Seven Quick Takes, vol 1

Like I mentioned before, I've been reading Conversion Diary recently and decided today to do my own Seven Quick Takes.

#1.

The reason for the amount of posting I've done today is this:

She fell asleep on the couch for the first time in probably her WHOLE LIFE and so I've been stuck doing quiet things, like being on the computer. Can't do dishes or organize my hall closet. Bummer, right? :)

#2.

This is the new main attraction at our house:

It's a hamster "roll-about"! Scratchy just randomly rolls/zooms around in it, getting lots of exercise and, if Rosebud isn't around, she does fine. Rosebud always has an uncontrollable urge to kick the ball -- makes complete sense, doesn't it? Turtle, on the other hand, supervises the hamster with great care . . . usually. :)

#3.

This is a luna moth. We captured him as a big green caterpillar, watched him make his cocoon and checked him every day till he emerged. We must have done something wrong though, because his wings dried all crumpled up. :( After five days or so of waiting for the wings to straighten out (without success) we let him go. Poor guy probably got eaten. Oh well, apparently they only live for a week anyways.

#4.

What's it with my kids and sleeping in strange places this week? Rosebud slept for an hour in the stroller at the pool yesterday. It was awesome!

(By the way, just so you know, the girls are serious "bed sleepers." That's why the sleeping spots this week have been so surprising. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times Turtle has slept somewhere other than a quiet bed since she was 4 months old -- except the car, but that doesn't count -- and Rosebud, since she was 9 months old, has been the same way.)

#5

I am actually looking forward to fall this year. I never do. Usually, the summer ending always makes me a little bit sad. But not this year.

#6

Maybe #5 is true this year because I'm not in the country. In the country, summer is a lovely thing, and even the heat is just part of its beauty. August is a month of sun-ripened tomatoes and crackly dried grass . . .it's a month of tawny haziness and scratchy cicadas and delicate Queen Anne's Lace. August . . . has a feel of heavy richness in the air. The colors of the land are shifting, drying and ripening . . .

Here August is just a boring extension of rather non-descript summer.

I miss home.

#7.

I love Rosebud right now. Just love her. She's so cheerful and rascally and sweet. If you take the time to let her do something so simple she is as happy as can be.

She's my little sunshine!