Not Spring Yet

Ziggy came inside the other day and said, "Would you be instrested in seeing a bird's nest that fell out of a tree?" Why yes. Yes I would. And now you can see it too!

We've had some nice days and some snowy days this March. This is the time of year when I almost defiantly refuse to wear a coat, thinking somehow that will make it Spring sooner…but instead it just means I'm freezing all the time (until the car warms up)(aren't we glad we have cars with heat in them?).

But we are not supposed to have cars with BABIES in them! At least, not like this! Don't worry, she was just waiting for her seat to be gotten out of the other car.

Here is something sad. Our garage got broken into a few weeks ago. The thieves took my purse, which is of course terrible, and I had to cancel all my cards and get a new driver's license and on and on…but it could have been worse. But the WORST thing is that they took Sebastian's bike. His new bike that he saved and saved and worked for two years for…his most precious possession…it makes me sick all over again every time I think about it. UGH. How could someone do such a thing?

And, if that wasn't bad enough, Junie had put her little purse inside my purse…so the thieves got away with all her money too. We ended up finding my purse thrown in the bushes a couple houses away, and her coin purse too—both empty of course. Later that morning she found that Teddy had filled her purse with all of HIS money and this little note. Sweetest little brother! It was a bright spot in that hard day.

All right. Well, onto better topics. Like this baby Yoda!

She is pushing up and scooting and even crawling now, and has reached the stage where she rolls over and starts crawling away every time you try to change her diaper. Little monkey.

She and Daisy have matching pajamas, making her look like she's some sort of growth coming out of Daisy's shoulder. A cute growth, mind you.

Daisy can't be dissuaded from sitting on the porch swing, even if it's cold!

Seb's 4x800 relay team got 1st place at their meet in St. George! So exciting.

Here is Seb at his percussion ensemble concert. They played an arrangement of the Rachmaninoff Prelude in C-sharp minor. Really cool.

Piano recital. Seb had to miss it for his meet, but Malachi and the girls all played well. Junie and Daisy played a duet, which was fun.

Ky got a first-place medal at his debate tournament! All kinds of accolades for the Nielson children this month, apparently.

Junie made these cute little crocheted candies. Yum!

And what have we here? Jesus is preaching to a bunch of bunnies. Telling them to be meek and lowly in heart, no doubt. And they are all going to obey!

Unlike some of these wild children. But then what do you expect when you get your children in a box? Mail-order children are a gamble every time. This in particular looks like a very questionable batch.

Matching helmets, and one fake smile

We watched our twin cousins' baptism over Zoom. For some of us, the most entertaining part was watching…ourselves.

Clementine reared her head amidst some rainbows…

…Gus came over and looked at himself in the camera and made this slightly embarrassed face…

…and then joined Clementine in the Rearing Department! Two cute babies!

Gus looking liony

Gus pushing two Caws in the stroller

Gus as a Baby Bear

Clementine and Malachi looking appropriately green on St. Patrick's Day (we somewhat rudely kept her dressed in NOT-green for a few hours so we could all have the satisfaction of pinching her and watching her squirm sweetly. But by this time we had taken pity on her).

Clementine has been having all sorts of adventures this month. Sitting up in the cart?! True, she was not very good at it. But how can she be getting even almost big enough for such things?

Even more alarming than that—she is now EATING. She eats everything and loves everything! The first food she tried was rice at some Japanese place Sam and I went to on our date night. (We thought she looked extra tiny next to this massive katsu chicken.)

She chewed it very thoughtfully and trustingly, looking at Sam all the while to make sure it was okay.

Then, inspired by Ziggy and French babies everywhere, I made her a tiny, tiny baguette with my usual Sunday sourdough. And she ate it. Scarily. Like this.

We were equal parts impressed and horrified by the ferocious way she lit into it.

It IS good bread, I must admit.

And then she was quite thoroughly hooked on solid food and began to demand it whenever we were having any.

I just love that trusting little face looking up at me when I give her things! She knows I wouldn't feed her anything that isn't good. And I don't! She's had broccoli soup, mashed potatoes, black beans and queso fresco,  rice pudding, oatmeal, Marinara and meatballs, Thai coconut soup, lasagne…she loves it all!

She was slightly more dubious about being put on this trike with a helmet on. But still trusting. "Okay, Junie. Okay."

This was bad, though. She got her arm out the neck of her baby bag…and then somehow got all the way turned around inside it! So the zipper was around in back! So wrong!

Especially considering the whole reason I like to PUT her in these bags is that she always wriggles around and gets both feet in the same foot of her little sleepers, or comes out the neck of them.

We were taking a picture of her in her bag (on properly at last) and you couldn't really see what size she is, what with the extra baggage and all (ha ha)…

…so we took another picture in just her diaper. While she bit her feet. As is her constant delight, when she can get them.

We also propped her up on her own two feet for a minute. In boots. She seemed to like that.

Daisy has been busy lately with a bunch of little projects. She's getting proficient enough, and (probably more importantly, because this is the part I'm not very good at myself,) brave enough to just try things out with the sewing machine. She cut up an old towel to make these cute little hooded bunny towels for her twin dolls. Aren't they cute? She did the embroidery and everything by herself.

Here are the boys waving goodbye to me on a nice Springy day.

And here is a very snowy day for contrast. I don't actually mind snow in March, though—I know it will be gone soon enough. And a big snowstorm like this one is always beautiful and fun. I gave the children the day off of school so they could play in the snow (and I could work on editing my friend's book, hooray!).

Sure enough, it was considerably melted by afternoon. Not before they'd had lots of fun playing and making snowmen! This one was promising, but ultimately too big and precarious to stand up.

Daisy's snow penguin worked great, though!

So beautiful!