Oish!

Our weather has been so weird lately. It was so warm and sunny on Saturday, that we filled the pool and Fiona had a great time splashing in it...at 10am!

 

(I have a video, but it is sideways and I cannot rotate it, so am not going to post it).

Fiona’s new favorite hobby is to walk around the planter on the bricks. She will go around twenty times if I let her. I am not exaggerating. I think today we walked around 10 times before I decided I wanted to do something else.

I am only posting hind shots of her walking because this blog is actual public (though not searchable), and I am a little leery of internet perverts.

Then Sunday, it was overcast and cool. We planted the garden. Then it rained Sunday night and was cold on Monday. Yesterday was a beautiful sunset, it rained again over night, and it is raining again now. It was really humid today, and warm, then windy, then cool. I’m not really sure what is going on. Winter felt like summer, and spring feels like...some other season. Anyway, I love the rain, so I’m glad we are getting it, but I can live without the mugginess. My curly hair + humid weather = big frizz ball. No thanks!

Here is Fiona doing her little balance beam thing in someone’s front yard:

  

She just loves this. She also likes to walk on walls. Her balance is pretty good. She can put one foot directly in front of the other and walk on a narrow ledge. She gets upset when we don’t let her do it over and over again.

Here she is wearing a dress for the second time in her life:

 

She looks like such a little girl, as opposed to a baby, I wind up crying, “I’m not ready! I’m not ready!” John is the same, don’t let him fool you. We both keep reminding each other that one day she is going to be a big kid, and not a little kid.

 

She plays dress up with my shoes and clothes, and likes to put hats on and run around the house wearing them. And now she says the ending ‘k’ sound, so book sounds like “book” and milk is really “milk” instead of “boo” and “mi”. And she is learning new words every day. Today it was “open” and “catch” and “blueberry”. I’m sure there are others, but I don’t write them down.

I leave off with this photo of John and a palm tree across the street. His glasses look dark because they are Transition lenses. So even though it was sunset time and the sky was cloudy (hence how dark it is behind the palm tree), the UV rays are still strong enough to make his glasses darken. A reason to always wear sunglasses, even on overcast days.

 

Bye Bye!

Five Years

Today, it has been five years since I last saw my brother or heard his voice. I think about him every day and miss him just as much as I did when he first he left us. However, one thing that I have realized is that nothing I do can change what has happened. Nothing is going to bring him back. The feelings I have are not going to go away. The sadness is not going to lessen or fade. It is just there, always, just beneath the surface of everything I do. Today, I don’t feel differently about him or about the situation than I do on any other day. So now, after five years, I’ve come to accept that in the story of my life, there will be a chapter about how I lost my brother, and anyone who reads it will have to deal with it. So, if he can read this...

I miss you Matan! I miss you with all my heart! I really wish you were here because there are things that only you would understand. And also, because you are missing out on Fiona. And she is missing out on you. And when I watch her, I think about how much you two would have loved each other and how much fun you would have had. And I’m sure you would find a way to make her giggle and squeal and smile her huge smile in ways that only you could. And have i mentioned that I miss you and I really really really wish you were here right now?

Here is what I did today: I went to work and none of my students know that I lost you because none of them were around when it happened, or even just after. Because it has been that long. And we reviewed for the state tests next week, and it wasn’t very fun for me, but we got through it. And then I came home, and after Fiona woke up from her nap, Daddy and I took her to berry picking. And we picked blueberries, and she ate a whole bunch right off the bush. The place charges by the pound and I’m glad they didn’t weigh Fiona because I’m sure she ate at least half a pound of berries before we got to the register. We also ate raspberries. They are just starting to ripen and are heavenly tasting. There were too many bees for my liking, so we didn’t pick any, but we did say hello to the animals, and especially the chickens and Diego the alpaca. And Fiona pet a goat, and pretended to drive a truck, and I smelled onions that were divine.

A radish machine:

 

It was so hot and humid, even the alpaca was lying down:

So that’s what I did today. I picked berries and spent the day with Daddy and Fiona. And after we came home, Fiona and I played outside, then went for a walk. We ate leftovers for dinner and now I am procrastinating on doing some homework. If you were here Matan, you could come over after work and eat some of the yummy blueberries we picked. Fiona already ate more of them, but we still have a few left.

I miss you and I will always love you Little Brother.

Gardening Fi

What a nice surprise today! John came home an hour early! Fiona was refusing to wear pants again, so she was running around the house in a t-shirt and diaper. We were eating some delicious grape tomatoes (when I asked Fiona which she wanted, grapes or tomatoes, she pointed at the tomatoes, said “tomato”, and then did the happy dance all over the kitchen). For a while Fiona was chasing me, trying to pinch my nose and giggling hysterically. Then I managed to get a dress on her (gasp!) and out we went to the back yard. I wanted some clothes on her because the air was cooling down. John decided it was a good time to add amendment to the garden in preparation for planting.

Putting on the gardening shoes:

She likes to stand when she puts on shoes, so someone either has to hold her hands, or she leans on us.

Using the trowel:

Examining the soil amendment:

Using the hoe:

Taking a break:

John using the hoe:

I also used the shovel and hoe, but every time I tried to do anything in the garden, a small person in a dress came and took my tools away. I was left with no option but to take photographs instead.

Peek-a-boo!

Checking out the turned bed:

The trowel broke and Fiona tried to fix it:

No luck. We will have to buy a new one.

Resting at the end of a hard half hour’s work:

Oh, and I forgot to say that when we returned from Germany, we found that our grapes had grown:

I am not exaggerating when I say that when we left for Germany, the grapes were brown, dead, branches with no signs of life. It happens every winter. We came home and they were full of green leaves. And bigger than ever. I wonder if they will make it over the arbor like last year.

Well, that’s it for us! Happy rest of the week and great weekend!