Fox

This morning I woke up quite early so I was working on a project for the kids' room. Around 4:30 or 5 I heard some crows going crazy outside. It went on for minute, then it occurred to me they might be trying to get into the duckling pen. I went to the sliding glass door and flung the curtain open and saw the fox that hung around our house all last summer and never once caught our kitten who spent most nights outside (Lemon, man, she was awesome) turn and dash off through the trees in the front. I peered as best I could into the pen from the window and saw the fence was still up and saw one of the ducklings sitting over by the little makeshift hutch we had (we're in the process of moving and prepping what will actually be the hutch). Generally the two sleep together and stay as close as possible together, so I assumed the girl was still there just on the other side of her brother.

I went out hours and hours later to change their water and realized as I got closer that, although he had moved, Chucklefeather (yes, that's right) was still sitting on the ground and I couldn't see Flora anywhere. Then I saw that one side of the fence was pushed in--still standing, but not at all the way it has been. I ran up, looked around, and sure enough, Flora was gone. Chucklefeather is alive but left with an injured leg.

I'm so disappointed and sad. Sure, we were always planning on ending his life, but I didn't really plan on doing it while he is so young. I put him in a box with clean straw and set him up with some food and water right where he can get it. We'll give it 5 days or so and if he seems to be thriving we'll see if he can cope with the gimpy leg--it's surprising how well some animals do. If not, we'll put him out of his misery. I would leave him for the fox so it's not a total waste, but we plan on getting other birds and I don't want to encourage the fox to keep coming back.

I told Mike all about this in text. Here are the last few volleys:

Mike: Poor guy. I bet he misses Flora too. How did Madie react?
Me: I'm sure he does. They've never been apart. [Madie] asked to see what a dead duckling looks  
        like.
Mike: She is so morbid.
Me: Hahahaha! I know! I love it.

I explained the fox took the duckling away. She asked why God made foxes to eat ducks. I told her we were going to eat the ducks too, so we can't blame the fox for getting there first--we should have had a real coop ready.

It's such a typical reaction for her. When Lemon was killed (again, not by the fox, but by Rt. 3 traffic in August), she asked to see her body. We told her she had already been disposed of (we were away, but our neighbor called us and said he had moved her off the road). She then wanted to go see where she was killed. I took her to the side of the road and we basically stared at a dark, faintly red patch on the road for 20 minutes before I could convince her the bugs were too bad for us to stay out any longer. She's either going to be a forensic psychologist, a writer of dark comedies, or a serial killer. (I'm rooting for psychologist.)

iPhone highlights

 Here are a few iPhone highlights of this last week. It was a busy one that scratches the surface on how busy Mal and the kids are. I'll admit, the first photo of Finn wielding the baseball bat was from last week. I set up a tennis ball on a string for him and Madie to practice their hand-eye coordination and hopefully gauge Madie's interest in some different sports. I think the best starting sport for any kid is soccer. There is nothing quite like watching an entire field of kids flock around the ball with total disregard to position assignments. Besides that, I think it is a simple concept to grasp yet challenging enough to keep them engaged. Madie is signed up for a soccer camp in August. The tennis ball has been a hit so far. 

 We planted two strawberry plants in our garden this year. The kids seem to frequent them a lot. Finn in particular makes his rounds whether they are ripe or not. One issue we have had with them are the fire ants love them as well, so I like to be nearby when they start feasting so that they don't get any ant bites in or around their mouth. 

They love getting their hair spiked in the tubby.

 

Bumper rock-stacking is one of our latest crazes.

On Tuesday, Mal and the kids did a LOT! Mal spent the morning prepping a dinner to take to a woman that was bartering some ducklings. So she came home with these two, Flora and Chucklefeather. The genders are TBD. Immediately after, she ran over to Bucksport to go strawberry picking. When we lived in CA, we would get flats of fresh strawberries all summer, for dirt cheap at the farmers market. I have really missed that, and was almost reluctant to leave CA because of that. But, I feel that Maine has some pretty decent strawberries. They are not as big, but they are pretty good. Plus, I like the idea of picking your own. So kudos to Mal who is in her second trimester for toting the kids to pick some strawberries!

Finn, post-strawberry picking. Can you guess where all his strawberries went?

Madie has always been a HUGE strawberry fan. She is pretty snobby about which one she likes though. Size matters.

And Finn will eat the strawberry, hull and all.

The loot. I see a lot of strawberry shortcake and jam in our future.

After picking strawberries, Mal ran the kids home for some quiet time and prepped dinner to meet up with me for a dinner picnic at Sand Beach. Did I mention she was busy on Tuesday? It's been such a nice summer this year, I feel like being outside as much as possible. And the beach is literally four miles down the road from where I work. It was actually a great time to head to the beach because most of the tourists were leaving. The kids absolutely love playing in the water. Madie was getting very brave and going deeper in the water than she normally does. I think we may have to invest in a boogie board soon. Finn is also getting brave, and is maintaining balance fairly well after getting nailed by a wave. He did take a few tumbles, once even doing a barrel roll in knee-deep water. His facial expression when he got up was one of complete shock (water temps are around 55 degrees right now). 

After the barrel roll, we just took the shirt off.

Busy, but fun day.

Finn's first Boy Scout experience

 I took our Boy Scout Troop on a camp out in Acadia on Friday night, and brought Finn along for the ride. After working so much during the week, often only seeing my family for a few hours in the evenings, I feel bad leaving them behind for a Friday/Saturday night outing. But now that Finn is old enough, I don't feel so bad as long as I can bring him with. I look at it as a chance that him and I can spend some time together and do some manly things. On our way down to the campground, we had to stop by Echo Lake to see if Finn's truck was still laying on the beach from when they were playing earlier. Luckily, it was! That was worrisome because he really loves his trucks. Once we got to camp, I was trying to set up the tent, and within 5 minutes Finn started crying and had blood dripping out of his mouth. Honestly, I wasn't surprised. This is just classic Finn and how he learns. Luckily, it was just a bloody lip and not a broken tooth. He had pulled our griddle off the table and it bonked him. He slept very well (despite rolling into me many times) and loved the hike in the morning.

Mal and Madie went on a date to Tessa's for Dinner, and Ben and Bill's afterwards. Funny story about a restaurant experience with Madie. So Mal and Madie originally went to Cherry Stones for dinner, and when they were ready to take their order, Madie asked for "long pasta with cheese on top". The waitress confessed that they only had Penne, no long pasta. Mal turned to Madie and asked if that was okay or if she wanted to go somewhere else. Madie said "Yeah, let's go somewhere else." So they did! She is such a funny girl. She definitely knows what she wants. They were going to watch a 'girl' movie, but got back too late from dinner, so they watched a Barbie movie in the morning.

Not quite sunrise, but 5:15 am from the natural Seawall.

Finn was eating really well on the trip: marshmallows, crackers, chocolate, bacon, and pop tarts.

He fell asleep during part of the hike and was in a great mood the entire time. He did appreciate being able to stretch otu his legs every once in a while.

Beach Goers

 One advantage of living on Mount Desert Island is having an awesome beach within 10 minutes driving. Sand Beach, to be exact, is one of the bigger attractions in Acadia National Park. On weekends, it can be very crowded. But weekdays are fairly reasonable. Mal is planning a weekly playgroup to meet up at either Sand Beach or the beach at Echo Lake. The kids absolutely love playing at the beach. They love to chase and be chased by waves, make tide pools out of sand, and make new friends in the process. 

I think it's time our 99th percentile cranium boy get a new hat. I think that hat he has on in this photo fits normal 2 year olds...but definitely not this boy.

Getting warmed up to the water. It was about 50 degrees on this particular day.

Lots of kids were joining forces to build tide pools.

Finn was typically ruining them, but pitched in every once in a while.

Madie's Preschool Graduation

 Madie has successfully completed her second year of preschool. She only went twice per week for a half day each, but I think it really helped her develop some social skills. Plus, she will know quite a few kids as she heads to kindergarten. She went on a field trip last week to visit her new school, and had a graduation ceremony. It was less than ten minutes long (which was perfect), and included a couple of songs from the kids in addition to the walk. Afterward, there was a pizza dinner with salad. There were exactly six boxes of large pizzas for 40+ people. I don't know how your family eats pizza, but ours can put down two entire pizzas on our own. Needless to say, it was a disappointing dinner. Thankfully a few people brought food to supplement. Congratulations Madie! We have really enjoyed seeing the many projects you bring home.

Getting lined up to perform.

Poor Madie, she is very self-conscious and gets embarrassed when in front of people so easily.

Getting her certificate, which they misspelled her name on.

When we went to sit down to eat, Madie told us that we'd better not sit with her. I guess she is already ashamed of her parents at 4.5. I thought we at least had a few more years!

Camping at Blackwoods

 We bought a new tent a few weeks ago from L.L. Bean, which was actually made by Kelty. It was an expensive, large tent with air poles instead of traditional poles. In the advertisement, it claimed you could set it up in 60 seconds. That was enough for me, plus I'm always willing to give something like this a try to see how I like it. So a couple weeks ago, we set it up in our backyard when a huge rain storm was coming down to put it to the test. It failed miserably in many areas, but my biggest gripes are that it takes 20 minutes to set up, it is not a sturdy structure and tended to collect rain water on top, and does not fit back into its bag very well when trying to pack it up. All no-no's in my book. So we took it back and got a Eureka Copper 8 for $60 cheaper. Wow, what a difference! Sturdy tent poles, soundly structured, relatively easy to set up (at least it's intuitive), and it actually packs back into it's storage bag. Folks, we've got a winner! We booked a Friday night in the Blackwoods Campground in Acadia to test it out. 

We could not have asked for a more perfect night. It was relatively dry and breezy, which meant there weren't as many bugs. It was clear, so we could keep the rain fly off which I love. And food always tastes better when you are camping. Mal made her always delicious homemade graham crackers for s'mores. Madie always sleeps like a rock when we camp. We are conditioning Finn at the moment. He was so excited that he didn't fall asleep until after 10:00 pm, which led to a night terror at 2:00 am. Other than that, it was a great trip.

Mal enjoying the fire.

We brought Elvis for the trip. He didn't like being tied to a tree, but was probably glad he didn't have to sleep home alone (wuss!).

Finn trying his first s'more of the summer.

Madie gave it a whirl, but I think she prefers it without chocolate. Might be hard to take it all in, but she'll come around.

This is what I woke up to. Life is good.

Sunrise is at 4:45 am here right now, which is peak summer solstice. It was beautiful.

I ran Elvis home after the sunrise so that we didn't have to worry about bringing him along with us, and I snapped this on my way back to camp.

We went for a hike near The Tarn Saturday Morning. Finn was obsessed with the water.

He was pretty content holding blankie and sucking on his 1-2 combo.

Madie and Finn both love camping. I remember going camping a lot when I was her age, and loving every minute of it. I think it was especially fun since I grew up in suburbia and didn't have access to woods to play in. It was exotic. I think the experience of sleeping/eating/living outside is equally fun and exotic no matter where you live.

Mal catching up on Les Miserables.

Eating a fruit snack in the Abnaki shelter near the Wild Gardens of Acadia.

The Weigh-in

And in this corner...standing at 36 inches and weighing 30 lbs, whose head has been riding the 99th percentile in circumference since the day he was born...Finnegan Arthur WATKINS!

He has grown 5 inches since February.

 

Here are a few Finn Facts for the books:

1. Loves reading books, particularly likes it when Madie reads him Pinkalicious. 
2. His grasp on words and sentences is very advanced with new words and combinations used every day. 
3. All bugs to him are bees, and he will bend down to look at it and say "Mumma, bee. Buzzzz." and motion his hand around as a bee would move around. 
4. Can be very jealous when Mal or Madie sit in my lap, and shows it by throwing himself on the floor and puffing out his bottom lip and shouting.
5. He eats almost everything we put in front of him, but has really taken to apricots, peas, pizza, and anything with bread.