“Me Call Daddy” has been a recurring theme these past few weeks. LIttle Man is always wanting to call Squatch, so we do. What is hilarious are his responses if Squatch doesn’t answer the call. “Daddy in bathroom.” “Daddy help Bop.” “Daddy at work.” Lately, though, it’s been the bathroom explanation that keeps getting brought up. Little Man really does miss his daddy, and we are trying so hard to find a place that we can buy so we can all be TOGETHER again.

It is really tough being apart. And it get more difficult each time we say goodbye. Little Man is trying to understand, but I know it’s hard. So, all the hangouts calls with Daddy happen when we can make them during the week, not just on our usual Sunday morning calls.

Little Man got to see his favourite cousin this weekend though. My cousin came back over Sunday morning to finish moving all the big limestones over to our property from a neighbour’s. Little Man wanted to “foww” her, so we hopped in the Rhino and went back and forth with her a few times. “AMAZING!” Little Man would say as he watched her use the claw on the front of the Bobcat to pick up these massive rocks. “CHOMP!” he cried as the claws closed over the rock before she would head back to the house. It was so much fun! And Tuesday she will be back with another farm tool to help us move a tonne and a half of sand to the sandbox out back.

I’m glad he’s got this relationship with my cousin. She gets so excited to come over. “Little Man, I’m here!” she yells as she walks in the door, and when Little Man hears here, he runs to see her. And when she tells him she will be back the next day, all day it is “When Cousin come over?” “Cousin come here.” While we were sitting on the porch with the dog yesterday, Little Man stopped what he was doing and looked at me. “Me no like Cousin,” he said. I immediately went “WHAT?!” “Me no like Cousin. Me love Cousin.” he replied with a big smile, melting my heart. So, of course, when she was done, she came back up to the house and I told her what he said, because Little Man decided to be shy. Oh my goodness, to see her face as she heard what I said. She went from devastated to ecstatic! “I love you, too, Little Man!” she said as she grabbed him up for a hug.

Speaking of hugs, this kid is getting HUGE. We went to the doctor for his 3 year old checkup, and he is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. He is clearly taking after Daddy in those departments. I was always a small skinny thing. We are at the point where my knees crackle in protest when I pick Little Man up and walk with him. So the past few weeks there has been a lot of, “I will pick you up for a big hug, but I cannot hold you and carry you down the stairs, or to the kitchen.” I mean, it’s normal for a 30-something woman’s knees to sound like Rice Krispy Cereal when walking up the stairs, right? RIGHT?!

But Little Man is growing up so dang fast right in front of my eyes. We were colouring the other day and I asked him to try to copy what I was drawing: vertical line, horizontal line, circle, square, triangle, star. He’s getting so much better with it all, and his star actually somewhat resembled the star I drew. YES! I do need to start working with him on ABCs. He is great with numbers, and can count to eleven when he wants to. He usually stops at 6 or 7. And when you ask him what time it is, he will reply “Six thirty eleven.” Meh, whatever. I’m ok with this. He’s learning so fast and picking everything up. His latest thing is to take a book and sit down and “read” it out loud. Now, I haven’t been too close to really listen and pay attention to what he is saying, but this is a HUGE step for him.

Being 3, I am thinking about pre-school and such. But, I’m loathe to enroll him somewhere, just because there is so much uncertainty as to where we will be and when this fall. I also will not send him somewhere they require the little kids to wear a damn muzzle. I’m sorry, but I do not agree with forcing kids as young as 2 to wear masks. I was talking with some other parents about this. The reactions to Little Man at the park is just crazy. Little kids in masks either run in fear from him, or they go to take their masks off, only for teachers or parents to yell “Put that back on!” or “Stay away from the kids without masks!” What is wrong with people? And what is this going to do to these little impressionable children as they grow up? I fear for our future, my friends. But, we shall keep on doing things that don’t require masks, like seeing the Elk at a local forest preserve!

Lastly – I am thinking about changing up how I’ve been doing the podcast. I know I’ve been doing short wrap-ups, basically, on what the weekly podcast is about. That is A LOT of fun, but I’m also thinking I may start doing 2 or 3 a week, so they will not relate to this. I also tried my hand at making a video this weekend (yes, a real video with intro/title card and everything), and it was great! So, keep an eye out on Odysee for more video content, and my regular podcast platforms for more audio.

The garden is going well. I planted everything into the garden here at the lake. Check out my Garden Tour video over on Odysee for a sneak peek as to what I’ve got going on. No, it is not your typical garden. No, I didn’t pull all the weeds/ground cover. Do I care what you think? Nope. Are my plants in straight rows with exact spacing between them? Nope.

I was not planning on a garden here at the lake. I had hoped that by this point in time, we would have already closed, or be getting close to close, on a house and I would bring all my plants up Nort with me. Well, that clearly is not happening, so with my parents at the lake all summer long, I decided they can reap the benefits of my experiment. So, we shall see how this goes, and can only hope for the best.

In the seed department, I did plant some Sage and Dill last week. Between Wednesday and Friday, the Dill made an appearance in the Cucumber planter. I’m still waiting on the Sage to show up. And, my Cucumbers got a trellis to vine up on, so that should make them happy.

Now, don’t forget to follow me on MeWe, where you can get additional content each week, or Odysee, where I’m sharing my podcast and little videos, including “Lettie Loo-ses It!”.  Subscribe to the podcast for my thoughts (and sometimes rants) in 10 minutes or less.