Our Bold Adventure Continues

Funnydad phones from work to say he's bored. It's Friday afternoon and he'd rather be home with us. Bored bored bored. O ponders this for a moment and says, "I don't want daddy to be bored." I tell her not to worry, he'll be un-bored soon. M asks, "How did he get bored?" O explains, "Maybe a magic witch came and made him bored." M says, "Yeah, a person with a wand waved and he was bored." O adds, "Magic people can turn you into lots of things. They can make daddy bored." I ask the girls if they know what bored means. They say, "Yeah! Yeah, yeah it's ... um, um. No." And go back to their play-doh.

M is deathly afraid of the wind. She'll throw herself on the ground in terror, huddle in a little ball, scream and cry until we carry her to shelter. And, if you've never been to Colorado, I'm here to tell you we have some wicked wind in this state, which doesn't help. Wind whips around along the entire Front Range -- something about being on the leeward side of the Rocky Mountains and cool air coming down from higher elevations. This time of year is the worst. We've tried everything we can think of, stories about how the wind is our friend, discussions of nature and rain and sun and fluffy bunnies and how they all like wind. We've read books about wind, we've tried ignoring M and her fears, we've tried cowtowing to her. O, for her part, plays the good twin, never complaining, and occassionally proclaiming her love of wind. After a couple months of this, we're tired. Our new approach is balance. Sympathy tempered with tough love, understanding mixed

March may go in like a lion, but our lion has a split personality. It was in the 50s today, though there was a dusting of snow on the ground early this morning. After work Funnydad brought the girls to a playground in the bike chariot, taking immediate advantage of the extended daylight and our quixotic weather. Last week we built a snowman. Two weekends ago it was warm enough to wear short sleeves while doing yard work. The weather here, in the shoulder seasons at least, is wacky. My friends in Minnesota are still dealing with snow and temperatures below freezing, and this is the time of year I'm gleeful to have left the upper Midwest behind. We always want the best of everything, so I'm sure summer will have me wishing for one of those 10,000 lakes and a cabin. But for now give me my quirky Colorado March weather. At any rate, it's time to get started on my garden. Go Time. No time to putz around, there's a lot to do. Time to get excited, dirty, eager, and almost cert