just a yummy day

Dusty
Originally uploaded by smartcakes

Wow. I am feeling SO good today - much better than I have in a very long time.

It is so sunny today. We've been outside with no jackets or anything.

I just love this hat on Dusty - it's actually mine, but he's been wearing it everywhere the past few days. He spends at least an hour or so out in the backyard every day, mowing the lawn with his toy lawn mower. He takes his duties very seriously.

I recently discovered Pandora.com, ironically, on the exact same day my friend Shae discovered it. I'm indulging in my various musical guilty pleasures - Collective Soul, Arlo Guthrie, Gordon Lightfoot, Stompin' Tom Connors, Loverboy, Loretta Lynn...

I don't know why, but Pandora keeps insisting that I must love Cat Stevens and Matchbox 20, even though I keep saying no no no.

Dusty and I are going to whip up a batch of welsh cakes in a bit and head off to the park for a little picnic-type thing. I'm going to bring a crafty project with me to work on while he plays on the playground. I'm trying to finish a tiny Mary Engelbreit cross stitch thing to send to my mom for her birthday. Geez, I don't think I've done counted cross stitch in at least twenty years. I did a lot of it when I was a kid.

My blog entries are rather brief at the moment. I'm spending most of my time trying to get it to look the way I want it to, and it's coming along slowly.

I'll leave you with five things that are making me happy today:

1) the rambunctious bluejays that hang out in our backyard
2) my favourite line in a song ever - "Who brought the cat? Would Margaret Atwood?" from My Baby Loves A Bunch Of Authors by Moxy Fruvous
3) watching Dusty watching the guys next door cut down a tree
4) the fact that my bed is made. It's amazing how this little detail cheers me up
5) the little story Dusty wrote about eating a "bagl", complete with drawings if said bagel.

glue gun

glue gun
Originally uploaded by smartcakes

Crafting is one of Dusty's favourite things. Here he is wielding a glue gun to attach little pompoms to his pinecone 'hummingbirds'.

Yeah, I let my four year old use a glue gun. He also knows how to use my sewing machine.

Can I just go on about my little guy for a bit?

He loves nothing more than to take things apart, so he can see how they work. He enjoys looking at the guts of a computer, a bathroom scale, or a bread machine.

One of his favourite TV shows is Dirty Jobs. We were watching an episode a few weeks ago, in which they were using a giant vacuum to clean out a storm drain. There were a few rats running around in the drain, which pleased Dusty to no end. Since then, he has spent a great deal of time playing Baby Sewer Rat. He uses pillows and blankets and other stuff to turn his bedroom into his sewer, or his rats nest.

Other favorite games include Baby Meerkat, Baby Llama, and Baby Pirate.

He's currently reading at about a third grade level. He loves to read, but I'm hardly surprised, seeing as his dad and I are huge book whores.

He knows how to build a basic electrical circuit with wires and a battery, and knows how to add a switch to it.

He's started doing multiplication for fun.

He helps cook or bake almost every day.

He's generally such a sweet, gentle, personable, happy go lucky little guy, and he's (usually) so much fun to be around.

I'm so glad that I get to spend so much time with him. I do appreciate how fortunate I am to be able to do this. We live a very frugal life, which makes it easier to live on just my husband's income. My husband works nights, so the better part of the day it's just Dusty and I. He does do preschool two afternoons a week - I decided that this would be beneficial for him socially, as he has no siblings, and I am not a good model, what with the fact that I am a Complete Social Retard. He has made HUGE progress with his social skills since starting preschool in September, so I am really pleased. He's very outgoing and charming, and gets along so well with other kids. He's a little intimidated by kids who play rough, but can pretty much hold his own.

Our days are filled with crafting, artwork, being out in nature, our gardens, working in the kitchen - I have to admit, it's a pretty great life.