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!!!!!