"Farewell to my tree" and "Mommy, look a building!"

Well, our tree is gone. I'm actually a little sad about it. Seems that our big white birch tree ended up catching some weird tree disease. It leafed out this spring, but slowly turned brown as the summer went on. I was in denial, but Wil had the neighbor (who apparently is the local tree expert I guess) look at it and he declared it dead. This tree was not only very pretty, but it was the only tiny source of shade on the west side of our house. Without it, I'm afraid we will fry even more than normal on the deck. Above is a nice picture of my tree when it was alive.

And here is the series of events leading up to its tragic end.


Lets all have a moment of silence for my tree.


Ok. Moving on. Today we were all in the Mom-mobile going to town to run errands. Lola was jabbering away in the back seat as usual. Suddenly she was quiet. Wil and I stopped talking...it was a deafening silence. Lola is never quiet....it was as if she was pondering something great. Usually when she is quiet like this she is preparing to say something immensely adorable. At this point we were driving through the suburbs of the city. We waited, knowing that she was about to say something awe inspiring and amazing.

"Mommy! Look! A building!!!"

Wowee. Really.....a building, in the city? No way! It was as if she had just now noticed that buildings exist in this particular town....we laughed and laughed, and of course then she laughed too, but with that "why are we laughing, oh well, I guess I will just join in" kind of laugh.

Rowan spent his day learning how to manipulate his hands enough to grab his binky and maneuver it slowly into his mouth. This is a major milestone in my book. Forget rolling over and sitting up, my kid can pick up his own damn binky!!!

Our awesome neighbor (the tree expert) brought us some fresh green beans tonight. Instead of asking for her usual goldfish night time snack, Lola wanted green beans in her monkey bowl. Ok, whatever, more power to her! What kind of kid eats raw green beans for a snack? That would be my kid!!!