7 Quick Takes

Linking up with Jen a day late, but we’re going to roll with it.

1.  So…after 3 whole days of the ducks putting themselves to bed, they didn’t go in by themselves last night.  Luckily, though, Michael was home, so we didn’t have a repeat performance of very pregnant woman trying to herd ducks -- convinced they’re about to be slaughtered -- into the duck house that will protect them from the raccoons who will actually slaughter them if they don’t go into the house.  I’m just hoping it was a fluke last night and they’ll be back to their usual bedtime tonight.  Or maybe they were hoping they could stay up late on Friday nights? 

2. 

Yesterday I painted my toenails.  Then I painted Tess’s.  Later I painted Naomi’s, but I didn’t have the camera out at that point, so I only got my toes and Tess’s on camera.  One reason, I have to admit, is that Tess is somewhat reluctant to do without socks, even on very warm days.  Of course, during the winter, she’d take them off and put them down the laundry regularly.  But now that it’s sandals weather, she wants socks all the time.  Since one of the benefits of warm weather is NOT to have to wash socks, I set up Tess’s toes so that she’d want to look at them, meaning she’d leave her socks off.  We’ll see if my stratagem works. 

Another reason I painted them was to prove I could reach my toes still.  Yep.  Can still reach them.

3. 

Tess was ridiculously excited to get her toenails painted.  When she saw me painting mine, she immediately asked to have hers done.  And when I said I would paint hers, she laughed her sweet little Tessie laugh.  And now that they’re done, she loves to admire them. 

3.  The baby has dropped.  This doesn’t mean much (in other words, I’m not expecting to have the baby NOW) except that I can breathe a bit more easily and I’m having some fun with the pregnancy gait. 

4. 

Sim’s reading is advanced enough that we now have 3 kids who disappear into Bookshire and then complain when we ask for their attention elsewhere.  As my dad would say, “It’s payback time!”  Both Michael and I spent much of our youth trying to read when we should have been doing other things, and now we’re paying the price.

Also, Sim needs to get the memo about warmer weather.  Several mornings a week I send him back upstairs to change out of his turtle necks.  Or maybe I should just move his warm clothes to the basement.  I feel some more nesting coming on…

5. 

Naomi mostly has down the idea of dressing for summer, but she’ll still come down in long sleeves and long pants some mornings.  The thing is, since the weather cools off a lot at night, it’s not crazy to have long sleeves in the morning.  But it is crazy in the afternoon, when it’s sunny and 75 degrees and we’re all going to the park or on a hike or something.  I’m trying to help them figure out the concept of layers. 

6.  The checker at the store today told me to take care of myself and not work too hard.  I was buying an alarm clock.  I’m not sure if it was just the VERY pregnant thing that she was commenting on, or if the combination of alarm clock and VERY pregnant caused her to think I’m working myself too hard.  When I really need people’s concern about taking it easy and not working too hard is after the baby comes, but once the pregnant belly is gone, nobody seems to worry too much about the mom working too hard. 

7. 

It’s a bit blurry because evening is setting in and I didn’t want to use the flash on my sleeping child, but they’re pretty sweet in their sleep, you know?