Happy Birthday Dear Wallace

Aunt Laura made Wallace's beautiful cakes!

Wallace eats pepperoncinis with us now, at first we were letting him lick them but he decided to take bites. He has been enjoying hot food since he began eating solids. I think kids like what they are fed, and Wallace likes sweet chili sauce and tapitio like his parents.

We got a digital antenna and now we get 7 t.v. channels! We have three PBS channels. I have been loving them!

On our anniversary (6/28) we went to a wild animal show at the library. All three of us got to pet an alligator. I was so surprised by how soft it was. They have buttery soft skin and they are really fleshy. I didn't feel any fear or nervousness about petting the alligator. It's handler stayed in physical contact with it just petting it's face.

I got over a fear recently -my fear of dark water. When we were last camping with our friends I went out on the boat. I jumped into the water and swam around and then I went tubing!! I was so scared at first! I was starting to panic and my friend Megan held my hand and walked me through it. I talked about what I was feeling and what I was really scared of happening. I started to calm down and let the life vest I was wearing support me and just float and enjoy the water. It was really empowering to just get on top of my fear and get over it! Tubing was so fun. I went two times and I stayed on the tube for a few miners each time. The next day I was so sore, my arms were week and I had bruises on my knees and shins from slapping the water. 
I really felt I needed to confront my fear head on to overcome it, and it worked. When we went to Loafer Creek for Sam's birthday I didn't think twice about getting into the dark water! It was cold and I was mostly aware of that. I just sat down in the water to get my whole self wet and then swam out to Dylan. He told me he was proud of me and I said, "for what?"

"For getting into the water," he said. Like I said, it hadn't even crossed my mind.

Wallace checking out the ducks when they first arrived

For Wallace's birthday his Great Grandpa got him a really nice life preserver. He can swim in it and also float on his back. We have gone swimming at Forman’s Point with it and it was a great time! I have my water shoes, Wallace has a good life vest- we’re all good!

We love living so close to lake Oroville! We are 8 miles from it. The largest dam in California holds the lake in. I got a little off coarse driving home from story time and I drove past the dam when it was flowing really heavily and it was truly awe-inspiring! I have never seen anything like that before. I went to the Hoover Dam with my Grandma May when I was 11 but the water wasn’t flowing. I felt like I was going to run off the road because I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.

Monday (7/23) was a hot hot day! We got a pool from Rayle’s for $9! We all played in it for 20 minuets or so and Wallace was naked. He splashed and played. He got in trouble for pulling on the sides and the hose.

Wallace holding disk golf disks

When it was close to bedtime on Monday he started spinning in circled to make himself dizzy. It was so much fun to watch him "be dizzy"! He would stumble around or loose his balance with his arms above his head and kind of wooz down onto the floor. He is so big and cute. In the pool Dylan and I spent some time marveling at our beautiful boy. He is so strong and clever.

On Friday (7/20) we went to our new friends house for dinner. I made my semi-famous pasta salad and we ate home raised ham. Jeremy and his wife Randi have a 4-month-old son named JJ. Randi and I really hit it off!!! It feels so good to have friends out here in the same season of life as us! They live on a 16-acre ranch. Have lots of animals.

Dylan and Jeremy met when Dylan answered Jeremy's add on craigslist about free ducks.

Dylan and I have 31 Muscovy ducks at last count. They are known as the "quack less duck," they sound like doves. We have 8 hens for now, the rest are ducklings and teenagers. We have been enjoying duck eggs and meat. The meat is very dark and the eggs are HUGE and very tasty! We have a good time watching them play in there pond and feeding them bread and bran flakes. The first 5 ducks we got came from a different farm and they are 1 hen named Po-Po short for police duck. She polices her 4 ducklings and keeps them in line and fairly segregated. One of Po-Po's ducklings is a different color than the rest, she looks like she may be a blue or lavender duck, her name is Blue and she is by far the friendliest to people. 

Po-Po and her 4 ducklings. Blue is o the far right.

Po-Po and her 4 ducklings let us hand feed them. Her ducklings run to us and let us pet them- they even climb on Sam. They feel so weird to the touch. They are molting. The Brest is my favorite place to pet them- it feels kind of squishy.  

Bon-Bon is my brown duck

 I have a special duck; her name is Bon-Bon, like a candy. She is our only chocolate Muscovy. I picked her as an egg layer because she is so pretty, also she is the trouble maker in the bunch. She flew the coop when she first came home to us and it took 20 minuets to catch her. She is the only duck with ALL her flight feathers clipped.

We have also enjoyed rabbit meat! I think I want to refer to the meat as "Lapin" it is The genius name for rabbit. If we were going to eat dog I would want to call the meat "canine" :)  I think it will separate the meat from the sweet rabbit I like to go feed carrots to. Lapin Is a delicious tender white meat! We all like it very much!

I have the opportunity to do some modeling again. I need to find a sitter for Wallace before I take the job though. Dylan can't care for Wallace for 5 hours by himself yet. Sadly, his leg is just not up to it.

Speaking of Dylan’s leg, I earnestly solicit your prayers for the healing of Dylan's leg. Please pray for his left tibia to knit back together. I have found that God works well with specifics.

Speaking of God, Wallace has been having a little bit of a hard time in the nursery at church. This last week he was the only baby without a sippy cup and he tried to take other baby's sippy cups. The week before last he tried to take every one else’s snack cup. I think he wanted what everyone else had because they gave him the snack I brought for him in the jar I sent with him instead of putting some O’s in the same kind of cup as all the other babies. 

It is really really hard on a baby to not have what everyone else has, I see why he has been having a hard time and next week I'm going to ask them to put his snack into a cup and bring him his sippy cup.

Speaking of sippy cups Wallace got a sippy cup for his birthday and he has been learning how to drink out of it. He has poring it out on the floor down pat! We are learning how to handle the sippy cup and Wallace right now it seems slow going :(

Happy Birthday dear Wallace

Wallace had his birthday party on Saturday the 14 th of July. It was such a great day! Family and friends came and Wallace got lots and lots of toys and presents. Wallace was so funny with his cake. He dug a little hole into the back of it and looked around confused. He finally started to taste the frosting and then he smeared some on my face so I could taste it. We have incorporated some of his gifts into his life so far. We have to filter things in slowly. 

He plays with his new car! We push him around in it. We "drive" down to the duck pond and then over to his new swing. He loves his swing and so do I. 
Dylan hung his swing on the same branch as the existing swing on the property. I sit in the other swing and push Wallace and swing myself. We spin around together; it is one of the highlights of our day. 
Sam got a big trampoline for his birthday and Wallace and I often drive over to it and have a jump. I mostly just sit or lay on the trampoline and let Wallace play around me. The trampoline has a big safety net around it so Wallace can't fall off. The trampoline feels like the only time I get to rest with Wallace!

At church we are studding Exodus: the story of Moses. It is a good study and it is challenging me to follow God's lead.

Lastly, I would like for you my dear readers to please become "followers" of my blog. It is a way for me to know who is reading and also, if I get enough followers I may be able to get some sponsorship! That money would go towards a private Internet connection for our house. What we have now is desperately slow!! 

 This blog post is long overdue! I have had no Internet up until now so I am going to try to fire this off quickly. These are my journal entrys in order from youngest to oldest.  I have padded them out a bit.

Today, and the past few days have been kind of a trip with Wallace. He has regressed with his verbal skills. He was saying "up" "daddy" and even "mama" occasionally. He has been saying "hi" and "yes" but lately... Not a word, just shrieking and pointing. Feet stomping, grunting, crying, hitting, biting, pinching, the works.

We have been using a gorilla (the animal) parenting tactic: head patting. It is the only thing that works! We say no as we pat his head, tell him what to stop doing. He cries and pouts and stops his naughty behavior for a little while. Or moves on to playing with toys.

I was letting him destroy a magazine for a few days. He was loving it and keeping him out of trouble but my house was starting to look like the floor of a confetti factory and I decided enough was enough. I picked up all the pieces and threw them in the fire pit. Wallace cried and reached for them and he has been much more pouty than normal.

He can be very lovey dovey. He loves kisses and hugs. We sing songs and read books. We go on “walk abouts” and look at the gardens. We have a large vegetable patch, a pumpkin patch a corn patch and a lettuce patch all over the farm. Also I have been planting flower seeds and climbing peas around in prime locations.

The citric trees are fruiting; it's so exciting to see the fruit grow. We all eat plums and apricots off the trees.

The blackberries that have invaded this land are close to ripe. Dylan and I are going to try our hand at blackberry wine.

Dylan set me up an outdoor washing machine so I can wash diapers and laundry whenever I have a chance during non-peak hours (after bed time). We got our power bill on the farm down $70 by only running the washer in the morning and late evening and air-drying everything.

I have discovered when doing laundry outside at night that most of the sounds that startled me before are just frogs. Our door is about 40 yards from a seasonal creek that flows all year long. I am beginning to feel like I live in a kind of paradise.

Dylan has built an outdoor shower with warm water. I have yet to use it, not for lack of privacy, but because I'm not sure if 5 gallons of warm water is enough for me and I do not want to finish my shower with cold water!!!

Wallace does this funny thing lately. He claps when he's eating. I'll start to let down and he just begins clapping.

Cool Shades

Today we were playing on the bed and he had my glasses case. He was intently trying to figure out how to open it. (it closes with a large snap)

He gave up and started chewing on the leather. He crawled over to me with the glasses case in his mouth and gave it to me, I took it with my mouth and growled shaking my head. We passed it back and forth like that a few times laughing and growling.

Sam turned 12 and for his birthday we went to Loafer Creek up the road to swim and bbq. We brought the paddle boards and everyone had a great time. Sam got a trampoline for his birthday. Wallace and I play on the trampoline sometimes now. We run around and I bounce him a little. He is starting to really like it.

Wallace came down with the chicken pox on May 16th. We went to Winters. We stayed in Winters for a week before we went camping. We camped for 6 days with our friends

On Wednesday of our camping trip Dylan saw a deer being born when he was paddle boarding. He was 15 feet from it!

On his birthday Wallace began to get off the bed himself.

Wallace can walk!!! Walking has brought far more trips and falls. He has had his first bloody mouth, poor boy. He was walking towards me as I was sitting on the edge of the bed. He somehow lost his footing and slammed his chin into my knee. His two front teeth were bleeding. He has had 3 black eyes and a skinned up face since he started walking. He Runs now, like a little quail, head first.

 

Wallace has six teeth now!

Wallace started walking on Mothers Day! I will remember that for the rest of my life.

We all went to lake Oroville a week or so ago. Wallace had a good time in the water. We saw frogs. Dylan took Wallace by the arms and swishes him in the water. He laughed so hard!!

Wallace loves to feed himself now. We give him peaces of rice cake. He also feeds himself dried fruit, peas, hunks of fruits and veggies. Everyday I make sure he eats grain, fruit and veggies.

Wallace and I started going to the baby story time at the library here in Oroville. We sing songs and look at books. It is very fun. I have met some nice women with babies about the same age as Wallace.

On Monday morning we woke up and found horse tracks around our property. The horse walked all around our house and it looks like it played around on our porch. Dylan has been joking that he is going to catch it and put it in the empty horse corral.

Bambie

A White sister

We got rabbits!! They are really Dylan’s project, he tends them every day and cares for them. We have three does and a buck, named Buck. The girls are Bonnie and Snow Ball, I call them the white sisters. Bambie is our third doe, she is most like a pet as she is part Rex, Baloo is half mini Rex. Every week or so I get each rabbit out and put them on top of the cages and pet it for a few minutes.  Wallace and I give the rabbits carrots. They are all very tame. These rabbits are the first step towards homesteading. I am looking forward to eating meat I raise myself.

Dylan has been hunting squirrels:) he just ran in our house and showed me his kill!! I am going to eat my first squirrel today. Squirrel meat is very tasty, and juicy you can only shoot 3 a day in California. We really enjoyed the squirrel meat the 3 of us ate it up:)

Next we are getting Ducks. Dylan is building their fence this week. The property already has a little duck pond that Dylan cleaned out and filled up. We have bought duck eggs from another farm and we like them very much! Duck eggs are a lot bigger and tastier.

Happy 4^th of July!!!!!