you say tomato

Leo recently spent most of his piggybank money on a 50pc jigsaw puzzle of the solar system (should have gone for a 100pc one, since this isn't much of a challenge any more). Today he wanted to see what was left in his piggybank. When he saw that it was just paper money, he lamented the fact that he didn't have any "circle monies."

All quiet on the Urbana front

Sorry for the lack of posts lately--we're still here, really. Life has just been fairly routine (in a good way) and there isn't much exciting to report. Memorial Day weekend was quiet and restful--since the weather didn't cooperate we didn't go to Allerton Park as we'd hoped. Leo took 3-4 hour naps each of the three days, so it left us a lot of quiet time to ourselves. I spent a lot of it fostering the OCD I've had lately (Obsessive Cullen Disorder), as I have now read all of the Twilight saga books 2x and watched the movie twice as well (all in the past two weeks).

Jeff is valiantly trying to get to the end of the school year and is counting the days until his semester is over.

Leo has morphed into a mini-teenager these days, with a lot of whininess and challenging behavior. But we love him any way.

the root of the problem

Leo heard Jeff and I discussing my trip back from IN today, in which I uttered the phrase "I thought I missed the turn-off." Leo followed up with, "What's a turnip? I would like to talk about turnips."

John Hancock

Leo wrote these both himself. The "O" in the second LEO got cut off when I scanned it, but it was there.

well duh!

I try to engage Leo in conversation when he gets home about what he's done at school that day. His usual answer is "I don't know" (which I think really translates as "I don't remember"), so I try to draw him out with ridiculous questions. So here's yesterday's exchange:

Me: Leo, what did you do at school today?
Leo: I don't know.
Me: Did you milk a cow?
Leo: No.
Me: Did you feed a giraffe?
Leo: No.
Me: Really? (Like this is something you might normally do on a given Tuesday) Why not?
Leo: Because giraffes are too tall to fit in my school!

Playing in the mud

The last two weekends have involved a fair amount of yard work. Here's what we did:



New cocoa shell mulch under on the left side of the garage and a hanging basket.











A hanging basket and river rock (11 50lb bags!) on the right side of the garage.












Two hens and chicks, a sedum, and a barberry (all new this year). And two tall things that were there when we moved in.











Three container gardens (the two smallest are new this year).


What you can't see are the 7 bags of pine bark mulch to the right of the front door and around the side of the house.

Unfortunately the crababble tree on that side in front of the house has apple scab again this year and may be bare by June or July.

Little Drummer Boy

I have no idea what Leo is singing in this video.

Happy 3rd Birthday Mason!

We got to help celebrate Mason's 3rd birthday today. His actual birthday is tomorrow, but today his grandparents, great grandparents, uncle, and other family and friends gathered to throw him a party. It was a lot of fun, with great crafts for the kids. They got to make their own bird feeders and bird nest starters. The weather was beautiful and everyone had a really good time.





























Apparently the singing was either loud and/or bad, because both Leo and Natalie covered their ears.











Leo is not gung-ho on cake--he only ate about half of it. There were also jello treats, which he tried but did not eat much of. I didn't know there were kids who didn't like jello--but I guess I never liked it much either.








Leo also refused to wear a party hat.

Random randomness

On Thursday after he wished Jeff a happy birthday Leo asked him how old he was. After Jeff answered, Leo said in all seriousness, "That tall? Oh my."


Here's Leo doing his impersonation of the little matchstick girl.











Leo and Jeff working on one of the I Spy books.














Leo riding his horse with a map of the US--I wonder where he's going.











Leo's grow-your-own dinosaur--the Easter Bunny brought it (is there some irony in an imaginary character providing an extinct animal?)