Le Jardin

I managed to take some pictures of my garden a few weeks ago (Here you go, Sonya!) but this is the first chance I've had to post them. This has been such a short gardening season, but I'm hoping that this recent heat wave (though we've got nothing on the rest of the country, I know) will give our crops a little boost before Autumn comes to stay. This last purple flower is such a fun plant...one I've never done before.  They're called burgundy bush beans, and the beans themselves are the same lovely jewel tone as the flower. When you cook them, however, they turn green! Talk about getting your kids ton eat their veggies...nothing works like a magic trick! I've got a few of my year round herbs in pots on the back patio to spare them from the yearly tilling, such as sage and rosemary, and Joel has a barrel full of horseradish growing as well. (Let me tell you, nothing beats fresh horseradish you picked that day with your steak!) But out of 15 tomato plant so far we've gotten....wait for it....

 

Ta-da! This guy. He was delicious, but I'm hoping some of his friends will ripen up before we have to have a fried green tomato frenzy. We've had a total of two big ol' zucchini and millions of peas. Elora has been my dutiful little pea sheller, we've had a lot of old fashioned fun together!

Here's hoping for some more produce! How does your garden grow?

Real Men Wear Babies

For those of you who may not know, my stroller does not get much use. My wraps, slings, and carriers however, I simply could not live without. When Joel is out with us he gladly takes a turn wearing our (not so) little man, especially when I am tired. I love it. Yes, I miss having the baby close to me, but I get all googly (I don't even care if that is an actual word) over the sight of my men hanging out together, or over how sweet Daddy is when his mini-me falls asleep on him. I have wraps in manly colors....chocolate brown, navy blue...but Joel doesn't even bat an eyelash if what I have with me at the time happens to be covered in flowers. Now that is a real man.

Flyin' High

Pool, trampoline, pool, trampoline. Trampoline, slip'n'slide, pool.  That is how most days have gone at our house this summer. These kids are doing flips (Seleia) cartwheels (Elora) and "fireworks" where you spin and do a sort of quick-repeat jumping jack mid-air (Amarra). Their energy and fearlessness are a sight to behold!

Happy Birthday...To ME!

This has been an amazing year. The last month has, so many times, reminded us of how blessed we are. Thinking about how different this summer is from last one....how Dashiell and I are alive and well, and NOT in the hospital. (And no surgeries so far this year, woohoo!) All of those not-so-little things that get so easily taken for granted in the day to day. Those things are really what matter. Last year was really such a blur to me (they kept me pretty well drugged) but it was basically the longest year of my husband's life. Single dadhood to three little girls, just trying to hold everything together....he has more than once this summer told me how overwhelmed and grateful he is to have us all with him. And really, that is the greatest gift of all, to have my family together. (Though the flowers, presents and tickets are pretty nice, too!)
My goals for 35 were pretty simple: Stay alive. Keep baby alive. Be able to lift own head again someday.
This year I am blessed to be able to want more for 36. My goals?
 Relax. Let the things go that I can't change anyway!
 Enjoy my children more. No more of this stressing over "playing catch-up" from last year.
 Laugh more readily.
 Love more openly.
Go on more dates with my husband!
Take it easy on myself. I'm only human after all. (Though the fact that Joel and the kids seem to think I have a few superpowers is still pretty cool.)
Breathe. Enjoy the journey...I only get to do it once!
So I know I've mentioned I'm not overly thrilled about this being closer to 40 than 30 business, but in reality? I'm just thrilled to be here. So no major introspection, nothing too profound from me this year. Just the simple facts: Life is good. Now I'm going to go live it.

Me too, Mama!

He's got his paper, he's got his pencil, and he's wanting to do some schoolwork along with his Sissies! Gotta love it!

The Magic Place

 My friend Jennifer's house is magical, really and truly. And its not just this house, (thought the giant trees, big fields, nearby horses and cemetery and big tree house don't hurt) it's wherever she is. The wooden toys, the gnome house, the bunnies, the room for imagination to grow, unfettered. Plus a few light sabers. The girls always love to go there. Rajah, Jennifer's firstborn, is Seleia's oldest friend. She loves him ("He is so kind") and always looks forward to their time together. The girls make themselves right at home (perhaps a bit too much, but at least they clean up after themselves?) and always can't wait to return. It seems so many places we go, public or private, children are overwhelmed with the electronic, the noisy, the over-stimulation and go, go, go-ism of modern society, and I have to admit that I love that my children's favorite places are places that they can make their own adventure. Places that they can just be.

By the way, Jennifer has a craft book for children being published August 1st. Prepare for a shameless plug coming soon.

Flamingoed

The other morning our resident flamingo enthusiast (that would be Amarra for those of you who might not be in the know) was all a flutter.  Our neighbors lawn was incredibly...pink. I called my lovely neighbor to see what the dickens was going on over there, and was informed that they had been "flamingoed". A local church youth group had the most creative camp fund raiser I'd ever heard of. There was a number you could call to pay to have someone flamingoed. The flamingos would then reside at said house for two days before heading off somewhere else. (There was a sign in her yard along with all of the birds explaining why her lawn was suddenly covered in them. We debated calling to have our own yard flamingoed for the kids, but weren't sure how A would handle it when the two days were up.) "The first thing I thought of", said lovely mom neighbor, "was Amarra. Would the kids like to come over later and play with the flamingos?" Well, umm, yeah!

Ten. Months. Old.

I am so. in. love. with this little man. His smile, his laugh...the way he brightens up every single time he sees me. That his favorite things are books. The way he adores his daddy and has a special, though different, relationship with each of his sisters. That he loves spicy foods. The way he sings to me, as he was during our little dance party above. His personality is so much larger than life. I can't imagine our lives without the blessing that is Dashiell Monroe. And I can't believe he's ten months old! That this time last year no one was sure he'd make it to birth!

Dashiell is determined to stand up unassisted, but doesn't make it more than about a second. He walks very well if you hold his hands, and is ever so proud of himself. So far, Dash has seven teeth, and within about a week or so we'll see three more. Of course, he is a fast little crawler. He is learning the no-no's around the house (and that the pots-n-pans cabinet in the kitchen is the one cabinet he gets a green light on.Woohoo!) Yesterday I had to give him a bit of a lecture..."We don't bite, Dashiell.  You hurt Mama when you did that and earlier you hurt sissy when you bit her.  That is not nice."...and he actually lowered his head while wearing a look of shame...twice...and then looked up at me with a beaming, "But you adore me because I'm so cute and you could never stay mad at lil' ol' me", look and actually batted his eyelashes. I am in so much trouble.

I genuinely loved the time that I had with the girls as babies, but having had all three of them within 37 months made things a bit more interesting. Now I get to be so much more relaxed...everyone else is potty trained, for crying out loud. (I can just hear Seleia's "MOmmm!" when she reads that.) I'm having so much fun with little man.

I'm thankful every day.

All On Her Own

My little Elora is getting so big! Last night I heard squeals of glee followed by some sort of giddy exclamations about a tooth. Lo and behold, Miss Elora had pulled out tooth #3 all on her own! "I did it all by myself!! It didn't even hurt or anything!" (Some of you may recall, we had to force the first two baby teeth out a bit as their grown-up replacements were growing in behind them.) We got out the ritual tooth pillow (mine from when I was a little girl) and Elora put the baby tooth ever-so-carefully into the pocket and tucked it behind her pillow with care. Then she turned to me with a reminder, "Now don't forget to be the tooth fairy tonight, Mama."

(I didn't forget.)