A guilt-ridden escapade

I spent two hours of my morning weeding my backyard. Considering that we have a rather large backyard, this is quite an undertaking to begin with. But then add the fact that we don't have much of a lawn...more like a carpet of dandelions and you start to comprehend the fulility of this endeavor. After two hours and a giant trash bag full of weeds, I was only half way across the yard and ready to call it quits. Lucky for me, Griffin woke up from his nap at this point. Isn't it nice when you get a perfectly legitimate excuse for procrastination dropped in your lap? Look at how cute he is!

Truthfully, I don't mind pulling weeds. And I believe that there is something cleansing about yardwork (Spencer, I'm sure you're shaking your head at that). But after two hours of work I like to feel as though my efforts have made a difference. Unfortunately, I fear that these dandelions will be back with a vengence. Ironically, I honestly think the yellow dandelion is a remarkably cheerful little flower and I actually spent a good portion of my weeding time contemplating the beauty of the plants I was so enthusiactically destroying. I suppose that if it weren't for their uncanny tendency to choke out all other plant life I might feel a little more ashamed of my mass horticultural murder, or is it herbicide?

During today's weed purge I also came across a giant ant hill full of angry red fire ants which I bravely dug out and then flooded with hose water, destryoing who knows how many innocent ant lives. Could one call this insecticide? Notably, this will also save our house from a fire ant infestation while we are gone to Greece.

Last on my nature hit list was earthworms. I must have uncovered two score earthworms today. (Yeah, I could have said forty...but it sounds way cooler to say two score). I've heard that having earthworms in your dirt is a good sign that the dirt is fertile. Good news for me, especially when Landon and I plan to have a garden in our back yard. Bad news for the worms because several of the worms I "uncovered" were actually half-worms by the time I saw them (invertibraticide?). It reminded me of a line from a William Blake poem, "The cut worm forgives the plough." Besides, earthworms re-grow, right? like lizard tails?

Anyway, after all of this carnage our backyard looks much better, at least the half that I finished. I just don't know if I have the stomach to do it all over again tomorrow.

It's a WASH!

Yeah, ok. I know I already posted once today, and you may feel free to accuse me of overcompensating, but something blog-worthy happened this afternoon. When Griffin and I returned from Arizona I thought it was an excellent time to do a bunch of laundry. The domestic goddess that I am, it took me about a week to get through all of the laundry from the trip plus some sheets and such. I felt excessively proud of myself yesterday when, for about one nanosecond, all of the laundry was clean.

However, today I discovered an angry red rash on Griffin. After a quick mental itinerary, I realized that today was the first day I had dressed Griffin in the clothes I laundered in the bargain detergent I started using last week.

So guess who had to run to the store this afternoon and purchase expensive detergent? Me! And guess who will be using said detergent to launder all of the clothing she washed last week? Me again! And guess who will never buy cheapy detergent ever again? You get the point.

On the bright side, I totally prefer the scent of the expensive detergent but never felt like I could justify the added price. So aside from the hours of wasted laundry washing and folding, thanks Griffin.

Updates

I am way behind on my posting quota for the month of April (as has been pointed out by several Griffin fans)... but I'll be honest, I find it difficult to post a blog when my readership doesn't leave comments to vindicate my efforts. So if you leave more comments I'll probably post more frequently.
And now I choose to recite a list:
Significant events and goings-on of the last two weeks

• Griffin's passport finally arrived in the mail, hoorah! although, he already looks way different from his passport photo
• I got a haircut while in Arizona...short enough so that Griffin doesn't pull it when I'm holding him
• In what can only be described as the sharp inhale before the relieved sigh of spring, last Friday we had another snow storm blow through and drop several inches on us. It snowed for nearly two days straight...but by Sunday night it had all melted away in the 70 degree weather
  
• And a relieved sigh indeed...Landon and Griffin and I had our first real spring picnic in the park yesterday. We strapped Griffin in the baby bjorn and played around the park. He particularly enjoyed riding the teeter-totter.
• Griffin has discovered his thumbs and he can't seem to stop sucking on them. Fine by me though, because it saves me the trouble of searching for his pacifier (or as my father calls it, a baby "plug")
• And the official countdown has begun: Landon's parents get to come visit us (let's be honest, Griffin is the main reason for the visit, Landon and I are just the sideshow) in less than three weeks! Oh, also Greece is less than 1 month away.
• Griffin got one of those baby swings, and he LOVES it! I'll have to post some pictures of him in it at some point.
• Griffin tried solid food for the first time while we were in Arizona (baby rice cereal...Grandma Griffin ate some too)

And now some pictures for your perusal:

Test Flight

When we heard the official word that we would be traveling to Greece for three months this summer my immediate reaction was excitement and anticipation. However, those feeling were quickly laced with a little trepedation and concern. Mostly, because we would be traveling with a 5-month-old baby on 25+ hours of flight time just to get there. Call me a little looming rain cloud, but I'll be honest, this prospect seemed rather daunting.

I'm not going to tell you that I've been cured of my nervousness entirely, but after yesterday my fears have been ever-so-slightly asuaged. Yesterday, Griffin had his first airplane experience. We flew from Denver to Phoenix and he was a perfect passenger.

Oddly enough, when you travel with a baby, no one wants to sit next to you (yes, I traveled Southwest). As soon as people saw 3-month-old Griffin in my arms, they beat a hasty path to more promising rows near the rear of the plane. No hard feelings though because on a nearly full flight I had plenty of elbow room. Griffin had a bottle during take-off, slept through the first half of the flight, sat and bounced on my lap for a bit, and with a pacifier in his mouth we touched down on the Phoenix runway without a single whimper. Hoorah for Griffin!

Now I realize that on our trip to Greece we will be multiplying the flight time by ten or more. But at least now I feel secure in my optimism that perhaps the rest of our fellow passengers will not issue silent death threats to us on the flight.

Note to my son: you are not a kangaroo

I don't know if he's teething or what, but Griffin has definitely stepped up the drooling lately. It reminds me of something I'm sure I heard as a kid on either Animal Planet or Bill Nye the Science Guy about how kangaroos behave on hot days in Australia. And after a full minute of intense internet research (it would've been faster except that wikipedia didn't reference this behavior) I found documentation. According to the San Francisco Zoological Society, "Kangaroos drool and lick saliva all over their faces and bodies to cool down."

Now, I don't know if this is a case of species confusion (my little sister once spent an entire week claiming that she was a kitty) but Griffin's face and arms are constantly covered in saliva no matter how often I wipe him off. He drools with a voracity that suggests this is his sole chance of survival in the Australian bush. Landon was even concerned that perhaps Griffin would begin to grow mildew on his chest because his shirt is always damp. Of course, once I pointed out that we change Griffin's clothes daily and bathe him regularly, this became less of a concern.

But seriously, we live in Colorado and spit really doesn't seem like the most efficient way to cool off if you ask me. So Griffin, I hereby put you on notice: you are not a wild Australian kangaroo, so feel free to pear back the drooling at any time.