Wait...what month is it again?

I am exceedingly distraught. I had typed half of this post, became distracted with other things (like life) and came back two days later to find that it had not been saved. Nooooo!!!! Rue you, day! Alas, I suppose all I can do is start again.

I think I started the first time around by pointing out that the past weeks since the last post have been so chock full of things going on that there was no time to blog about the things going on, and what a quandary it is, indeed. Let's hearken back to the end of March, at which time my sister Lori and her husband Sean came down to Vegas to get the lay of the land, as they will be moving here this summer for Sean to start medical school. For those of you who are not "in the know," Lori is due with baby no. 1 in July, and if you're wondering if that makes me feel old, why, yes, it does. She's just my littlest sister!

The thing about having out-of-town visitors is that they generally want to spend time seeing the area attractions that we locals try to ignore most of the time, and so we had occasion to visit Lake Mead's Boulder Beach for the first time ever since we moved to Vegas nigh on to five years ago. Did Lori and Sean anticipate that the effort required to take three kids (Charlie's giant-sized buddy TJ came along) to the beach wouldn't leave much opportunity for beach-style relaxation? We may never know. But this much I do know: there really isn't much opportunity for what I consider beach relaxation at Boulder Beach anyway. Think surface-of-the-moon-style landscape plus strange, lonely, sunbathing men. However, if all you want to do is throw rocks in the water, and you're three years old, it's FABULOUS.

TJ had the foresight to wear his rain boots for splashing in the low tide. Either that or he had no idea that we were going to the beach and sometimes he just decides to wear rain boots on really warm, sunny days.

Antonia wanted to wear her two-piece and do some sunbathing herself, but we told her no, she has to wait until she's at least 10 months old. She's such an exhibitionist! And she likes to have her Aunt Lori hold her so she can whisper secrets with her cousin Dorothea (in Lori's tummy)

Charlie didn't get to play memory quite as many times with Lori and Sean as he would have liked (27 times) so we followed them back up to Idaho and arrived just in time for his cousins Cameron and Eli to have a rockin' Curious George birthday party. Click to see pictures of those festivities on Jo's blog:

http://richardandjo.blogspot.com/2009/04/there-was-birthday-and-another.html

It was, as always, fun for Charlie to be with his cousins and for me to relax at home while my mom pitched in an always-ready hand helping out with Antonia. Heaven help her, that little girl needed someone to put an end to her stubborn refusal of the bottle, and darned if my mom didn't pull it off! That Nia is sweet and adorable and generally easy-going, but she'll dig in her heels and be as strong-willed as any Hall woman ever was. (Yeah, I said it.) She gave in on the bottle, but maintains extroardinarily precise specifications for its temperature, the setting where she'll recieve it and nipple components (one brand only.) You WILL hear stern squeals directed at you if you attempt to give a bottle outside of the accepted parameters. Be warned.

Who hasn't experienced the late-afternoon snoozy-on-the-couch session of General Conference? If that's you, here's a picture of what it looks like: see below. Charlie and Cameron and even Eli sometimes (he's only two) got pretty into General Conference after we bribed them with candy and stickers. It's possible that some of us were too busy doling out the candy and stickers to get much out of it ourselves, but that is why the talks can be accessed later in written format.

We got back from Idaho just in time for Will's spring break to start, which we thought we might spend just relaxing around the house. But then we thought "No! Let's landscape the backyard instead!" If you've never seen our backyard, one-third of it is nicely landscaped with fake grass and trees, perfect for a play-area for kids. We love that one-third. The other two-thirds, however, were a barren wasteland unfit for viewing out the back windows. So we spent the whole week shoveling rock and dirt to and fro, and raking the rock and dirt, and installing a drip irrigation system, and shoveling more rock and dirt, and planting plants, and shoveling...you get the idea. This is why I hate landscaping: shoveling.

Luckily we had two huge helpers (their help was huge, they were not) in Will's mom Geri who was visiting for the week, watching kids for us, and in Tony, the day laborer we picked up at Star Nursery. Tony shoveled like I've never seen anyone shovel before, and I think he might have weighed less than me. No matter what your opinion of illegal immigrants (and rest assured, he was one) you should know that I have never seen anyone with such a burning desire to work hard for his earnings. I hope he felt our gratitude in the delicious In N' Out dinner that we purchased for him, because I don't think he understood any of the English we talked to him. Or even any of the Spanish I tried, for that matter...

Oh, and we did have some awesome help from our friends the Wolfs. And Craig, who, bless his heart, misunderstood Will's request to come over and move rock (as in, several tons of it) to mean "come over to move A rock." Yes, that would have been much easier! Miracles do happen, and we finished almost everything by the end of the week so that Will wouldn't have to worry about working on the yard once he was back at school. And, as long as the plant mortality stays at a pretty low rate, we have a pretty nicely landscaped yard for my viewing pleasure when I look out the back windows.

Spring break was also the week of Easter, and we did manage to attend an Easter-related function so that we could watch Charlie NOT participate in the fun and games until we had been there for about an hour and he started to get warmed up. He's night and day at social functions depending on his immediate first impression as soon as he arrives. If, within the first 30 seconds of arriving he sees something or someone unfamiliar or intimidating, he'll be shy for approximately the rest of the function. But, if something triggers a warm reception for him within those first 30 seconds, anything or anyone he knows who immediately grabs his attention, he's as outgoing and involved as anyone else. There's really no way to predict or to help things along, it's just going to be one way or the other. Anyway, this particular day there were a LOT of people he didn't recognize right away, even though there were a lot of friends, and he did eventually get into the fun of things; which included, but was not limited to: mini-golf, cakewalks, bowling, bobbing for donuts?, and an Easter egg hunt.

In the meanwhile, Antonia sat on the couch making this face:

Oh, and then she made this cute face:

Smile or grimace? You decide.

A million thank-yous to whomever invented the game "Chubby Bunny." Is there anything funnier than kids stuffing their faces with marshmallows and trying to talk? I doubt it.

One day, whilst combing Antonia's hair, I noticed a longish part in the front that just might be long enough for a clippie. I pulled (gently) and twirled and then, bob's your uncle, I got a little clippie in her hair! As you can see, Antonia was just as excited as I was at this new development. She may not have the masses of curly locks that Charlie had at this age, but we'll make it work. Her hair is a really light, reddish-brown, much lighter than Charlie's was. I'd imagine it's the same color mine was as a baby. Actually, I don't have to imagine. I've seen pictures.

If you don't have even the tiniest desire to squish those cheeks, then your heart must be two sizes too small.

Part of what makes this time of year so crazy/hectic is the numerous band trips which are required of Will as a band director. In April there was a band trip to Knottsberry Farm and a trip with the jazz band to a jazz festival in Reno, and in May a trip to San Francisco. Either out of pity for me (who likes being left home alone with two kids all the time? Not me, and not my sister Jo, either) or a desire to have some male bonding time, Will took Charlie with him on the trip to Reno. Is my three-year-old going to suffer any permanent damage from spending sixteen hours on a bus with middle-schoolers? I choose to think that it will only enrich his life...in any case, Will said he did great the entire time, except for when he threw up his spaghetti dinner. But that was the fault of lackluster food-preparation standards at the buffet, I believe. Charlie is such an observer, he really is the perfect companion for any adventure where there will be plenty of people to watch and new things to see. I foresee more such trips for him and I hope he will have lots of great memories of spending that time with his Dad.

There is still the small matter of the trip to San Francisco, this time Will's companion was moi, but it is late, and there will be much to say about that. So check back soon! (Really, it will be soon.)