Good fences...

Maybe some people who are used to dealing with toddlers have some good ideas:

A friend of mine has a problem. (No, really.)

My friend's neighbor, who is widely acknowledged by the neighborhood to have a drinking problem, has been coming into my friend's garden and either:
1) cutting my friend's flowers and taking them home or
2) pulling up whole flowering plants by the root balls and replanting them in her own garden

She is not, nor has she been at any time, invited to do this.  The neighbor has been asked, at least three times, not to take the flowers. Most recently, she was told quite loudly and forcefully to put the plants back. She continues to wait for opportunities when my friend is not home and then raid the garden.

Their yards are adjacent and there is no fence. In this particular neighborhood, fences are quite uncommon.

What would you do? Call the police? Yell and scream? Plant some poison ivy in your flower beds?

I think I would put up a fence. It's an expensive solution, but it makes the trespassing issue clearer to everyone (not just those directly involved). And the fence will be a nice backdrop for whatever flowers are left.

Rigorous Impact Testing

In honor of Ikea's opening day in Denver, ah-hem, Centennial, Colorado, I present you:

Pages from Ikea's catalog

The Ikea Crib.  Very reasonably priced. We bought one for Noah when he was about 4 months old. That's when he outgrew his never-slept-in-thank-goodness-we-rented-it bassinet. Unfortunately, he continued to cosleep until he was about 2 years old(!).  At that point, he moved into his own twin bed with sides and has (happily) stayed there. So the Ikea crib? Very glad we didn't spend a lot on it. Mattias is still cosleeping. But we hope to move him into the bottom twin bunk...soon.

Nonetheless, our Ikea crib is getting rigorous impact testing.

Detail of page in Ikea catalog

Do you think this is what they had in mind?

It's not broke. See? Total peace of mind.

Don't worry, Grandma, we've got the photo now.
We'll stop before the "testing" does break it.
Promise.

Mosquito

This summer, there's been an ongoing Battle Over Topical Agents at the Wyse household. It all began with sunscreen, which we renamed 'sunscream' after all our adventures.  Today, I'm (indirectly) introducing our newest enemy: bug spray.

It seems that Denver has been hit particularly hard by mosquitos this summer. I find myself really doubting the accuracy of the map in this Wall Street Journal article that claims the aggressive, daytime-loving, container-procreating mosquitos haven't made it to Colorado yet. And perhaps there's reason to doubt the credibility of the WSJ these days.

I think the Rock Pool Mosquito is here. Not that I'm an entomologist. Nor am I very credible as an anonymous mommyblogger. Therefore, I'm pretty sure I don't have to be very accountable on that statement. Uh huh. And now that that is clarified...

Oh, poor Mattias. His face is covered in mosquito bites. He must taste delicious. I'm a little afraid to take him out in public because he looks so bad, that I can't imagine what people are thinking when they see him. Or maybe the problem is that I can imagine what people are thinking. I attempted to put baking soda on the bites, but it turned out to be a really bad idea. He went nuts rubbing the paste-y soda off. That, I do believe, defeated the whole purpose of the baking soda.

[link removed]

This 45 second video I took really, inadvertently, illustrates the problem. About 10am. We're sitting outside checking out a frog that Noah caught. Rather ironically, the discussion is about what we could feed the frog. Mattias is thrilled to see the frog; he's squealing. A mosquito flies by (seconds 24-25). I attempt to film it on Fritz's black shirt...

Note 1: Mattias is wearing light colored full length clothing! I'm trying everything to protect him. He's also wearing (nonDEET) bug spray, which accounts for the red, swollen eye. Guess I just need to keep him inside. 
Note 2: No FROGS were harmed before, during or after this video. MOSQUITO? Watch out!
Note 3: Poor Mattias, again. (In case you miss that the first two time.)
Note 4: Don't learn any German from Noah and me. We've got some mistakes in there.