Skipper update

I took this video this afternoon as Skipper and I prepared to go get Dutch from school.

Skipper is very fierce these days, tempestuous rage and sorrow alternating with giddy glee. She also alternately loathes and adores Dutch... We're almost officially into the terrible twos!

She just started at a "nanny-share" at another family's house, and her first day went astonishingly smoothly, with no crying at all. She and I were able to talk about it in advance, and she handled the change really well, like a rational human being who finds herself with strangers in a strange new place with a bajillion interesting toys and the assurance that her mom will be back to fetch her later.

Also, it seems that cutting back substantially on her dairy consumption is improving her eczema. Huzzah!

All in all, things are going well in Skipper's world. She would probably prefer if she had both parents at hand ALL THE TIME, and if her meddling sister could be banished and beckoned when it was convenient for Skipper, and if we would stop washing her* and trying to feed her green things, that would be nice. But the world is full of thrilling opportunities, and she has all these amazing new skills. Being two, apparently, means to alternately pounce gleefully out into the crazy wide world, and then get overwhelmed by the crazy wide world and retreat back to a safe place.

*We just gave her her first washing in THREE WEEKS. I hang my head in shame. She was pretty icky. It's just so hard to wash a kid who absolutely hates being washed, and who is getting kind of large and strong... so we often have a hard time bringing ourselves to do it. But she's clean now!

Wheels

Dutch and Skipper both got scooters this spring, to celebrate Skipper's upcoming birthday and our new home-owner status. They've both been doing a lot of zooming up and down the driveway and our block on their scooters and their bikes/tricycle. Dutch has officially graduated to Bike Rider status.

(You may notice that I can't stop laughing while filming this - the video doesn't do justice to the hilarious, wobbly, knee-flapping quality of Dutch's biking style.)

SAD!!!!!

So I do complain about the rain in Portland, though for the most part I've come to embrace it. I've been complaining a lot lately.

This is why:

• It's the "fifth-wettest" March in Portland on record.
• 28 of March's 29 days so far have included at least some rain.

I feel SAD!!! This many days of gray can really get you down. And I'm sick of gardening in the rain. I'm sick of the kids being cooped up* and cranky. Give me sunshine!**

*Not that we don't get out in the rain, but still, enough is enough.

** We've barely been able to use our swanky new clothesline. Several times, we've tried to take advantage of a brief interlude of sunshine, only to rush out twenty minutes later to rescue the rapidly-dampening laundry.

Especially my dad.

I know some scientists. They're ALL like this: http://xkcd.com/877/

I know SO much more now!

My mystery plant with the orange berries? Pyracantha. I kind of hate it. It's not native! But apparently the berries are sort-of-kind-of edible, so maybe I'll reconsider. And at least ours isn't the kind with the vicious thorns.

Let us talk of briks and bloons.

Skipper got a birthday* wagon! Joy, conflicts, and minor accidents ensued.

Dutch drew her best picture ever. They've been working on labeling diagrams at school.

*Can you believe she's about to turn 2? No, I thought not.

Christmas in March

Hi! I'm alive! All is well. We're just really busy, and I'm spending all my spare time thinking about kinnikinnick and evergreen huckleberry.

The Big Cooks and Antarctic Uncle/Green Thumb Auntie have been visiting, and doing extraordinary amounts of home improvement chores* as well as keeping the kids busy and happy.

I have been gardening. Mostly what I've been doing is killing the lawn and coveting plants at a local nursery. I've never been interested in landscaping, having a primarily utilitarian approach to gardening, but I find myself pretty excited about the idea of filling our property with native plants and edible plants. (And when I find a native edible, I get VERY excited!) We have figs and grapes already, and I will be planting strawberries, blueberries, and salmonberries this week. Salmonberries, you guys! My plan for the summer of 2016 involves eating our own huckleberries, salmonberries, blueberries, strawberries (wild and cultivated), thimbleberries, and currants. I'm not sure if this plan will survive my laziness, my lack of horticultural expertise, and/or birds, but we'll see. It's a nice dream, at any rate.

I asked a local arborist for free wood chips, (on the advice of an avid gardener I know) and he delivered unto me a truckload of chipped up bits of Douglas fir. I have no idea if this is a good mulch or not, but it's all over our yard now, and it smells like Christmas everywhere.

And I'm alive! I hope you are all alive as well.

*Removing ancient contact paper from built-ins, removing a TV antenna from the roof, fixing both bathroom fans, installing baseboards, painting, replacing switchplates, sanding, organizing, and generally troubleshooting all day long.

Green

I've been puzzling* about the widespread resentment of public workers and unions. My theory is that it stems from the same feeling that I have when I talk to somebody who has a job - the feeling is jealousy and yes, resentment - why do YOU have a job and benefits when I don't?

And lots of people feel this way. Instead of responding reasonably - "Hm, you have something I don't, and I want it - what do I have to do to get it? Perhaps support unions and start one of my own?" we are all responding with our lizard brains - "Me want! Me can't have! Me take yours away!"

It's just sad. It's extra sad that people with lots and lots and lots of money are the ones who are benefiting the most.

*A little bit - mostly I've been puzzling about why Skipper is insane. This morning she was lying in bed making terrible nonverbal whining howls, and I said "Skipper, what do you WANT?!" There was a pause and then she said loudly and firmly "I want my BACKPACK!"

More Things!

1) Bulk-food bags. Cook and I got sick of using so many lightweight plastic disposable bags for our bulk and produce purchase. (We had already gotten an assortment of reusable sandwich/snack bag things, so our ziplock bag consumption is minimal.) During the brief period when we lived across the street from a co-op grocery store, we carried big glass jars over there and put the bulk stuff straight into them, but when you have no car, it's pretty hard to tote those around with you. So I got a few nylon bags that you use just like the plastic bags in the bulk section - fasten them with twist ties, with no need to tare them because they weigh so little. These would be really easy and cheap to make if you had a sewing machine and even rudimentary ability to use it, but I don't have those things, so I had to buy them expensively (off Etsy, no less). They're terrific. They aren't good for storage, just transporting food from store to home, but they meet our needs perfectly.*

2) Wheeled collapsible pushcart. We have been car-free for more than 10 years now, and we've NEVER had one of these carts before. That was really stupid. I went to a garage sale a few weeks ago, and bought some random homeowner stuff, including a really big wheeled cart.** It's transformed my shopping! When I see that our preferred pasta is on sale IF you buy 10 boxes, I can buy them! I can buy diapers in big boxes. Everything is different now.

And while I'm on the topic of car-freedom, I just want to say how happy I am with where we live. Within a 20-minute walk, I can get pretty much everything I need for daily living. Today Skipper and I dropped Dutch off at school, then went to the coffee shop across the street from our house to ask for grounds to add to our compost. Then we went to the hardware store, a 10-minute walk away, and got some primer and a paint roller. On the way home, we stopped at a shoe-repair place (my shoes need resoling so I can keep walking everywhere) and watched a construction site for a while. After Skipper wakes up from her nap, we'll probably walk over to the grocery store to buy coffee and to the library to get some new books about horses, before walking back over to the school to fetch Dutch. That's pretty much the way I want my life to be.

*I'm on a mission to reduce our trash production down to 32 gallons a month (we're currently at 80, because certain people refuse to use the toilet and we haven't been composting). I think we can do it without too much difficulty, but maybe not until potty training is complete.

**And a snow shovel. We may need to use it once or twice, and then it'll be really worth the $1 I spent on it.

Product Reviews

Here's what I like these days:

1) My new pruners. I love them. We had a gardening friend come by and advise us on Saturday, and she explained how the grapes were supposed to be pruned. I pruned them. It took a really, really long time - hours - to prune all three of the beasts, including the one that climbs an arbor.* It was tremendously satisfying.

2) Dutch's bike. She practiced riding up and down the driveway all weekend, with a tenacity unusual for her, and she's now able to ride all the way to the end of the driveway and brake to a stop by herself. I think she'll be a confident rider by the end of the summer.

3) Oats. Our new budget includes very little wiggle room,** but oats are cheap, and both kids miraculously love oatmeal.

4) Books about horses. Even boring ones that aren't very well-written. In this household, they are devoured, delicious oats for the brain.

5) Donner,*** the crusty plastic baby doll that Skipper has co-opted from Dutch. Skipper goes to sleep clutching Donner to her chest, and often talking to it. Tonight I listened to her croon lovingly "Don't be sad, little love! Don't be sad!" to Donner.

6) Our new clothesline. I think this is why we actually bought a house; so we could dry our clothes outside as well as on the trusty (rusty) wooden rack. Cook is so enthusiastic that he hung laundry outside yesterday to hang limply under a cloudy grey sky for about two hours.

* Arbor being a glorified term in this case for "rusting jury-rigged framework of metal and wood scraps that you could warily sit under and enjoy in the summer if you wore a helmet"

** We have to save money so I can buy a truckload of composted horse manure and 32 strawberry plants. Priorities, people!

*** Donner is so named because Dutch used to gnaw on its arms and legs. Cook has a gift for naming dolls.

Dutch was given a beautiful laminated Flat Princess Dutch, complete with a journal, for her fifth birthday. Since her birth, Flat Princess Dutch has been to Alaska, Maine, and Mexico, as well as

more local Oregon destinations. She has written funny, charming journal entries, complete with photos, along the way, and Dutch loves it. Flat Dutch is home now, and we thought we'd better make a photographic record while she's here.

Lately

The Best Baby Ever visited again. Skipper was appalled by her behavior and told her strictly "Don't chew on dat!"

Best Friend came over for her first playdate at our new house. Remember Best Friend? She came over for her first ever playdate with Dutch in 2008. This is what they looked like.

This is what they look like now.

And Dutch used her fleece sweatshirt to demonstrate static electricity on a snacking Skipper.