coffee, tea, breakfast, ducks, snow, rainbows, streams

this was the day of three breakfasts, of greg wading barefoot in shorts through waist deep water to retrieve a stiller, fatter, and handsomer duck than real ducks, and snow on a spring day... 

that's how the morning started.  winter telling spring to... well... you know.  

william and henry watching cartoons.  greg and i eating oats, drinking tea, coffee, and more coffee.  

then breakfast number two.  blueberry pancakes... except no blueberries for henry.  

william going off to clean the play area in the common house (he's on a kid's team that has that responsibility every couple months or so)... it was there he ate his next breakfast... bread and jam and cheese.  

at some point, breakfast number three.  we'll call it brunch.  scrambled eggs, and ham for greg, toast, oranges, more coffee.  we toasted to today being greg's first day as a senior scientist.  and we talked about things we could do today that would make us happy.  his was to go on a run.  mine was to relax in a clean house with a cup of tea.  

later... i get my wish.  sort of kind of.  not too long into the relaxing part, i get booted from the couch which turns into a house... 

later i declare, 'i'm going out to the stream.'  'with the duck?!'  asks henry.  'yes,' i say.  this was in lieu of yesterday's aborted trip to the fjord.

on the way down, william declares, "this duck is stiller and fatter and handsomer than a real duck."

here's the stream at the bottom of our street/bike path...

and here's mr. handsome.  well, i dare say there are two of them... one is anchored to the shore.  the other has received about a thousand stern warnings from his mother to stay on it.

this plastic duck was found on a long-ago fjord adventure near greg's office and somehow survived whatever happens to old, found, plastic ducks when people move from one house to another.  i must have been feeling very generous that day...


today's plan (and the goal of yesterday-- yes, mr. duck came on the bus with us) was to anchor him to shore and throw rocks at him.  poor mr. duck.  so we threw a few rocks at him and eventually henry took him off his leash and he swam over to the other side of the stream.  we searched for a way to cross without getting too wet but it all seemed just a bit too deep everywhere, so william walked to a nearby bridge and crossed and crawled down the other side and walked along the bank and rescued him.  then henry did it again.  we threw rocks at mr. duck to try to dislodge him from his refuge, with no luck.  finally, henry half-fell in the water and one of william's mittens was wet so we decided to go home.  on the way, greg ran up to us (he was coming back from his run, so running was just his natural mode of movement at that moment).  i told him about the duck.  i went back home-- with the boys slowly, very, very slowly following after me-- and greg, without their noticing and without my knowing, took off his running shoes and crossed the stream that looks mostly shallow but just a little too deep to cross, even in rain boots, and ended up waist-deep getting to the other side to rescue the duck from a life of... what?  freedom?  fresh air?  a river all his own?  oh well.  back to the shed with you, mr. duck.

henry taking a stick and splashing at the water.  is there anything more fun for a four year old?

while we were out-- with the clouds...

and as we were leaving-- sun... and, unbeknownst to me at the time... a rainbow.

looks like spring, right?