Spring, wonderful spring!

First of all, before I forget to post it, check out this video - they aren't my babies, but they're still cute (thanks to KarenP for the link).

Okay, back to work. Spring appears to have sprung here in Kentucky, at least until the snow hits next week. We had a mild winter this year, so spring doesn't seem like as much of a relief as it has in years past. But there's something about the quality of the air and the sunshine yesterday and today that makes it painful to stay inside, so I've been trying to come up with excuses to get outside. Yesterday it was, "Oh, we don't have much in the house for dinner, let's stop at McDonalds and have a picnic near the lake." Well, they screwed up our takeout order at McD's, it started getting a little chilly and dusky by the time we made it to the park, and Liza wouldn't eat because she was too busy watching the waist-high hooligans throwing themselves off of the playground equipment, but I'd still consider it a success. At least as far as photos go ...




















That last photo was taken just moments before she (predictably) did a less-than-graceful dismount from the equipment, unencumbered by either her father or me trying to stop her. It was pretty impressive - her feet slipped, and she slid out of the seat but still held onto the handlebar for a moment, so she dangled with her feet barely off the ground for a few seconds before she let go and did a total faceplant in the mulch. I think we need an award that declares us "Least Likely to Become Parent of the Year." All I can say is, "Dude, she doesn't have a bruise, the mulch brushed off, and she stopped crying as soon as I picked her up." No harm, no foul. Yell at me next time she does it when she breaks a tooth or bites her tongue off.

Where was I? Oh ... today's excuse to get outside was, "It's too nice to stay inside with a wailing child who won't take a nap," so I packed Little Miss Grumpypants into the stroller and we went for a two-hour expedition downtown. We walked to Subway and got a sandwich, which I ate in a park a few blocks from our house. Liza was much less, um, vocal once I got her out of the house, and she seemed to actually enjoy the swings and especially the slide. Then a little preschool-age girl came over and started talking to her, which Liza thought was the coolest thing on the planet. I thought I was going to have to rip her away from the poor girl, she was so captivated. Maybe that's what I need to do - forget hiring a babysitter, I just need to hire Liza an older sister. Anyway, here's documentation of the expedition:

And proof that it is actually spring, courtesy of our neighbors with the ridiculously early-blooming tiny daffodils. Thanks, guys - I needed these: