19/52: Nature Hikes and Multitasking

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You'll be shocked to hear that Lucy is still not a fan of being put down. Who would have guessed?? I sometimes wonder if she'll ever learn to roll over or crawl or anything, considering she's willing to lie on the floor for *maybe* 30 seconds before squawking to be picked up and held in sitting or standing position. But heaven forbid you put her in the Bumbo, which lets her stay in sitting position without being held... Not high-maintenance enough! Luckily she will occasionally tolerate her siblings holding her so I can get things done. And by get things done I mean take pictures of her being held by her siblings, because it's always adorable. Their energy flags pretty quickly though, because how could one hold a baby when instead one could be reading a book?

The other day Cecilia was reading some sort of crunchy book about herbal concoctions (probably this one? We really like it) and developed a sudden desperate need for mullein. She and John Paul gathered all the gear they felt they needed for a deep woods excursion and hiked way back into our woods where they knew mullein grew abundantly. I love that Cecilia made sure to wear her sunhat, bring her purse, AND bring a bag for her plant samples. They wouldn't let the other kids come with them because they said they were too little and would get tired (probably true), and the twins and Peter were tremendously nervous for them when they noticed dark clouds and heard thunder rumbling. John Paul and Cecilia made it back without an issue though, even bringing a new wildflower sample to identify (five-finger, we discovered - this book is our favorite for local plant identification), as well as the object in question and an interesting fern to boot! They never did end up making anything with the mullein, the excursion apparently having exhausted them, but it's nice to know that they can manage themselves nice and far away on the property. And we only found one tick on them afterwards, which could be worse...