I just couldn’t post just one picture. Just. Couldn’t. I apologize if your eyes hurt from all the cuteness.
Ellery has found her toes in the past few days, and next to the hem of her sundress, they are the best toy ever.
I think we’ve reached total butterball stage. I know the days of this are numbered, because she’s starting to move more and will soon thin down. So right now I’m trying to document all this incredibly cute chub.
A few weeks ago Beth shot me an email saying that she and Dave were bringing Jamie and Carter down for a baseball game. Tom had to work and the game was right during naptime, so we made it a girlie event. Neko, Ellery and I loaded up and headed to the Big City. We had to park about a zillion miles away, so we missed the beginning of the game, but we finally settled into some seats.
While we were there, I wasn’t sure if Neko had a good time. She was a bit shy around Beth and Dave and she didn’t even know the rules of the game. But she ate an enormous bag of popcorn and a serving of Dippin’ Dots. Jamie and Carter even let her eat some of their cotton candy, which may have been a life-changing experience, since she’s still talking about it. We spent a good amount of time walking in the stadium and soaking up the vibe.
I don’t like baseball, but I like baseball games. I love the cheap seats. I love that it’s such a family affair, with kids everywhere. I love those big pretzels with mustard. I especially love night games where it’s just a little bit chilly and the lights make everything have these surreal saturated colors.
As we tried to beat the rain on the way to the car, Neko looked up at me and said, “Mom, I really liked that baseball game.”
Me, too.
It should be noted that not all days are sunshine and roses around here. I tend to document the good stuff more than the bad because it just gets monotonous and mostly it’s all like, Shep took Neko’s toy but Neko had been waving it in his face so really she had it coming but now everyone’s screaming and crying and oh, lordy, when was the last time I changed Ellery’s diaper, because I think we have leak to rival the Titanic.
It’s all very glamorous and makes for incredibly riveting reading.
But, today, I must mention. I just wanted to make dinner. Every day, all over the world, people come to their kitchens or huts or even the simplest fire and they make dinner. And then the family comes together and eats. It happens all the time. I swear. But if this is so, why do I, in this world of modern conveniences, have so much trouble making it happen?
I just wanted to make dinner. Spaghetti and faux meatballs. Garlic bread. Wilted spinach. These are not hard things and not terribly time-consuming. At 4:15, I sat down Neko and Shep and explained that I needed to make dinner, that this is my “work” and I need time to do my work. And I need to not be interrupted every three seconds. That Neko and Shep needed to—are you ready—entertain themselves while I cooked. It was all very civilized, and I thought, well understood.
And in the next thirty minutes, the following things occured:
1) A loud thud, followed by much crying. Neko decided it would be fun to stack two bean bag chairs on top of each other on top of Shep’s bed and then they would both jump off the top. About four feet down. Shep got hurt, a shock, I know.
2) No one watched television. Thousands of articles are written every year about children rotting their brains in front of television. Devices have been invented to limit the amount of television watched. Yet I can’t even reliably get my kids to watch thirty damn minutes of Dora so I can mince garlic.
3) Neko decided she wanted everything Shep came within three inches of, and Shep decided it was really funny to run away with those things, laughing with glee.
4) Ellery decided that if I wasn’t going to hold her she would put in a call to Children’s Services. Once she can learn to crawl and push the right buttons, that is. Until then she would fill the time with lots of loud crying.
5) Neko and Shep decided to host a very loud and dangerous game of chase around the island where I was wielding large knives and the oven where I was trying to place very hot objects while balancing a baby on one hip.
You can see where this is going. I broke. I yelled. Way too loud and too much. And then I picked everyone up and sent them to their rooms for the next fifteen minutes. And there was a lot of crying. And screaming. And when Tom walked in the door he got very wide eyes and you could tell he was thinking that his best move would be to turn around and pretend he had to work late.
But, by golly, dinner was on the table at 5:10pm.
After reading Richard Louv’s book and seeing him speak, I’ve vowed to do more things with the kids in nature. I know, I know, we live on a farm, so we’re practically camping every night, but there’s something magical about an organized activity with friends. So this week we headed out for a “scavenger hunt” in the woods. We found a trail that was 6/10 of a mile long, and I had made up a picture list of things to look for. Each child took a list and a pen and we headed out on our hike.
The kids had a fabulous time. One by one we found most of the items, and with each one the kids came running and crowded around to see what had been discovered. Shep and Andrew pooped out a bit at the end, but they held in there like champs. I’m discovering that four is the magic age for these sorts of adventures, as none of the four-year-olds issued a single complaint about the distance or being tired.
I, of course, forgot my camera for the hike. But I took a few photos of the kids and the geese we ran into after we ate lunch, which was nowhere near as picturesque or charming, but I’ll take what I can get.
Neko’s drawings are getting outrageously fabulous. I still have to scan in the explosion of awesomeness that occurred when we were in Michigan.
But for now, I give you Neko and a robot. (Those are stars and the moon above them.)
Tom makes fun breakfasts like this all the time. It’s about time we documented one.
Okay, Tom has just informed me that, although he does make stupendous breakfast faces, this one was actually made by Neko. Which makes even that much cooler.
I think we can already see a great deal about how their relationship is going to be in 20 years.
I know I already have 8,643 entries about Neko releasing her latest creature back into the wild, but I feel that if I don’t document it enough she will never understand the enormity of how much time we spent convincing her the bug/spider/toad/snake needed to go back into the wild to be with its friends and family, orchestrating the release and, ultimately, letting it go.
The last photo is Neko and Shep saying “ta-da” after the big release. Marlin Perkins would be proud.
Today was one of those perfect weather days. Not too hot, not too cool, and zero humidity. Heaven. It seemed almost a crime to consider not going to the park.
Now part of this entry dates back to July 3rd. We had gone uptown to have dinner and attend the pre-4th festivities, when we decided it would be a good time to pick out Neko’s Big Kid Bike. My friend Jodi works at the bike shop, so Tom gave her the heads-up that we were coming. We had arranged ahead of time that she would move all the gender-neutral bikes to the front of the store so Neko could choose from them. Growing as fast as kids do, we thought a bike we could hand down to Shep would be a wise investment.
However, when we arrived with Neko at the store, she immediately developed tunnel-vision and barely even glanced at the red, green, and blue bikes Jodi had set out and immediately ran to the back of the store and stopped in front of the pink one with the flowers and basket and the tassels on the handlebars. “I want this one,” she gasped.
I’ll give Jodi credit, she tried to sell the other bikes by pointing out we could add baskets and tassels to them, but it was too late. Within the hour we were the proud owners of a pink, girlie bike. I try to remind myself we have another girl in the cue. And who’s to say Shep won’t want a pink bike with tassels and a basket?
Anyway, we took the bike to the park today, and she got it. You know, when the rhythm of the pedals magically clicks, and all of a sudden you can ride and stop and start with confidence. Soon she was zipping around the park, still with training wheels, but with the confidence of an experienced rider. She even made a few biking friends. And I noticed that every girl there had the same pink bike, and I suddenly felt a bit better about our decision. That bike must be some kind of rite of passage.
Poor Shep is still fighting a cold, and gave the tricycle a good try, but gave in to his exhaustion and happily climbed into the car to watch the Wiggles. While I fed Ellery and Shep sang along with Greg Wiggle, Tom gave Neko her first skateboarding lesson, which she adored.
We clearly need weather like this every day. Consider my request filed.
