Long Lost Friends

I wanted to try to post every day this month. Oh well. I missed yesterday. We were busy. We went down to see John:Raph's best buddy from high school who was the one who dragged us to Hawaii. In fact, all of his high school best buds showed up. We hung out in a restaurant for like four hours (with both babies! ouch!) and it was great to see them.

Good ol' Gwen played tractors endlessly with Makili, which was awesome. We actually bought Makili his first lego toy (a tractor of course) for him to put together with help at the dinner table. It worked great that night, but it has been the bane of my existence ever since. I probably "fix" that tractor hundreds of times a day.Anyway, it was good to see them.

My Little Fathead's Fotoshoot

Have you ever seen such a noggin with fatter cheeks? The old man hairline adds to the cuteness too.

It starts this young?

Yesterday, our super-cute teenage buddy Sam came over to hold the babies so Raph and I could get some things done in the yard. She loves babies and was making me laugh because she'd ask me while holding Remick and playing with Makili, "do you need help with laundry or anything?" Like seriously, is she trying to make me look bad? Anyway, Makili loved having her here to play with him, and when it was time for her to leave, Makili gave her a long, sort of awkwardly long hug. Then he walked over to me with a smile and said, "Sam has boobies!" YikeS!

Seasonal Living

You know, we try to eat in season these days, as much as possible. And really we try to eat out of the garden as much as possible, to utilize the farmers' market when we can't. And though we certainly spend some dollars at Market Basket (our local grocery store), we try. I have been impressed lately how it seems like kids (or Makili specifically) seem to eat in season naturally. When blueberry season was upon us, Makili would absolutely gorge himself on them. He literally could not eat enough of them. And though I often have apples in the house (even out of season), he really wasn't overly interested in them all summer. Then suddenly apple season happened and I swear the kid has eaten a bushel of apples himself. And though we still have plenty of apples in the house, Makili seems to know that their season has passed. He has moved onto dried fruits, being totally obsessed with raisins at the moment (though he also digs the dried pears and mangoes that we are known to have at times.) And it was like that with watermelon, cantelope (though he is still packing those away), raspberries. So I guess it is the fruit.

It also seems that Makili's play seems to follow the season so naturally as well. In the spring he spent hours digging in my garden, until things started to grow and that wasn't okay anymore. Then there was the water play time, then back to the dirt again, and then toys started falling from the ground - LEAVES!! He has made it very difficult for me to rake lately, as it is as though I'm taking away his toys. And soon, he'll get the snow. Oh boy! Then we'll be eating out of the freezer and jars. Hard to believe on a sunny 65 degree day in November.

beware the apple juice

I clearly missed a father-son moment beacuse Makili just came in the bathroom where I was doing laundry and said, "I peed in the cup!" My response was "Why? (WTF?)" To which Makili replied, "Daddy tell me to pee in the cup." And sure enough there was a plastic cup full of pee waiting for me on the counter. Ew!

Fall fun with the relatives

We had a great weekend last weekend with Raph's relatives. Such gorgeous weather we've had around these parts recently.

Makili and Kane had a blast in the leaves. Makili kept asking us to rake a pile so that he could jump into them and run through them. Kane really wanted to be able to yield that rake with authority. They were very cute. I finally got the leaves raked up in our back yard today, when Makili wasn't looking, because he considers them toys put there for his disposal and would get very upset with me if I tried to rake them into the compost pile.

Anyway, loving fall...

Some recent pics.

Raph got his buddy George to help out with the shed extension project. I thought I should at least give him some credit for that.
Steeler Fans.


McCall cuteness.

Shearing Summer

I wish I could say we were on the tail end of summer, but in fact we're headed eyes wide open into winter. Around here we're still trying to savor some of the last bits of "fresh" that we can find, while spliting and stacking the wood, putting the garden to bed and hunkering down with winter projects...


I know summer is over when I got Makili's blond locks off. It breaks my heart every time, but the poor kid was constantly trying to get his hair out of his eyes, so it was time! Here he is demonstrating his pockets, which he loves.Remick demonstrating cuteness, as usual.

The last fresh flowers from the garden. Makili walked outside the other day and insisted on picking them. And I thought to myself. You're right, Makili! What am I thinking? I NEED these fresh flowers in the house, because pretty soon I won't have the luxury! So I grabbed a pair of scissors and he helped me choose which ones to pick...

On Makili's one day of sickness (it wasn't the flu - Yahoo!), he really lived it up, watching Bob the Builder on the computer, drinking unlimited amounts of juice, and eating a lollipop, a new and agonizingly slow treat left over from trick-or-treating.
And amazingly, we are STILL eating raspberries. We each eat a handful every day. That seems like a blessing.
And of course we are still eating out of the garden. We're pretty much down to broccoli, leeks, potatoes, kale, collards, and brussel sprouts. I didn't freeze enough this year or eat enough really, but there's always next year and we're just trying to suck the last marrow out of that summer sun we're already missing!

I miss my mom.

Thus It Begins

I came home from soccer last night, and soon after I did so, Makili woke up in his room. Raph went and laid down with him, since Ann had but him to bed on the futon instead of in his crib. (These grandmas are such softies!:) Remick was in our bed, so I decided to lay down with Raph and Makili for a while. I put my hand on Makili and he was sweaty and hot, even to my touch after playing soccer for an hour and a half. Raph hadn't seemed to notice and so I got up and got the thermometer - 103.4. The last six months with no sickness have been great. I'm not sure I'm ready to enter sick season again, the time of year when we can't leave home, not even over night, without the thermometer, the tylenol, the IB Profin. The worst part is that it is probably the flu, since everybody around here has the flu these days. 25% of our local high school were absent yesterday, so I supposed it was inevitable.

We took Makili and Remick to vote here in Maine last night. I've actually found myself thrust into local politics because of some school issues in our town, but the big vote last night was whether or not to uphold the same-sex marriage law that was passed here in Maine a few months ago. I know I have several friends and relatives that might feel otherwise from how Raph and I do about this issue, and you can stop reading right now if you like, but I was sorely disappointed to read this morning that the same-sex marriage law was defeated yesterday by a narrow margin. It really bums me out. Raph and I both look at it as a civil rights issue, and I don't really care what your religious beliefs are, I don't really how you can see otherwise. I'm taking a literature class right now and happen to be reading about slavery in the early days. There were many leading writers and thinkers who were ardent abolitionists, but there were also intelligent people who advocated slavery, with various rationalizations. I think the two causes are linked. I hope one day we will find laughable the idea that we even had to vote on whether or not to allow gay and lesbian couples the rights afforded to others.

I got on this morning hoping to write an update about my kiddos since I can't even keep up with the adorable cute things that come out of Makili's mouth and Remick is getting so big, so grabby, but this is what flowed from my fingers today. I'll share one little Makilism before I tackle him with kisses. We were driving in the car the other day and the sun was shining in his eyes. He said "I don't like the sun." I replied, "I love the sun. You don't like the sun in your eyes." He thought for a second and said, "I like the sun in my mouth." So I asked him what it tasted like, and without hesitation, he said, "It tastes like yellow." Hmmm.

Cause that's how my mom rolls.

I mentioned that I didn't have the picture from the big visit, and poof, a CD arrived in the mail! My mom is quick like that. Some of my favorite picture of Makendra still didn't work, but there are still a lot of nice ones!


Final beach days.Pumpkins...
Tim, the maestro chef.
Pretty Tamara.
Public Servant Jean.



Maybe time for a haircut?Good Ol' Warren.
Even Opa limped through the orchard! (Love you Dad)

REALLY happy to be there.
My seldom seen Aunt Katie and Uncle Bill. They live in Canada. A real treat to see them.
My cousin Makendra's Luke, who is four months older than Makili.
My family! Wow.
My smiley guy.
My cousin Makendra's baby, Faith, who is two weeks older than Remick.
And my cousin, Makendra

Tractor and Sumo Wrestler

Remick who just this week weighed in over 18 pounds at his 4 month doctor's appointment was a sumo wrestler for Halloween. He wasn't very cooperative at picture time, but he didn't actually mind it much.

Makili has talked for weeks about being a yellow bucket tractor, NOT a farm tractor. But when the big day came and the big kids were wearing scary costumes, there was no chance he was going to put that tractor on, which as it turned out was sort of okay, since the final product was a little front heavy. So we took the obligatory pictures, but he was actually a skeleton for trick-or-treating. I had fun making it though.

Rockin Gifts

I should be sleeping right now while I can, but I can't. So I'm going to saya few words about some amazing gifts I've received recently from dear friends. Because we are still suffering form space issues on our computer, I don't have all the pictures to tell the gifts story, but let me be clear that we have received some beautiful!!! gifts for both Makili and Remick (and me and Raph too), and they are certainly not all mentioned here, but heartfeltedly appreciated!

So recently we got a package from my friend Becky in North Carolina. She sent us an awesome poetry book that I had never seen before and has been a hit around here. AND this adorable bib, which a whole level above the ones that I had made a while back, because it has a snap up catching trough. I rEALLY want to learn how to put in snaps. It was awesome.

Then I got this AMAZING package from Ana in Rhode Island, who sent us a slew of cool stuff, but this name banner for Makili's door was my absolute favorite and sent me into bouts of depression about how I don't have time to make anything anymore. It isn't for lack of ideas and deserving friends and relatives! I'm still working on Caroline's prize! In any case, tell me this isn't the coolest!
And then my local buddy Nadine gave me the most welcome new mom gift that ever was. Seriously. She got my kitchen and bathroom cleaned for me by a professional. Can you believe that? I went outside with my kids and someone else who I didn't have to feel indebted to came in and scrubbed my toilet and bath tub. Talk about luxury. Screw the spa. Toss the massage. To me there is absolutely NOTHING more luxuriant than someone else cleaning my house.

I am eternally grateful for all of the wonderful gifts we've received from our dear ones. One of these days, my hands will be more free and I can return the favor. I'm anxious to get started, but trying to savor the baby moments too. Thank you dear friends.