There is a sheep shearing event at Springton Manor Farm tomorrow (Saturday, April 26th) from 10am to 4pm... price is a $5 parking fee... usually it's free but this looks like it will be worth the price if it doesn't pour down rain.

I took the kids over there for a picnic today and watched them set up the tents. The newborn lambs are out and are, of course, as cute as can be.

Springton Manor is on our rotation of great places to take the kids... usually it's free, and they have lots of animals and a working farm, a great barn and tractors kids can climb on. It's a little early in the season yet, but the butterfly house is a lot of fun as well. We took a picnic lunch and watched the turtles dive into the fishing pond.

From Downingtown it's a short drive up 322 north, and over by Ludwig's Corner you can cut through to 282 and it is only a few minute's drive.

With record turn outs in the PA primary election, Earth Day really does seem appropriate, doesn't it?

Personally, I was shocked and awed by GW's two term reign of environmental terror, and I am almost afraid to actually feel hope.

They say cynicism is the last refuge of the idealist, and so I feel today, as I cast my vote, a wellspring of cynicism, and yet I am still thrilled to be a part of today's events. Thrilled at the possibility that we can turn this awful spiral our nation has taken around, and maybe even join together with the rest of the world to try and provide a safe, healthy, future Earth for our children to inhabit.

Hope is a lot to ask these days.
Hope is hard, fear is easy.

We all sat down to dinner the other night, in good spirits with the coming of warmer weather. I had mentioned the possibility of cucumber salad earlier, and then promptly forgotten about it. But as we ate, my son piped up that he really, really wanted cucumber salad.

Now, I have recently ended my career as a short order cook, and these days what is for dinner is for dinner, and I don't bounce around the room making additional entrees for the picky eaters I serve. But when a three year old requests a green vegetable, I hop on it before the inclination passes. I left my meal half-eaten, and took a cucumber and a peeler to the sink and started peeling away. And that is how I lost the better part of my thumbnail.

I am now looking into current band aid fashions, as it looks as though I will be sporting them for several months and Dora and Elmo are already feeling old. I'll let you know what I find!

Oh, and by the way, happy 80 degree weather - I already got my first sunburn of the season.

I went to a baby shower yesterday. It was beautiful and the mother-to-be looked radiant. It reminded me of my own baby shower before the twins were born, and of how little I knew about what I needed or of what to expect.

I thought I'd list some items I found most useful with newborns, and some, not so much, and why...

Moses basket. I didn't even know what these were until we got them as a gift - and I would not have been as happy a mommy to twins if I had not had them. Putting a baby in a bassinet is one thing, but a bassinet you can then carry around the house in is quite another!

Diaper Genie. I still could not live in my house without this. But get one that works with regular trash bags or you will be spending entirely too much time in Babies R Us.

Boppy. It's just WAY easier than propping pillows!
Pack n play
Carbon Monoxide detector
Onsies. Obviously.
Changing table with pad and cover.
I like the nightgowns with the open elastic bottoms so changes do not require snaps.
Cloth diapers. For burp clothes, clean up rags, whatever!
A CD with some classic children's songs... unless you actually remember any of them (I did not)
A digital baby monitor (better signal that reaches a further distance)
A bathtub thermometer so you do not have to try to "feel" whether the temp is OK. Yes, you may be able to now, but once you are sleep deprived and struggling to juggle five tasks it isn't quite so easy.
A kit with baby nail clippers, diaper rash ointment, thermometer, nasal suction thingy.
Humidifier.
Night lights (for your room, hallways, etc)
Oh, and they now have clock radios that project the time onto the ceiling... I wish we'd had one when the kids were small - I always was stretching around in bed to check the time.

At least one crib toy or mobile (preferably with sounds and lights and white noise option)
A copy of "What to Expect the First Year", "Happiest Baby on the Block" is also great.
A baby book (unless you are a scrapbook person), for recording 'firsts'
Graco snugride car seat and base
Stroller.. I have been through many, so don't get too crazy on your first pick
A doorway jumper. This is clutch from about 5 months to a year.
A gym mat for tummy time, the more toys and mirrors the better.
Gate(s) for doorways and stairs
electric outlet plug covers
Stick on shade for the car window
A bjorn or similar carrier (all of them are good, even for $15 at Target!)
A diaper bag with at least one pocket that keeps a bottle at temp, or a cool sippy cool.
An exersaucer
A bouncy seat
hooded bath towel(s)
We love twilight turtle. It projects stars onto the ceiling and shuts off after 45 minutes.
Gift certificates for nearby restaurants with take out.
A gift certificate for a housecleaning after the baby comes home!

Not so much:

Bottles. You can get all of the advice and recommendations you like, but I tried four different brands of bottles before landing the one I liked best and that worked for both of my babies. If you register for bottles, make it a small starter pack, not the entire Dr. Brown's collection.

Pacifiers. Same gripe here, it is impossible to predict what brand or style your baby will like, if any.

Diapers. To be honest, you can start with a pack, but you may go through a few brands before deciding on the one you like. Some are wider, some hold more, it depends on how your baby is built.

Breast pump. Really, you don't know until you get there.

Bottle warmer. The only reason your baby likes warm milk is because it's closer to breast milk, but when we went into summer and mine were about three months, I just gave them room temp and it was fine.

Wipe warmer. Never had one, never missed it.

I used to love book stores. In Seattle there were three second hand bookstores within walking distance of my home and on a Saturday morning I would get a cup of coffee and wander through each of them for hours.

The other day I took the twins to Barnes and Noble. It was early on a weekday, not crowded at all and pretty quiet as bookstores tend to be. In the children’s section, I had a bit of trouble locating a particular bit by Richard Scary, and so my son took advantage of the inattentive mom and kicked off his rain boots and started running back and forth through the board book aisle.

His sister came yelling to tell me he had taken his boots off and as I caught up with him I received a very nonchalant shrug in response to my question about where his boots were. And then a nice woman working there handed them to me. The tops of his rain boots are shredded up from being the training items for “do it myself” shoe accessorizing. She’d found them strewn about on the floor over by the train table. Humbled by my inability to keep us composed even in the children’s area, I then upped the anti and asked them to join me in looking for another item out beyond the gates of the children’s section.

We made a game of it, marching, marching, over to the escalator. Now, our escalator experience is somewhat limited. A two seat stroller doesn’t really work out on them, as I found out one day at the mall when we almost lost a front wheel… and I almost had a heart attack as the escalator chugged away at my little parade stuck and thump, thumping against each step as it ground by our jammed up bit of equipment. But now we are more grown up, and we shop together without the aid of straps and strollers.

So we took hands and stepped onto the metal contraption. “Do it yourself” took only moments to kick in and one was taking steps ahead and yelling that she would not hold my hand and the other sat down on a step behind me. Despite the mild panic I felt at the approaching end to our escalator, we managed it in three healthy pieces and proceeded on to the next destination category.

I couldn’t find what I wanted, and I was convinced they had it, so I kept looking. A gift for a friend, something specific. As soon as my mind began reading the titles and noting authors both kids disappeared in a frenzy of giggles and boot stomping. I took a pause to call to them – I told them to stay with me – I hissed at my son to stop climbing on books. They came nearer and nodded and I looked back at the stacks. More giggling, louder, the sound of a book toppling from a shelf. This continued for awhile, until it got rowdier, faster, more excited, and finally I ducked around a stack and caught my son by an arm as he whizzed past me.
“OUCH!!!!!” he screamed. Oh you have got to be kidding me, I thought, but what I said was, “You need to stop that.”
The woman in metaphysics scowled at me. I wanted to address her. I wanted to ask her what exactly she recommended I do in a case like that? Pray for him to stop?

Perhaps avoiding bookstores for a few more months is the ticket, but once you are in you are in, and when all else fails, you gotta take the bull by the horns as they say.

I marched, marched, them to the checkout. My daughter was smiling the smile she gets when her brother gets in trouble, and he had quickly forgotten our incident and was busy singing a song about marching. At the counter, another woman pointedly told me that they were such 'sweet children', and I felt my mouth hang open. I know she heard the "Ouch" yell, I am sure metaphysics was not the only one thinking I was just awful, but it is what it is. I cannot imagine the look I gave her, but I know it was something between amazement and horror.

When I turned around to gather my brood, my son looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I am so very proud of you.”
"Well I am very proud of you too," I said.
And I meant it. I always do.

So my kids turned three.
They talk, a lot, all day in fact. They sing, they pretend, they have pretend friends and make believe worlds they tell me about. Three years, and I am just barely catching up. I still have projects I assumed I'd do while home with them, in all of my spare time, sitting, untouched.
With the combination of Easter and the birthday extravaganzy this has felt much like December, and I am looking forward to a stretch of holiday free time.

Last year, for their big 2, we invited everyone we knew, and it was fun but a little overwhelming for the actual birthday boy and girl. So this year the guest list was scaled back but the planning stepped up. We had a pirate party, complete with an outdoor treasure hunt, scrolls with little dittys telling them where to go next. My DH dressed up in a puffy shirt and acted out the pirate adventure for 6 squealing two to four year olds.

I made the cake myself - half vanilla half chocolate - decorated as an ocean scene with a pirate ship, sails reading 'Happy Birthday!' An icing dolphin and mermaid swam in the FDC blue number 4 sea. We all had our plain pizza, and then blew up a moonbounce so that the sugar could be more effiently burned off, and amazingly no one threw up in it. It was as good as a three year old birthday could be, I think, and it was exhausting.