear off about the place a few months back. my personal favorite was meeting wendell, the narcoleptic woodchuck. oh and seeing darla and mike together in the woods. that made me feel shades of laura ingalls wilder. we’ll be returning again in futures near and distant.

B day celebration

Posted in it's cool to school, kiddie-do, parenting apparently? by

no annual milestone over here, just our letter of the day. and what a B-eautiful day it was, too.

we started of course with breakfast of bread and butter and berry yogurt

it was at this point in the meal that my daughter jumped up and ran out of the room yelling “oh i forgot something.” she returned 20 seconds later wearing her ruby slippers. only her ruby slippers. she stripped out of her sleeper and put on a pair of buckle shoes in a speed that is going to make me very frustrated then next time it takes me 18 minutes to get her in or out of an outfit.

i think she took B day literally and so wearing her birthday suit was entirely appropriate. 

after getting dressed with a lot of attention paid to the letter B – braid with a blue hairband, boots and a birdie shirt we hopped on cordelia and biked to the audubon center for bird learnin’. hence the appropriateness of the bird shirt.

i know i post about the audubon park a lot but it’s by our house and is really a beautiful, magical place. this town does a great job with it’s parks. here’s our little bird watcher.

using the binoculars (the wrong way) to spot what she says is a “jerry bird.” huh?

and there he is. just imagine my sugar sweetness congratulating her for being able to spot an 8 FT PAPER MACHE GULL. ohhh, i laugh at life.

in the center we: read books about birds, bats, bugs, butterflies blah blah blah. visited the salvaged art butterflies which are still holding up with original coolness factor and did some of the center activities testing different bird beak designs.

we discovered a new room with lots of grand activities including bird and butterfly costumes seen here as well as a simulated climbing tree biosphere complete with root system too.

but the greatest resource discovered at the audubon park today….

BIG KIDS

i have previously noticed the magnetic pull that exists between pre-teen/teenage girls and toddler girls – probably toddler boys too but i don’t have as much experience with that. darla first adopted this group of homeschool kids and they were impressed that she knew words such as “audubon,” and  “insect.” i think they were most impressed by her cowgirl boots, though. they then adopted her and entertained her for 15 whole minutes. i ate and entire apple in peace!  all three were jumping, hand in hand, from atop this fire pit thingy, pretending to be birds and chanting “we fly so high in the skyyyyy!” it was very cute and gave me hope that one day darla, too, will grow into a lovely pre-teen and give a weary mother a break by bossing her toddler around for her. thanks again, universe.

dear salty sailor,

Posted in kiddie-do, parenting apparently? by

ohhh man we did some STUFF this week. check it.

we zoo-ed it.

she likes to wear you clothes just as much as i do.

new artings at the library. she said she was inspired to draw so she did.

discovered some gnarly, antique doors in our hood. i told her they were secret doors.

she noticed this root system at the schiller park playground grown in a circle. decided this is where gnomes and faeries have dinner together.

in which she discovers a spider’s web, touches it then freaks out b/c it’s on her hand

nom nom at the north market + our treats for being good. she had the little girl and i had the dog dressed as a pig. japan, you so crazy!

you just go ahead and run it out, you crazy lunatic

these last two are at highbanks metropark in the natural play area. this is the best sycamore tree i’ve ever seen, said sycamore featured on the right. i asked darla to pose in front of it and she laid down on the ground and rolled around like a dog. she’s special.

a word on highbanks metropark: they have these little shelter houses that have fireplaces in them. i don’t care how cold it gets, when you get home you will take me there and darla too. you will build me a fire in one and you will like it. you will woo me with your manly survival skills and we will sit in front of that fire whilst darla goes buck wild at the nearby playground. i will probably have some yarn and a darning needle in my hand but i won’t be using them. they are just props b/c that is what a lady is supposed to hold in front of a fire.

that is all.

i can’t even keep track of all the funny stuff she says anymore and i’m getting lazy b/c you’re almost here so i don’t wanna. i feel that way about chores around the house. it’s like i think you’re already here so i don’t want to do it on my own but ‘taint the case.

i do remember that she has figured out how to be three people at one time instead of just two: toddler approaches. tugs on my shirt to signal that my attention is needed. says “mom, i’m mai pretending to be gumby” and then bounds off. i am very frightened for the future at this point.

you missed a pretty magical first for darla’s life – her first viewing of the wizard of oz. i would give anything to have captured the look on her face when dorothy opened the front door to reveal oz and all its vivid splendor. darla’s eyes grew saucerlike and she gasped. she then sat enraptured. if i had known it was going to be that spectacular i would have waited for you to be home before we watched it. also, I FREAKING LOVE JUDY GARLAND.

well i better sign off so i can write you a honey-do email so you know what you’re going to do when you get home.

i love you more than cheese.

wife former fwife

sunday funday

Posted in kiddie-do, love and happiness by

i meant to post this picture update earlier in the day but we were busy with adventures.  the motto for this s’ennight could have been attention to detail. we made lots of new discoveries- secret old doors in the neighborhood, odd trees, new parks and playgrounds. learning is getting more comprehensive. such as when i show her the veins running through the leaves and then compare them to the veins in our wrists. she understands they serve the same purpose in both beings – the transfer of oxygen and nutrients. at least she understood for 2 minutes. it has probably floated away, out of her brain by now but FOUNDATIONS ARE BEING LAID! i am an educating force to be reckoned with. cackle cackle cackle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway here are some of my favorite pictures from our outings.

OhYeahandI’mHereToo

dear salty sailor,

Posted in Uncategorized by

hello love,

really exhausted. all is well. happy. busy. busy. busy. beautiful outdoor days. need you to come home. soon. can’t wait. love.

took darla to the pet store and movies for an M day. we saw cars 2. played air hockey in the arcade and took our pictures in the photo booth.

darla’s attempt at tracing the letter m on the chalkboard

posting and receiving mail. thanks aunt marti! darla loves the bat and book and has dubbed the bat “freddie the fruit bat.”

well, um, she found this and put it on during laundry day and proceeded to reenact the scene from goonies in which brand stretches his exercise equipment and then gets tied up by the other boys. she’s a goonie.

running the bases with burkeybuns. you can’t see it that well but i wrote D + A = ? in the sand. i’m sure you can figure out why.

she’s really just the best. my heart on two legs. yep, my heart has two legs, two arms, one adorable face and an incredibly loud mouth.

Gickr.comshe’s still climbing stuff like a good snuggle monkey outta

we found that missing panda from zanesville. is that too inappropriate?

these last three are from our beautiful little lunch spot in the park. just can not get enough of this autumn afternoon sun.

that’s our week thus far. plus some other things like bike rides, a trip to cosi and library and a burkeybuns dinner/sleepover hangout. now we’re getting geared up for various halloween activities and a trip to good ol’ indiana. darla is very excited about her halloween costume and i can’t wait to show you some cute pics. i wanted to send these pics off to you before i add another fifty from this weekend.

sending you lots of love vibes. really just can not wait for you to be a part of this fun frenzy again.

wifey

what really happened

Posted in it's cool to school by

the weather made a liar out of me yesterday. it turned sunny and warm abruptly. after darla had paraded around the house making messes and climbing every piece of furniture we own, just enough to make me truly, truly afraid of those upcoming housebound months, i pulled the trigger and got us on a bike ride. we had a picnic lunch over the river and spent some time examining driftwood.

this tree stump was by far the coolest find.

so yesterday was a practice of patience, adaptation, and finding the beauty in all this rain. these past few months have really made me skittish about getting started on schooling. it’s days like yesterday that set my wheels spinning about homeschooling or unschooling. darla is not going to get these kind of hands on learning opportunities sitting in a classroom. i really have no idea what path to choose. for right now, i just have to be thankful for the time i’ve had thus far to be her educator, her full time parent, a stay at home mom.

today is back to cold and wet, by the way.