Butterflies and Bumblebees

We are under the weather around here after a wonderful week with Oma and Opa (pictures to follow) and a whirlwind trip to Charlottesville (yes, I got to hold baby Lucy!!!) which somehow also included an up-close driving tour of Washington DC, followed by a way-too-short visit with Eric's close friends Camlon and Rachel and their three children. I just hope none of the people we've hugged in the last week catch this little cold.

A nice thing about travel with two small children is how much fun it is to be home again. I love watching them unwind and look at all their toys like they've never seen them before. They are usually both content to play quietly by themselves for long stretches at a time, decompressing and discovering home anew.

These days Heidi is out in our cliff-dwelling yard every afternoon picking lilacs and hunting for lizards. She is her mother's daughter. I have given up trying to hold her back. It helps not to think of her age. I'm just glad she hasn't discovered the tree yet. Elsa spends a lot of time in the sandbox--I laugh when I remember how stressed out I used to get around sand with Heidi. Elsa learned pretty quickly that it doesn't taste good. The big thing to watch for is Heidi pouring sand over Elsa's head. "Because it looks like shampoo, mama!" After I made it clear not to do this to sister I looked out and saw Heidi forlornly pouring the sand over her own head. We just recently got her hair cut and so their is lots of beauty parlor play in our house. I'm enjoying the free scalp massages.

All in all, we are enjoying having Daddy home, warm spring weather, fluffy flowers, and wheely bees.