a very good way to get a workout is to relocate a snowbank approximately 5 feet tall, 6 feet wide and 15 feet long off of your perennial bed.

spring is inching towards the adirondacks, and we are all pretty thrilled. every day we go outside, get completely drenched in the melting snow, get very muddy, and then do a HUGE load of laundry at the end of the day.

we started some seeds indoors two days ago, and that was fun--added to the mud, that is for sure.

ava is over her mysterious illness, and seems to be fine. thank god for dvds though. i let her watch little bear, then caillou, then thomas the train, which promptly put her to sleep. carter ADORED thomas the train. he stood there laughing and laughing. he also like caillou. why kids love caillou so much, i will never know. but every child that i have ever met seems to be completely enamored with him.

carter still does not speak english, but he definitely now loves music. grandma sent us a cd with all sorts of dance-able music and he goes berzerk every time he hears it. he runs in circles for a bit, then bops his head, then runs over to me and grabs my hand, leading me to the dance floor. then we all spin around to the music. the 'can-can' is on this cd, and both kids thought it was a riot when i started dancing the can-can. ava mastered skipping as well. she yelled "mom, watch this!" for the thousandth time, and i sort of said "mmmmm-hmmmm" and slowly turned around, then saw that she was actually skipping, something we have been working on forever--she has only managed to do it with one foot so far, and i suddenly yelled "AVA!! YOU'RE SKIPPING!!!" and this stopped her dead in her tracks to stare at me and my impressive reaction, then she burst into a fit of skipping glee and went around the room yelling "i'm skipping!! i'm skipping!!"

next: the jump rope.