let the games begin

Paige and Noah have also taken to "playing" Battleship, which involves making delightful patterns across their seas and not using the boats at all.  Has anyone noticed how lame wooden pickup sticks are?  What happened to the plastic ones with the balls on the ends?!  Noah builds houses with them and Adam pounded a bunch into the ground *for me*, to "keep those naughty kitties away from your bushes!  Because I love you." He is such a nut.  I've yet to see a cat in our bushes (before or after his protection project).

Noah loves Lisa Frank stickers.  All those puppies!  He also likes to find all the dog stamps and use them each 100x.  When I asked what kind of birthday cake he wanted next week, I didn't even get to feed him ideas.  "Puppy cake!" popped into his head and out of his mouth lickety-split.

book looks

Noah loves to look at books with Seth.  We let him try sleeping out of his crib for a week, and every night he would sneak into Seth's bedroom, climb onto his bed, and want to look at his book called 1000 Things that Go.  They also love Giant Vehicles and we get it from the library often.
We went to the local rodeo a few weeks back and Paige met Miss Tennessee Rodeo, who is lovely.
Nonna had a birthday and we made her cupcakes, Paige cut her flowers, and we picked out a new popcorn popper for the peeps her to enjoy.

We've hit summer heat and other than swimming and early morning park trips, it has been lots of books, games, coloring, and movies.  Adam asks if he can ride his bike every little whipstitch, and we are close to using rock/paper/scissors to determine which sad soul has to walk him around the block. Neat info: Dustin nearly always chooses scissors.  I don't think he realizes this.

peace and rest

Seth has been reading B Cleary and his book reports are wildly entertaining.  And he never dislikes anything about a book, which I find somewhat strange, but he is a big-picture kid so maybe he can just realize the unfortunate and remember its purpose.  I love to see him read, tucked into a chair or stretched out on his bed.  And to hear him giggle and chortle and bring me marked pages with sticky notes attached that say "Read next 4 paragraphs!!!!!!!".  He delights me.

I've been thinking a lot lately about 5 summers ago when Adam was on his way.  It was what most would consider an inopportune time to pursue having a baby.  Dustin had resigned his job and was going to grad school, changing careers entirely and working without pay as an intern.  Two weeks before we knew I was pregnant, the company I worked for moved our entire department to Costa Rica and we were all laid off.  Even though we were being laid off, in an interesting twist we were required to train our replacements for 4 months in order to get severance.  So we were employed with an end date.  I was required to travel - everyone was - which was pit-in-your-stomach horrible for me to consider (I think it was 8 weeks in Costa Rica? No thank you).  Providence provided me with a perfect medical condition: Adam.  No traveling for this girl.  I was so thankful and remember rubbing my tummy and smiling.  Grow, baby, grow.

Adam arrived, of course.  And honestly, some of it seems a blur, but hand-in-hand with remembering that pregnancy is how he had medical issues starting around 10 months.  Adam's spleen was not right at all and for several hard weeks when things were being ruled out one by one, we were presented with the possibility of leukemia because of some specific tests blah blah blah.  I was (of course!) newly carrying Noah and so, so, so tired and it just...overwhelmed me.  We didn't really talk about it.  What ifs aren't our thing and I was way too scared to actually verbalize anything.  I internalize, and then I analyze.  This baby who had brought me hope and steadiness through all those changes.  And this tiny spleen, this hitch in my step, it brought me to my knees and changed me.  All I prayed for was peace and rest.  Peace with whatever comes, rest so that I can deal with it.

Adam holds my hand when we read books.  I don't know how long this phase will last and my pinkie always gets a cramp...but I love it.  I hear the echoes of those countless prayers for peace and rest when I tuck him in and kiss him goodnight.  He's healthy, but the prayer didn't change.  I don't know why it's been on my mind lately, but it is.  Peace and rest.

she's seven

 

Most of these are photos from mid May. The lettuces, cabbage, carrots, and peas are long gone.  I learned a lot and still can't manage to grow beets.  Maybe next year.  But cabbage!  It was on my 2015 Try It//Don't Buy It List (includes beets, cabbage, green beans, okra, pumpkins).  I really ran out of space, but we managed three (Seth picked the early 45-day kind that get to be the size of softballs - perfect for a meal - so they would mature quickly). Adam liked "whacking down" the romaine.  Peas are still everyone's favorite thing to grow - and eat for breakfast - though I think I prefer doing them in the Fall.
Now the garden is full of other things.  The garlic came out last week.  LG's Flower Garden is taking off and she cuts them often for our table.  She turned a sweet 7 at the end of May and was thrilled to have donuts, butterfly cake, and dinner out.  She continues to be generous and feisty, keeping me both on my toes and my knees.  Her jokes are hilariously horrible, she's crazy for animals, and she wants to go, go, go.  Love my Paigy.

beach break

They were so much fun at these ages, I can only imagine how much more fun the beach will get as our years go by. Adam wanted us to "just forget about that other house" and stay forever.