Please Send Sunshine

It's been raining all week. It's cold again. The tulips came out last week when it was a little warmer and sunny. Today, there are traces of snow in the blooms. Yes, it is the twenty-seventh of April and there have been snow flurries all day. The closest things to Spring-time cheer around here are the flowers that NorthernDaddy bought for NorthernMommy (because she is wonderful/there needed to be bright and colorful flowers somewhere).

Could someone send some sunshine and warm weather this way?

Jump, Darn Fish, Jump!

The trout are running! (That's odd 'cause they have no feet..) For years, NorthernMommy has been wanting to see the fish jumping up the rapids on their way to get their spawn on. She dragged Northern(not Daddy then) up to watch them five years ago, but the fish weren't running that day. This year, things worked out for Mommy: the weather was warm and sunny, Toddler was quickly recovering from sickness, and Papa Frank got a call from a nice lady in Orleans telling him that the fish were running.

There's a nice section of river that channels the trout up a fairly narrow chute and into a small pool, where the fish can rest for a second or two before the final leap up a waterfall into the calm section of the river in which they spawn (or as they used to say on MTV Cribs, "This is where the magic happens"...)

Most of the crowd was watching the rapids 'chute' in an attempt to spot a jumping fish, but NorthernDaddy looked upstream and noticed the pool - and the only two narrow areas for a fish to jump to continue the upstream journey. Not twenty seconds after arriving at the pool, Daddy saw a really big rainbow trout (almost 24") launch upstream. Cool! Hey Toddler, get up here!

There weren't too many fish heading upstream today - about one every five minutes. (Think about that for a second: try staring at the same section of water for five minutes waiting for a fish jump that is over in a flash. If you look away at any second, you could miss the jump. Now, think about getting a four-year-old to do that!) The leap is remarkably fast - maybe one second from launch to upper level (or a crashing miss - about half the fish missed on the first jump) - so getting a picture seemed impossible. But, with a combination of patience, a fast shutter speed, lightning-quick 37-year-old reflexes, and a whole lot of dumb luck, NorthernDaddy caught a fish on film.

Above is the original photo - Mr. Leaping Rainbow is approximately eighteen inches long.

Below, the same picture is cropped to enlarge the detail (NorthernDaddy is sure that the fish smiled for the photo - do you see it?)

It's NorthernMommy's Birthday!

Happy Birthday, NorthernMommy!

(Cool cake, Grandma!)

NorthernDaddy (wisely) went with the photo that did not have the candles showing how old NorthernMommy is. Even if the numbers are getting higher, NorthernDaddy doesn't  care: every day he still sees the beautiful young lady that he married - because NorthernMommy only gets more awesome each day!

Happy Birthday! (Daddy and Toddler love you!)

'Eggs-ellent Easter'

Oops! That Toddler needs a haircut! The Northerns will have to drop Toddler off at the spa for his beautifying treatment this week!

Spare Some Peeps?

A package recently arrived at the Northern House after travelling from a far-away locale. The sender of said package will remain un-named for the time being. The package contained many objects of fascination for NorthernToddler, but it contained one special item that has become a small problem for the Toddler.

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Peeps.

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Toddler doesn't didn't know what Peeps were. He most certainly knows now. Toddler has become a Peeps addict. One hit of the fluffy yellow stuff and he was hooked.

He follows NorthernMommy and Daddy around the house asking, "Can I have another of those cheepy things?" NorthernDaddy isn't sure if Toddler didn't hear the word PEEPS correctly, or if Toddler is just so buzzed on the sugary marshmallow that he can't talk straight. Either way, 'cheeps' has become the new slang in the Northern House: "Yo man! You got my cheeps?!"
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To the sender of the package:  The supply of Peeps will be gone in a few hours - resulting in a revved-up Toddler raging out of control. Just note: you will be visiting very soon and Easter candy goes on sale on Monday. NorthernDaddy will be stocking up...

 

I'm Too Sexy

As Right Said Fred once said:

...And I'm too sexy for your party

Too sexy for your party

No way I'm disco dancing

I'm a model you know what I mean

And I do my little turn on the catwalk

Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah

I do my little turn on the catwalk...

Yep- the four-year-old picked out his clothes and dressed himself.

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(At least this time he's not running around in the backyard with nothing on but underwear and rubber boots!)

Detail-Oriented

NorthernToddler got some LEGOs for his birthday. Now, in NorthernDaddy's opinion, four years old is too young to be smoking the crack that is LEGOs. Not only is someone four years old not ready to jump into the world of infinite possibilities that the blocks provide, their little fingers are not equipped to deal with some of the connections that need to be made - not to mention that those little pieces end up everywhere. E v e r y w h e r e. Despite Toddler having a dedicated storage box for his LEGOs, just today NorthernDaddy found a LEGO block under the sofa. It was rolling around right next to the decapitated head of a plastic pirate figurine (that's a whole 'nother story...).

Let's examine the particular tragedy that is Toddler's LEGO kit. He received one very small box set of LEGOs that was a rocket launching pad with a little van (#3366 Satellite Launch Pad). Judging by the picture on the box, it looked pretty cool. It looked innocent. NorthernMommy helped Toddler get the box open and got him started on building his ambulance (Toddler calls the utility van his "ambulance"). LEGO instructions are pretty easy to follow - even four-year-old Toddler could follow along and figure it out by himself. Toddler finished his truck and had fun playing with it - until it fell apart. That is when the combination of Lego + Toddler turned right ugly.

NorthernDaddy was enlisted to help re-assemble the truck. He opened the instructions to the appropriate page, gathered up all the parts he would need, and started to build the truck - or so he thought. Toddler prefers that things be done his way. In other words, he is a four-year-old control freak. As Daddy was piecing together the truck, there was a tiny tyrant leaning over his shoulder offering "advice". Things were going okay until NorthernDaddy got to this piece:

You see that little yellow piece? There are two of them in this LEGO kit. Toddler took issue with the fact that Daddy picked one of these yellow pieces up randomly from the floor and placed it where the instructions told him to put it. You see, apparently NorthernDaddy picked up the wrong yellow piece.



Toddler went all wacko on poor NorthernDaddy - it started as a mild conversation about the possiblity that Daddy might have used the wrong part, and turned into a full-blown shouting match about the two parts in question being the same piece. As Toddler was landing punches and throwing elbows, NorthernDaddy found it hard to restrain from statements like: "they're the exact same bleeping part, you bleepinglittle control freak".  Finally, Toddler won: the offending yellow piece was removed and the other (exactly the same) piece was installed.

NorthernDaddy calls him 'Control Freak'. NorthernToddler prefers to say that he's 'Detail-Oriented'.