It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a Forest Friday here. And seeing as the kid is nearly 5.5 and heading for 6 very quickly, I’ve been reminiscing over his baby and toddler days a lot the last few months. He’s hurtling for the bigger little kid era, ditching the preschool years and tendencies slowly but surely. All of this is good, of course, he’s acting age appropriate, but I’m still a bit wistful for the baby and toddler era in many ways…of course in other ways I’m thankful we’re past those—nursing, diapers, whining without saying what he wants—oh wait, scratch that last one, that still goes on! There’s…

A little fishing, a little Easter.

Our campsite at Davis Mountains State Park was rather narrow and abutting Keesey Creek, which was dry. Because it was so near the campsite it made for an easy play area for Forest where he spent a lot of time playing with the mullein growing up and down the creek bed as well as stacking rocks and generally have a grand old time in imaginary play. The evening light down the creek bed was gorgeous every night and I wanted to play around with some freelensing as I don’t do that very often. The results were all over the place but even the out of focus dream-like images I still…

I took that top photo four years ago yesterday. I remember taking it, too, as I was folding laundry one evening and Forest was being his chunkalunk self! It must have been a warmer December day because of the diaper only outfit, which is how he spent a lot of those first three to six months, hanging out in just a diaper! Then on Wednesday night we went to my studio to hang out for a bit and for some reason he finally noticed the baby chair sitting there, where it’s been for well over a year waiting for me to sell it or donate it. (It’s going to Goodwill…

At least the stuffed dinosaur was cooperative!

Spring in Texas is usually celebrated formally when the bluebonnets have painted the roadsides throughout the state. When we were at McKinney Falls State Park over Easter weekend I was glad to see that they had a large field in the middle of the park full of bluebonnets so we wouldn’t have to find a roadside to take photos of Forest. And being that it was a holiday weekend everyone else had the same idea! I bought Forest that explorer vest from Oaki about two years ago but it has taken until now for him to be interested in wearing it. He wore it frequently over the weekend and paired…

My child has turned into an herb connoisseur. The moment he gets into the garden he’s searching for dill or fennel to snag, and of course carrots if they are available. In the flower garden we have creeping thyme and he’s all over that, too. I mean, I’m pleasantly surprised and delighted that he’s into eating fresh herbs from the garden but I wouldn’t have pinned it as something he would do. The dill we had in fall and early winter succumbed to all of the freezes and I have since resown more seed, both for Forest and our pantry, but for the hopes to get the black swallowtails to…

One evening about a month ago I was on the side yard garden taking photos. The light was getting good over there, a mix of darks and lights from the filtered evening sun, and I had been filling up one of Forest’s watering cans for him to water plants, or as what usually happens, his feet. Letting him play solo, in eye and ear shot, for a few minutes I wandered around the garden. When I came back to see what he was doing I found him making a muddy mess in a half filled planter that wasn’t being used by the potting bench. It was nearing bath time so…