Our Mini-Mama

This sequence happens every day.

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Wildlife

These hop around every morning. They are fun to watch. Not very smart, but super cute!

Birds sing every day. And it's so nice to have varieties other than crow and goose!

Spring is my favorite season.

I have no idea which bird this is, but am trying to improve my photography skills. Birds are hard, but so pretty!

Blurry outtakes: Top right is a hawk that was hanging out in our neighbor's driveway.

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What's Blooming

Some views from a walk in our neighborhood:

Roses are everywhere. And a few gerbera daisies.

Some wild roses:

 Succulents:

  

  

 This tree loses its leaves in winter.

Eucalyptus bark:

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The Engineer As Big Brother

He is relishing his role. He's teaching the baby to stand up and walk.

(Unrelated quote: I know why we live in Orange County. Because orange used to be my favorite color. Now my favorite color is solid gold.)

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Mourning Doves

These creatures have been calling outside our windows for weeks. 

A female frantically flew back and forth from a tree next to our front porch, building a nest a couple of weeks ago. When she stopped flying by, I thought she was gone. But the Firstborn spotted her here yesterday. Can you see her?

Thankfully, he told me right away so I could grab my camera.

Above is the evening, below is the morning. She does not move from this spot. Mr. Serious grabbed her tail before the big brothers could remove him. She did not budge. She was not coming off her eggs.

I hope I can photograph the babies when they hatch.

It's amazing how well camouflaged she is!

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Eight Months & Crawling!

Here's photographic evidence. Two teeth, crawling, making everyone smile.

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A Smiley Face

Mr. Serious has grown physically and mentally and both DH and I have recently taken note. Here he is so proud of himself for drawing a smiley face:

Airplane, his favorite:

Practicing Charades for Kids:

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"Mommy, This Is You..."

"And all those are around you because they love you."

"Are they all our people?"

"They're Angels."

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"A Hedgehog"

To this, the Engineer said with a hysterical laugh, "He looks nothing like a hedgehog."

Mr. Serious would do anything for a laugh.

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Street Baseball

We are coordinating our own Spring Training over here.

  

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More Hiking

The Firstborn told us this was his favorite hike. The creek was "peaceful and relaxing." Some days he cracks me up. He thinks about things I'm not expecting of an eight-year-old.

This is one of the only hikes currently open. California is taking the virus very seriously. Our city's numbers tripled in the last two weeks and rose 50% in the last week. Thankfully, they are still low. I was hoping we were seeing the peak, but time will tell.

After wiping out when jumping across a puddle:

DH had me buy a full frame camera as a quarantine hobby. I deactivated my Facebook account because there was just too much bad news and misinformation and ranting. It was particularly upsetting to me this time around, though I will not miss the political posts leading up to the general election in November. Previously, I'd kept my profile because I worked so hard to build up my network, which was a big part of my last job. But I often make the mistake of thinking I can make a difference by leaving a comment/post (probably sheer arrogance). DH figured out long ago that the most influence we can have is with these people right here.

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