Play Date

I have a great idea. Let's get our friend with the newest newborn to host a playdate and entertain 8 kids under the age of four! I'm sure she'd be into that, right? As it turns out, it was her idea! And it WAS great! It was a busy morning, but so fun. I hope I'll get to watch Makili grow up with these kids.

Stream of Consciousness

My little one is ONE.

We passed this day
in an ordinary way.

He didn't seem to mind.

Food. Walk. Playground. Beach.
Mama. Brother. Daddy.
What more does a one-year old
want?

I can almost not remember him
then
then
and now he can wear a 1 shirt.

He can climb, communicate
(with grunts)
melt me.

He cuddles against us.
Especially Makili.
Melts me.
Like a popsicle actually eaten
one lick at a time
(which Makili actually does)

He's blond now. Willful. Adorable.
Very ticklish.
Wants anything we have - food
toys.

Likes a joke. Chooses when to listen.
Loves balls, balloons, vrooming
the cars. SWINGS.

Goes down slides head-first
by himself. Cries.
Does it again.
and Again.
I see my Remick in this face
but can almost not remember
this face either.
My baby days are ticking away.
This also melts me.

ONE

MICMAK Birthday Luau

We'd Love to have you join us for our annual birthday beach celebration at the Tower Pavilion in Fort Foster on Sunday July 4th, 2010 from 10-4. Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish, swimsuits, good weather, readiness for fun and sunblock. (There is a $10/car entrance fee). No gifts please!

Let us know if you can make it! We'd love to see you there! E-mail for directions or particulars!

A day with Dad.

We recently drove down to Raph's school to watch the lacrosse team lose narrowly. Lacrosse is a very strange game that I honestly don't entirely get, but Raph played briefly in high school and maybe college and likes it and he had a student who was badgering him to come see. The game was interesting, but what really captivated my kids was the space under the bleachers. They spent a lot of time running back and forth and playing in the dirt. It was a nice break from their normally demanding selves.

Here's superDad not sure what to do with his free hands...

Other People's Pets

Our Russian neighbors stopped by the other day and and in their limited English insisted that we bring our kids down to their house RIGHT NOW to show them their baby ducks and chickens - 61 ducks and 20 chickens! That's a whole lot of fowl! Ha. I crack myself up. It was great. They were absolutely adorable and you know what? Other people's pets rock. Cause that was about all the time I really wanted to spend with the ducks and chickens. But I can go and visit them any time I get the urge!

An Effort

It is a monumental effort for me to find the time to blog lately. I certainly cannot begin to chronicle the events of recent weeks. There is just so so much to do. It's a constant one foot in front of the other sort of thing, but it certainly does feel like there just isn't time for everything. Maybe that is because there is so much sunlight, that I don't get the down time at night to sit around and play on the computer? Not that I'm complaining.

Raph is wrapping up his school year (only 2 more weeks!!!) and we are planning our summer escapes - Acadia, Adirondacks, Branford?, and activites - swimming, hiking, biking, kayaking. We're planning and working hard at growing what we'll be eating and trying to not freak out about cucumber beetles and squash bugs. Argh. I'm so busy trying to get the last flowers in the garden for Blooming Fools, and our first market is in 2 weeks!

At the moment I have two sick kids and as life drags me along at this pace, I'm trying to remember to step back and enjoy some mellow moments. These are a few moments from Ann and Larry's last weekend.

Old McDonald Past the Farm and other greatest hits

Below, Remick is trying to stand up to get the hanging ball. He had been doing this for a solid ten minutes, and can actually stand up on his own. I expect him to walk across the room any day now. Balls, by the way, are his favorite thing at the moment. He says, "Ba!" and if you ask him to go get the ball, he will crawl around the house hunting for one. He also says "hi" and "Ma" for mom, milk, and more.

Shut the Phone; Hello!

Makili and I had some phone time fun the other day. He cracked me up. I have about 40 clips of him on the phone which are all funny, but might not be that funny to people other than us, so I chose one... And Remick was getting in on the action too...

My Little Indians

Once in a while I get to lay under the trees and look up while my kids play together joyfully nearby. Once in a while.This one will come and check in with me every so often and then scoot back to chase his brother.
Makili, for his part, has discovered the joy of running around naked in the heat, which also makes his last discovery, peeing outside, that much easier.
Isn't this teepee that someone gave us AWESOME. My boys just love to play in there and together! So cute.

What Were We Thinking?

We decided to take five kids under the age of 3 to the beach today. This involved a 3/4 mile walk to the beach, broiling sun, and suffocating heat (high of 92 today!). They handled it pretty well, but all five of the adults who attended were pretty spent (and sunburnt) by the time we got back. Kane was certainly the one who enjoyed the trip most of all. He LOVED swimming in the ocean (open Atlantic Ocean in MAY! UNBELIEVABLE and scary!). It was great fun to see them and I hope that happens a whole lot more this summer - the beach part, by which I mean easily accessible by car with lots of shade and coolers full of Annma-prepared goodies.

Impersonations

Makili has been enjoying trying to memorize books lately. Here is a clip of him telling the story of "Wallie the Walrus" which is a book written by my grandfather. Apparently my story telling involves a voice at the beginning that sounds like I'm mildly retarded, because that is how Makili recites it every time. He does do the whole book, but decided to cut it short in the middle of the story this day.

Daddy's Race

We watched Raph in a mountain bike race yesterday. They were giving out bells and Makili sat there ringing the bell for every biker that went by. But he saved his special screaming for Daddy when he crossed the finish line: "Go Daddy Go!" He was pretty disappointed that he couldn't race too! Raph was just happy to have finished!

Hanky-panky

Coralie, my Blooming Fools friend, came over the other day with her family to plant some flowers and prepare some beds. We had earlier weeded a big bed and laid plastic to keep the weeds from growing until we were ready to plant. When we went to pull it off to plant our flowers, we found FOUR snakes. Coralie called our house the nature park because the last time she came over, our resident short-tailed weasel friend who is shockingly tame, was running amuk. I can only attribute the residence of these creatures to an over-abundance of rodents. And I have never been happier about visitors! However, Makili and I have been checking on the snakes since they quickly relocated to another bed with plastic. They are definitely doing more than talking in there! If we don't get moving quickly, we're going to end up with a small snake farm here I think, and though in theory I'm into the snakes, I am really NOT into the idea of a snake farm. I'm getting shivers just thinking about it and flashing back to the time as a kid that I was looking for salamanders on a river bed, turned over a rock and found a snake nest. Ah! Yikes. Anyway, they are cool (in small numbers and from a distance while eating the rodents.)



And I just like this hat and my kids in it, even if they don't.

Birds of Prey

Our days are so full. The sun is such a nice visitor. We've spent countless hours playing in the dirt, going to the beach, biking around. I feel SO busy with everything that is going on. 15 hours a week of work has been feeling like A LOT! My boys are so cute and I am so lucky for the time that I have with them. Makili is funny kid these days, always cracking me up in one way or another. He learned to play hide-n-seek this week. It was fun.And this little chubster has a new habit of screaming constantly. I tell everyone it is like living with birds of prey. I feel like a hawk is about to swoop in and carry me off half the time. The other half the time I want to wring both their necks because Remick starts screeching and then Makili starts yelling, "You may not yell at me." And then he starts wailing and then well, the car rides haven't been so fun lately. This child is willful!
This is my family visiting me at work and the ensuing fight over the ice cream cone. I think Remick was doing his Birds of Prey impersonations on Raph's back too.

Digging

In our house, digging is definitely in the top ten activities list. I'm always digging. I'm always making Raph dig this or that up for me. And my boys certainly love digging. We had to buy Makili his own shovel earlier this year - a good shovel that was jsut his size, not a crappy plastic one that breaks constantly - because he always was trying to help us. He loves his shovel and at times really is a big helper!
And now Remick has the love of digging in the dirt too, which is awesome except when he uses the shovel as a spoon.