Grandparents

Our children are blessed with four of them, these wonderful humans who bring endless patience and unconditional love and many, many gifts...

This past week we had a wonderful, quick visit with Lulu, who was in town for the night and stayed with us.  Both kids adore her, and not just for the Legos she brought them.  They soak up her calm, gentle presence and easily sink into familiarity even though they don't see her for months at a time.  Jack suggested, when she left, that maybe she could stay for two nights next time.  :)

This weekend, we showered love on Gram-Gram, who celebrated a birthday today and who gives her time to these grandbabies several times per week.  I love their comfort in her home and our family dinners every week and the sense of family and tradition we are building together.

(by the way, Gram was very surprised at her surprise party today!!)

Half a continent separates the kiddos from their Grandpa and Vovo, but the wonder of technology eases the distance and thanks to Skype (and beautiful, annual visits), Jack and Ivy love and trust and know their Wyoming grandparents fully.  They laugh at their silly Grandpa's antics and enjoy his singing, they talk with Vovo and show off their new toys to the webcam; they try to share desserts by handing them to the screen. When we visited last summer, Grandpa and Vovo were worried about how the kids would respond to the "computer screen people."    There was no need to worry.  Even if they did think that their grandparents live in the computer, it didn't bother them a bit to find them in the real world, too.  We had a magical stay in Guernsey-- such a great trip, in fact, that I am about to repeat it over my spring break.  Just me and the kids-- we'll see how this goes!  

No matter the travel hassles, it will be worth it, because these relationships-- they are so important.  I love to just quietly observe our children when they talk or play or walk or even just watch TV with their grandparents.  The beautiful sense of continuity and comfort and mutual adoration that is almost palpable in the air; generations of my family, resemblances tracing one another; these people who I love so much, giving their time and love and influence to these tiny ones of my heart. 

Grandparents rock.  

On a side note, my kids are cute.  Here's proof.

Yes, in this picture Jack and Ivy are sitting on the stairs,  high-fiving with their feet.  

  We play with a LOT of Legos around our house these days.  A lot.

This one is just cute.  That's all

Ivy is WAY into drawing these days.  I adore the look of concentration on her face and the way she puts her face way down by the paper...

She's so big.

The Flirt, in action again-- this time wooing the girls by sharing the food he had left over 

from lunch bunch...

His new Batman cape.  My husband made this.  He's awesome.

I love this dog, too.

Best. Movie. Ever.

Flirt

We spent the evening at the mall with Melinda and her girls tonight.  And Jack and Naomi spent a good deal of that time sitting together like this.

Yes, they are in front of a fire.

It was almost too cute to handle.

After this they spent a lot of time running in circles after each other and giggling. 

Who knew the flirtation would start so soon...

It's been a fine week all told, recovering from the Valentine's festivities on Sunday.  Ivy was ill on Tuesday but is back to her usual ornery self by yesterday.  She has been talking more and more, parroting things we say (like, Wait up! after hearing Jack yell it across the library parking lot this evening).

Jack has been loving Valentine's day with its influx of presents, glitter, and candy.  He has been sweet as can be recently, increasingly helpful to his sister (tonight he helped her take off her boots) and full of compliments and kind words.  He's lovely.

Here are some pictures from preschool this week.  Jack shared that the highlight of Nat's parent helper day, was pretending to a be a superhero with Sophie and defeating the Daddy-monster.  Nat is quite popular among the preschool set. :)

Its a three day weekend and oh am I happy for that.  You may get two posts in a row, imagine that!

The babies...

...they're all grown up...


At the playground at St. Paul's, during our "springtime in February":

On a trip to the Natural History Museum, where the kids reportedly participated in some sort of craft.  I just think Ivy looks like she's at a job interview here...

Playing "Laundry," one of their favorite games.

The little "reader":

At the Parent Center:

At play:

 And of course, in the tub:

Jack's a champ at getting his face wet these days.  We've also been going swimming once a week and he's all about jumping in and blowing bubbles and he's practically fearless.  See?  All grown up.

We've just had a most delightful Second Sunday Soup, and we've just finished clearing up the first round of dishes and glitter-from-Valentine-craziness.... post and pictures of tonight's event coming soon...  for now, off to bed!

More video fun...

Moments like this... oh, moments like this. I don't think I can put it into words...




I love these kids. Messy hair and all...

Springtime dancers...

A little video for you.

Happy Tuesday.

Springtime in February

Looking at my last post, that wintry view of our backyard.... this evening we were outside in our light jackets, playing tag in the grass and swinging and racing down the slide. 

It's springtime in February and we are soaking it up.

I've had this lovely, wholesome evening with my children that I just need to share with you all.  Our activity for the night?  Going to the carwash, where Jack and Ivy helped to vacuum out the van by running around inside of it.  Then we took it through the automatic wash and it was hilarious to watch Ivy's face change from apprehension to awe to delight as she got used to the onslaught  of water and foam.  Jack helpfully pointed out to her exactly when the water would hit her window, insisting that she "LOOK!  LOOK!" each time.  It was a noisy time in our car, for sure.

When we got home it was just too darn lovely out to stay in the house, even for a minute. We tromped right through and spent some time in our backyard.  The dog ran and jumped and generally obstructed our games of hide-and-seek and tag, and Ivy wanted to swing instead of playing so I had to keep running back to push her some more....it was delightful.

Inside for supper and the kids wanted to stay in the kitchen while I cooked.  So out came paper, markers, glue, and little bowls of random small items.  The two of them sat and crafted while I made dinner.  I actually had to pull them away from their coloring to get them to the table...where both of them actually ate. 

I felt good about tonight, like it was a nice, well-rounded evening.  I also managed to get both kiddos tucked in by 8:30, which also helps.  I did not, however, take any pictures.  So here are a few from Sunday instead. 

The kids and I went swimming in the morning, which may just be a new weekend tradition, it is such fun.  On the way home we enjoyed another stunning, spring-like day with some dancing in a garden bed at Eton place. 

They are two of the funniest people I know.

Jack went to a Planetarium show on Saturday, "Cosmic Collisions", and now enjoys talking about the earth's electrical field, solar flares, and what happens when two space rocks "klurnk" into each other.

Ivy adds new words to her lexicon by the moment.  Recent additions include:  Cookie, tights, dots, puppy, nice, cute, moshe (more, of course), wet, owie, lap, nap (as in,"doggie nap!")... I could go on!   She is stringing words together more and more.  Today she happily said "Goodnight poop!!" as we disposed of a diaper.  She is a true comedian and the sunniest of little girls, too, just the happiest thing, almost all of the time.

That is, unless she is screeching at the dog for licking her.  Or at her brother for taking a toy.....

Tonight I read to both kids up in Jack's room in an effort to get our worn-out little boy to bed a bit earlier.  It worked out fine but I did regret the decision several times as I tried to read a book to my snuggly boy while live-wire-the-sister got into stuff around the room and demanded my attention in any way she could manage. But it was all worth it when I tucked Jack in and he excitedly called Ivy over to snuggle in for a good night cuddle, too.  And he just wrapped his arms around her and seemed so happy to have his sister in there, saying goodnight to him.  It was perfect.  Until Ivy started flailing and screeching and I had to extricate her from the bed.  Jack didn't get his nice, long mommy-snuggle... but that didn't keep him from going to bed perfectly, about an hour earlier than normal.  So we may be trying this bedtime arrangement again sometime...