A few days ago, Peter brought home a cache of junk food, including a box of chocolate covered oreos, which are very very delicious. I hid most of the stuff that Ava would recognize (skittles, starbursts, gummi bears), but since Ava has no idea what an Oreo is, I figured that box would not need to be hid. Well, this morning, Ava looked up into the cabinet when it was open, saw the box and said "Mom, can I have one of those chocolate hamburgers?"

We went up Floodwood mountain today. This was a 0.5 mile hike to the trailhead, then a 1.0 mile hike to the summit, with some considerable scrambling at the top. Ava did it all, the whole way. 3 miles total. I pumped her full of sugar at the summit (after suggesting some wheat thins and apricots, no deal), and then we went back down--she managed most of the tough stuff by sliding on her bottom.

We came home and had cheesy scrambled eggs, peas, and sliced peaches--from start to finish, 11 minutes of preparation. I did a little victory dance at that new record.

Carter spent so much time in the backpack this afternoon that when we got home, all he did was walk laps around the house, holding 2 cloth napkins and waving them--celebrating his freedom, I suppose.

The other day, I learned that you can paddle a Lost Pond Boat (like a very lightweight open kayak) and nurse an infant at the same time. Ava, carter and I were in the boat on our maiden paddle together and Carter was really fussy. I pulled over to the bank, but pretty soon realized that with his lifejacket on he was in an easily maintained position. It was sort of like driving a car with your knees. I had both hands free, and so I just paddled away. I spent most of the time hoping no one came along, because there really was no hiding the effort, but figured most people out there would be crunchy enough to shrug and smile.