A rich and beautiful life

A book I was reading at Farley's used that line-- "a rich and beautiful life"-- and doesn't it just sound tantalizing? It's gotten me to thinking about how one goes about living such a life. How I might go about living such a life. So that, at the end, that is what people will say about me.

Here are a few ideas that have come to me since we've been home:

1. Keep the kitchen very very clean. OK, so there is nothing "rich" about that but I do think it makes life more beautiful. I have to thank the fruit flies, waiting here for us upon our arrival home, for this inspiration. As we work to combat the annual infestation, we have been trying to keep the kitchen scrupulously clean. Turns out life is better when I walk into the kitchen and my heart doesn't sink. That's all I'm sayin.

2. Drink wine, look at photos, and laugh really loudly with old friends. Sublime evening of doing just that on Saturday, thanks to visits from Deb and Meg, joined by Melinda and Tiffany and Camilla. Lots of raucous, inappropriate conversation out on the deck after babies were put to bed. Remembering stories from our inglorious, shared pasts... Thanks, Hiram. It was totally worth the exhaustion the next day when my children refused to understand how late I'd stayed up, and woke at 6am...

3. Get out into the summer evenings. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not wait, just go. We headed out as soon as Jack awoke from his nap today, and spent a deliciously relaxing hour at the pool. Jack splashed and "swam" with his hands on the bottom of the wading pool and was really ridiculously cute, prancing around with a watering can in one hand and a little boat in the other. Ivy was pleased as punch to be laying on her back outside, looking at trees. Memories of the lake for her, I imagine. We picnicked on sandwiches on the grass and it was lovely to have Jack really eat, no nagging, and just sit there and enjoy the evening together. The icing on the cake was when Jack peed on the potty right there in the changing room... I do believe potty training is on the horizon (he's staying dry while awake about 80% of the time recently!)

We came home, changed into dry clothes, and realized it was only 7. So, back out. We walked as a family of 5 to Starbucks and the kids were just so good. Ivy enjoyed the baby bjorn, facing out for the first time. And Jack was just so excited to go to Starbucks, he sang a song to himself about it as we went in. He climbed himself into a purple chair and noshed on a granola bar while Ivy bounced on my knee and Nat and I enjoyed iced beverages. We joined the dog at an outdoor table when one opened up and we sat and drank in the temperate weather and our time together while Jack narrated the progress of traffic at the intersection for us. If that isn't rich and beautiful, I don't know what is.

Except maybe this: Jack got a "backpack" style shopping bag at Joseph Beth (where, incidentally, we purchased his new favorite book, Richard Scarry's Bedtime Stories). He loves this bag. He loves wearing it, with it dangling down so that it bumps the back of his knees, carefully adjusting the strings on his shoulders. So that's pretty cute, right? Well, today on our trip to the pool Jack wanted to carry his bag. So we put his towel in. And then he proceeded to pack 3 Capri Sun (his new favorite drink) in the bag as well. "So there are all for us!" On the way to the car, his backpack on and bumping into his legs, he turns to me and says, so seriously, "If anyone wants a Capri Sun, I will drop my bag off my back and give you one." Oh how I love him.

11 weeks old!

We are getting close to the end of the exciting 4th trimester, and it shows in just how pleasant Miss Ivy is, almost all the time. She certainly employs the full force of her lungs to tell us when she is hungry, tired, or has a messy dipe-- though I must say we are getting pretty darned good at reading her cues and she rarely gets up to a full shriek for those reasons. The car, of course, is another story. Ivy simply cannot tolerate being awake in the car. Put her in asleep, jiggle that car seat occasionally, and things are OK. Put her in awake and you better be ready to get some real arm exercise bouncing the carseat emphatically all the way to your destination. Hoping this phase comes to an end soon...

Current milestones:

*Great head control overall, and can push up past 45 degrees on her tummy.
*Loves to face out and look around.
*Continues to enjoy laying on her back and looking up at things--her mobile, lights, trees especially.
*Lots of smiles and noises and a few little laughs.
*Enjoying social games such as the "ahhhhhh-boop!" game Jack is playing with her in the above photo.
*A rock star at getting her little fists into her mouth.
*Wants to suck on everything!! Brings our hands and her blankets to her mouth.

And a little Jack update too:

Jack has always been a "reader"-- loves having stories read to him, looking through books. He is now enjoying longer stories, and ones with fewer pictures. "Frog and Toad" is a current favorite. And, he is aware of the words, and their power, as evidenced by him saying "I don't know how to read the words!" when we ask him to "tell us about the story." We are encouraging him to think about the meanings of the pictures as we expose him to the text. Who knows, he may be a reader before kindergarten at this rate.

Today, Jack and I enjoyed playing with some of my Playmobil collection for the first time. He absolutely loved it. We enacted a drama of a plane crash and the rescue by the ambulance, about a thousand times. It was so sweet, watching him carefully place the figures in the little seats, arranging all the tiny pieces just so, pretending. Love it.

flashback..

Picasa, the photo editing software I, for the most part, enjoy greatly, has one frustrating flaw. It frequently and without warning mixes newly imported photo files in with photos from 2,3,4 years ago. This leads to much scrolling down, scanning for dates, and quiet cursing. And, finds like this little video of a very cute young man we know...

2008-11-21 jack at 14 months--walking!

Memories for Jack

Jack's memory-for people, events, new words- is astounding us recently. Which makes it all the more strange to think that he is not going to remember this trip to the lake, on his own, when he is older. So here are some memories for him, of some things he's loved about the last 2 weeks.

*Jumping off the dock and "swimming" out to the raft with daddy for the first time. Jumping off our dock: awesome. He'd hardly stood up again on the top before he was in the air again to daddy's arms. Jumping off the raft-- he wasn't so crazy about. Got a face full of water and asked to head back in...

*Playing at the park with his cousins and all the other "big kids" at the point.

*Following "my friends" -- the Childs' girls-- around like a little puppy. He just adored them, despite the fact that they really didn't want to spend much time with a two year old

*Riding the tricycle "a long far away" down to the end of the point. He is so very independent with his riding-- steering, going up hills, and making sure all of us-- even Cor-- are safely out of the road when a car comes.

*Playing and winning a prize (his fishing net) at the Farley's picnic. A video of him telling about this will be uploaded when we get home.

*Going out in the kayak. He had to have a paddle this year and he really knows what to do-- just needs some longer arms and he'll be off around the cove in no time.

*Helping daddy drive the motor boat (He is saying "motor boat" in the cutest way right now- kind of a Canadian inflection to the "o" sound. Freakin' adorable.

*Throwing stones in the water off the little dock, and looking for fish.

*Going to long point, swimming with his cousins and drinking lake water-- he asked for a cup of it to drink at bedtime.

*Playing in the sprinklers at Stewart Park on our picnic with Laurie and Noni.

*Playing in the bounce house at the Aurora Fest, and watching the horses at the joust. He thought he might ride one when they had these great giant horses available to walk the kids in a circle, actually got up the steps to climb on, but then changed his mind. Maybe next year.

We continue to love the way he talks to us. Absolutely love it. He is always making me smile, this kid. Even (or perhaps especially) when he is terribly serious about what he is saying. Here are a few of his current favorite expressions:

"Well..." -- preceding most things. And said in that way of his, with the l that sounds almost like a w, but not quite. And so serious. "Well...I just want to have some pancakes cos I'm hungry."Or, he'll add to it...

"Actually" to make this: "Well, actually... it's not a grader. Actually it's an asphalt spreader. Or "Actually, thats a motor boat, a kind of a little motor boat, did you see that, mommy" as he see's a jet ski in a driveway.

"I know just what to do!" Said with great certainty, of course. And often preceded by "Well, actually..."

"When Ivy is bigger"-- He has offered her, so far, his tennis shoes, a wide variety of toys, and nail clippers, which she will be able to use when she is bigger like him. He also told us, "we'll have to share." when discussing the fact that Ivy will some day want to play with his toys. He is exceedingly sweet.

Lake views

Here, in no particular order, are some moments from today at the lake.

10 weeks...

Hard to believe a week has flown by already! We've been busy playing at the lake and feeding, changing, and napping little children (in alternation)... but we have taken pictures too!

Here are the official updates of little Miss and her bear. Twinkly eyed girl, she coos and laughs and kicks for us now. She gets upset if we walk away and leave her alone. She has quite a remarkable "I am so very sad" face that she can give us, with a wonderful little pouty lip. She chews on her hands nonstop, and only occaisonally puts her fist directly in her eye. She is very drooly these days and sometimes licks her blanket or shirt with a look of great concentration. Her hair is growing and still curly on top...

Instead

Instead of moping because I am inside with sleepy-girl while Nat and Jack are out embracing summer--I will use this time to write.

Instead of griping and grumbling about how life has changed--I will notice the ways it is even more beautiful.

Instead of feeling trapped by where I am now--I will focus on what I am lucky to have.

Instead of worrying about the future--I will take more care to really taste the present moment...

Here we are.

The lake, the lovely. The view we get even when we are stuck inside because this magical little cottage we are privileged to call home always opens up to this. This place where we hear the laughter of old friends gathering, where sitting in the front lawn to talk is as much sport as sailing and swimming. Where boats are abundant and the sun glints and even storms are a visual feast.

This child of my heart. The one who softly slurs his "l" sounds and carefully strings his thoughts into the most wonderful, complex, sensible and utterly novel arrangements of words. Who makes the ornery-rotten faces and loves fire trucks and new books. Who questions why we say things and tries so hard to understand jokes. Who never fails to make me smile, even when I am frustrated with him.

This dog. This smelly damp beach-loving dog who grips my arm with her paw and licklicklicks with such tender ferocity to claim me as hers. This dog who is never where she can't check on us and lets me know right away when a baby is crying. Who takes over every couch and blanket as her own, who holds your eyes forever, and who barks and barks and makes an adorable nuisance of herself. My running companion, my boat dog, who makes every trip better and almost every moment sweeter.

The man I married. Yes, I know this is a picture of blocks on a picnic table. But what you don't see here is the time before this picture was taken, when the man I married sat across the table from my beautiful son for 45 minutes and carefully helped him create and interact with this little village, with its "firehome" and the fire pigs and of course the fire truck. His utter focus on his little boy, and the way the boy just ate it up. A picture never could've captured it. This man who makes my heart dance when he gives me that look of his-- and every time I see him with our children.

Baby smiles. Whatever trials and tribulations this tiny creature has brought to us, she somehow redeems herself by doing this. She beguiles me into loving her completely, with those eyelashes..

Wherever life takes me, I can look around and see these things I have and know in my soul how blessed I am to have them. These people and places to love and the time and health to do it. And, one hopes, the sense to stop complaining and worrying long enough to notice it all.

Ivy's 9 week pictures

Sorry, no green chair. But we have this backdrop to offer instead.



And don't worry, bear came along. We forgot about 1000 necessary things, but at least we remembered bear.

Greetings from the lake!

A picture tour of the past 2 days.


The view from our porch by night. This makes it all worth it...


A view of our porch floor by day. Also makes it all worth it. :)

Ivy is very serious in her approach to tummy time.

Yes, this is in fact a picture of my son sitting on the toilet taking nail polish off of his fingers. Not many 2 year olds who can take off their own nail polish. Even fewer 2 year old boys. I am so proud of my son.

Mr. Man heading out to kayak with Daddy. Today he and Daddy went out to the raft in the water, too! First time this summer...

Melinda, Will, and babies came for dinner tonight. Cluster of babies ensued. Too bad baby Reese (10 week old staying next door) was napping and couldn't be added to the mix...

She was being pretty cute tonight.

Cousin Alex and Jack played so hard tonight (even though Jack has been running a mysterious fever all day). By 8:30 this is what we had on our porch. Two tuckered out little boys glued to technology.

Lake time....

We are gradually settling in to our time at the lake. It is so very different to be here with two kids, I'll tell you that. There are many parts of my life that ae very different with two kids, yes-- but the differences here are hitting me a bit harder, I think. Must be that we are beginning to acclimate to our situation at home. Beginning to find our routine, figuring out the best places to keep the baby paraphenalia, and how to structure naps and bed. Then we change spaces and everything else changes right alongside. We have lost the container of diaper wipes at least 16 times since we've arrived. In our 1 bedroom cottage.

Even more than the loss of routine and a consistent diaper-changing area, though, I feel the loss of the freedom which Farley's once stood for. Open-ended time, to be used productively-- plowing through books, scrapbooking, kayaking and running-- or not-so-much--gin and tonics and endless hours in the front yard, chatting away with family and neighbors. This freedom was cut a bit with the advent of Jack. But somehow with just one it was still pretty easy to get away. One at a time or hand him off to a relative and sneak off just the two of us in the boat. With two darlings to leave or hand off, well, alone time and together time seem to be harder to come by. Down time? Easy to be found when the loves are napping. Or when even one is napping and the other is off with daddy (as we are right now...). But it is a snatched and stolen sort of down time. I miss the feeling of time stretching out before me like the lake, sun-drenched and open and breezy...

That said, it is awfully fun to take our little man out in the kayak this year, as he valiantly tries to paddle us both. And we had a lovely time at the Aurora Fest, camping out by the "kids' games" area so that Jack could run in and out of the bounce house (he's been wanting to try one for ages but has been scared.. he did it yesterday and can I tell you how much he LOVED it??) or join in at the sponge-relay at will. Ivy was well behaved and adorable on a blanket, and we got a chance to talk almost like grown ups with some of Nat's HS friends, who were there with their own children, of course. Moments like that, when we manage to fully embrace and surround ourselves with parenthood, I feel like a little bit of my freedom might be coming back, actually. I suppose its a matter of adjusting my expectations and letting go of the way things used to be, in favor of the way they are now. And looking ahead to the way they will be. Ivy won't be 9 weeks old forever! Sweet and tiny, that she is. But I think Farley's is only going to get better and better, for all of us, as the kids grow...

8 week pictures and 2 month stats

Here are the official progress shots of 8 week old Ivy. Posted, I may note, MORE than 24 hours before we are to take her 9 week shots. On top of our game around here, aren't we!? Good lord the weeks go fast...

From july2010

From july2010

This morning Ivy went for her 2 month doctor visit. All's well. She was pronounced healthy and perfect and was given 3 shots and an oral vaccine (which she is dealing with pretty well today, not too much fussiness so far). She, following in her big brother's footsteps always, will also be participating in a vaccine study. (Jack was informed today that he helped to get the 13-valent Prevnar vaccine licensed for his age group! What an accomplished young man...)

With no further ado, here are her official stats:

Weight-- 11 lbs 8 oz, 75th percentile

Height-- 23 inches, 75th percentile

Head Circumference-- some random number, 10th percentile

So, apparently she is growing nicely. Except for her head, that is. While I am personally a bit concerned that her percentile for head circumference is dropping while everything else is getting bigger, her doctor was not worried, and said the biggest problem with her head size will be finding hats to fit. That and the fact that her mother will be calling her "pinhead" from now on. As a term of endearment, of course!

We are about to start the final stages of packing for our long stay at Farley's. I am most certainly dreading the drive there (8 hours of travel with fussy baby and bored toddler, compounded by unknown-as-yet side effects of vaccines, oh yay...) and hoping that the stay itself will prove the travel to be worthwhile. I feel like we are always running to keep up with daily life around here, where we actually have a routine and storage and all the conveniences we are used to. Hopefully we'll find a rhythm and be able to keep up in a new place...

So, off to pack. I'll leave you with some random pictures from the last week.

Ivy has discovered the mirror on the mobile of her swing...

From july2010

Big and Little

From july2010

Big and Little being really, really cute. (note the small head-- size of Jack's HAND!)

From july2010

One more of Big and Little because I can't help myself..

From july2010

A little bit 'o video. Click on it.

Daddy and Ivy

From july2010

I love my doggie!!

From july2010

Jack at Voinovich Park this morning, where we went to look at the tall ships. He was just as impressed by the Goodtime III and this random sailboat so its a good thing we didn't pay admission to see them!

From july2010

From july2010