“Wake up time?”

“One more hour.”

“Wake up time now?”

“It’s only been three minutes.”

“Why no wake up time?”

Ugh.

“Have wattles?”

Fine.

“Here.”

Now to make coffee.

“MORE WATTLES!”

“… Pease?”

Uggggh.

———————
If you have a toddler, you know that they have two volumes: loud and louder. Good thing they are so cute.

This was written for the Trifecta Trifextra: Week Seven Writing Challenge: “…give us a story or snippet of a story which includes, in exactly 33 words, a justified exclamation point”.

Usually by this time of year we still have a solid base of snow covering our yard and obscuring its features, but with the up and down temperatures we’ve had this Winter (and I use that term loosely), any snow we have gotten hasn’t stuck around for more than a week, and more often than not is gone in only a few days, allowing me to see the grass and, by extension, my garden. I’m not really good with house plants (we do have a few, but they have certainly suffered ever since we dropped our cleaning lady) but for some reason I do like to garden.

And right now my garden is naked and is definitely feeling over exposed.

When we installed our fence a few years ago most of the garden was destroyed, which at first upset me, but eventually I realized also gave me a chance to start anew without feeling guilty about killing plants I didn’t like. So now our garden is a bit of a work in progress: our backyard is very shady, so I’m limited in what will grow, and while I love the plants we do have I haven’t had much free time in the last two years so there’s still quite a few places to fill in.

And yet, it is still “full”. In place of the plants that have yet to mature, I guess I’ve embraced my sense of whimsy, adding garden gnomes and other statues, along with a bird bath (or two).

Last summer I built a small pond in one corner near the house where nothing would grow anyway and where our gutters were overflowing and washing away the soil. Since we couldn’t stop the overflow, the pond at least catches it and prevents any more erosion. Secretly I hoped that a frog would take up residence there, but it remained vacant. Perhaps this will be the year the pond gets a special visitor.

What I don’t miss is these lovely visitors, who popped up in larger numbers for the first time last year. I hope this year they decide to take up residence elsewhere.

I knew that Evelyn was not going to come out as a carbon copy of Abby, but sometimes it surprises/amuses me that they seem so different, even when it’s just in the little things:

Abby was two days early. Evelyn was a week late (or two weeks late, if you consider the fact I thought she would be a week early).

Evelyn has blue eyes (for now at least). Abby had brown eyes from the beginning (or so it seemed). Evelyn was born with a fairly good head of hair, whereas Abby’s hair growth seemed to stall until she was over a year old.

Abby slept well at night. Evelyn has the leg up on daytime napping.

Abby hated tummy time. Evelyn takes it like a trooper.

The list goes on, but the one thing that they do have in common: Abby would, almost without fail, pee while I was changing her, and Evelyn is no different.