Sunday Afternoon

This is Fiona (or, as Gibbie say it,"Finona"). She's Gibbie and Ezra's only cousin so far. She was a one of the benefits of our day not going according to plan. We had intended to spend today in my home town of Menomonie, WI, but the winter storm put and end to that. Instead, we spent the afternoon at Libby's parent's house.


When I told Gibbie that we were going to Oma's house, (Oma is his word for Libby's mom) he said "for my birthday?" Little did I know that he was right. She had a left-over present from last week: these great fringe pants and cowboy shirt!






Part of the beauty of being in a community of people, be it an extended family or not, is that people share responsibility. Just having someone trusted hold my baby for a while is such a relief! Here Doug is doing that for Robert and Natalie by taking Fiona for a while.



When I look back upon it, I'm delighted at how the afternoon passed without any entertainment except for each other's company. We didn't even get in a board game.If you want to read more about Fiona, look at her blog: littlemissfiona.blogspot.com

Mondays

Mondays are my day off, and they've become a very special time for our family. We usually start off at the Swede Hollow Cafe. It just goes to show how much I like coffee shops that, after working for five days in one, I want to spend the first part of our free day here.

Spending a good amount of time at a cafe takes a little more forethought than it did before our two boys. Coloring with crayons on note cards was today's activity for our two-year-old Gibbie.




Gibbie also made up his own pretending activity which consisted of lighting crayon candles with a match made out of the ripped-off top of his Crayola box. He just turned two last week, so a lot of his imaginative play is birthday themed.






The next part of our day is often spent outside and as much in nature as our urban life allows. This week, with the weather being so accommodating, we explored the Swede Hollow city park. It's an area that used to be a kind of shanty town for immigrants (Swedes being the first) and has been a city park since the 70's. As you can see, it's pretty close to being in the woods for being in the middle of St. Paul.
By the time our long nature walk is over, we're all ready for a warm bowl of Libby's home made chicken noodle soup and a good nap. All this, and it's not even quite noon. That's a good day off.