Tadhg: superhero with the power to scream

Tadhgy is 3. He is not one to spend a lot of time worrying about his age. He would rather chase his dad and bonk him with a "Light Saver", swing a baseball bat or throw anything across the living room. He dreams of skateboards (and riders with helmets) snowboards, airplanes and whales. He jumps off 2 cm tall wooden blocks with an imaginary skate board under his feet. He falls to the ground and poses at the end of the fall. Up like a shot and runs the loop of the house rooms.

What does he not like. We know well what he does not like because the announcement comes with tears and heartbreaking cries. Mom going to work. Leaving him to fall asleep by himself. Making him stay at the dinner table when he is full after that one pea. Night terrors at 3am. Coughing that heralds vomiting. Mom going to work again. Sophia poking fun at him or not sharing with him. He does not like quiche but he does like boiled eggs for the eggshells. He does not like to be put down in the morning. He wants to watch Star Wars but he does not like the anything scary (mostly due to fear transferred by his sister who has visceral reactions to ideas of fear or harm in books or movies). He does not like when his dad tries to evade getting a toy at the dinosaur exhibit at the zoo.

He continues to live with a big heart. Every deserving person gets a sincere hug. He gives out many. He is observant and cares for plants and animals (although his interest might lead to an unintentional prodding of the plant into the ground). He remembers the mouse we nursed back to life with sugar water last summer. He notes with saddness that the one he found in the backyard yesterday that is in two pieces, split down the middle, probably won't get better with sugar water.

Tadhg has begun to stand up for himself and make some big decisions. For example, he has decided that he is NOT going to school in the fall. Why not? I don't want to. I don't know the other children. He is not going to ski school ever again. Why not (you only did one day and you slept all afternoon)? I did not like my instructor (further translation: I can't believe you left me there all by myself (except for all the other kids and instructors). It was betrayal and now I cannot trust these classes. I will not go back to Little Gym either.

Tadhg can turn on Beast Mode as fast as Marshawn Lynch*. Tadhgs beast mode runs parents over in a flash, he uses the cling to the leg and the floppy body as stiff arms to fluster and nimbly maneuver around his parents intentions. Sophia has learned to steer clear when Tadhgy beast mode emerges (although her fierce enemy eyes stare flashes quickly in return to any challenge).

Tadhg can hit with a bat and throw with coordination and accuracy. He has great desire to send balls over the fence in the back yard. He will tire himself out with the efforts. He frequently amazes himself when a ball soars to new heights or when he tossed a cardboard square that sailed clear across the garden and proceeded to become the center of our world for the subsequent hour.









He recently exploded a volcano about 50 times in an hour.





*Tadhg loves to remember the guy than ran over all the other football players.

A Saturday in Spring.

Welcome,

My new blog is intended to be a record of the simple life pleasures and interesting thoughts and events around our home and in our family.

The players:
Tadhg 3 years old
Sophia 6 years old
Mom (Lila)
Dad (Shane)

What? How do you pronounce Tadhg, did you say? Well, we suggest trying TIGER without the Errr or Tie-G.
Yes, Irish. Yes, a great name. Yes, he will let us know how much he appreciates our love for him that was evident even before he emerged from his mothers womb. Well, we did not call him "Bad Guy" which was his sisters suggestion when she was three and he was 3 months away.

Other characters will surely join in the fun.
Let me not forget one now, Rose the Cat. AKA Inandout. A nocturnal creature who could not obey his owners and pet shops advice to remain an indoor docile creature.

A Saturday in Spring
Today, we have the first garden seeds in the ground. Corn, carrots and beets in the garden bed and peas below their twine vines.

Dad and Tadhg put nails in the wood fence and hung the string for the peas. Then they planted 6 indoor start snap peas and an addition 6-10 snap pea seeds.

After Lila and Sophia returned from Ballet, Tadhg and Lila turned the soil in the garden bed, prepared raised mounds and planted corn seeds and 3 indoor start corn plants. Tadhg struggled with the word mound. Sophia watched from behind a twirling jump rope. Dad also planted a couple of indoor start Lupine plants in the front flower beds, and carrots and beets in the garden. The garden bed was covered with a thin cloth to keep birds and critters away from the seeds.

The slugs are the biggest enemy for the new starts. The pumpkin plant that we put in the front last week is a withered shadow of a plant with a big slug bite in one of the remaining two leaves. Organic slug killer was placed around all of the new plants and garden bed today. I predict the slugs to be a theme in later blog entries if the garden is to thrive.

The sun is out. Mowers are buzzing (more than the bees). The petals are dropping "like snow", says Tadhg of the cherry tree flowers. The grass is water-logged from a wet week. The green of the garden is bright, vibrant, fresh. Many colors emerge with new petals. The weeds have been flourishing. The work is endless but the returns are satisfying.

Photo: Last year's garden prep.