Right Now

It is the last day of March today and our first “nice” day of the year so far here in Chicago. Today is the warmest day of the year at nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit. 60 degrees??? Heatwave for us! It’s a little windy outside but I am so tempted to pull out all my summer clothes so I can wear shorts and a t shirt outside right now. Enough of being cooped up indoors, this has been the longest winter ever.

But since the snow all finally melted just last week (and there are still some piles of it around), our backyard is a glorious big mud pit. (well some of it is anyway). Which makes it oh so fun to clean off 16 little feet when they continuously come in from outside all day long (3 dogs and a pig).

We did get outside for a bit yesterday which was really really nice! I took Ava, Angus and Zoey for a long walk to a nearby Forest Preserve and we had a little picnic there. (Moose and Steve were doing shows for most of the day). Poor Angus is getting older now so he was pretty worn out on our way back to the car. I plopped him into the stroller with Ava for the last bit and both of them were quite content! Ava was actually really excited to have her buddy sit with her.

Speaking of Ava, she is 20 months old now and talking up a storm! She knows all the dogs by name now and can say their names perfectly. She also says “norman” now and not “Normo” or “NumNum” anymore which I kind of miss cause it was so darn cute. She also knows our cavy “Waldo”. Yesterday when Steve got back, we were all playing in the backyard together (yes Waldo and Norman too!) and Ava learned how to climb up and go down her little slide all by herself. It seems like such a small thing, but it is so big. Our baby is not such a baby anymore and we are sure realizing that everyday! Just like when Norman was trying to play with her and knocked her down accidentally. Ava sat there stunned for a second then looked up at us and said “what happened?” as clear as day. Wow.