Life, it is good

It’s incredible, really, that I’ve stuck with my photo-a-day endeavor for nearly a year and yet  continue to fail in maintaining this here document of the daily goings-on.  My perfectionism is too-often crippling, and I never find the time to write it all just so.  But clearly this getting it all coherent and maybe even articulate thing isn’t working for me.  I really want to focus on the smaller, daily things that I know I’ll forget, not necessarily a bi-monthly cursory description of where the boys are all at.  I want to remember Henry walking into the kitchen and nonchalantly asking: “Can I please have a carving knife and some twine?”  (Yes, he did.)

To that end, I will now attempt a twenty minute stream-of-consciousness blog post to accompany the pictures that have been sitting in this draft for weeks (months?).  The thesis of this jot-it-down and throw it out there post would be that I am wildly in love with all three boys in each of their particular ages/stages.  I am enjoying motherhood in a way I never really knew possible.  While this implies that maybe I wasn’t particularly enjoying it before, I really just mean that it’s even better (and also significantly less hard).  Pretty sure my strengths in this parenting gig lie more heavily with older kids.  They are so darn funny.  And interesting.  And self-entertained.  Did I mention easier?  It’s been especially fun to watch the dynamic duo of H + Mo slowly morph into the Three Amigos of H + Mo + Max.  Slowly, slowly, he catches up (and is now THREE!  But that’s a whole other post…)

The sun has begun making it’s appearance (despite the fact that SNOW is again in the forecast for tonight…) so we’ve been out-of-doors more and more, and Mo completed the last step of the two-wheeler milestone he began last summer by figuring out how to start (and more importantly, stop) by himself.  Which means that all three will often ride bikes out front for an hour at a time, while I putter in earshot.  Absolutely revolutionary!  The theme is beginning to sound like “thank god my kids are out of my hair now” but really, they’re just so damn happy it’s impossible not to be happy alongside them.

And what else have we been up to? This ticking clock (really my drooping eyelids) combined with a refusal to save this damn thing one more time without just publishing it already is stressing me out…  Perhaps bullet points will help?

:: Swimming lessons.  The teacher asked what my “goals” were and I told her I needed them to be drowning-proof.  Three lessons later and Henry can swim the long length of the pool!  Mo’s still a ways from putting all the components together but at least has learned a bit of treading water and recovering to a back float.  I’m a few years from reading poolside while they swim, but once I get there, I’ll inevitably miss this part, right?

:: My friends are having babies!  Aside from my nearest and dearest BFF who took the plunge (fell down the rabbit hole?) not long after I, this is new and exciting.  Of course many, many friends we’ve made post-kids have kids, but the pre-baby clan has shown more restraint (birth control mastery?) than we.  At any rate, it has been fun to watch.  (Though maybe not so good for my own uterus and it’s biological insistence on having twelve.)

I took the littler two out for cocoa a few weeks back, and while snapping some photos, the woman sitting next to us asked if I’d like for her to take a pic of all of us.  I’m quick to be self-critical, but love having a bit of photographic evidence that I was indeed around once in awhile

:: Another exciting new milestone: representational art!  I thought the boys were artistic imbeciles so long did it take for even a stick figure to emerge, but now that they’re interested/enthusiastic about drawing it has just exploded!  They’re devouring paper by the ream-ful (literally) and I’m having a hard time sorting through and deciding which to keep because it all feels so magical right now.  Must scan a few and post…

Working on dis-assembling pallets to make garden boxes for H’s class

Henry’s “Book Signing” for “E is for Earthworm” (at the Co-op)

:: If it were even possible, we’ve fallen more in love with Henry’s excellent school.  So confident it will serve Mo equally well next (next?!) year. 

:: Celebrating the one-year mark of the Big Move and feeling ever more grateful that we bit the bullet and did what we needed to do.  It’s ridiculous, really, how well it’s all played out.  How much we love it here.

Out on a little trail-scootering/dam-constructing jaunt just down the way from our house

:: It seems I am perpetually torn as an individual and we are perpetually torn as a family as to how to make the best use of our time.  Weekends seem to magnify the tug-of-war, and there is always the temptation to get “caught up”  versus the temptation to enjoy the too-little time as a family.  The choice became easier to make once I learned that catching-up is an unattainable myth.  You’ll never really be caught up.  At least not in this sloppy stage of life with so much unpredictability and so many people needing so much from you.  So sometimes, you just need to opt out of returning the emails or cleaning up the inevitable urine puddles at the base of the toilet (sigh) and head south, where it’s 10 degrees warmer.

This is our favorite early-spring spot (which just means that we came several times last spring).  The canyon is a straight shot up and back, so boys can forge ahead without worry of going the wrong way.  Of course there is all kinds of other trouble they could manage to get into, but I figure I’d better start getting comfortable with that reality now…

:: Random Henry quote: “You know what I don’t like about commercials?  They’re always like: ‘Buy this car.  It’s the best.  Blah, blah, blah.’”

::  The above photo reminded me of another important development of note: the complete and utter Harry Potter obsession that has swept the house.  Sometime between now and the last time I posted, Henry devoured the first four books (partway into #5 now…).  His brothers are enraptured by association, especially with the spells.  The house/van/yard/stroller are all cluttered with stick “wands” collected and they love shouting “avada kadavra!” at full volume while the victim throws himself to the ground with dramatic flourish.

After the “hike” we grabbed a spot along the river for some hot dog cooking and rock scrambling.

And intimidating mothers with swords, apparently.

I’m already way over my twenty-minute challenge (though it remains jumbled and possibly incoherent), so I’ll end with what may be my all-time favorite Morgan quote (after I sang “Angels Watching Over Me” at bedtime): “I don’t know if I even believe in angels. <thoughtful pause>  I think maybe moms are angels.  But I do believe in Santa Claus.”

So much more to come – and hopefully not in six weeks, either.  G’night!

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~ by onedandelion on April 26, 2011.