This weekend- June.

Good news on the baseball front. Henry actually participated! He was much more willing to practice tossing and catching, hitting, and running the bases.

Mama wanted to get more pictures, but she was watching baby Christopher (our neighbor and little brother to John, who is on Henry's baseball team). Plus, I wasn't helping at all because all I really wanted to do was get out there and play some baseball with the boys. I kept running away and sneaking on to the field to try and hit the ball off a tee.

It took a little coaxing, but Henry ran the bases with papa. When the whole team ran around the outfield, Henry started in back and made his way up to second place. He could have beat the first kid, but Henry isn't the kind of guy who likes to lead. In the end, he wasn't even winded. He said it was fun to pass all the other kids. Mama suddenly got super-competitive and started giving Henry advice about running and passing the other 3 and 4 year olds. I think it has a little to do with the fact that Henry has never before excelled at ANYTHING physical in his entire life and a little to do with the fact that mama was a runner in high school. Henry really couldn't be more of a Seibert if he wanted too. Well, except for the fact that he is actually a fast runner and no one has ever accused a Seibert of being speedy.

After practice, Bubba remembered a bribe papa offered last week: a Chick-Fil-A milkshake for a complete practice. We convinced him that it was too early for a milkshake, but we would go get doughnuts. Too bad no one had remembered to bring a wallet to practice. But Mama did scrounge up enough change in the van to get a doughnut from the Walmart-with sprinkles.

Here's a little Southern trivia- people just don't eat doughnuts down here. Sure, there is a Dunkin' Donuts down here, but any true Ohioan knows that those waxy things aren't really doughnuts. It's really impossible to find a fresh doughnut down here. They don't even make them at grocery stores. Papa noticed too and someone told him that before Krispy Kreme's came down about 10 years ago, you couldn't even get doughnuts in South Carolina. Gasp! We didn't know how good mama had it growing up when her neighbor used to bring over hours-old blueberry cake doughnuts from the overnight shift at John's Doughnuts. And don't get papa started on the lack of a good creme-filled long john.

We were going to spend the weekend in Atlanta, but decided to forgo a trip to the spring Renaissance festival (boo!) to stay at home on Saturday and do yard work (BOO!). We love our house, but realized this week that our yard has a lot of "potential." We spent all day Saturday raking 3 years worth of leaves out of a woody corner in the back and trying to shop-vac up the 18 million acorn caps and pebbles in the hopes that something besides moss may someday grow in our back yard. We've got a long way to go. We won't say much more about Saturday because it involved a lot of bickering about the utility of raking out an abandoned corner and two kids who refused to take a nap and a VERY grumpy, pregnant mama.

We did make it to Atlanta today. Henry's been begging for a trip to the Dinosaur Museum and got his wish today. We didn't take many pictures, but mama did get the camera out when I spent a good 25 minutes playing with this goofy creature creator. They were surprised I liked it so much, because they've never seen another kid ever play with something like this.

Every time I came up with a particularly funny combination, I would run back 5 feet and giggle at how funny I am.

I've made the full-time transition to walking down stairs upright and on my own. It makes mama nervous, but I refuse to go any other way. The only negative fallout is that I've started trekking upstairs when mama isn't looking to recover my blankie and nukie to bring downstairs. So far, mama is not letting me keep them out of bed. I'll keep trying.

As if a day at the dino museum wasn't enough, we also made our obligatory city trips to the Trader Joe's and the Ikea. Ikea was full of surprises. First, kids ate free this weekend. And June and I discovered that we don't like those Uncrustable peanut butter sandwiches of white bread filled with sugary peanut butter and tons of gross jelly. Mama cheered silently that she's brain washed us onto 10-grain bread with the all natural peanut butter that papa hates.

Our second surprise was that Henry was PUMPED to visit "SmalLand"- the drop-off childcare center. He went in without even a goodbye and spent 45 minutes watching movies and playing in the ball pit. He told mama it was his favorite part of the day. I can't wait until I'm old enough to go.

Our third surprise is that I got a new big girl chair! Wait for papa to put it together and we'll post some pictures.

Around the house- Henry.

Here's a sampling of what we did this week.

June upped the cute with those little pigtails. The big thing in our house these days is the Sesame Street CD player and book that Unkie Adam and Aunt Kate sent June for her birthday. It has started a whole new trend of playing "DJ." Whether it's this book, the baby exersaucer (that has to this day remained a favorite toy in our house), the clock radio, or papa's I-pod, I love demanding that people make requests for songs and I play them. When I'm at school, June is especially happy to get her own turn on the CD player. We really love this book because mama will request something like "a song on the page that has elmo as a sailor." then i have to find the page int he book and figure out which CD and track number is the right song. That's educational, right?

We had a blast while mama was gone in DC. There was lots of mac and cheese and we got to go to the park every day. (And mama wants it publicly known that the house was SPOTLESS when she got home. Well done, papa.)

On Monday, we picked dandelions and blew the seeds everywhere.

Until "June the Onery" challenged me to a duel.

She fought bravely.

But I closed my eyes and swung blindly...

...and unarmed by foe. She surrendered before I ran her through.

We go to almost all Clemson baseball home games. We sit in the stands for an inning, then run around in the plaza while papa watched the game from the 3rd base side. June loves to see the Tiger and yells "Hi 'Iger!" until he comes to see us. When he gets close, she freaks out and refuses to look at him. I didn't have any reservations about getting my picture with the Tiger.

(Note from mama: Come on, Clemson, you're known for you're awesome school spirit, but you're mascot is named "Tiger" and walks around in this creepy uniform? He should be named something awesome like "Tommy Tiger"(after founder Thomas Clemson) and have an awesome oversized head. Google "Bernie Brewer" for inspiration. Just saying...)

Mama's been trying to get some work done in the yard and June is getting better at entertaining herself instead of just running straight for the street. She loves holding batting practice with our tee and baseball equipment.

Our garden is actually coming along. There's our broccoli on the right and the start of our peas on the left. This was taken on Thursday and by Sunday, our peas were as high as the broccoli. Here's a question for you master gardeners out there. Do we need to put some kind of trellis or support up for the peas to climb?

On Thursday, mama planted peppers...

...three different kinds of tomatoes and a new strawberry plant to replace the two we killed. We don't think we watered it enough. Luckily, we haven't killed much more, though the seeds we planted int he herb garden have not been very successful. The cilantro is starting to come up, and maybe the rosemary too. She planted a new basil plant and has satisfied herself with waiting until we go to Ohio to steal shoots off of Grandma Seibert's and Aunt Jenni's herbs.

We also planted a raspberry bush in the yard and some flowers in planters that I immediately claimed for my playground lookout. It's my job to carry water to them every day.

Her Aunt Jenni, this plant came up in the garden and in the compost pile. We don't want to pull it in case it actually is a veggie. Please let us know if it is a weed.

When June got done playing baseball, she grabbed a trowel and started digging in the garden. She was having fun until mama tried to stop her from digging up the strawberry plant. And she was mad. then she saw mama soaking the compost-able pots the plants came in and proceeded to throw all the other plants in the bucket. She was mad when mama stopped her then, too. To top it all off, she was filthy when it was over and mama stripped her down int he back yard and hosed her off. One. Mad. Buggy.

She felt better when mama took her inside and got her dressed. She spent the rest of the morning playing with her alphabet puzzle book.

I don't think mama ever showed off the dino t-shirt she made for Junie's birthday party. She's very pleased at how well it turned out.

Once Junie caught wind mama wanted her to pose, she turned on the charm.

Oh boy. This kid is doomed to some awkward teenage years. Mama swears there are identical pictures of her at this age. Don't worry, little sister, maybe your permanent teeth won't be so round.

Finally, here's a video to round out the week. Everything June says revolves around counting. You can hear her try to count to ten if you can really concentrate over me yelling and Buggie shoveling corn into her mouth. (Side note, how can that many ribs stick out in the back with a belly so big int he front?)

Vacation!- Henry.

While we were living it up at home, mama took a plane and a train to Maryland to see Miss Leah.

On Saturday, they headed into DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Mama was happy there was a parade with balloons.

Not as big as Macy's, but she was still impressed with the Examiner's mascot dog.

The Nationals brought out all their celebrities, including President Washington.

Kermit came.

But the real highlight was seeing Justin Guarini. You may remember his as the runner up on the first American Idol. Papa says he was also in a movie called Justin and Kelly that didn't make very much money when he worked at the movie theater.

We visited the White House. If you look closely, you can see that Miss Leah is also full with child. She's due 4 weeks before our baby is due. The main problem of getting two pregnant ladies together was that most of the day was spent looking for bathrooms. You can't take these people anywhere.

There was a Japanese festival that was really packed. Mama saw this train set, complete with Godzilla attacking the city. She also managed to get some gelato, though she was too late to get it served in a tiny pineapple.

Miss Maggie braved an afternoon of searching for port-a-potties to spend it with mama and miss Leah. We basked in the sun in front of the Washington Memorial.

And took a walk around the Tidal Basin to visit the Jefferson Memorial.

They looked for the fabled cherry blossoms, but the weather had been so warm that the blossoms were gone. Mama did spot one branch.

They spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and doing grown-up things that kids don't like. They ate at restaurants way past bedtime, shopped, and went out for ice cream.

On Monday, Miss Leah had to go to class, so mama headed downtown to do some sight-seeing. She spent the morning at the Holocaust Museum. She's been wanting to see it, but obviously it wasn't somewhere she could go with kids. It was a great museum, but emotionally draining. After that, she headed over to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Not exactly a heavy place. She got to see Apolo Ohno's speed skate.

Kermit the Frog.

Lincoln's hat.

And Minnie Pearl's hat. How-deee!

On the way out she saw the Woolworth counter from Greensboro, NC. It was the site of the first historic sit-in that were an instrumental part of the civil rights movement.

Mama had a great time in DC, but was glad to get home to her own bed and her two non-stop talking kids. Thanks for the fun weekend, Miss Leah!

Flashback to last week- June.

Here's a few photos from last week that were on mama's computer that she couldn't be bothered to upload on her trip.

The neighbor boys came over on Wednesday night and we ended up in their driveway-our preferred play spot. It's because they have a basketball hoop.

I love to play basketball! We like this video because my shoes have squeakers in them and my skinny little legs look so cute when I run.

The boys conquered this rock wall.

I tried to conquer this bike, but it was too big.

So instead we ran some races.

And the boys climbed some more hills.

On Thursday morning, we were surprised to find that our trusty old Camry wouldn't start. Henry was PUMPED that a tow truck had to come and haul the car down from our hill.

What more could a little boy ask for?

The good news is that the only problem with the Camry was bad starter connections. $130 later, it's good as new. Or good as 13 years old and 180,000 miles. The best part is that the auto shop washed all the pollen off and we've never seen hubcaps sparkle like this before!

Mama's gone? Who knew--because we're HAVING THE BEST TIME EVER.

So Mama took off for the big city. Papa says she'll be back but frankly I have my doubts. Before she left, she: a) took a shower, b) dried her hair, c) painted her toenails, d, e, f) some other girly stuff I can't remember. It was obscene. The way I figure, she's been city-fied--she's gone soft and cosmopolitan. And what does she leave us with? Old Man Turner, sick as a dog, sleeping all day like a good-for-nothing. Thanks for nothing, Mama.

And before Papa mentions it--because I'm sure he's gonna blab to everyone that asks--yes, I had my first baseball practice today; yes, my friend Jon was there; yes, I sat the entire hour on the bench and refused to play. Why? I'm a watcher, friend. I watch. I'm probably watching you right now. Fact is, there was nothing on the line today. It was the first practice! I know how to play baseball! I don't need the basics! I'm watching. I'm analyzing. I'm figuring you out before you even know I'm there. Next Saturday, when practice starts up, guess who's going to know all your moves? Your tendencies? Who's going to know that your first swing always hits the tee? Who's going to know you tend to skip second entirely when running the bases? Who's going to know what you're thinking before you're thinking it?





I am, brother.

We'll see if Pops laments my lack of go-get-'em after next week's practice. Not likely.

Anyway, the old man was feeling much better this afternoon, and we ended up having a pretty great day. Mac-and-cheese for dinner, awesome story time, awesome car parking time, some Inspector Gadget. Then we went to the "other" park, where I busted out my mini-bike again and did my ridiculous sharp turns and super-fast pedaling around the playground. June can pretty much do monkey bars at this point, which makes her the only one in the family who can. I'm not exaggerating--she has a freakish ability to cling and hang on things--like zip lines, for example. You can send her back and forth on a zip line for hours and she never gets tired. Remember how she used to carry around a single bead in her grubby little hand for days at a time? Originally, I thought she was training like monks or Navy SEALS where they keep something painful in their hand to focus their minds at all times--well turns out she was just practicing for monkey bars.

Anyway, before we left the playground I spotted a field full of old dandelions. I recognized the scene was pregnant with photographic opportunities. So, in pictures, we made a VIDEO ESSAY.

"Existence is SO ABSURD. If I have to choose between crying and laughing, guess which door I'm taking?"

"You want me to define 'irony'?"

"Dandelions grow without toiling or spinning, yet I refuse to consider them."

[No caption necessary. Sometimes images speak with more passion than words can imagine.]

"We're all like so many dandelion fluffies. Like fluffies in the wind. Or dust. Dust, too. Dust in the wind."

"I know--I'm A1 adooorable. But you should've seen what Papa saw when he got me up this morning. Let's just say laundry was performed...laundry was...performed."

"You win some, you lose some. I guess that about sums up this old thing they call life. Winnin' some, losin' some...

Unless you play for Cleveland! Ho ho!!! SLAM!!!! In yo' face, Unkie! GG!! Grams, Aunt Jill, all you NW OH'ers!! Slam!!!"

FIN.