Cousins

We've had a house full of children for the past two days and its been lovely.  Busy, and messy, and frequently very loud-- but lovely.  Cousin Steve Henderson and his family made the trip from Annapolis to join us for Thanksgiving and its been a delight to spend more time with this "new" branch of our family, after our brief visit together in July.  Jack and Ivy have been in seventh heaven, having constant access to play mates.  Steve's son Gavin is 4 1/2 and he and Jack have become fast friends, playing together nonstop for two days with only a few small arguments, which is nearly miraculous.  Ada and Ivy sometimes played together, sometimes apart, and generally tagged along with the boys.  Most of the time, all four of them have entertained each other in a most delightful way, with independent happy play predominating, At times, there have been tears over stolen marbles and arguments over airplanes, but they're family, so they've gotten over it.

Can I tell you how adorable it was last night, when Jack and Gavin had a "sleep over" and sat together in Jack's bed for a good half hour, looking at books together, til Jack snuggled himself into his nest of pillows and blankets, and Gavin headed in to sleep with him mom.... Or tonight when Gavin came back in to Jack's room to tell him that he's invited to come to their house sometime, that they'll put a bed in the basement room for us and we can stay with them.  Jack is all excited to go to their house, "all the way to the ocean!"-- and I think we should do it. Six hours is not that far and this is a wonderful new relationship to nurture.

Plus, Annapolis is very close to D.C.

It's been a truly splendid Thanksgiving, from our perfectly cooked turkeys (yes, two turkeys, one roasted and one grilled...) to the happy children to the good conversation.  Not to mention the weather, which has been as good as it gets in November in Cleveland.

Today, a most marvelous morning was spent at the beach, in 60 degree sunshine with driftwood teepees and pirate ships and barking dogs and sandy little hands.... but that will deserve its own post when I get the pictures from my mom...

In the meantime, a few shots of our lives over the past two days:

Thankful

Tonight, Thanksgiving Eve, I am thankful.  For my family, slowly returning to health after a heckuva week.  I am thankful that most of the time, we're healthy as horses, thankful that this week was all the more difficult for my not being used to it.

I am thankful for my two enthusiastic little children and their smiling eyes, for their voices and for their little hands, for their soft skin and their kisses and their fidgety little snuggles.  I am thankful for bathtubs full of bubbles and funnels and giggles.

I am thankful for walks around the block, for our wonderful block and the neighbors we run into every time.

I am thankful for my mom who cleaned our bathrooms for us today.

I am thankful to be hosting Thanksgiving tomorrow, for the bounty of our lives that lets our kitchen be overflowing with food right now, for the ease of our lives that lets me sit here on the couch and write these words.  I am thankful for family coming to join us, for gatherings and the making of memories for our children.

I am thankful for my husband who always takes care of the turkey.

I am thankful for the November-grey skies and damp chill in the air that makes me believe winter is really on it's way;  thankful too for the Botanical Gardens, where glasshouses and butterflies and emerging Christmas displays banished the grey and damp for us this morning.

I am thankful for this day off work.

Happy thanksgiving, dear followers.  I am thankful for all the people in my life, whether or not I can host them at my table tomorrow.  May your day tomorrow bring you gratitude and joy.

Sweetness

Today's post is cross-listed with my Thirty Days blog, where my focus for November has been on finding the sweetness in life.

I need look no further than my son. 

This kid, I tell ya.  He's a charmer.

I've been ill the past few days and Jack has been all about the advice-giving.  Upon my emergence from bed yesterday morning,  Jack informed me, "You know mom, sometime when I am sick I just sleep a little and I feel better.  Maybe you can sleep for a while?  Do you feel better?"  He was all snuggles, all day and so understanding when I wasn't much good for playing in the evening.

Of course, part of that may have been that I let him watch TV practically nonstop.

Kid loves TV.


Ivy girl is pretty delicious herself these days.  I feel like she just gets better and better, this one. She's talking more and more, saying things like "Star" and "heart" and "blue", though somewhat indiscriminately.  And she's both fastidious and considerate, as demonstrated by this moment, from earlier this evening:

Ivy always insists that she wants tomatoes.  She never actually does, of course, and this evening the half a cherry tomato I gave to her ended up on the floor.  After dinner, we were sitting on the floor together when she discovered said cherry-tomato-half.  She brought it over to me and with almost scientific precision, proceeded to pinch it and squeeze its contents directly onto my skirt.  She immediately got her most concerned face on, pointed to my skirt, and said, "uh oh!"  I reassured her that it was fine, that we'd get something to clean it up.

She promptly left the room.

She went into the kitchen and opened the junk drawer (which is, by the way, above her head), pulling out a pencil and considering it for a moment before tossing it aside and pulling out-- a wad of elastic.  (no, I do not know why there was a wad of elastic in the junk drawer.  Do I have to know?  I mean, its a junk drawer...)  She trots back out, right to me, and oh-so-carefully places the wad of elastic onto the splotch of tomato goo on my skirt.  Jack, ever the helper, dashes over to rub it around vigorously.  By this time I was laughing too hard to talk, much less stop him.  The final straw?  When Ivy pointed out, with dismay, the one, singular tomato seed left behind.  God forbid there be one tomato seed out of place.  Poor girl.  It may be a long childhood for her, growing up in our not-so-clean house....

So a tiny taste of what it's like to live with Ivy Jane.  Multiply that story by, like, 10,000 and you might get the idea.

Photos

We've been taking them, I swear!  Tons.  Nat, mostly, playing with his Hipstamatic app on  ye olde iPhone.  You'll note several of his recent works in the post below.

Yet, somehow, as I go to post this evening, I can't seem to find any recent photos worthy to share.  We've done things, gone places, our children have been cute-- all reasons for abundant photo documentation, to be sure.  Its a mystery.

In the meantime, a little word-picture instead, a moment from our evening-at-home tonight.  Wish you'd been here to join us.

It was a rainy evening, stormy in fact, a rare evening indeed where I did not feel called to drag my somewhat fried children out into the world.  We nestled in and puttered about, doing some vacuuming and spot mopping and some climbing-on-mom in between.  Some playing with hotwheels, some sloppy joes, some back-to-the-playroom after that.  We were aimless and quiet together, we three.  Seven o'clock found us like this:  Jack sitting in the playroom, a good 120 hotwheels strewn around him, playing and laughing along with the Monster at the End of this Book app.  Ivy in her booster seat at the kitchen counter (by her request) feeding herself applesauce with great success (She is the most fastidious 18 month old I know, asking with distress that I wipe up every tiny drip of applesauce as soon as it occurred.), chewing on toast, and bopping her head in time with the music on her MP3 player.  This moment of family contentment is brought to you by mobile technology....

This little girl and music!  She can't hold back when she hears it; she just has to wiggle, kick, bop, dance.   And   can I tell you what fun it is to sing "The Cat Came Back" with her?  She's nodding and shaking and moving along and then when it comes time for the "Mee--owwwww"-- oh I wish I'd gotten her "Meow" on video!  All her heart and soul and charisma poured into that one, drawn out sound, and that ornery laughing-smile on her face while she does it, just loving every second of the act of meow-ing.... She's a joy.  She loves every second of just about everything, this girl, as long as you don't cross her, or deny her anything, that is.  But she makes you want to go ahead and deny her nothing, with that proud-cat smile of hers and the little random kisses and her high-stepping prancing run and her hands up over her head pretending to be an airplane.  Irresistible. She's big on hats and socks and comparing whether or not various people/animals or pictures of people/animals are wearing hats and socks, as opposed to her.  She likes for everyone to have their shoes on whenever possible.  She asks to nurse by saying "nummy!!" and then asks for the other side by saying 'Die!"  Not as brutal as it sounds as she also asks to go outside as "out-die".  She's saying approximations of a few phrases, like "there you go", and she continues to amaze us with how much she understands.  She is very particular about which books she wants to read and asks for a few by name.  She enjoys discussing the status of hats in her books (point to hat in book, point to her own head, say "Noooo", look to me for confirmation that there is no hat on that dog's head, nod and turn the page...) and can "read" the last page of her book about snow:  "Slide!"  She'll go find things for us  when we ask and sometimes put things away when we ask too.  She's rather systematic and I'm hoping we can capitalize on this and have one tidy child...

I'm kind of in love with my daughter tonight.

Jack, I love you too, never fear. But, my son, you did not dance as much as your sister tonight.  So this post belongs to her.

into the woods....

We've had a simply lovely weekend.  I am having a hard time seeing it end, actually.  But it is late on Sunday evening and so I won't be long.  For a more detailed recounting of our wonderful Sunday, hop over to my Thirty Days blog.  But here, I just want to share with you some of the wonder of our morning walk, out in the blustery November sunshine.  A simple trip to the park-turned-ramble in the woods, discovering a hidden treasure that is very nearly in our back yard-- or front yard, anyways-- as we explored down into the gully across the street.  Happy children clambering about, happy dog wet and full of burdocks.... all as it should be.






Hoping you've all had a splendid weekend, too.

18 months

Little Ivy Jane is 18 months old.  And while time has slipped by at an astounding rate since her first birthday, its passage is well marked in just how different she is these days.  Gone, it seems, is any trace of the baby we used to have.  We now have a little girl, a giggly, kissy, sweet and ornery little girl who understands everything and is starting to talk and who copies everything her big brother does.  She's pretty wonderful and really stinking cute. 

Ivy at 18 months:

* She runs and stomps and spins and walks on her tiptoes and loves climbing up and down the stairs but prefers, really, to climb up the rocks through the garden.

* Thanks to following a big brother around, she's the master of the playground at the preschool, having learned since September how to climb up the rock wall, go through the tunnels, go down the big slide, and even walk across the "Stepping stone" bridge, all on her own.  She may be doing the monkey bars by two...

* She loves Sesame Street (Elmo and Bert are her favorite characters) and books with babies or animals in them.  She adores music, especially the Itsy Bitsy Spider.   She dances at the slightest provocation.

* Speaking of babies-- she's crazy about them. She likes to have 2 or 3 dolls in her crib and to take one with her when we leave the house.  She also likes to have  her "bebee" wear a hat, and then of course she needs a hat too, and then mommy needs a hat, and then she goes and gets Jack's hat.

* She is very thorough, and very inclusive.  She needs to put one object down (or preferably, hand it to a parent) before picking up something new.   Almost meticulous, actually.  When she's not barreling through life running into things, that is.

*She's talking more and more.  Yesterday she put two words together by herself: "Nine-y Bee-Bee"  (tiny baby) and she's saying I love you, even though it sounds more like "eye-uh-oowe".  She's starting to parrot more and more of what we say.  She's probablyt got about 40 words she uses on her own. A few new ones: Bowl, apple, cheese, pizza, milk, down (as a command to Corydon, of course!), diaper (dap-a), bottle (bot- oh), Elmo, hat, coat...

* If you ask her if she has room in her tummy for (name of food here), she lifts up her shirt and looks.   Its hilarious.   She also starts to take her shirt off if you mention a bath.  Or spaghetti.

* She wrinkles up her nose when she smiles and gives spontaneous kisses and running-tackle hugs on our legs. She's funny and engaging and determined and she's going to take the world by storm, this girl, one shake of those blond pigtails at a time.

Beach-comber

From october 2011 iphone pics

Can you believe it's November 6th?  Perfect fall day today.  Much time spent in leaf piles, on walks, on beaches.  Heaven.  A wonderful weekend.  More details and pictures to come.

Dance Party

This evening we had a dance party in Jack's room. We listened to T.A.T.U and danced in strobe light. Turns out, the boy has got some MEAN dance moves. Little hands jiving away, feet stomping, turning and smiling, smiling, smiling.

Just another little way the iPhones are making our lives better.

In other news about the boy-- he went across the monkey bars by himself today. Two times. I am inordinately proud.

Girlie-girl was not quite so agile, however, taking a header off a breakfast stool this afternoon. Goose-egg on her crown aside, she seems none the worse. She was a little live wire this evening when we had Lillian, Naomi and their parents over for supper. I think she really does recognize them as her friends, these days, genuinely excited to see them, following them around, even trying to say their names -- "o-mee-nom-ee" and "Wee-uul" At least she's trying. :) They give each other hugs and kisses. They carry handfuls of toys around the house and throw balloons and are about the cutest things going as they dash about underfoot. I love having these three little girls together. They are changing at the speed of light and they are more amazing every day...

***

Nat and I spent some time this evening organizing our calendar around parent-teacher conferences and Kindergarten open houses. It is mind-boggling to watch our babies babbling and toddling around, and then look at our big boy and see the space-time continuum, as it were, fold in upon itself. Because that's the only way it could be possible, that my baby boy is getting ready for Kindergarten.

In light of certain developments in the area of public education in recent years (four letters for you....NCLB....) and the way these developments have led our public schools to be focused more on numbers than on children, this public school teacher has been (gasp!) talking about private schools more and more. We may attend a Montessori open house or two along with our local elementary. And Nat's always made noise about home-schooling, though I am never quite sure how I feel about that option. With how I've been feeling about my own job, and with how Ohio seems to feel about teachers these days, home-schooling is holding more of an appeal for me...

Who knew. This parenting thing doesn't get easier. The challenges just change form.

But-- with great challenges-- come great rewards.

I love these little monkeys.

PS: Here are some pictures from Halloween! It was a wonderful evening of pumpkins and rockets and astronauts, aliens and little devils, friends and candy, and three exhausted trick-or-treaters being brought home in a wagon. Thank heavens for Grandma, who joined us, and carried the rocket home. Pictures can't do the magic justice, but you'll get the idea.