One Little Tree

can be so much fun. When you're five or three and under one.  (Way too much Dr. Suess in the air this morning.)

The kids recently learned to climb the most "mature" tree in our yard and have been roosting up there ever since. I'm grateful that the previous inhabitants (mainly renters I'm sure) kept up the watering and maintenance of our little tree. It's just the right size for our little kids and it provides just about the only shade we have in our backyard. The kids have proclaimed that it should hence forth be known as "Shady". I hope that is not in reference to it's general character.

Two by Two

Today I was sitting on the rocking chair with both boys and they were fighting over who should get to sit on my lap. In order to distract them from tearing each other apart I stopped them and asked "Why do you think God sent me two little boys instead of just one?" In almost perfect unison and without hesitation they both answered "Because we BOTH love you Mama!"  

Smile.

Hurray! It's Independence Day!

Yes, I'm starting off this post with a rhyme.

That's the kind of mood I'm in!

Woke up this morning feeling O'-So-Patriotic that I sang "America The Beautiful" "My Country Tis of Thee" and "The Star Spangled Banner". And then because Sophia asked me to please stop singing already! and Claire didn't seem all that impressed I googled/YouTube patriotic music and did an impromptu Independence Day parade around the kitchen table complete with three little sun tanned babies marching along behind me. And that was all before 8 am. The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday after Christmas, and yes it's okay for adults to have "favorite holidays.  In honor of our great nation I am now sipping ice cold coffee out of a mason jar because it just seems more festive than drinking out of a plain mug and by golly I'm ready to celebrate!

What I really meant to write about was the conclusion of swim class. Not really the conclusion as much as the stuff that happened between the time Alex was unwilling to dip so much as a pinky toe into the water right up to the point where he was doing a backward swan dive off the high dive. And I'm only slightly exaggerating.

Remember back to the post where I schemed a plan for getting him into the water? It involved something like repeating "You will get in the water" enough times and with so much conviction that he would be *tricked* into getting in the water. Any guesses on how well that worked out? If you answered complete and total parenting fail than you guessed correctly.

It seems that the trick for getting a scared three year old boy into a cold swimming pool is for a beautiful, smiling, college aged swim instructor to come over to the bleachers and scoop him into her arms and carry him to the edge of the water. Then said three year old boy will happily jump right in. And so it went. Every single time. Alex acting "pretend scared" and clinging to Patrick's legs until his swim instructor would come over and carry him off, with him all the while grinning at us over her shoulder. He's a smart one that little Alex. And a good swimmer now too. I would never out right confess it to the others but he probably did the best at actually learning to swim, both above and below water. I guess weighing in at 28 lbs doesn't hurt.

And so this short tale of swimming misadventures doesn't exclude the other little Nelsons I have to say that Sophia would have won the award for most creative jumps off the diving board had there been awards on the last day and Max who mostly clung to his swim teacher, spent each lesson with a huge smile across his face.

Here's the proof:

And one of Sophia and her enthusiastic diving style

And finally my little guy swimming his heart out

Oh and one of him jumping too!

Head over Heels In Love With My Baby

First Food

It's gonna take some time getting used to this.

When it rains (in the desert)...

it's over in two minutes so you better shove the kids into their never before used rain gear as quickly as you can and snap a few pictures because 

before you turn around, it'll be gone.

Just before the storm blew in...

.....Patrick was working a clubhouse for the kids.  Not the kind that comes out of the box with directions in English, Spanish and Chinese or the kind that is mass produced from fluorescent red plastic that fades into pink after just one summer but instead that kind that he imagined up one night built out of pvc pipes, sheets of plastic for walls and very soon the artwork of three very excited kids. The kind of house that little kids can help attach a pipe here or tape a wall there and later brag about building it "on my very own".

The very night the walls were to be constructed and the kids were dancing around the house like little monkeys anxiously awaiting the invitation to come on in, the winds started. Not that winds in the desert are anything new really but winds on a late June night? That seemed a little off. Soon after came the dark clouds and lightening. And later still the shockingly strong gusts  threatening to pull the little house apart at the corners or worse yet turn it into a hot air balloon lifting over fence and landing in an unappreciative neighbors' tree.

With an unhappy Claire wailing from her exersaucer to be picked up and the other littles trampling underfoot a little scared of the howling wind but still excited to help, Patrick and I slowly lifted and carried the ballooning house stopping every few seconds to hold tight through the strongest gusts and carefully wedged the blowing walls and shaking roof between our house and the fence.

Once there Patrick began the job of taking apart the walls of the newly constructed house for fear that the wind would tear them apart at less forgiving points.

Sophia, ever the little adult, stayed outside with Daddy making sure the job was done just right.

And just after they finishing tearing down the walls and laying it's former windows and doors in the rocks we received the first bit of rain we've had in months, breaking the longest drought on record since 1892. And all it cost was a little homemade playhouse.