Monday, March 23rd 2015

With the newfound urgency and commitment to getting into nature, I nab my kids from school on Monday and drive them all of three miles to the nearest Audobon Sanctuary in Belmont, MA, aptly named “Habitat“).   Within seconds, Gavin is off-roading right next to the parking lot.

Off Road Boy

The kids immediately make a game of finding and pondering *holes* (in trees, in the snow, in the ground).   Naturally some need to be poked with a stick.

What better use for a stick?

ClaraJane in fact made many holes in the ground with a stick, “for mouses.”  As in, “Brother!  Don’t step on my mouse hole!”

But he was too busy playing with ice shaped like a knife;

knife-ice

And challenging himself to heave the biggest hunk of ice he might;

bless my baby’s ubiquitous baby butt crack while it lasts...

This gives her time to talk (and me to listen).  Here she is telling me about the Mouse and the Gruffalo, which I include here because she will only be 3 years old for 0.2 more seconds:

2015-03-23 The Joy of Listening to ClaraJane [44 seconds]:

Then glory be;  A pile of sticks.  “Let’s BUILD something!”

pile o’ sticks

And so we do.  Like a tee-pee or something, which they immediately get inside.

Arbitrary structure in nature

I joked they look like they’re on “Time-Out.”

“Yeah it’s like a *jail!*” they agree with delight.

Funny we head into the outdoors and build ourselves a confining structure.

I don’t know what it means.

But it sure was lovely to get out there.

amen

We’ll be back soon.

I insist.