what bugs us

this spring brings sadness to the miller house.  

jude is sad because a giant tree that stood faithfully shading parts of his backyard is now gone.

here is the green ash on an unfortunate cloudy day before its demise.

little boy blue

the white dot near jude is the dreaded mark from the village that a tree is coming down.  jude is sad because the white paint is out of control in our area.  its all because of a tiny bug. so far the emerald ash borer has claimed five trees that we can see from our windows.  

as is usually the case, sadness is short lived for jude. turns out the tree stump is fun to climb on.  

our former tree

the rings in the stump tell the tale.  our green ash was 35 years old.  oak park foresters say almost 600 ash trees in the village have met the chainsaw since last fall.

rings of the past

while we are sad to see the tree go, parts of my gardening are blossoming with new found rays of sun.  the lilac by the front door made a particularly pleasant showing, spilling right onto the steps.  what a nice sight to come home to this spring.

purplelicious

speaking of blossoming, harry is now quite an accomplished army crawler. and his tiny smile has four teeth now.

baby love

outdoor fun

the forecast says 70's for days so today we pulled out a bunch of the backyard summer toys and the hose. before we celebrate the temps, we have to celebrate harry and his new sitting up skills.

mom picked the hat

i learned today it is much easier to coo, cuddle and play with harry outside. jude was so into playing with water that he didn't mind mom giving all her attention to his little brother for a bit.

when we told jude the weather was warm this week his first words were "we can get out my pool!" its still a bit too chilly to swim but he had a great time filling dumping and floating his boats.

i hear kids in florida do this all the time in march

the warm snap caught mom off guard with jude's wardrobe. we avoided malfunctions, but we have only like 3 pairs of shorts that fit. usually we can wait til april to think about warm weather attire.

set for summer, please don't snow

kara is loving the chance to also take walks as she hides her black eye behind big sunglasses. harry is an even happier baby with all the fresh air and things to look at.

we still hear from him at night with a meal request, but we are making progress towards that long awaited goal of harry and mommy sleeping through the night.