the pollen has fallen

The pollen outside is crazy right now. Everything is covered in it, and it's gotten tracked in the house and blown in the windows so I've been cleaning every surface. The amazing thing, though, is that a few years ago I would have been having terrible allergy symptoms from this. Since I changed to a plant-based diet my allergies have nearly disappeared!

Yellow driveway- yuck.

We're having a relaxed day today, and it's making me look forward to summer. It's hot outside (I actually have the air conditioners on!) and we were away for the weekend with Chris's family (Celia had fun at the beach- pretty much the biggest, best sandbox ever), so today Celia has been happy just being at home and playing around the house and the yard. She has been very busy playing all day. Henry is, as usual, along for the ride whatever we're up to.

They were so sweet playing together this morning. We're at a point now where they can play together a little and I can actually get things done while Celia plays with Henry.

We went to the library this morning but it was closed, so we went across the street to the park and Celia ran around some before we went home again. Henry went down really early for his second nap and had a nice long one, so Celia and I had a lot of time to ourselves. She wanted to do an art project, and then played at her water table and her kitchen while I made lunch and cleaned up. I also made her lunch to take to daycare tomorrow. She wanted parmesan cheese on her pasta, so I tried making a vegan "parmesan" for the first time. It obviously doesn't taste like dairy parmesan but it's healthy and tastes good, and Pita liked it! I have been working lately on getting Celia to be 100% plant-based with her diet at home, and have started sending her lunches to daycare. I'll probably devote some posts to the subject in the future. We had a nice quiet lunch together, and she played more and went up for her nap. Twenty minutes later she appeared downstairs, not having napped at all. I started this post and Pita had a little snack and sat with me. She said she wanted to read the newspaper while she ate, so I gave her a section. Ha! Then she wanted to watch The Smurfs, so I let her watch a little for some quiet time.

After afternoon nap time, we're going to Skype with my parents because it's my father's 70th birthday today! We did not see him this week, so we're going to make him a cake next week. Then I want to go look for a bathing suit for Celia and maybe find some throw pillows to dress up the living and family rooms a little. I really want to add some color and get curtains put up.

(Celia was playing with these hats today and at one point I walked in the family room and found this.)

What a couple of jokers.

Just some random updates: Henry is starting to move just a tiny bit, commando-style crawling! And after I wrote yesterday that he hardly ever rolls, he suddenly started rolling a lot more too! I think he'll be crawling for sure in the next month. He's really trying. Also, lately Celia has been saying she loves me, all day long. She will just randomly come up to me and say something like, "Mommy? I just love you." And she says it in the cutest little voice. She is so sweet and affectionate, so good at helping me and playing with Henry, and always giving hugs and kisses. I don't know where the horrible three-year-old monster I had went, but it's gone now and my sweet girl is back. She still has her moments of course, but I think the worst is over. She has also been saying the funniest little things. Like this morning she was breathing really hard, and when I asked what she was doing she said "I'm just getting some fresh air in my mouth." And this afternoon she was talking about something that happened "a tick-tock ago". They come up with the best things at this age.

Tomorrow I wil try to update on our yard and garden progress. Lots of changes!