Swimming!

Turning Chaos into... Fun!

Elliot sneakily got into the spice cabinet and ran into the living room with a container full of sprinkles. There, he proceeded to pry open the lid and dump the tiny balls of sugar ALL over the living room. Then, as if that wasn't enough, he found that if he ran his fingers through them it felt really cool! I think I'll be finding sugar balls under the couch for weeks...

The ones we were able to wrangle back into the container were subsequently covered in dog hair and rendered useless, so Jeremy put them on the deck outside. There, he and Elliot could stomp, smash and spread them all over the place without fear of making Mama crazy! (And I do have to admit that they feel cool under hand.)

The Smell of Honeysuckle

During the time we have been here, I haved watched as the flora and fauna has evolved with the passing seasons; sometimes barren other times lush. At this point in the cycle of life, the air is a-buzz with little wings and heavily laden with the perfumes of many flowers.

While sitting today eating lunch, I happened to look out the window and noticed a hummingbird feasting on the fuschia tree out front. Then, he moved on to the honeysuckle vine. Then he tried to get the tiny drop of nectar off of the nasturtium bud (here, I believe he failed!). It not only reminded me to put more nectar into the feeder, it washed a certain calm and relaxation over me.

Our yard is full of small birds, dragonflies, beetles, mosquitos (I'm trying to irradicated those with no success) and many more crawlies that I'm sure I can't see, and it makes me feel like I am finally back to my roots. Back to the nature that bore me, back to what really matters in life: Gardens, children, wildlife, sunny days spent on the beach. Someday I will go back to "real life" and maybe get a job, sit behind a desk, have conversations about last night's tv show around the water cooler, but I will always have the memories of this time.

Spending the long days with my son and husband, contemplating what life is really all about.

Love.

And family.

And hummingbirds drinking the sweet syrup from the vine.

Updates

We've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to write in the blog! So here is a big dump of things...

Firstly, let's go back a few months to my pottery class. I finished a whole bunch of bowls just as the class ended. I'm happy to say we use them everyday! Two of them were an experiment...I borrowed some porcelain clay from a classmate (I had been using Black Mountain which is sandy and rough as you can see in the 4 brown bowls) and used a clear under glaze. Over top, I painted (with pigment, not glaze) floral designs. Once fired, they settled into the clear glaze and blossomed into subtle subdued hues. I'm going to do more experimenting this fall...!

Next, a long overdue Elliot update.

He officially started walking about a month ago as was chronicled in the previous video. Now that he is more sure on his feet, he has started to run. He runs after Sadie (dog), he runs after Nino (cat), he runs up the sidewalk, he runs to the playground. He also falls a lot.

Two of his molars have been coming in for the last few weeks or so. They are still coming in... and coming and coming. Those molars never quit! Poor feller.

We've been doing baby signing with Elliot since he was about 6 months. It didn't pay off until he was about 12 months. Then, it was a flood gate of understanding. He has 7 signs: more, finished, hungry, diaper change, story time, bath, sleepy/nap/nurse. The more obvious ones he learns quickly, but with the more abstract ones ("am I hungry? I'm not sure") it takes a few days. Along with this, he has learned the words for his favorite foods, names of our animals among other things. He also answers questions. His answers aren't always reliable, though, I've discovered. Sometimes it goes like this:

Me: "Do you want some toast?"

Elliot: Shakes head no.

Me: "Do you want some banana?"

Elliot: Shakes head no and points enthusiastically at toast.

Me: "Do you want some toast?"

Elliot: Nods head vigorously yes.

Last week, we took our first family camping trip. We went to a beautiful car-campsite as a trial run to see how it would go. Elliot had a blast playing in the fire pit (no, there wasn't a fire in it at the time!!) and mucking around in the dirt. Sadie guarded the campsite all day and night and only had one mishap with another dog. (The other dog started it by walking by.) We all feel confident that we could go out on a backpacking trip now and maybe stay more than one night?

Then, there's my garden. The zucchini had a rough start, but finally some male flowers have bloomed therefore allowing the fruit to grow, and not get blossom rot like what happened at first.

The beans also had a hard time growing, but seem to be off and running. I also planted another row of beans which is growing rapidly. I have high hopes that this batch will grow better. Also, I think I'm keeping the caterpillars at bay on the broccoli. A robin comes by every night and picks around in there, too, so between the two of us, I hope to get some good broc.

Lastly, if you are still reading this, Jeremy and I did our first 10K race last weekend. We trained for 2 whole weeks for it (!) and did pretty darned well. In fact, I got a silver metal for my efforts. Never mind that there were only 3 people in my age group. I still beat one of them!

THE END