TEN

At the aquarium with cousins.

 2016 week ten

A lovely rainy week to play and play and play.

The best part of aquariums are when you get to touch the creatures.

I love to stumble upon glimpses of Veronica's imagination.

Dandelion is Vera's new favorite friend. She loves to gather all sorts of sticks, leaves, hay, grass, and lavender flowers to feed her.

Now that it's been raining V has unlimited access to water which makes all her dreams come true.

Painting day. 

All water all day. 

I love finding surprise asparagus shoots in my garden. Happy Spring! 

One afternoon I made some lemon meringue pies. Vera was so excited to eat hers for snack "Just like Amelia Bedelia!" 

Dinner prep

Quotes:

"Mama I had a dream about a bear trying to bite us! And then Belle went to the airport!" I LOVE that Vera is dreaming and realizing it and wants to tell me about them every morning.

"Tornados are like tomatoes."

Me, "Vera why do you smell like pizza?"
V, "That's just what Elsa smells like!"

Matt, "Mmmm, you smell so good."
Me, "Really? What do I smell like?"
Matt, "A witches pocket."

Me, "Look there's a big rainbow!"
V, "Can I hold it?"

V, reading to herself, "These are ruffians. And these ones are girl ruffians!"


Stories:

We had two repairmen in our house this week -to fix our stove and to assess our house for foundation repairs. Both were quickly adopted by Vera as her best friends. She followed them around their work telling them all about Elsa, and her dress up clothes, about her Glamor Cat. They were laughing so hard and V was just chatting away. She was Anne of Green Gables incarnate making friends with them and engaging them in her fanciful conversations.

One morning when the storm was really bad the sky suddenly turned green and hail started to fall. It worried me and though I hadn't heard anything about tornado warnings, my mama bear spirit animal grabbed my babies and threw them in the bathroom. I checked my phone for warnings and it was all clear, but I was really nervous for a few minutes. V would. NOT. stop. talking about it. While we were in the bathroom she was an unending stream of chatter, Why are we in the bathroom? Is a tornado coming? What is a tornado? Are you checking on your phone for a tornado? Once we were all clear she talked about it for the rest of the day. Did we have to go into the bathroom? Did you think there was a tornado? Did you check on your phone for a tornado? Were we sitting in the bathroom? A tornado is like a tomato? Her chatter is ever present and without pause. From the minute she wakes to the minute she's asleep she's talking to me, or her animals, or eating -and even then she's usually talking. She is a serious chatterbox.

I have been able to catch a couple of Theo's poops on the toilet this week and Vera is FASCINATED! I cannot get her to back up. She sits on the ground with her chin on the toilet seat (I keep trying to push her back or prevent her from putting her face on the toilet but to no avail) and watching Theo poop. Mama, is he pooping? Can I touch it? Can I eat it? (What on earth is it with her about eating poop?! She's serious! She's not joking!) And amidst her talking she started gagging. Mama *gag* I'm choking! Theo's poop is making me choke! *leans her head in closer to look, gags again* I'm choking! And I'm yelling, "Get out of here! If it is making you choke back up! You don't have to watch him poop!"

And then when I was out running on Saturday morning I saw two dogs run across the road: a german shepherd and a little Chihuahua. I always run with pepper spray and I turned the knob to be ready, and sure enough, the german shepherd saw me and snarled and leaped and ran straight at me barking and snapping. I screamed and yelled, "NO! NO! Get back! NO!" and sprayed them in the face. They ran past me and doubled back leaping and biting and barking. Here I am screaming and spraying them in the face and they are barking, and not a soul comes out their door. Luckily they ran away and I got away and called Matt to come pick me up. Luckily they didn't bite me. And if they had? If I hadn't carried pepper spray that day? What would I have done? No one came out their door. If I had been less prepared I don't think anyone would have been there to help me. I've been having shivers thinking about it all weekend. And I pretty much feel like I'm done running in my neighborhood for a while.