Diana in the box

The girls and I had a lot of fun while they were preparing to go to bed. One thing I especially enjoyed was playing Hide and Seek with Amelia and Diana. Amelia is good at Hide and Seek, except that she tends to tell me where she's going to hide ("I'm going to hide under the bed and you try to find me"). Diana likes Hide and Seek, but usually doesn't get to ten before she runs down the hall to find her sister ("One, two, three...ready or not!"). Diana doesn't always hide when the time comes either, sometimes choosing to watch mommy count with her eyes covered.

After Hide and Seek was supposed to be over, Amelia got the idea to hide in mom and dad's laundry hamper. I told her not to go in there, worrying that she would knock the thing over and get hurt. Because Amelia wanted to get in the hamper, Diana decided it was a good idea, too. Funny thing is, though Amelia couldn't quite get into the hamper Diana swung her leg up and over the lip of the hamper and pulled herself up and into the dirty clothes bin. I didn't really want her to do it, but I was really impressed that she pulled it off.

As daddy pointed out when I told him the story, it seems pretty likely that Diana can get out of her crib at this point. And Diana insisted on sleeping in Amelia's bed again during nap time. I think it won't be long until Diana will be in a big girl bed of her own.

Lisa

Me too!

As most of you know, Diana loves doing the things that her big sister does. Whenever Amelia gets to do something good, bad, or indifferent, Diana's right there motioning for a chance to do the same thing saying, "Me, too!" or "My turn."

Last night when I was coming upstairs with the girls' blankets I found Diana at the top of the staircase complaining because she could not seem to get Amelia's underwear to fit over her pajama pants. Though she normally insists on doing things herself, Diana accepted my help and was thrilled when I pulled Amelia's underwear up over her pants. She wore the panties as she and Amelia ran up and down the hall dumping mommy's lingerie drawer into the washer. She even wore them to bed.

Diana tried to pull on Amelia's underwear again tonight, but gave up quickly and went to bed in her jammies. Still, if I were a betting woman I'd bet that Diana will be out of diapers and into underwear, just like her big sister, within six months.

I guess time will tell if I'm right.

Lisa

Various messes

I haven't provided any updated information about our hummingbird friend, because the news I had to share wasn't very good. After noticing that momma hummingbird wasn't coming around anymore, I went outside to investigate. Looking closely on the ground beneath the hummingbird nest I saw tiny bits of egg shell. It seems that the hummingbird eggs fell from their nest - or were helped down from their nest.

As I mentioned before, a jay bird had been near the hummingbird's nest and this had made mommy bird upset. Checking data on the scrub jay in the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds I read, "...frequently noisy and conspicuous. Many condemn it as a nest robber..." I suspect Humpty Dumpty was pushed.

As an aside, the same day I found the broken hummingbird eggs I also decided to begin watching season one of The Sopranos (yes, I am a little behind the rest of the country). I found it ironic that I was watching Tony Soprano becoming terribly upset at the loss of a family of ducks who left his yard on the same day I was feeling sad about the loss of a pair of hummingbird eggs.

Yesterday I found a dove's nest in a tree in the front yard. My advice to the dove is to look out for jay birds.

Other than the bird chronicles, things are about the same here. I have been trying to get the girls to do things that don't involve staring at electronic screens, but it seems everything they choose to do is terribly messy. Amelia and Diana went through two packets of paint (that were supposed to last through at least three painting sessions) in a day. And they get through bubble-blowing solution suprisingly fast, too. The messes have been horrible, and I can see why some parents just give up and let their kids spend their days in front of the television.

Lisa

Lisa as landlord

Here's the latest hummingbird news:

I walked out my front door this afternoon to mail a birthday card and heard a hummingbird complaining loudly about something. I thought I should take a moment to find out if the ruckus involved our new tenant and sure enough she was having a fit because a blue jay was sitting in her tree.

I moved in a little closer in hopes of scaring off the jaybird, and he flew off. I expected the hummingbird to return to her usual quiet, happy self once the jay was gone, but then she started complaining because I was too close to her nest. I slowly backed away muttering, "Okay, okay, I'm leaving."

I still can't say for certain whether there are eggs in the hummingbird's nest or not. I suspect the hummingbird hasn't laid her eggs yet, since her nest seems to be expanding. She may actually still be building her babies' home.

On another note, Amelia made me laugh today with all of her imaginations and invisible friends. Amelia spent a lot of time this afternoon riding imaginary trains from Thomas the Tank Engine back and forth through the house. At the park she worked hard handing out pretend berries and flowers to whomever happened to be standing by - but the best line I heard from her today came when a boy showed up to the park and Amelia asked him, "Are you here to see the engines?" (I wonder what that boy was thinking when he heard this...)

Lisa

springtime

Once again I have been failing in my tasks as master blogger. But here is a lovely image of the girls in their Easter dresses to make up for being out of touch for so long.

Amelia, Diana and I recently went down to Morro Bay for a visit. All of us had fun. Diana, who is usually a big home-body, now loves visiting all of her "gammas and papas." (Though she still gets testy near the end of any long drive.)

Though I got some terrific pictures of the girls on the beach, the weather near the Pacific Ocean wasn't great. It was so cold and windy it turned all of our ears red. In fact, it was so cold that the girls actually paid attention to my request that neither of them get wet during our trip to the beach.

As I usually do before I take Amelia anywhere I asked her if she needed to use the potty. And as is normal for Amelia she said, "No." Of course, once we had been at the beach a few short minutes she admitted that she really did need to go to the bathroom. I was happy, because this gave me an excuse to get out of the cold.

What's funny about all of this is that as soon as Amelia finished her trip to the bathroom she asked to go back to the beach. My response to her request was a polite and understanding, "No," but in my mind I was thinking, "Are you out of your mind?"

Amelia nearly cried when we got in the car the next day to drive home. She really wanted one more walk to the beach regardless of the weather.

I also got to take Amelia to the movies while I was on the Central Coast. Amelia and I saw Horton Hears a Who and we both enjoyed the film quite a bit. Amelia is becoming a very polite young lady and sat quietly for almost the entire 90 minutes that we were in the theater. In fact, when another child at the end of the row was making noise she looked at me and said, "We have to whisper here." "That's right," I told her - feeling very proud.

The other bit of exciting news is that a hummingbird has decided to nest outside our dining room window. I have spent a lot of time these past two days taking photographs of the tiny mommy-to-be and have tried my best to see if there are indeed two eggs in the bird's tiny nest...If I were about a foot taller, I would already know if eggs are there. As for now, I'm just assuming the hummingbird is warming something besides down and spider webs.

Lisa

P.S. As one of Amelia's bedtime games she requested that we talk about all of the rides she saw (and some she didn't) at Disneyland. Though the best stories have been told, I will still try to finish my long-winded tale of our trip to the Magic Kingdom.