Four Part Harmony

We had a pretty nice first day of April here in Portland.

It was cold last night, and this morning was foggy and everything was frozen. I had to chip the ice out of the chickens waterer (with Anna in one arm).

Anna and I drove through the fog to meet Dawn and Kadin at the Portland Children’s museum. We had a lot of fun. Nicki had actually taken Anna yesterday and said that Anna played for two hours straight in the little “doctor’s office” section. When I came home from work Anna’s first question was “Will you take me to the museum tomorrow again Papa?”.

How could I refuse?

We have a pass checked out from the Library, which has a long waiting list, and only comes around every six months or so we have been happy to make the most of it.

We spent so long inside at the museum this morning, that by the time we went to leave the sky was clear blue, sunny, with just a faint cool breeze. Just perfect.

Anna and I celebrated with a long ride through the neighborhood, picking dandelions and heading to her new most favorite destination…the comic store. Or as she says “the homic store”.

We have this comic store down the street from us. Guapo comics.

I still don’t fully understand the attraction that she has to this place. I talked her into walking there once because it was right down the street and I’d never been…figured I should at least pop in see what it was all about. They have a little coffee shop kind of thing going on, and they have comics ( of course). What Anna really likes are the comfy couches, the mini etch-a-sketch they have on the table, and the deck of cards. There are also usually one or two interesting people sitting around that want to chat with her. She wants to go there all the time. It’s a destination, so I generally oblige. They know us down there now. About half the time I’ll buy a small cup of coffee out of guilt, but just as often we’ll just pop down on the couch, Anna plays with the etch a sketch and the cards or whatever else, and I’ll read the paper for a few minutes, then we’ll say “thanks!” and continue on our walk.

Oh, today was one of the days I decided I should get a coffee. By the time we got back home the weather was so nice we just sat around in the front yard. I was taking some pictures and Anna was goofing around pretending that she really wanted some coffee. She never did get brave enough to actually try it.

It was so nice that we skipped a nap so as not to sleep through a beautiful day. Anna did pretty good, but you could tell she was pretty run down by the end of the day. We took a nice bike ride to the park and to the farm to pick up veggies in the late afternoon sun. Made a nice dinner of risotto and collard greens (Nicki’s major new craving), and that was about all she had in her.

Tomorrow is supposed to be just as nice!