Blogging Blessings: Friends, Family, and Chickens

1. Birthdays! Happy Birthday Tiffiny! Had a great time at that party, and especially loved how Seren guided every single guest, one at at time during the evening to take us on the tour of the balcony. She is so sweet! As was that Pink Champagne cake Whoo!

2. Spiral Scouts! We love having a spiritually eclectic group of friends all working on earthy projects together. Here is Shraddha with her first Firefly award and award ceremony...

Jack and Shraddha are just pooped out from all the clay play and running around like airplanes. Here they are just enjoying the clouds flying by.

4. Chickens. Yeah, they are counted as a blessing ... maybe not in the same way others count them as blessings.... They are friends not food! Anyway... they are funny! And anything that makes me laugh is a blessing LOL!



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Meet Tiny, our feather footed friend. He just came out this week with his first crowing session! Congrats Tiny on being our FIFTH unexpected rooster LOL! And stay out of my grapes, man! Really seriously, ALL Y'ALL OUTTA MY GRAPES!

Watch Suki kitty try to casually slink by the chickens for a chance to roll in the Wisteria flower petals. We know who's yard it is now... and it isn't the dog yard.

Chillin with our Peeps

So 4/13/08 is about the time that we got our first set of 3 chicks. Here is Shraddha bright and early in the morning getting into the brooder with Laverne, Shirley and Ivanna.

Shraddha holding Laverne. Here she is only a 3 wks old Barred Rock. Quite possibly a bantam. Very cuddly!

Barred Rock

Shirley is the little puffy yellow one.... Shraddha's Favorite... at least this week.

Ivanna is the one with the yellow head and she is a White Crested Black Polish. You can see a tiny little top hat in this pic...

On the left.... I included a pic of a full grown polish bantam.

Shraddha spent hours at a time with these little chicks and they think she is mama. Sometimes she would even refuse to eat because she wanted to be with the chicks!!!!

One week later....I think LOL we picked up NINE more chicks. Shaking my head in disbelief...

A bunch of cute puffy little Amerucanas. They lay blue green and pink eggs...

yes, this one is kicking back in Shraddha's hand... SEEE?

YAY Shraddha!

Warning... the following post has content that might be too much for sensitive viewers. This blog post is made by the proud mother of a potty training toddler. Be appreciative that I don't post pictures.

Today Shraddha was having some Daddy time while I was at work. She told him that she was getting sleepy and it was time for a nap. He helped her over to the couch and she slept for 2 hrs! Then when she woke up she told him, "Come on Daddy, it's time to go potty!"

He took her to the public restroom. Without hesitation, Shraddha let Daddy put her on the BIG potty and she peed!

I just didn't believe it. I am always asking her to use the baby or the big potty at home and she ALWAYS says "no!" That must be the difference. He waits for her to ask and I ask too many times.

In disbelief, I asked if she wanted to go to the restroom with Mommy. And not only did she say yes but she very cooperatively sat alone on the potty! And for the greatest kicker.... she POOPED! Dry... Clean... Diaper alll day long!

Shraddha's World

The word of the day is.....

Tey-O

Could mean she is talking about the really silly appendage hanging off the back of her doggy friend. You know, the one that is hilariously funny to play with or pull?

"Sadie's tey-o hit Shraddha's eye!"

Could also mean she is talking about the thing from her toddler table set that is very convenient for pulling into the kitchen and climbing on to reach those items that were purposely put out of her reach. Also most awesome for sitting on and being a big girl at her little table.

"Shraddha helps Mama cook! Get my tey-o over there at the table!"

Shraddha do it! is another one of her favorite sayings. And be careful if you do not respect her wishes! Be sure to cover your ears, or be ready for a completely sad melt down.

She is doing a great job with being independent though. She is brushing her own teeth now with just a little bit of help from big brother or Daddy. Rarely will she let Mama help. She dresses herself, tips her head back so we can wash her hair without tears now! Climbs into her car seat or anyone else's seat other then her own as long as I am trying to catch her and put her in her seat.

Potty training is going well. She is more often then not, getting to the potty before any accidents as long as she is diaperless. There is the occasional leak, which she tells me about when she comes out of the restroom. "Swean it up Mama! Hear is a towel. Mama do it!" I walk over to her to figure out where. "Right der Mama. By your feet.... eeeewwwwww.... he he he he" as I take off my warm wet sock!

She loves to put lotion on herself and others. Especially loves Mama's lipstick/gloss, often rubbing the glitter from it on her hands nose and chin. Yesterday she kept turning off Bubba's movie so I had her put lotion on his feet to keep her occupied until the movie was over.

But her all time favorite activity at home....... Pestering Sadie dog. - Well, when Bubba is unavailable anyways!

Madhava has been being a great big brother. He helps her with washing her hands and getting her toothbrush ready. He has been doing a great job playing with her and sharing his toys even when he doesn't want to. Found him outside pushing her on the swing today! They were both so happy!

Shradda's movie review:

lets just say..... MORE SHOW WHITE!!!!! That would be Snow White. A bit scary in the beginning with the evil witch, but gets better as she gets to laugh at all the funny antics of the dwarfs. Thank you Beckie for that tape!

Can you name all 7 dwarfs?

Elmo's Blanket is also in the top five this week. Actually has been for the past 4 weeks in a row! More commonly known as Elmo in Grouchland but don't tell her that or the Grochketeer in her will rear its furry little head!

Ok.... well, I'm multislacking quite well at the moment, Off to clean house.

Good Job Shraddha!

Shraddha pooped in the potty! Whoo HOOOO! I will spare you the pictures on this one.
But if you could just see how proud she was and her beaming smile. Funny how poop can make a mom's day a little brighter!

I gave her a big hug and two stickers. Where did she stick the stickers? Right on her diaper of course.

Blue Butterflies on the Basal and other "B" things from this fall.

Our Basal plants (which almost froze last night) were full of bees and these little blue butterflies. They were so much fun to watch this summer and fall. Shraddha added bees and butterflies to her vocabulary.


Shraddha (16 months here) very much enjoys playing at the beach. She would have a blast playing just in the sand and not even notice the water! But once she did notice the water she made a B-line to it! And would stay in the water until her lips were blue!

BAD Sadie...
Many people this fall were raking up leaves, not me. I was busy raking up bits of foam from a cushion that Sadie enjoyed tearing up. There was so much foam that it filled up a 55 gallon trash can!








Began kindergarten!
This fall Madhava was selected from his preschool class to start kindergarten early. He is doing a great job learning to read and to say all kinds of colorful words.

Bouldering with Bubba! We love spending time climbing on and around the big boulders!




Birdie watching and chasing at the beach. This is one of Shraddha's signs for bird.

Shraddha's first hair cut

Mama went wacko with the scissors and chopped my bangs. Good thing I have curly hair! I'm 15 months old and I am glad that I can see now without my hair poking into my eyes. - Shraddha's thoughts.

I got to catch a couple of extra zzzzz's this morning after I plugged Shraddha into the TV. But now I can't seem to get Barney's voice out of my head LOL! "A circle shape is round, a circle shape is round. A circle shape is like a wheel that is round and goes rolling on the ground." UGH! Barney! Who is more annoying Barney or Elmo? I have to say they are both like music to my ears compared to whining and screaming --- ha ha ha.

YAY! I am back online!

I am so happy that I can be back online posting again! So, I will get right to it.

Summer is over and I am ready for cooler weather. It's a nice 67 degrees out now (but then it is also fairly late at night.) I will take whatever I can get for now LOL!

I saw the first tarantula a couple of days ago. It was crawing back into its nest only 5 feet from my back door. I also found a 4 ft long garter or racer snake. It noticed me LONG before I notice him. Needless to say, I am no longer walking around the property in the evening or at night to toss the trash or hang/get laundry. I get the creepy crawlies whenever I think about it... it isn't even October yet! I think I will be ok if they just not come in the house like the scorpians do. Haven't found any scorpions under the sheets for a while but I won't climb into bed until I check everything...even under the pillow. But I always wonder, if they climb in there when we aren't there.... then what keeps them out when we are in the bed?

Madhava started kindergarten this week at 4.5 yrs old. He is starting a year earlier than we planned and it may just be for fun for now. He is just loving it though. His favorite thing is share day, when everyone gets to bring in a favorite toy to share with each other. I want to get some pictures up but can't figure out how to upload them from the camera right now. I will try again tomorrow.

Right now he is very into robots. He loves to watch movies but Jumungi and Zathura are his favorites right now. I still think they are just too scary for him but he keeps asking his dad if he can watch it again and again. He can write his name when we give him an example. He can spell his name when asked. And he can write almost the whole alphabet as well as come up with words for the different sounds. I just started working on site words with him and "the" is the first one we are working on. He finds it on signs when we are out and about. He is still working on understanding the time of day, and past and future tense. I spent quite a bit of time explaining what yesterday and tomorrow means. He still thinks it is morning time when he wakes up from his nap ~ but if I slept for 4 or 5 hours in the middle of the day, I would be a bit disoriented too. I'm just happy to be sleeping that long without being woken up at night. He also just loves playing with Sadie and Shraddha. It is so fun to see Shraddha screaming with glee while Madhava runs around saying ,"You can't get me, baby!"

Shraddha, now 14 months is learning ASL along with the rest of us. She knows: eat, dada, thirsty, drink, water, bath, diaper, banana, mama, nurse, car, bird, tree, elephant, cat, dog, duck, flower, dirty, cracker, cheese, peach, ball, book, more, music, hat, shoes, bread, apple, cereal, bed, toothbrush, hot, cold, all done, down, cow, night, moon, stars, fan. 42 signs. She is a sponge... asking me "what's dat ?!!" and watching to see if I will teach her the sign for what ever she just noticed She is also making up her own signs. She saw a picture of a pterodactyl and signed elephant-bird.

Her speech is coming along too. She says, mama, dadda, daddy, bubba, Elmo, meme, mooo, book, up p p p , dadoo for thank you, adie for sadie, itty for kitty, mmmmm for yummy and flower while she signs flower, iaper for diaper, apple. She is also demonstrating great understanding. I will tell her to go give daddy a kiss and off she goes to plant a big hug and kiss on daddy. She understands brush your teeth, feed the kitty, where is...., go outside, time to go to sleep/bed, watch a movie.

Shraddha loves watching her Signing Times and Baby Einstein and Elmo movies. She also loves to pull out anything new she can find in the cupboards, LOVES reading books and just can't get enough of that. SCREAMING for fun, especially to chase the cat or bubba. Our cats and dog get plenty of hugs and kisses from Shraddha. She also loves watering the plants, smelling the flowers, looking for birds and of course.... waking bubba up from his nap.

So much for getting caught up on dishes, laundry, and sleep LOL! I don't even know what that is like. Does that ever happen? If it wasn't for Roger's help, I don't think I would ever see the bottom of my sink.