The Days

Sometimes, I'll take a moment and observe some situation or complete mess that I'm in the middle of and wonder how I would score it if my life were a movie (and I were actually talented in that area). Would I want a funny song to lighten the moment of four cups of flour being dumped on the floor? Or would I want a dramatic march that would really bring the flour pouring out of the measuring cup to life? Or would I want a deeply dark and disturbing piece... the lead-up to the subsequent horror scene when I discover that I'm now out of flour and I can't make my pizza dough!!! Ohhhh... the possibilities. So, now that I've shared that quirky tidbit, I'll just say that I like listening to music when I'm home. So I listen to lots and while it may be is cheesy, and John will give me hell for quoting lyrics (but we can't be original all the time, right?!), I realized the other day that 10,000 Maniacs (hmmm... strangely enough, a good name for myself some days) had it right:

These are the days

These are days you’ll remember

Never before and never since, I promise

Will the whole world be warm as this

And as you feel it,

You’ll know it’s true

That you are blessed and lucky

It’s true that you

Are touched by something

That will grow and bloom in you

That feeling of being blessed occurs watching siblings develop and deepen their relationship. While I made dinner tonight, I listened to the monkeys play together and laugh and cackle like old ladies. It was one of those magical moments when the world seemed totally right and things were ordered (half an hour later, when dinner turned out to be nasty, that feeling flew out the window). I try to leave the room quietly when they are being compadres so that my presence doesn't detract from their growing bond; I like to slip out and just be present to whatever nonsense they've got going. I also love finding them huddled together somewhere, thick as thieves -- like they don't even remember that they just needed milk or a shirt turned right side out or that they were arguing over the same darn book again -- and watching the perfectly synced blond heads rise as they discover that I've come into their space. Sometimes they want to share what they've been doing with me and sometimes they don't -- and that's fine. I don't want to be a necessary presence all the time. As they get older, their relationship gets more intuitive and better and better to watch and experience; the flip side, of course, is that they fight more intensely with Jack recently realizing that if he sits on her, she gets really mad. Lately, though, when they've been arguing and I've sent them back to come up with their own solution because I know just how good at solving problems you both are, I've even been rewarded with silence/giggling/harmony a few minutes later. I'm so not used to it that I usually have unthinkingly walked back in the room to mediate the dispute only to realize that there doesn't appear to be one anymore and who's the crazy lady now? We're not sunshine and rainbows all the time here (HAHAHAHA... that's a funny thought) but we have moments. And I live for the moments.

Morning read-a-thon

Some shenanigans in the pretender (the pretender is exactly what you see -- four interlocking panels. It's very cool and I have to give big kudos to my brother and his fam for making it for them. It goes from a house to a reading nook to a school bus and anything else a three year old can imagine faster than I can keep up).

No matter what, though, a little brother is never, not ever invited on camping trips with a big sister and her imaginary friends.

The preparation

The execution (I always bring my umbrella on my camping trips, don't you?)

The goodnights

Maybe his big gut scared all the ladies?

The clean-up. All within 20 minutes.

Summer Days Drifting Away

We have these few weeks of summer where we have very little that we have to do. Camp is over, school stuff hasn't started yet (soon, though, and I feel like I'm moving into an entirely different phase of life come September -- class picnics, school meetings, packing lunches), our upcoming visitors are still a week out from arrival (but I sure am excited), and I don't have to start thinking about packing for our little family vacation quite yet. I'm looking forward to everything that we have coming down the pike but I'm also really enjoying our leisurely days and impromptu outings. With fall just around the corner (and we're feeling it on both coasts, apparently, since I read Liz's post with similar sentiments in the middle of writing this one), there is a feeling of urgency to getting our summer excursions in but it's good pressure -- it reminds us to embrace all the cliches and seize the day, suck the marrow out of life, and, according to Erma Bombeck "Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart."

We're trying our best to live and love and enjoy these fleeting moments. Sometimes I wish that some of us weren't trying to be so fleet footed since Jack's latest gash probably could have been avoided had he not been trying to keep up with the older kids, but we'll take the good with the bad. These aren't quite the lazy days of summer quite yet (soon, soon -- maybe next year) but they are full of good memories. In this little interlude between busier times, it's nice to sit back and take stock of where we're at and what we have coming up. It's fun to share the days' stories with John and let him swoop in and be fun dad while the we still have time to enjoy long evenings outside. The sun is certainly setting earlier these days but while it's still shining during the day, we're soaking it all up with every ounce of energy we can muster.

We love catalogs over here. Molly generally likes things along the lines of Land of Nod or American Girl. Jack, however, likes the free car magazine that you find next to the USA Today newspaper on the street. Like the souped up hot rod he was intrigued with, I'm pretty sure the walking and reading thing is a bad idea.

Being an older kid (Molly's term for herself when she's pretending she's big and grown up), means that we can convince mom to stop her run and take a dunk in the lake (her, not me) while "the little kid" is sleeping.

Blueberry picking...

which turned into blueberry eating and...

leaf picking.

post-pick picnic.

Today's outing was to the best kid farm I've ever been to. I hate scary petting zoo-type farms with over-fed animals or the farms that are like amusement parks with a random goat thrown in. This place was a good mix of well-tended-but-not-rabid animals and a few other activities that kept us entertained but not overwhelmed. Phew.

Jack lost his mind over the chickens. I don't think he ever figured out that he couldn't catch the big ones (and I'm realizing that he sounds like my parents' cat who hasn't figured out that he can't catch squirrels. Great, my kid is like a lunatic cat) and was SO excited when he could hold one of the baby chicks and it sat on his arm. The other thing he liked? The poop rake. He followed the guy picking up the horse poop around screaming "rake" at him over and over. Hey, my boy calls a spade a spade.

Molly liked the idea of the chicks better than the reality. The lady is cautious about her wildlife...

except for the horses. She loved loved loved riding the horse.

All good farms let their farmers drive tractors.

Thankfully, the hot rodder-in-training couldn't put the pedal to the metal quite yet but he was mad to try it.

It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Fun!

If Molly could have "her girls" around her every waking moment, she would be pretty happy. She's always chirping about her cousins and even when she is bone tired and falling asleep in her food, she would prefer to keep these ladies right with her and never let them go home. It's quite cute (and nice for me since I usually get to hang out with Mary and this weekend we even got the whole famdamily together). What's especially funny is to watch the dynamic amongst all the kids develop: Katy imparts her sage advice, Molly tries to organize everyone into random pursuits, Emmy keeps us apprised of what Baby Jack is doing and what is safe or not, and Jack just tries to keep up with everyone else and stay right in the thick of things. Oh, we love them all so much.

**********

We have been listening to, and taking sneak peeks at, the Blue Angels for the past several days since they've been rehearsing by our house for their big performances this weekend. We checked out the real show yesterday and John and I thought Jack would go bananas with all the planes since he generally goes out of his mind for planes, trains, and automobiles. Nope. He was far more interested in the dogs that people were walking and the popsicle he got to eat. We walked back down to the lake for another air show today and the crazy-banana-antics did end up coming out... for the helicopters, which weren't doing any tricks whatsoever. He could not get enough of the twirly birds that were hovering... just hovering.

Okay, so I give up on predicting what my kids are going to love other than their cousins (and ice cream).






I'm stealing these pictures from Eric since I still can't pictures off John's phone. Thank you!

You Talkin' To Me?

Don't worry, I'm not losing my affinity or affection for the east coast but I was recently struck with two examples of where maybe, just maybe, Boston could learn a thing or two about openness and magnanimity from its west coast cousin. Yesterday, Jack and I were strolling to get coffee (I won't even mention the superiority of Seattle's finest blends as an example because even though the coffee is outstanding, you know what it doesn't have?? Dunkin' Donuts. And I'm sorry, there is just no replacement for DD some days) before we picked Molly up from school and we spied a guy in a digger sitting and having lunch in the cab. Jack started making all sorts of monkey sounds to get near the machine but I didn't want to disturb the guy's break. We milled around from a little distance until he smiled at Jack (who was enthralled with the tires) and I called over that I had a little boy who is a fan of big machines so were just looking for a minute. The guy smiled so nicely, said "me too" and told us that we could look all around it and he'd answer any questions (I had some but I think he meant he'd answer Jack's questions). In Boston, I think they worker would have dropped some F-bombs and thrown his Kelly's roast beef at us as we dodged traffic to get out of the way so this was a pleasant surprise.

Secondly, last night we had a block party. I was totally wary of this, I have to admit. A potluck with neighbors, many of which I've never met? Um, no, not really my speed, especially when my wing man is out of town. But, I bucked up and went and it was actually fun. It was so old fashioned friendly and people introduced themselves and just chatted the evening away while kids were inviting each other for sleepovers (okay, just Molly was inviting everyone over for sleepovers which I didn't know about until a little girl came over to her mom, with whom I was talking, and asked if she could sleep over at our house).  Again, I'm not sure I can envision my Fenway neighbors and I pulling out tables and chairs to the middle of the street and bringing coconut chicken and salads out on a summer evening.

I'll always be a New Englander at heart, but perhaps old dogs can learn new tricks... and I can learn not to assume that Jack's not going to get a Fribble thrown at him every time he obsesses about heavy machinery.

Nothing to do with anything pictures...