Sweet Things

mmm...cupcakes.

Valentine's day is the only time I get to buy sparkly pink dainties for decorating cupcakes. These were the 'rejects' that stayed home from the BBQ on Saturday - the good ones were heart shaped and had better looking frosting.

A group of the older kids decorated Valentine's mailboxes.

FFM was in heaven at the BBQ - the hosts had a yard full of wheeled toys including his all-time favorite...

Sunday morning, french toast day! Beating up some eggs for the batter.

Going out for a ride.

Recently FFM's started asking to color (it's one of his new words) and he'll pull on the desk drawer where his crayons are kept. On days that it's not too hot we hang out in the back courtyard and color some out there, too. We've started drawing around FFM or writing his name and he's really intrigued with the shapes of his legs, feet, or the shapes of the letters that are outlined on the brick.

beepbeep

A few months ago our darling son discovered CARS. Actually, all manner of wheeled transportation but his favorites by far are cars, VERY closely followed by airplanes. One of his consistent words now is car, and given a room full of all manner of toys, he will immediately sniff out any and all cars. Then planes.

After months of listening to brruuuuuuummmmm, vrroooooooommmmmmmn, I taught FFM to say beep beep when his car/truck/plane runs into something (usually my big toe). The last couple of weeks he's really gotten the hang of beep beep and now gives preemptive beep beeps, so I know when my big toe is about to be run into!

Today, sitting in traffic waiting for a red light to change, I heard a noise from the back seat....

'beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.' Apparently the wee one has translated the beep beep idea to non-moving real life cars, too. Laughing out loud I explained we'd get going in a minute, but the rest of the trip the beep beeps continued at every red light.

From one disaster to another

Before the bushfires started, northern Queensland experienced some of the worst floods in history. The rain stopped just as the fires started far to the south in Victoria. A reporter still on that story found this...

Qld flood victims donate to Vic bushfire appeal
By Bruce Atkinson

The clean-up in Ingham begins after one of the worst floods in the region's history.
The flood-affected residents of Ingham in north Queensland are putting their own problems aside the help the victims of the Victorian bushfires.
The clean-up and recovery in Ingham began this morning after one of the worst floods in the region's history. About 200 residents lined up at the community recovery centre this morning to receive financial assistance from the Queensland Government to replace items lost in the floods.
Many of them have lost everything but say their plight is insignificant compared to the loss of life and damage caused by the Victorian bushfires.
Communities Department spokesman Peter McCarthy says many of them are giving their grants to help bushfire victims.
"A lot of people are coming through and while they've suffered loss themselves and are understandably upset at their loss and the damage that their property might have suffered, a lot of them have made comments to our staff that 'we're not as bad off as the poor people in Victoria', 'thank God we're not in Victoria'," he said.
"Some of them have even said that they plan to give some of the money to the Victorian bushfire appeal."
Mr McCarthy says one concerned man in Ingham want his recovery money directly donated to the appeal.
"And he said 'I'm going to give this money straight to the Victorian fire appeal so you may as well write this cheque out to them, not to me'," Mr McCarthy said.

Waxing Philosophic

I've thought a lot today. While I hung laundry in the backyard this evening, listening to strains of Irish music from our backyard neighbor JB O'Reilly's Eating and Drinking Emporium (it was a bit surreal), I thought about the generosity in our world.

I found out today, in a rather roundabout way, that a distant and quite removed cousin just lost her newborn (less than 3 month old) daughter to SIDS. It wrenched out my heart and left me gasping. I still check every night, and probably will for years and years to come, to make sure my son is well in his sleep. Even trying to imagine the grief overwhelms me, living through it would be unbearable. But already the outpouring of love and assistance to my 'cousin' and her family from the rest of my family is trickling through my email inbox...and I'm so far removed from the situation that I'm still not sure how I ended up getting the news so quickly anyway. It warms me to see the love.

I also can't stop thinking about the bushfires in Victoria. I hate the thought of fire. Utter. Destruction. Losing. Everything. I lived in the mountains of Colorado through several hot and dry summers and wondered what I'd do if I ever saw fire. It happened a few years later, my night owl brother was living in the same house and saw flames over the ridge and packed himself and my grandparents into the car and took off. The fires in Victoria are still burning, more than 130 people are dead, and I can tell you it's all over the news, radio, and minds of everyone here. The one bright spot, it seems donations and cash are already rolling in. And people are already out donating blood. One guy had already evacuated, had taken his soon to deliver pregnant wife to the hospital, and decided to stop in and donate blood himself. It's wonderful to see the good. To read some more about what's happening, please click through to the CNN story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/australia.wildfires/index.html

It's not all doom and gloom. This afternoon I prepared an extra dinner to take over to a friend who just had a baby AND anticipates moving away from Australia in less than two months. The baby is tiny and precious, and her big sister is a kick in the pants. The friends are from the UK and after I dropped off the meal (there are several of us doing meals over the next few weeks) I was questioned about the tradition of taking meals to new moms, "Is this an American tradition?" Well, I had to think about that for a second, previously I hadn't thought it was limited to Americans, but I responded that in times of need (birth, death, illness) that yes, Americans take each other meals. It's too bad this tradition isn't universal, but I'm sure glad we were able to provide for our friend and her family during this busy time in their lives.

So, after my brief philosophic moment, I hung the last pair of socks and now will move on with my evening. Travis put F to bed just as I started this post and as soon as I publish I'll pop in and check to make sure all is well :)

Toddler Moment

Having a teething toddler who's pretty sure he knows what's best for him (even though he's not two yet) can often lead to long, frustrating days for both of us. But the days are full of hilarious episodes, too, and I'm putting this one down for posterity because it will make me smile on those days when it's harder to remember...

We're both in the kitchen loading lunch dishes into the dishwasher and I hand FFM some spoons to put into the silverware basket. He likes to put them in handle down, I prefer them bowl down. I take a moment to show him how to turn them around, while saying "See, let's turn it around, F."

He looks at me with total love and understanding in his eyes, smiles at me, gently takes the next spoon from my hand, does two beautiful 360 pirouettes, and places the spoon handle down in the basket.

I fall down on the kitchen floor laughing hysterically at our totally literal son who just turned around and put the spoon in the basket. He responds with kisses and hugs. I love being a mom.