Time For Some Changes

We are gearing up for some big changes. The kiddos are finished with school. Maura has her big event coming up next week and then its time to move on to the next chapter of the story. The house is sold, we are just waiting for Is to be dotted and Ts to be crossed and to finalize everything at the closing.

In a few short days, we will be leaving our little house in the suburbs for good and moving to the Chandlery full time to finish up the boat. The girls are understandably nervous what this next step will hold. I am anxious about several things. In the forefront are worries about keeping the kids engaged and starting to homeschool a high schooler while serving as Captain Perfecto's full time assistant  all the while ticking off the to dos on my own list.

In addition to helping Mark finish up the deck hardware, redoing the running rigging, installing new electronic gear, redo our anchoring set up, bottom job, replacing our refrigeration and fitting out the nav station I have my own list. I've been sorting through "must dos" and "be nice to dos" and have come up with my own work load.

1. Clean and commission water tanks
2. Get paperwork together- FCC ships station license, register new MMSI numbers for new VHF and Epirb, Coast Guard documentation renewal, Texas Parks Clean Water permit, renew passports figure out which mail forwarding service to use.
3. Finish new berth mattresses and soft furnishings
4. Sew weather and lee cloths
5. Sew ditty bags for gear in the cabins
6. Sew storage/pillows for salon
7. refinish galley counters (getting to the nice to haves !)
8. replace faucets in head and kitchen
9. refinish the salon table
10. get busy in the head to make it less ugly.
11. GO SAILING

That is the easy part. Well, maybe not easy but straight forward. Leaving the suburbs is going to be a bit tougher.

I've never been a huge fan of our house. It served it's purpose and I have lived here longer than I have ever lived anywhere else but it was never my dream home. It's not the house I will miss, its all the things around it.The garden full of roses and crepe myrtles that Mark and I worked to create out of nothing? Hard to leave. The neighborhood tribe of sweet little people that Kitty absolutely adores? Hard to leave. Maura's friends will no longer be easy to hang out with at the Starbucks and YMCA around the corner. My parents will no longer be 10 minutes away. Neighbors I am very fond of will be missed. I will miss our walks through perfectly sculpted landscapes to a safe and well maintained playground. The workers at our local grocery who know my girls by name and whom Kitty runs to hug as soon as she spots them, then chatters at them about her adventures as they patiently listen intently. All hard to leave.

I suppose when you look at it dispassionately, the things we are leaving behind could be found anywhere. I am ready to leave. I have felt for some time that my life has been on hold and I am ready for the next chapter to begin. You can not begin the next chapter without finishing the one before, but it's harder than I imagined it would be. So for the next two weeks its a crazy time for us all and there is really no time for to get settled. It's time to move and get busy but there are lot's of little things that I will indeed miss.

If you had told me 10 years ago I would miss any of this I would have scoffed. This bit of wistful nostalgia has surprised me and caught me off guard. So farewell Suburbia. We have enjoyed our time here but its time to move on. Time to move on to new adventures and fill our memories with new sights, new sounds and new people. Onward and upward....

Are You Going to Strawberry Fair?

Mark has an uncanny ability to completely botch song lyrics. It doesn't matter how well he knows a song, his brain will take a song he has known since early childhood, rearrange things and put it back together into something that somewhat resembles the original composition but veers far away into something completely new. Last week as he and Kitty were playing he began to sing "Are you going to strawberry fair"? Kitty thought he was singing a question and answered "Yes! I am going to the strawberry fair. Can we go now?". She became fixated on this wonderful "strawberry fair" her daddy was going to take her to visit. Huh.

Fast forward through a week of dealing with a major fish die off and the accompanying stench in the marina, a week of fiberglass work and a week of slow progress on the deck hardware installation prep and Mark was ready for an escape to Strawberry Fair himself. Kitty continued all week long with her insistence that she was going to Strawberry Fair because her daddy said so. Fortunately, I found that there is a pick your own farm near by. I made arrangements and we headed out on a bright, hot morning. (Mark you may thank me later for saving your street cred with the little one later)





We picked a bunch of strawberries. Or more accurately since this was a hydroponic farm- we carefully clipped berries with scissors. Kitty was delighted mostly because she has low expectations about what constitutes a fun filled outing. Being outdoors, doing what ever with us and she is happy as can be.

Once we had the berries home, Mark and Kitty got busy baking a strawberry tart. As Kitty was happily digging into the finished product, she piped up "Thank you for taking me to Strawberry Fair. Next time we will pick blueberries!" Easy enough little one. Glad you had a good time and even happier that for you, this was as good as a trip to Disney World.

The Hard Stuff

Kitty fell fast asleep on the couch while pouring over her memory book from school. I think we will be laminating every single page of projects and photos of her and her little classmates and finding a place for it on the boat.

I am standing in a hallway, listening to little people's voices bubbling up with excitement. They are singing and their little voices ring with the crystalline purity of childhood. I glance at the wall to a smattering of crayon colored paper ephemera crafted by tiny hands. My eyes begin to become a bit misty.

I pop my head in the doorway and tell Kitty it is time to go. She grabs her back pack, waves to her friends and bounds out to give me a hug. She is shadowed by the most angelic little girl with long blonde hair and enormously big eyes who stops Kitty and gives her a tight , tight hug. "I will really miss you Kitty" Whitney says in a solemn tone. Kitty knew this day was coming and I think it hit her at this moment. Kitty usually is one to hug her best school friend with wild abandon, this time she was stiff and still. This is when I begin to actually cry.

Kitty has had an absolutely magical year at preschool. She has been fortunate to have good friends and a wonderful, loving teacher, Miss Suzanne that she adores. A teacher who gets who Kitty is as a person and embraces her and all her quirks unabashedly. Kitty has had the gift of friendship, laughter and lots of love. I knew it would be hard as everyone else was promising to see each other next year knowing that for Kitty, this would be a final good bye.

Kitty knows we are moving on the boat and going sailing but she has no reference point for what this means. She sees us packing up boxes, selling off the extras and she knows that things will change. While she is looking forward to having a bit of an adventure, I can tell she is having a tough time letting go. I can tell this by her insistence that our boat does in fact have room for Miss Suzanne to come too. And Whitney, Sydney, Emmalyn, Grayson,Sam, Cason and there just has to be room for Temisan as well. My heart hurts for her. Goodbyes are the worst.

It's a bit easier for Maura. To be sure, she is nervous about leaving but its much easier for a techno savvy teen to keep in contact with friends via texting, email, Instagram, etc. For a little person who only knows how to read and write her first name, its a bit tougher.

So as Kitty's school time comes to an end and we get ready for the REALLY difficult goodbye to her little tribe of friends on our street, I am full of resolve. I am resolved to get this boat done and get going because to have made her make this sacrifice without a payoff and a payoff SOON is just too tough to take. There will be other friendships made Kitty. And magical experiences and discovering new places and laughing and singing too. But there will be hard things as well and I think maybe, goodbye is the hardest.

I wonder if Miss Suzanne would like to crew...

A Force of Nature

We took a break from rebuilding the boat and getting a house ready to sell to celebrate Kitty's birthday. She is now 4. 4 years old and a whirlwind of energy, confidence, determination and fearlessness. Our own little Hurricane Kitty. I am not sure how we, who tend to be more laid back- ended up with the most driven little person ever but I have to say, I am pretty happy that we did. It's tough to keep up with this one but she never fails to amuse us and she brings so much laughter and happiness to all of us.

 Her birthday was a decidedly by-the-seat-of-our-pants affair. She and Maura made her birthday shortcake. She had 2 little friends over to play trains and dress up and then an ambling walk to the boardwalk for a ride on the carousel. Lunch at T-Bone Toms with a big stage to dance and sing on. It might have been cobbled together but as I was putting Kitty to bed for the night, she told me" I have to tell you a secret.". She pulled me close and whispered in my ear "This is the best birthday I have ever seen."

Happy birthday Rat Bag.

And since we are celebrating Kitty, let's take a peek at her last week as a 3 year old.

Of course Super Girl needs a crown of flowers. And a cape. Do not forget the cape.

 Kitty definitely has her own fashion sense. This girl has definite ideas about what she wears. Sometimes you need to wear a Batman rash guard with a neon tutu because going to the grocery store is too mundane without a little color. Bonus if you have learned to cross your eyes and do so every time your mom tries to take a picture. Because its funny and makes mom and dad laugh. That's why.

Oh my little wild thing. You do indeed make my heart sing. Happy birthday.

Generating some headaches...

You are on my list Mr. Generator and its not the Nice list

I like blog posts that neatly wrap up a topic into a tidy little page. I am not a fan of the "to be continued" type of storytelling. This is the reason you've not heard much lately, because the big project right now is still dragging on and on and on. Our generator is generating some serious headaches.

Our current decor theme on Ceol Mor, piles of tools every where

Our generator probably dates back to the original commissioning of Ceol Mor, most likely sometime in early 1985. Due to the fact that Ceol Mor was largely a dock queen, there are only 1200 hours on it. A well cared for diesel engine will probably outlive most people, so we thought rectifying the fact that we were dealing with sooty exhaust would probably be fairly quick and painless.

Yeah. After almost 3 years of refitting we are either eternal optimists or just really naive. Suffice it to say, that there has been a whole lot of us Cha Cha-ing with the generator. 2 steps forward, 3 steps back and not a whole heck of a lot of progress. It's annoying both Mark and I so much that I am not even going to get into all the dance steps we have taken thus far but will save it until the project comes to a conclusion. Then we will not only have a functional generator but a neatly wrapped up, tidy blog post as well. It will be like freaking Christmas.

Rather than get schmoopy about what hasn't gone right, I'm going to happily blather on about a project that has gone right. Ceol Mor now has the ability to be hooked up to a dock water hose and wonder of wonders, to have dockside water at the flick of a tap.

Never mind the construction dust, WATER!

Mark plumbed it all in, cut into the coaming (cutting any holes in the boat always freaks me out. Even ones well above the water line) and installed an outlet, plumbed some more and voila! WATER!!!

Yet more tidy plumbing

The naysayer in me would point out that we are unlikely to be tied to many docks while out on our cruise but its a function that was missing and since we are tackling the plumbing, might as well get it done. Lest you think it was all a perfect project, there were a couple of fittings that had to be removed, replaced and adjusted to rectify some leakage but all in all, a fairly straight forward project. Thank you Universe, for balancing out the stupid generator.

The fully functional, well plumbed inlet for dock water

September has come and passed and while work on the boat has been slow, the kid project has been zipping along at a blistering pace. I am just now starting to get a handle on our school year schedule and I have to say that I am really looking forward to homeschooling as it will be easier on me.

Maura's schedule literally has me ferrying her to activities every week day. She is really throwing herself into making the most of what should be her last year of public school. And while I love her enthusiasm, this would be much, much easier if she could drive herself. It's hard to complain because for the most part, she is just becoming a really helpful and grateful person so I just shut up and drive.

Kitty has started preschool. She is going 2 days a week and she absolutely adores it. Even though this means that the 2 days following school consists of her being totally and completely exhausted, its all worth it when she pipes up "I have school today! I LOVE SCHOOL!". So it makes for a bit of a challenge trying to adjust to the new schedule but its totally worth it.

Speaking of Kitty, can I just say how much fun a 3 year old is? To be sure, they are probably the most challenging age but she is just so darned fun it all balances out. Today, Kitty was deliriously happy because it actually rained. We've been in a drought for so long I think she thought rain was something that only happened in the movies. Today, it rained and she had her zebra boots to wear in the puddles, an umbrella to shelter her as she walked around saying "Tut tut! It looks like rain" while wearing her Supergirl dress. Kitty likes to dress for an event EVERY day but this Supergirl dress is currently her most favorite thing ever. She insists on wearing it every.single. day.

No matter how manky it gets ( I have to sneak it into the wash) it will always make me happy that she believes that when she puts her Super Kitty dress on every morning, it means she is going to work. To save the world. 3 year olds rock.

Jewelry Schmewlry. Hardware a girl really wants...

I know lots of women who think that nothing says 'I love you' quite like a nice piece of jewelry. I like jewelry as much as the next girl, but this week I got an even better materialistic representation of Mark's adoration of me. Houston, we have a water heater. Those of you who are living on land with access to plentiful water at the flick of a tap, dispensed immediately at your desired temperature might not understand my glee at this most recent development, but my fellow boat babes will understand. Testify my sisters! Having the ability to heat water without the use of a tea kettle and stove is pretty darned luxurious living. I can't wait until it is all plumbed in. Yes, I will still be forced to wet down, turn off the tap, lather up, then turn on the taps to shower in an effort to keep our water usage to a minimum but that little spray of water will NOT be cold. This is awesome.

 I was so excited at the prospect of getting this on the boat I did not even mind the fact that I looked like a Clampett family member transporting this huge box in the passenger side of my mom's tiny little car. (My car is in the shop in an attempt to keep the Hoopty running for just one more year....) Kitty was disappointed that such a huge box did not contain something a bit more exciting. She was convinced that such a large box must contain something really amazing and you could see the disappointment on her face when I told her that while said box did not contain a pony, it had something even better- a water heater. Maura also seemed a little dubious as to the awesomeness of said water heater. I think I will let them shower in cold water for a bit so that later they can have an appreciation for how awesome our little Iso Temp really is.

We took break from making template patterns for the forward cabin seat cushion (me, messing up my first attempt) and from redesigning the engine exhaust system (Mark) to rectify what we think are serious design flaws to kick it around the docks with the kids.

Kitty's favorite place to go in all of Kemah is Kemah Hardware. Fortunately for her, they carry so many of the copper fittings, epoxy, etc, that she is pretty much assured of regular trips. This time she was beyond excited because in addition to some copper fittings, we were going to acquire a crab net of her very own and promised to take her crabbing. Mark, thinking he knew better than I- despite never having crabbed in his life insisted that what Kitty needed was a tiny bait net. I knew it wouldn't work but I let it go because Kitty was so jazzed about having a net of her own I couldn't bear to steal her joy.

After procuring the requisite chicken legs (how is it you can no longer buy just the necks anywhere? Galveston Bay- you have changed) we went off with bucket in hand to get to crabbin'. Mark thought all this production would be a waste of time. "You will never catch a crab" he said. "Check my birth certificate" I said. "Hello..SEABROOK NATIVE. I guarantee we will catch a crab. I spent endless hours playing around this bay as a kid and while it was too murky for swimming there were crabs a plenty. Galveston Bay=crabs.I am like the crab whisperer. I'm all Deadliest Catch on Galveston Bay. Trust me." I informed him knowingly.

So off we went. We did not manage to land a crab because I timed it wrong and the tide was coming so our crabs kept getting knocked off the line before we could attempt to net them. I should add that after seeing the inadequacy of his preferred net, Mark went off and added an extension. I didn't mind because I was able to smile the satisfied smile of the correct. Of course, Mark got all Captain Perfecto on us and the extension is a bit more finely crafted than mine would have been but its all good. Kitty can not wait to go crabbing again and she really hopes to land one next time. Maura is happy just to kick it around the water and I am just happy to get to spend a little bit of time with them all wasting time in pursuit of crabs. Soon enough, I shall be able to introduce the girls to the fun of crab drag racing.

Dubious Mark

Now a believer, Mark tried to bring the crab along the dock. I told him it wouldn't work, he did not listen. The crab let go. Hello- listen to the crab whisperer next time. Pull up slowly, scoop quickly. Be one with the crab...

How Does Your Garden Grow?

While Mark continues to build a new copper  manifold and finish up the plumbing, Maura has been in Indiana for her yearly visit with the grandparents and a week at Survivor! camp. She tells me that what she learned at camp is to make fires and walk without making any sound. I think these skills will come in handy should she ever wish to have a promising career as a pyromaniac ninja or a Chicago "insurance adjuster".

This means Kitty and I have been pretty much kicking it in the burbs. Rather than get down about the fact that we are surrounded by concrete, cars and drive through services I decided to be upbeat about the benefits one can get from living on land. In an attempt to teach Kitty about the world, I decided we would start a little container garden and learn about food- where it comes from, how it grows you know, basic preschool age stuff.

I was encouraged by the beautiful photos of my blog buddy Amanda's garden shots. She has a daughter just a little bit younger than Kitty who seems to be loving playing in the dirt, harvesting vegetables and just generally enjoying her garden. I thought back to my early post college days as a preschool teacher and remembered what worked for a container garden or my classes.

With the memory of successful container gardens in mind, I procured a small plastic wading pool. Drain holes were cut and screen patches were installed over them to keep the dirt in but allow proper drainage. Kitty was ecstatic once we had it raised up on bricks and began filling it with organic soil. This girl seriously loves to dig in the dirt. Then we got to planting and Kitty happily tucked strawberry plants, tomatoes, rosemary, basil,cilantro and squash plants into their beds. Every day we go out and check the moisture levels, water when necessary, talk to the plants and just generally potter around her tiny garden. It looked amazing. The plants took off and looked full and healthy and I promised Kitty it would just be a few weeks before we could begin harvesting the fruits of her labor.

Then, the sun came. With a vengeance. Despite our careful attention the plants started looking, crispy. I may or may not have resorted to putting up shade in a futile attempt to keep the scorching rays from turning our little garden into a burnt wasteland. Amanda posted new photos of her impressive haul. With every viewing of "Brie's garden" Kitty would lament the lack of edibles from her garden and would ask "when my berries gonna grow?". I began to curse Amanda and her green thumb and perfect Pacific Northwest climate.

We got a bell pepper big enough to harvest, but the sun had literally burnt it beyond being edible. Imagine a green pepper with half of it burned black. Kitty was not impressed. The rosemary is hanging in there because it is impossible to screw up rosemary but herbs do not give little kids the same excitement at harvest time that a real fruit or vegetable does. The basil and cilantro was cooked beyond saving. The squash plants are hanging in there but they have not produced ONE piece of fruit. Flowers yes, but nothing to eat much to the consternation of Kitty. 3 months, no fruit. And then, there were the strawberries.

The one bright spot in my sad little attempt to give Kitty the experience of a garden were the strawberries. The plants look good and they are actually bearing fruit. Harvest time should be right around the corner, right? Kitty would look every day at her little tiny berries and would be excited at the prospect of picking them and eating them. Yes, except for the lizards. We have a large lizard population in our garden and would you believe that every single time we would spot a likely candidate berry for harvesting in a day or two, those damned lizards would nick them the night before harvest leaving only a cluster of leaves and remnant of well chewed red fruit clinging to the vine. Kitty was pretty annoyed with her lizard friends and was decidedly over her time as a farmer.

Finally, we had one little strawberry that was close enough to ripe to harvest and because I knew we had to get it before the lizards did, I encouraged Kitty to go ahead and pick it. You would have thought we had given her a pony. She was beside herself with excitement. She carefully picked it, examined it, delighted in the fact that she had grown it. She danced around holding her tiny berry, extolling the virtues of said berry. Finally, she washed it carefully and popped it in her mouth and in 10 seconds it was gone. That was the most expensive, time consuming berry ever known to man.

So now we know what works, berries and rosemary and so long as it keeps Kitty happily digging in the garden we will keep playing at gardening but I am really thankful that we have lots of fresh produce available for purchase near by. If we had to grow our own food, we would starve. Perhaps it is time to teach Kitty how to roast lizards. I hear it is all the rage in South America.

Its Just Never Easy

Ever have one of those days where despite your best attempts, despite your careful attention to  precise execution, nothing seems to go as planned? We have a lot of those days on Ceol Mor.

Kitty's most recent frustration was do to her desire build a drum kit which kept slipping on the slick table causing her to drop her groove. Some days, we feel exactly the same way kid.

My most recent frustrations were due to the wind picking up after being dead calm as I laid out painted panels to dry and my never ending on going battle with my sewing machine which I am pretty convinced is intelligent, cognizant  and for some reason is very, very angry with me. Mark's frustration of the day (he gets daily ones) is the routing of hot and cold pressurized water lines.

It seems the industry standard for plumbing runs is to just shove the hose in any available space and call it good. Since we want to maximize the space in the boat, keeping everything tidy so we can utilize every single centimeter of space and since Mark is Captain Perfecto and therefore can not sleep until he manages to execute a complete redesign of all the systems to a level of perfection never before seen except on nuclear class subs, its slow going. Just planning out and beginning the install of the hot and cold pressurized lines ate up a good 2 days and its still ongoing.

Our pace is also slowing down a bit due to the heat. Whether you call it 32c or 94f its essentially the same thing. Freaking hot and its only going to get worse.In a vain attempt to keep the boat at a tolerable level while we work, we have installed our awesome boom tent. By awesome, I mean completely Red Neck fabulous. I would love to have one of these Ronstan Air Arch or one of these Shade Tree but at around $700 for either of them, our $50 TP version starts to look really good. If I just can learn to play Dueling Banjos on the banjo, I think I can convince the marina neighbors its a stylistic themed choice. All we lack are old tires for fenders and an old green sofa on the foredeck and we are good to go.

In other news of progress, the "varnish lady" has been hard at work applying the varnish to the new teak and holly sole in the master cabin. Due to that particular piece of mill work being on the spendy side, we opted to hire someone who does varnish every single day to finish it. Mark will let me varnish exterior stuff because it doesn't matter how perfect or imperfect it is, you are going to have to redo it sooner rather than later anyway but interior stuff requiring a bit more control and finesse? Best to hire it out. I figure I will post a photo when its done, instead of taking shot after shot as each layer is applied. That would be sort of like watching paint dry. No actually, it would be EXACTLY like watching paint dry.

And Now We Are 3....

In the midst of all the plumbing and painting, our wee girl turned 3. What she wanted more than anything this year was a birthday party. I suppose my career as an event planner/manager is the reason I felt a flush of panic. Visions of bouncy castles, lavishly decorated tents, a huge guest list, caterers, pony rides, magicians and photographers bounced around in my head as I nervously queried what her expectations of a party were. Kitty had my back. What she wanted was a cake, balloons and party hats. Her requested guest list was Mommy, Daddy and Maura. Okay, this I could handle.

 For a while, Kitty was into Spider Man. It didn't take long for her to figure out  that Spider Man is a boy and she is a girl and she wants to be a Super Hero too. So Spider Man was quickly replaced by a love of the Power Puff Girls who are sugar and spice and everything nice with a healthy dose of Chemical X which enables them to fight crime and save the world. The great thing about this is how cute Kitty is 'flying' around with  her cape streaming behind her saving us and her stuffed animals from evil doers. The bad thing, she really wanted a Power Puff Girls party and the Puff Girls are now considered "classic". Ouch. This means there is nothing available on the well supplied kiddie-licensed-character market adorned with Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup.

I took Kitty with me to every single darned party and toy store looking for anything with her beloved Power Puff Girls. Zero luck. I gave Kitty the opportunity to choose anything else she wanted- Thomas the Tank? Nope. Spider Man? Nope. She saw the pink pirate hats and eye patches and that was it. Okay, its your party and you can "argh" if you want to.

Remembering the Great Poop Cake Incident of last year, I played it safe and just bought some cupcakes from the bakery. Kitty was every bit as happy as if I had gotten her an elaborate cake because she got to blow out candles and make a wish. That's what she wanted- party hat, candles and a wish. How could I say no?

Every time Kitty sees this photo she says " Look! Its a wish!"

We all wore pirate hats. Kitty blew out her candles. We had non-poopy cupcakes and Kitty opened her gifts of Play Dough, Crayons, High Ho Cherry O and the thing she loves most- a robotic rabbit. (she really wants a rabbit but we've got no room on the boat). Simple. I do not think she would have been any happier with an elaborate, huge shin dig. 3 year olds get it. Joy and happiness is everywhere and its usually in the simple things.

Oh. Would you believe in the very back of the balloon stand at the grocery store Kitty spotted a Power Puff Girls Balloon? See? Miracles do happen.
Happy Birthday Kitty.

On Shut Off Valves, Wash Down Pumps and Artists.

Oh you KNOW there are schematics for this. I'll post them soon.
As much as I tease him, he does manage to solve a lot of problems
using that Perfecto noodle of his.
 

Mark was pretty darned stoked about the valve on our water tank. He excitedly told me how he had spent days designing and manufacturing a custom valve that would allow us to isolate the secondary water tank without ripping the settee which houses the tank apart. He started talking about the lack of commercially available valves that would be accessible and functional while installed in a boat setting and then he started telling me about psi and flow rates or something along those lines. I can't tell you precisely because it was at this time that my eyes glazed over and I started noticing that his hair was kinda crazy and made him look a bit like a mad professor... then I started thinking about mad professors movies...then I started thinking about the movie Real Genius and how much I would like to be eating popcorn. I snapped back to attention when he said "it will allow us to isolate the water tank so when we run the water maker we can test the water before mixing it in with the main tank". This means he has agreed to put in a water maker! WHOOP! Since a water maker is at the top of my wish list, only just below an in boom furler I was pretty ecstatic myself. Now if I can just get him to see the beauty of the engineering of the Leisure Furl...and sell a kidney to fund it will be better than Christmas around here.

Every day our UPS man rings our doorbell and drops off various small brown boxes. Kitty is well trained. She pipes up "A present for Daddy!" and runs off to open the door and collect the days parcels. In her world Santa Claus wears a brown UPS uniform. She waits eagerly for Mark to come home so they can open them together. Usually, they are filled with odd bits of plumbing supplies but every once in a while, we get something exciting- like a wash down pump. Kitty thinks it is great to pretend to spray her dad. I think its great that I never again have to remove the thick black mud that loves to stick to our anchor by hand. Ok, so I will still have to remove the muck by hand but now at least I have a shot at not being completely filthy by the end of the job.

One of the cool things about having an almost 3 year old is to see the leaps in development they make. Up until now, Kitty has been happily scribbling with crayons and mixing paint colors in abstract designs with an occasional circle drawn just to show she can. Today, she started drawing objects intentionally. It was such fun to see the pride she had in her work and for me to be able to recognize the objects she was drawing. She will happily spend hours drawing if you will only draw with her. She carefully doles out the paper and assigns the crayons you will get to use. we might want to start helping her learn to not micro manage other peoples projects. (wonder where she gets THAT?!?!) She is also developing a bit of kindness in that she never points out that I can not actually draw. "Good job Mama!" she says, no matter how wonky the rendering. Yeah, having an almost 3 year old is pretty awesome.

Suns

Why its a boat of course.

An owl, with "softly feathers"