Lambs and Ivy (and Jack too!)

I've decided that I don't share enough of the cute things my children say.  I'm sorry about that.  Because you all really do deserve to enjoy the wonder that is talking with these two little people.  It's just that there is SO much to share that by the time I get around to writing, my overloaded and overtired brain can't seem to wort out the memories...

I'm going to try to recount a few moments, today.

This morning Ivy was snuggled into our bed (par for the course by about 4am most days) and was just waking up.  She's the lovey-est little thing when she first wakes up and today she decided she needed to expound on just how much she loved me.  Hair all sleep-curly, she said: "Mom.  I love you from dis finger (touches her pointer finger) to dis finger, to dis finger, to dis pinky, to dis tumb...." and so on for each finger, each arm, and each leg... "and that's a LOT!"  I tried to one-up her by talking about going on from my fingers to the moon, but she didn't buy it, instead recounting the love emanating from all the previous body parts, and her toes too.  She's a delicious little thing.

She's been on a bit of  mom kick recently--and by recently, Nat would explain, I mean the past 6 months or so--asking for me every morning, wondering if I have choir or any other engagements that will require me to leave.  The past few days her dramas have all involved absent or dead mothers, which really makes one wonder.  And feel guilty for being gone too much...   At any rate she has a new princess doll, Jasmine, who she has decided is her "twin".  And she and Jasmine live by themselves, with no mother.  But they aren't grown-ups!  Nope.  They do just fine on their own. Except they need a "helper" and that is me.  So all morning I got to follow Ivy around, listening to her earnest, two-sided conversations with her doll, and be called "Helper?" any time she needed the doll's shoes to be put back on.   It was a trip.  I love the little dramas she makes up, the easy way she gives voice to her imagined world...

Jack has been a wonderful kid this weekend, too.  He's been busy proving just how handy an older child can be, by (Happily??!!) assisting with Project "Clean up a winter's worth of poop from the yard". He needed to earn some extra chore credit, after all.    He continues his current obsession with Magic (the card game) and yesterday spent the 20 minutes before dinner carefully reviewing a binder full of cards.  Any reading is good reading, right?  Speaking of reading, last night he stayed up past his bedtime, reading a book in bed.  It was a chapter book, certainly above his level, but I imagine he was getting enough words to get something out of it, or he wouldn't have been so engrossed...  I'll let my kids  stay up too late reading, any time...

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So on to recounting the week for you all:

We had a taste of spring this week with a few days of temperatures in the 50's and 60's.  A taste of what life might be like if we could go to the park every day after school, and do crazy-wonderful things like take a walk around the block....

And then it snowed.  Again.  This winter!  It is beating us down!  But not Jack.  Not our boy for whom obsessions spring eternal.  He greeted the new layer of snow with joy, eager to ski at Coventry again.  Of course once we got there he decided he'd rather play on the playground.  In his ski boots.  Why not!  The weather was turning warm again, the sunny afternoon reminiscent of Denver in the spring (less a mountain or two), and were were together as a family.  A good Thursday.

This weekend has been busy and grand, full of quiet family time, cultural events, and barnyard animals too.  Friday night was my concert with West Shore, a transcendent evening with the Braham's Requiem in a beautiful cathedral.  I think it will go down as one of my favorite concerts ever; we knew the piece so well, and everyone sang with such feeling, and the way the ending chords just rang on and on and on in the beautiful high arches!  We decided to bring the kids along and while their interest in the music lasted about 5 minutes, they were good as gold for the whole hour and a half of concert time, all dressed up and beautiful and I was proud to have them there, and happy to expose them to the genius of this music.

Saturday-- the lambs!  We headed to Lake Farmpark for Maple Sugar Days, but stayed for the lambs.  A new crop was born just days ago (our timing this year has been perfect!) and I could have stayed all day watching the little creatures and their hopping.  And the baby goats!  Oh!  Bestill my heart! The best thing was that we entered the sheep nursery right before feeding time and every ewe in the joint was bleating her heart out.  I have not laughed so hard in a long time.

Today?  Perfect.  We slept in! I enjoyed conversation with my children!  We cleaned the house!  We went on a date!  Yep, a Sunday afternoon date.  Nat and I snuck out like real grown ups to get coffee, see a raucous and raunchy version of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, and go out for dinner.  The kids had a great afternoon with Gram's, and then home together, to tuck them in with gratitude and the fondness that comes from just a little time apart.

We're a lucky little group, this family.  I am counting the blessings of each day of this week, and looking forward to what the next week will bring. Happy Sunday, all!