Spring

Those spring peepers were right about spring.  One morning Nyla mentioned that she saw some deer standing on its hind legs eating leaves in the backyard.  I looked out there and sure enough a few trees had leaves.  It seemed to happen overnight.  There are a few trees blooming and I saw a few daffodils yesterday.  It seems too soon for spring. 

We've been working on cleaning up the backyard a bit.  There are lots of vines and dead wood.  Some of the vines are strong enough to swing on. 

Our neighborhood is still young and years from being built out.  Last week we saw dump truck after dump truck driving by the house full of soil.  Nyla, Cora, and I went out to explore where the soil was coming from.  We ran into the loader driver who told us that they took 100 loads to the other side of the neighborhood and that the area we were entering would be the future site of 62 more homes.  Right now it is just forest with some paths in it.  On Sunday we all went to explore and found several frog eggs, the far side of the lake, and a fun swing.  On Monday I took the kids again so we can track the progress of the frog eggs.  On our way out their we passed the neighbor kids' house and all three ended up joining us as well.  Nyla finally spent some time with the youngest who is six.  Prior to this she had spent most of her time with the eldest who would come over frequently.  She really hit it off with the youngest and they made plans to play again the next day.  Unfortunately it rained yesterday and we were off running errands so we didn't see them yesterday.  It's raining again today and it is quite a bit colder so I don't know if we'll see them today. 

Bohdin has been sucked into watching youtube videos of somebody playing Minecraft.  I don't allow him to play the game but I do grudgingly allow him to watch a couple of the videos per day.  Being on the computer too long puts him in a bad mood.  He becomes grumpy and he just wants to keep watching beyond the allowed time.  We had another disagreement about it Saturday night so Sunday morning he told me that in the future it would be better if I just said a simple yes or no to his request.  He thought that would solve all of the drama surrounding why he couldn't play or watch something.  I agreed.  It seemed like something he had given a lot of thought to.  About an hour later he asked me if he could play on the computer.  Remembering our new agreement I simply said no.  He followed that up with asking why he couldn't and when he would be able to.  The plan was nice while it lasted.

Cora has begun doing a growly hiss at us when she doesn't like something.  If we tell her something she doesn't like she'll turn to us, give us a mean look, and hiss.  She also likes to pretend she's a bear or a dog.  She hates being called princess even when she is wearing a princess costume. 

Strawberry season is here and Cora is devouring them.  I bought a pound on Saturday and she ate them up immediately.  I bought another pound on Sunday and they were gone just as quickly.  Yesterday I went to Costco and bought four pounds.  We are down to our last pound already and it is mostly because of Cora.  She gets pretty territorial about them and we are hardly allowed to look at "her" strawberries.  Explaining that I bought all of those strawberries for everybody to enjoy has had no effect.  At least she hasn't hissed at us when we dare eat one.