Meanwhile, back on the farm...

We got chickens last month! These were the chirpiest cardboard boxes I ever heard in my life.


Jim enjoyed watching me unload them.


These are Cornish Cross. They will grow up to be delicious.


Jim anticipates many chicken dinners eight weeks hence.


On the left we have Toulouse geese, which will hopefully also be delicious (never having had goose, I'm not sure). On the right we have a variety of egg-laying chicks, who are destined for a long and happy life.


Goslings. SO CUTE. (and so freaking filthy - their pen was just destroyed within ten minutes of habitation)


Jim's face after he got to touch one.


Jim's face when reminded of the chickens several minutes later.


Fast-forward several weeks, and it turns out our whole fenceline is covered in honeysuckle. Reminds me of spending hours eating honeysuckle on my Pap's fencerow.


Jim can now pose for the camera.


Alfred is getting bigger. He's SO skinny though. We're going to the vet today to see what we can do to put a little weight on him.


MOO.


We moved the chicks out to the barn (and then yesterday moved them outside finally).


Goslings! Still so cute.


Jim likes to herd them around.

Jim is TWO!

And how weird is that? Extremely weird, in my opinion.

There's really not a lot to say about it. Jim is two years old, and he is hilarious and stubborn and a pain in the butt and generally awesome. His favorite foods are noodles and cere-deedle, but he really likes anything. No picky eaters in THIS house. His vocabulary is growing slowly but surely. His physical skills are way ahead of the game - he can jump and kick and climb the huge terrifying ladder to the barn loft whenever I turn my back. He likes to help me put away dishes and take care of the animals, but he also likes to try to hit chickens with his hammer and dunk his head in any open vessel of water. He doesn't go anywhere without his hat, and he doesn't let Noah go anywhere without his hat, either.

Overall, I think he's a pretty good guy, and I'm not gonna type any more right now because I'm totally tearing up over here about him growing up. Seriously, last night I dreamed he was sixteen and going to work with Noah. True, they were both wearing overalls and shirts with trucks on them, but still. He's too damn old, and it makes me sad.

So enough words. Let's have a video. This was Jim's little birthday party that we had for him on Sunday. It was small, of course, just Noah and me and Jim and his Aunt Emmy. He got shoes and cars and a little swimming pool, which Noah commandeered. We had Saturday night casserole and yellow cake with lemon cream cheese frosting, and Jim loved all of it. His favorite part was having us sing to him (he looked pleasantly surprised the whole time), and he successfully blew out both of his candles without assistance.

April picture dump.

Apologies for the wait. Alfred, bless his toothy soul, gnawed through our internet line, and Noah just got the stuff to fix it. Here, have some random pictures of Jim to make up for it.


Jim demands pictures be taken first thing in the morning.


Carefully selecting the correct cheerio for his needs.


A fine choice, I must say.


Happy to be wearing Daddy's shirt.


Blurry, but his little face is so cute.


A toothy smile.


Triumph!


Stinky face.


Blurry, but SO happy.


He likes to just flop on the floor now.


The End.

+1

Well, most of you know we've been working on a new addition. So, here it is!


This one's from Saturday. I just love peeing on stuff when I'm pregnant.

We found out on the 30th. I know we've told a few of you already, but I was waiting to post it 'officially' until the test line got a little more visible with serious squinting. Assuming the online calculators are correct, I'm due January 11th 2014, which makes me about four weeks pregnant now. Cue informative diagram:


Aww, adorable little dividing cells!

We had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to call this one at first. We can't go with Buckethead again - that was Jim's fetus name. But creativity apparently abandoned us for this particular bundle o' DNA. So we asked Jim what we should call the baby. He gave us his best disapproving look and sternly replied "No, no."

So we're calling this one Baby No-no. Silly name for a fetus embryo, but you can blame Jim for that, not us.

Before and After: House exterior.

The day we moved in.


A couple weeks ago.

It's amazing what a new roof, new windows, and a little trimming can do to a place, isn't it? We've still got a lot of work to do, but I'm happy with progress so far.

Easter.

Jim's easter basket! The bubbles were his favorite part.


He wasn't totally impressed with the peeps. His loss; I ate them.


He was pretty pleased with the chocolate and the bunny, though.


Like last year, coloring the eggs was kind of a rush job five minutes before his little egg hunt. They turned out pretty well, I think.


When I say "egg hunt," understand that to mean "Jim walks along and plucks eggs from the surface of the ground."


He liked it a lot, though. Next year we need to do more eggs for him to find.

Awww, Jim and Daddy-legs.


I hid some chocolate by the last egg for him to find.


This was the only egg that was even slightly hidden. It gave him no trouble.


Posing with the spoils of war.


Not satisfied with the number of eggs hidden for him, he removed them all from the basket so he could put them back in again.


Yep, got 'em all.