Monday, February 14, 2011

cabin fever


Has it really been that long since I last posted?  Well, last week we were sick--down with both a cold and cabin fever.  Between subzero temps and our own germs, we were on indoor lock-down for several days.  It sucked.  Juniper walked around the house, bouncing her hands off her thighs like, Laa dee daa, I've seen all this junk before.  Give me something NEW.  

:: We had to get inventive.

:: We rediscovered old toys.

:: Osa often took the brunt of the lock-down.

But one really mind-blowing thing happened.  Another quiet moment when your child does something brilliant, but acts like it's nothing more than chewing on the lid to the cloth wipes container: Juniper finally learned to use a toy she's had for almost a year.  Like, she can stack the wooden rings now.  She's been able to do it with the big, bubbly plastic ones at playgroup, but our wooden one has a smaller hole, tighter fit and requires some real skill.  She got it down between snot wipes then did it over and over and over and over again.  

:: We pulled out more wintry clothes from our last box of hand-me-downs--a pleasant surprise 'cause I thought we'd exhausted the winter supply.  

:: We sat on the potty and named animals.  

:: I pulled all the old, freezer-burned '08 garden harvest from the deep, put it in the blender, sauteed it with onion and garlic and made a soup, then proceeded to burn the whole concoction while tending to bugs.  I scooped out the remainder--now seasoned with more than a hint of a smokey, slow-roastedness--added some pasta stars and lo! if Juniper didn't love the stuff.  

:: Temps warmed up enough to snow again.

:: Bird (birr) is still one of Juniper's all-time favorite words (along with ball, dog, doll and no?)--partly due to the omnipresence of mountain chickadees outside our window.  

:: And around this time, up in Montana, a baby was born.  Samuel Fisher.  Juniper's first-ever younger cousin.  We get to meet him in a week.  I am so excited--a brand new soul!  When they were pregnant the first time, we were mostly scared for them and when Owen was born, we really didn't know what to do with a newborn.  But this time...this time is different.  This time, maybe we can make up for all our ignorance and not-knowing.  Maybe we can even be helpful.  


:: Once the temps got above zero, we headed outside again.
Horse, orse, is another favorite word.

:: Walking up the road behind our house to see the horses and elk is our latest pre-dinner entertainment.

:: Also, we found our *perfect* house, threw an offer on the table, got turned down, threw another offer on the table and are still waiting to hear.....

:: Everyday she tries new words.  Today, it was dirt (dirr), tractor (ack-er), hi (hi) and stinks (inks).  As in, we now actually have patches of dirt in our drive, there is a John Deere front-loader parked out back, and Osa has had some awful flatulence.

:: Other popular words: owl (oww), outside (ow-sigh), and pee-pee (bee-bee).

Juniper is infatuated with owls, which is funny because she's never actually seen one.  (Okay, there was one time earlier this winter when I saw an owl and tried to point it out to her, but she never saw it.)  She points them out in books, grins and says, Oww.  Sometimes she'll pick up a book and flip straight to the owl page.  Not to be all woo-woo or anything, but I like to think it's my step-dad's influence from above.  He's been gone for over five years now, but I'm pretty sure he often takes the form of owls and hawks.


Happy Valentine's Day!!    

3 comments:

  1. All of your outdoor photos make me wish we still lived in our little Montana town. Alas. Denver is not Montana. ;)

    Good luck with the house. That is very exciting!

    Tell Juniper I think she rocks...coming from another owl loving pal. :)

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  2. You are a very adorable family. And I adore your kid's names! Juniper was on our short list.

    Nice work on the burned-mess-turned-into-lovely-meal! What satisfaction!

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  3. OK, funny I first thought Osa was a kid name too (hence my plural comment)...I now realize it is just Juniper. But Osa is an awesome name too, even with the flatulence! I should have noticed only one child in the photos but I should be sleeping so it didn't occur to me until after my comment...anyway, sweet dreams!

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