My Bean is a dog

I have discovered something very interesting. My kid thinks she is a dog.

Some background. As most of you know Luci has been using baby signs for quite some time. And one of her first consistent words was "doddie" (i.e. dog) - no, not "mama" not "daddy," but very adamantly, pointing to the dog as she said it, "doddie."

Well, yesterday Mike and I caught her pointing to herself, doing the baby sign for dog (panting) and saying "doddie." Mike looked at me, "Our kid thinks she's a dog!? Well, we do call Scout her sister."

So my kid thinks she's a dog! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Scout sleeps with us, sits on the couch with us, eats with us at times. We call her sister, and I often (inadvertantly) use the same disciplining commands with Luci that I do with the dog. Luci and Scout often spend the afternoon chasing each other around and under the dining room table.

I just didn't expect her to blatantly point to herself and say, "I'm a dog, hear me bark."

Things I love about this Tuesday

Stuffed animals.

Giggling girls with bright eyes.

Sunny warm breezes that kiss the playground where I'm watching my kid play.

Ice cream with a good friend.

Washoe Lake

So, in the spirit of keeping busy and expanding my resume in the environmental education department (which is what I want a job doing), Luci and I are volunteering with the Audubon Society's educational program. What that means right now is helping with school group tours at Washoe Lake.

Our first trip was Monday, and the wetalnds were spectacular. I'd always driven past Washoe Lake on my way to Carson City, but I'd never really thought much of it. It's flat, it's windy, and the Sierras to the west of it are so dynamic they tend to overshadow it. I couldn't believe what a treasure I'd been overlooking all this time. And I learned so much.

We arrived a little early and got to talk with several more expereinced Audubon volunteers who had a lot to share about the natural history of the birds we could see. For example, when you hear Canada geese (and who doesn't in this town!) the higher "hink" is the female and the lower "honk" is the male. And I guess they also mate for life (with a bit of infidelity at times). Throughout the morning we also got to see red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, Northern Shovelers, American Coots, Cinnamon Teals, Northern Pintails, and Yellow-rumped Warblers (Audubon's variety).

The lake is split into several habitats at the south end of the state park. Upland sage on one side of the road transitions into a wetland marsh maintained by several canals, which then transitions into the lake itself. We had a group of 45 second graders, parents and teachers who came to learn about birds, wetlands, and the different habitats in Nevada. They got to use binoculars brought by the Audubon coordinator, and people like me were in charge of manning the spotting scopes (i.e. Find a bird, get it in the viewfinder of the scope, and then coordinate the line of kids that want to get a look). After our bird tour we collected some water samples from the wetalnds so the kids could look at the smaller bugs that live there. This last part was great for me as well since the last time I got to do anything like that was the Wetland Ecology class I took in 2002.

The look on the kids' faces when I get to show or teach them something new is amazing. And it's things I want to learn more about and share. Being outside and teaching: this is the stuff I live for! And the neat part was that when the kids got bored with birds they played with Luci and she delighted them by stealing their birding guides, and making her sign for bird and duck.

Easter in Mud

Easter was a beautiful and fun. Like all good nature-loving people we wanted to spend the holiday outside drinking in the sun and Great Basin wind. But, like all responsible home-owning fools, what that translated into was some long-overdue yard work. Luci is the one who made it fun.



She slid down the hill and rolled in the grass.















She stomped. She smeared.














We laughed.

Easter Egg Hunting

Last Friday, our playgroup had an Easter egg hunt for all the kids. Talk about an event. Imagine 13 wee ones between nine and 16 months ambling around a yard. Now envision twice that many parents and grandparents following them around with cameras trying to keep them focused on collecting plastic eggs and not eating the wood chips. It was laughable, let me tell you.
Kim, who was hosting, was sweet enough to fill the eggs with goldfish crackers for the kids to eat. The Bean loves goldfish. So as she's picking up eggs, she shakes one and decided to see what's inside. Well, that was the end of the hunt for her for awhile. She happily sat down and began munching away, only to renew the search when her supply ran out.

Other highlights:
Luci taking off her bunny-ear headband was predictable. But then she decided it was her moral obligation to take the ears off all the other kids too. She had this look of determination, "No, babies don't have big ears. Bunnies have big ears. Babies are not bunnies."

Afterward she ran off without me, crawled up in chair, grabbed a muffin off the table and began to chow down. Easter egg hunts are hard work mom!

Beans, signs, & bubbles

Things I have discovered today:

1. Do not trust the Bean around beans. She lodged a kidney bean in her ear today during lunch.

2. The Bean learns fast. She has figured out via baby signs how to tell me that she wants to brush her teeth, read a book, or have her diaper changed. She did all three repeatedly today. It did not matter whether we had just done the same activity five minutes ago.

3. Like all children, when you show the Bean a bruise (or when she figured out that's what the purple spot below my eye is) she feels the need to poke it and then look at me like, "Does that hurt? Let me do it again just to make sure."

4. In spite of having the worst cold I've had in years (this is Luci's first one), snot bubbles are still funny (both hers and mine).