Welcome Marin...and welcome SPRING!

Last week our friends, Jason and Johanna were in town visiting family and friends, so we had he honor of finally meeting baby Marin and I had the GREAT honor of photographing her. She is completely lovely in every way...so beautiful and perfect. While Marin was no completely comfortable with Neil, Neil seemed to be quite comfortable with her. I think he's ready to become a daddy again :)

I also think Maia is ready to become a big sister. With the help of Debbie, she did pretty well holding little Marin :)

This is one of my favorites of Marin. She's sporting the 1970's look with Johanna's baby bonnet. You can see more at my VWC blog: http://www.vwcphotography.typepad.com

Jas and Jo, it was so great seeing you guys...together as a "family". What amazing parents you are! And Jo, you look so fabulous. Love ya lots!!

The biggest news in our house is Noah's latest achievement. He learned to ride his bike without training wheels!! It was such an exciting day for him. I have never seen so many smiles on his face in one day.

And to welcome in spring....a favorite shot in March:

I think it's finally spring, guys!! Yay!! I'm soooo ready to get into my garden!

Maia and her first kitten

At the end of Noah's school year this year, all the pre-school classes and the kindergarten class visited one of the teacher's farms. What an amazing farm it was, too. I think I had just as much fun (but probably more fun, hehe) as the kids. I was in heaven :) We played with dogs, puppies, cows, horses, roosters (just watched those as they aren't nice animals!), and goats. We also played with a litter of kittens.

I grew up on a farm so we had litters upon litters of kittens every year. They were always a part of my "family" and I could probably name all 100 of them over my 16 years still today :c) Because of that, it was incredibly special for me to see Maia have her first experience seeing, and then holding, a kitten. Love is written all over her face while the kitten's face clearly reads panic :c)

Happy Love Thursday!

A batty situation

If you have known me for a while, you know about our bat problem we once had in our house. (Yes, bat as in furry-flying-at-night-ugly-rat-like-looking animal!) We had about 6 in a year's time soon after we moved in. But we found where they were getting in and fixed that (pretty scary) problem.

Well, this afternoon, about 4:30, I was outside with the kids. They just got done drawing with sidewalk chalk. Noah was making his way on the sidewalk over to our next door neighbor's, Mimi and Lisa, to say "hi". Out of nowhere I hear him scream --- bloody murder scream. I have never heard such a terrified cry out of him before. It really scared me.

I ran to him as he ran to me dripping tears and screaming "spider going to get me, spider going to get me!". I didn't have my glasses on but could see from afar that there was indeed something black and furry on the sidewalk and I honestly thought my son was right when he said "spider". It was the biggest furriest spider I had ever seen outside of a cage! I got a bit closer and saw that it was black and furry but didn't have 8 legs but 2 wings! It was a bat!

The bat's wings were spread, it was crying, and it was literally crawling towards me. I got as close as I could without freaking out myself and it appeared as if it's wing was broken. Since Noah ran inside and I had no idea if he had been bit or not, I got our neighbor, told them about the bat and then went in after him to make sure he was ok. Lisa took care of the bat while I went inside to where Noah was --- he was standing there shaking and bawling his head off. He said "mommy, the spider was going to get me! And the spider, it was CRYING! I am scared, mommy!" When he finally calmed down I asked him if it bit him and he said "No! No bite me." (Thank God!)

So he was ok, unfortunately the bat was not and is no longer with us, something Noah is quite relieved about. He does think, however, that Lisa "saved" him and put him back into the tree. I explained to Noah that bats live in trees and they are actually good animals even though they are scary looking. I explained how they live high in trees and don't normally let people see them, nor do they usually crawl, but that this one had a broken wing. So now he keeps talking about the bat with the broken wing. But I have a feeling he'll be jumpy for a long long time and will forevermore be haunted by bats and by whatever might be walking around that could potentionally be a spider ;c)

And, so, here is the bat, a picture I took with a zoom lens from afar. It's not the best picture but I did make a pretty nifty diagram for you all to see!

I have to add that after this post being up a couple hours, I clicked on the picture and oh MY it got BIG on my browser and well, kind icky looking! The bat actually looks like a stuffed animal to me a tiny bit. Poor thing . . . I hate that he got injured and died like that, but at least he didn't keep living on in pain. So this picture is my tribute to him ;-p Maybe we should name him?

Today's last thought

(Finally, huh?)

I just had to share this. Yesterday was a proud mommy day. Maia went a whole day without any major tantrums (yayyyy!!), and Noah, while getting his hair cut, for the first time ever sat completely still, and never winced, cried, or complained once! It was a proud moment indeed! I think for him what helped was that there were 4 other boys before him getting their hair cut and he saw that they sat completely still like good boys. We've tried everything in the past to get him to feel okay about going and nothing ever worked, but this did. (Why didn't I think of this before?) I really wish I had my camera last night, but I'll bring it next time. And you know what else? While Noah would never admit it, I think he actually enjoyed the hair cut. It was cute.

I know a little girl with two little ponies

The hair has grown out to where mommy can now start playing with it a little bit more. Maia received her first "hair doing" session by her mommy yesterday. And what fun it was. Isn't it every mother's dream to get to put their daughter's hair in pony tails and bows?

So we didn't get to the bow stage yet, but we did manage the two pony tails and they lasted a whole 10 minutes. So I was able to get a couple quick pictures of Maia Lizzy in her first "up do"! Doesn't she look so fabulously cute?!

Here's to many more fun days of pony tails, piggy tails and bows!