flowers in my hair

When I was a girl, my dad used to pick up feathers and flowers all the time and put them in my hair. There was something I found really...I don’t know...touching...in that simple act. I don’t know how to describe it. Perhaps it was because I was the girl and he never did it to my brother...it felt like this special thing we shared at random intervals.
I’ve never said anything about it to anyone. Actually I never really even thought about it, but the emotional memory is strong.
Now Ryan does this to Naiya. Maybe it’s just something loving dad’s are compelled to do with their little girls.
It touches me in the same way to watch him tuck those beautiful blossoms behind her ear.

worm

Whenever she finds these seed pods on the ground she gleefully exclaims, “It’s a worm! It’s a worm!!”

seeing sights

This is what she’s lookin’ at...

the good cookie

Naiya: I want a hamburger!
Daddy: Do you want daddy to make it or do you want mommy to make it?
Naiya: Daddy! Daddy is a good cookie.

p'soons

Naiya’s diction is usually pretty good. There are times when I understand everything. However, there are also times when she seemingly speaks an entire paragraph and I catch not one word. I think at those times she is just making sound...and she knows it. When she is really talking I think it is rare that I can’t make out at least something.
She does have a couple of cute errors that are consistent though. Spoons, for example, she has always called “Poons”. The other day Ryan and I were trying to get her to correct it. “SSSSSSSSpoon,” we’d say. “Poon!” she’d pronounce and then giggle. “SSSSSSSSSpoon,” we’d try again. “Poon!” she’d cry, bursting with laughter. “SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSpoon!” once more, REALLY emphasizing the “S”.
“P’soon!” she finally says.
And we made the fatal error of laughing. A lot.
At least they’re not poons anymore.
Now they’re P’soons every time.

the chickens are in the coop

There they are. Finally out of our kitchen. Luckily in this shot all the paint that got onto the chickens isn’t really visible.
Uh...yeah, maybe they shouldn’t have been out in the yard during the painting part?

finished

The coop is up and running (minus a lock on both the henhouse and people door). Even though we built a fortress, we read a few chicken mails last night and felt slightly paranoid about the predator situation. We left them out there anyhow, wired the door shut and hoped for the best. My final comment was, you know, if something could get into this thing, it deserved a good chicken dinner at least.

working on the coop

It’s been so wet we’ve had a difficult time getting the coop done by the time the girls were six weeks old. They should have been outside by now.
Ryan is just finishing the housing and we’ll add the hardware cloth and roof within the next day or two. We’ve decided to lay sod inside the run. I suppose we’ll find out if this is a good idea as time passes and it gets caked with poop.
We’ve also passed on the under-the-henhouse-storage idea. What do we really have to store that takes that much room we started to wonder. Why not just give the girls more space? So now they’ll have a kind of enclosed area under their house...to protect them from the elements I suppose.