Yes, I speak toddler

My oldest daughter, the Human Crash Test Dummy, came to me today and said, with perfect clarity: "Momma, der's a tickuwit in dere!"

Of course. A ... uh ... tickuwit.

After arriving in the room and enacting a lengthy search I discovered ("Dere! Right dere! Tickuwit!") a hale and hearty cricket jumping against the baseboard.

I don't know why I was surprised. This is the baby who asks me every morning if it's time for 'beck-fu-wiss' (breakfast) and if I'm going to be: "doin' yer exer-sizins" when I pick up my freeweights. She also loves playing with her 'race-ul-tars' (race cars). She's really keen on extra syllables.

My 18 month old is still mired in grunts and hums for the most part, although she has such gems as 'Ball' (her and her brother's first word), pronounced "Baaawww"

Not to mention 'nooooooo', 'UH-oh', and 'Oww!'

Big brother, Boy, is in the let's-see-what-happens-if-I-say-a-naughty-word phase and loves to elicit a response by suddenly - in the middle of the Wal Mart preferably - singing out: "PENIS!" and then giggling wildly. I've tried to undermine this by reacting to random words and it's become a sort of game between us. He'll get a devilish look on his face and cry "AMOEBA!" or "JELLYFISH!" and I'll obediently gasp in horror.

He also makes up words. Very strange words. Like 'FEE-buh' and 'grib-ZIT'. What the heck is a grib-zit, anyway?

I suppose I should be grateful for all this chatter. My youngest, at 4 months, has graced me with only one word: "Glur!" which he says with delighted abandon and which is often accompanied by a huge, gummy grin. Right now it's my favourite word.

Glur!

Predator and Blue, tied 2 for 2

I'm beginning to think that the predators are hiring reinforcements: a sort of wildlife League Of Villains. I swear every time I try some new critter-proofing, several new critters show up to test it out.

I lost another hen, reset the trap, and got another 'coon. In the meantime I put together this for the biddies:

Yes, I know ... all my construction has a classic beauty, lol. In my own defense, almost everything is of recycled material. As a matter of fact the only thing I used here that was new was the chickenwire.

Here's the inside:

It's built onto an existing shed which was used as a workshop. Those are shelves in the pic. I just built around them and will put nest boxes up there.

Here's an exterior side view with biddies installed:

Those are Barred Rocks and black-tailed Japs. I had carefully (I thought) patched any holes bigger than 1 inch but then I went out one evening to find this lovely bloke:

He had killed one of the Rocks and was trying to swallow him when I yanked him out. I'm 5'8" and his head brushed the ground with me holding him as high as possible. The weird spots in the pic are from the rain that was pouring down at the time.

*sigh* So now I've inspected the biddy pen again (saw where the snake got in as he tried to get out the same way) and am being scrupulous about shutting up the hens at night. So far so good. Perhaps i'll actually get to write a post that doesn't include a lengthy blow-by-blow of critter warfare, LOL!

(PS: I do not kill snakes, in case you were wondering)

About bloody time, and all!

I achieved a record just a moment ago: 3 out of 4 children weeping simultaneously!

You have no idea of the definition of 'cacophony' until you've managed this feat.

My 18 month old, Bitty Girl, was howling in outrage because it was naptime and she wanted to ride the tricycle. Now, we have three tricycles. A big red metal classic Radio Flyer, a medium modern radio flyer, and a small plastic push-with-your feet jobbie.

You can figure out who's whose, right? So, which one does Bitty want to ride? The medium one which she can at least get ONto unassisted? Noooooooooo. She demands the Mondo Biggo and achieves scream-ranges that only dogs can hear if anyone tries to stop her.

My 2 1/2 year old, the Human Crash Test Dummy, is crying because she just banged her elbow in a daring adventure involving - you guessed it - tricycles and which one she (who is the most adept rider, when she's not falling off or crashing spectacularly) gets to pilot.

And my 4 month old, Long Tall Drink of Water boy, is wailing because, hey, it's been 6 1/2 minutes since he ate and what the hell is mommy thinking?

I love my family. I can never say that my day is boring.

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There've been further adventures in farming, if you've a mind to read, and new pictures from our State Fair outing.

We only got to go the one day *BIG sad face* and I missed al the livestock entirely because they actually scheduled my knee surgery! Yes! No lie! I had the op on Thursday (after the tiresome but oh-so-familiar "you know you'll have to take all those piercings out, right?" dance.) Now I'm in LARGE pain, my knee is swollen up like a balloon, and I can barely hobble to the bathroom (bonus points to my evil body: AF started the day before the surgery*exasperated sigh*).

And while I'm bitching may I mention that I can't take the full load of lovely drugs that I was prescribed because, of course, I can't with the babies to care for. Oh well! There's always the evenings after Evil Genius Husband gets home. Bwahahahahahah!