Hummingbird Fun

My grandparents always hung a hummingbird feeder outside their kitchen window.  It is a fixture in my childhood memories - that clear red liquid, those quick nervous visitors.

When Daniel pointed out a few hummingbird near our backyard bushes, we headed to Lowe's to pick up a feeder and up our game in the hosting-hummingbirds department.

We mixed up some sweet concoction, decorated a few beautiful hummingbird drawings (which the kids assured me would attract even MORE hummingbirds) and proudly hung our new creation in the backyard.

It took a good week or so for any animal to take notice of the new feature in our backyard.  And when they did, it wasn't hummingbirds.  We have just endeared ourselves to the local finch population.

But the hummingbirds still come for the flowers, so I suppose all's not lost.

Quantifying Love

Perhaps my favorite of our family traditions is our tendency to constantly declare our love for each other.  Some recent (and over the top) declarations from Daniel:  "Daddy, I can't stop loving you!!"  "Mommy, How do I even love you this much!!?"

Having run out of general overstatements, Daniel finally started trying to quantify it (competitively, of course).

D: "Mommy, I love you a thousand."
Me:  "Daniel, I love you a thousand million."
D: "Well, don't you know, I love YOU a thousand million google.  Do I win?"

Violet has followed suit, learning words like "infinity", "google" and "million" before she turned two.

It's just part of the subtle rhythm of life in our house.  For example.  Today I had just pressed play on the P90x ab video, and had just reached the part where Tony Horton warns everyone that "This isn't Ab Ripper 101 or 201... This is Ab Ripper 339!"

Daniel's voice piped up from across the room:  "That's how much I love you!!  339!!"

(pause)

"Do I win?"