a fox, a chicken, and a bag of seed

I've been thinking a lot about this riddle and having three kids.

A farmer has to get a fox, a chicken, and a bag of seed across a river.
He has a rowboat, and it can only carry him and one other thing.
If the fox and the chicken are left together, the fox will eat the chicken.
If the chicken and the seed are left together, the chicken will eat the seed.
How does the farmer do it?

If you think about all of these relationships together, it will make sense who is who.  Dean is the fairly sly fox,  presenting no real hazard to baby Leo, my sweet bag of harmless seed.  My two-year old is clearly the chicken.  Something about Fia tempts Dean to ruffle her feathers, so to speak - which is oh-so-easy to do.  And conflict will reach high peaks, resulting in tears and  feelings hurt and yelling that could wake even the most resilient bag of seed. And something about Leo - everything about Leo - requires that we must watch Fiona constantly lest she smother him with doting sisterly love.  Cluck cluck.  "Give him space," I hear myself saying all the time.  And many times they all need to be separated lest the rowboat (my arms? my sanity?) tip over.  It is a tricky balance for a novice farmer.

I am not trying to say that my children will eat each other, but if you remember the way this riddle is solved, I think about it constantly.  Because I am constantly rowing up and down that river.  When I fix dinner or use the restroom or run downstairs to wash a load of laundry or change or feed the baby, or (heaven forbid!) shower, I think about this riddle.  I think about which combination presents less risk at that moment.  I think about whether or not my darling hen has napped yet, or who she is most likely to have a conflict with, since the chicken in this riddle and a two-year-old have the most variables.  I think about my bag of seed as really a bag of jumping Mexican beans, since he no longer (or ever has?) been still (having first rolled over at one week old).

I think about this riddle especially as I am about to embark on a flight to Denver next week.  Matthew and I decided to take advantage of the Labor Day holiday in combination with the kids' school in-service day.  I'll have the opportunity to visit my sister Gina and family in her new house while allowing Matt some time alone to work on the completion of our second bathroom without worrying about the noise and mess.  Granted, it is a nonstop flight - with Matthew on one end of the flight and my sister on the other end.  But three hours inside an encapsulated steel tube with the fox, chicken and bag of seed is a bit daunting.  One successful run to Costco with these three last Friday, and now we're going airborne?  Really? 

My fellow Southwest passengers: please be easy on us.  The farmer must make it across safely with everyone in tact.

milestones for Leo

My three are hams!  It is very difficult these days to set Leo up for his monthly portrait without including his two adoring fans. 

I am amazed each day to see how much Leo has developed.  He is starting to say repeatedly 'ba-ba-ba" and rocking on all fours - even pulling up on his toes at times.  Most recently, he started expressing frustration when toys are just out of his reach.  Usually his brother and sister are eager to retrieve them for him, but since last night, he began leap-frogging forward!  My last vestigial days of control are clearly numbered. 

Leo has been showing an interest in food lately - or at least in upending our meals with his crafty little hands - reaching for my bowl of cereal and spilling it on me, pulling out the placemat from under my plate, trying to grab my cup of coffee...  So today, Leo started his first solid food: avocado.  I think it was a success!  He eventually managed to take over the spoon and smear avocado all over his arms and cheeks.  Leo, you are too cute.  We remembered back to the days of feeding Dean as a baby and how we always had two spoons available - one for him and one for us. 

We are all in love with our sweet Leo!

July Album: The days are just packed

In case my anonymous readers are unfamiliar with the title, it refers to Dean’s newly acquired interest in Matthew’s old Calvin and Hobbes’ books – and it rings true in our case.  My, oh my.  July was quite some time ago!!!  It’s rather busy in our little house – and inside the fort that Matthew just finished constructing outside – so, I’m far behind on blog posts.  (See the reason why I don’t post.)  A few great things happened this month: 

1. Ayme, Matthew’s sister came to visit us and help us take care of Leo.  We had many, many adventures such as picking berries and visiting the zoo.  And we read lots of stories.  Aunt Ayme has an endless amount of energy for reading books (unless it’s the Berenstein Bears and she’s in the back of the van…)

    

2.  Leo turned four months old! 

He has mastered rolling onto his tummy, and he even started to become mobile with scooting, wiggling and rolling.  Our new rule in the living room is:  No small toys!  Leo’s world is expanding with all of his movement.   


Luckily, Dean and Fiona love to play with all of Leo’s toys, and Leo loves to watch his brother and sister.

He has also recently grown fond of his fingers.  Such a cutie pie!

3.  Dean and Fiona started having a great summer.

 
Now I have to geek out and wear my urban designer hat for a moment.  Remember this amazing park from last December’s album?  The same but completely different and incredible playspace transformed for summer (just add water).  In this case, the setting for a five-year old’s birthday party.  Nice.
 

4.  We returned to the Oregon Dunes for a family vacation!

Last summer, we spent some time out at the Heceta Beach with dear friends of ours, who, sadly, live on the other side of the country.  This year, we wanted to share the experience with our friends Scott and Jenn and their three kiddos.  Vacations are so much better with friends.
Of course, to kick the whole thing off, we stopped over at the Oregon Aquarium in Newport.
We walked through the ‘Shark Tunnel’ and we felt sea anenomes and sea stars in the touch pool.  So awesome!

We even took our friends back to the Hobbit Trail – which couldn’t be found if it weren’t for my previous blog post and my iphone.  Oh technology.
These were beautiful days at the beach.  To be clear, the water was startlingly frigid – this is no Gulf of Mexico.  But try to convince my Oregonian kids that the water was too cold for swimming!  (My husband didn’t need convincing…)





Our children had a blast!  Here’s a quiet moment of eating cantaloupe before dinner…

We took sunset walks to the beach.
   
We also visited the Oregon Dunes National Recreation area.  So much sand, so many dunes - this landscape was sublime.  It was perfect for rolling down the hills and well.. simply frolicking.  The backdrop is a wooded upland forest and the might Pacific Ocean beyond.  Incredible.


On the way home, we stopped for a picnic in Lincoln City which happened to be celebrating a kite festival. 


Exuberance!