Home » 2012 (Page 4)
Sunday Still Life is an evolving mindfulness project; a weekly invitation to pause the busy of our days, to re-center and celebrate the beauty and depth of life. If you are leave inspired to join in, please leave a link in Erin’s comments.
She is me even when she doesn’t know it. As a child I would climb the tree in our backyard and sit there with a book on nice days. My daughter. My mirror.
1. early nights
2. giggling girls
3. frozen york peppermint patties
4. a Friday donut
5. a six year old counting out her coins to buy what she wants
6. November landscapes
7. brilliant fall leaves hanging on
8. forgiveness
9. calendar planning
10. counting my blessings
11. the tiniest of blooms
12. other people’s photography
13. a baby’s fuzzy duckhead
14. 3 sisters
15. writing time and energy coinciding
16. Soulemama’s fall posts
17. ounces lost
18. anticipation of friends and feasting
19. meeting my exercise goals
20. a quick bite with Lovey
21. moving forward post-election
…where a brave and beautiful bunch gather every week to find out what comes out when we all spend five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing ‘em over here.
Quiet is a space that lives mostly in my head right now.
It’s the pause as the children look up to ascertain how serious I am in my loud cry to, “Please be quiet, Mommy is trying to think!”
It’s the moment between my apology to the people we are with that we are not a quiet family and their confused expression moves between irritation and understanding.
It’s the middle of the night when the baby let’s go with a trickle of milk on her chin and her eyelids flutter.
It’s the warm breath turned to soft snores on my neck as I carry the Quail to her crib.
It’s the expectation in my call and responses with Zuzu. The nightly love calls before she settles her head into her pillow for slumber and then again the next morning as she turns away from me with a last wave or kiss to walk through the glass doors of school.
It’s the last syllable steadied on my tongue as I measure if the Quail needs one more word of encouragement to grip her teacher’s hand and march in to her day.
It’s my signal to look down and into the eyes of a baby who is studying the ways her family moves, loves, communicates.
It’s the between in our lives right now.
Stop.
The Meaning of Democracy
We received a letter from the Writers’ War Board the other day asking for a statement on ‘The Meaning of Democracy.’ It is presumably our duty to comply with such a request, and it is certainly our pleasure. Surely the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles, the dent in the high hat.
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is the letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of the morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is. (E.B. White, July 3, 1943)
On October 5th Zuzu turned 6 years old. The weekend before we hosted a birthday party at home per the little Miss’s request. She was, in that Zuzu way of hers, extremely specific in what she wanted in order to properly celebrate. She wanted to bounce. She wanted chocolate cake with Monkey’s on it and she wanted the monkey’s to resemble her lovey who has been her nighttime buddy since she was a wee one. The main difference was the confectioned lovies needed pink and purple bows.
Once upon a time, there was a little baby with a friend she eventually named Mo-mo. Zuzu was and still is a huge fan of her Mo-mo, which was her word for monkey. This year, as she turned 6 she announced she wanted a Mo-mo party!
She wanted a unicorn bounce house, but “settled” for a castle.
Cinderella had to sweet out the castle before her guests arrived.
and of course take it for a bounce to ensure proper fun would be had.
And a sash and special party tiara for Miss Birthday herself.
Balloons to be had (and a latte or two for mom).
Lots of our little friends came to celebrate.
everyone went home with balloons…
a bag full of candy from the “piyanta” as Zuzu still pronounces it. And note the string pull option. Somehow we just can’t bring ourselves to beat our most loved characters in celebration.
a crown, bejeweled by their own hand.
and a book! The bargain we struck was that she could invite as many kiddos as she wanted so long as she agreed to a book exchange in lieu of presents. Every child brings a wrapped book and then goes home with a new one!
of course this was once they were all properly sugared and bounced out courtesy of our favorite German Bakery- Strossners.
all in all we think it was a success! The best part of a Saturday afternoon bounce house at your home party was the fact that the bounce house owners couldn’t make it back to pick it up till Monday morning which meant a full weekend of bouncing for our family!
It was a wonderful celebration, simple, fun, full of life and laughter. Much like Zuzu herself.
To go back in time for an afternoon to hold each of my babies around the 7 week and 4 month and 7 month old mark. There was something precious and magical about those ages that even with my milk and hormone addled brain that sticks with me. If only I could experience them with a well rested brain and heart at those ages. I guess that’s what gramma-hood is for.
coffee with sun
For a quiet moment to think and read in a sunny spot with a cup of coffee and a cat in my lap. While I love and reel in the busy, busy, business of my girls. Sometimes I wish a quiet, sunny moment when I am fully awake and energized would appear.
A homeday full of baking, simmering and stirring to a well-loved Pandora station where by nightfall the foods are enjoyed. With small ones underfoot this just doesn’t happen routinely. Even if the cooking does, their little-kid appetites and unending honesty get the better of my efforts.
For words uttered in haste to never have been.
For the world to always know and love our Quail as we and it does now.
sleep
For everyone to sleep an hour longer than me, regardless of the time I wake up.
For the family I knew before these precious babies to know them as I do.
Corner view is a weekly Wednesday date hosted originally hosted by Jane, currently by Francesca. A topic is given and you can see impressions; be it in photographic or writerly in form from around the world: Jane, Dana, Bonny, Joyce, Ian, Francesca, Theresa, Cate, Kasia, Otli, Trinsch, Isabelle, Janis, Kari, jgy, Lise, Dorte, McGillicutty, Sunnymama, Ibb, Kelleyn, Ninja, Sky, RosaMaria, Juniper, Valerie, Sammi, Cole, Don, WanderChow, FlowTops, Tania, Tzivia, Kristin, Laura, Guusje, Susanna, Juana, Elsa, Nadine, Annabel
Together we raised over $600! You rock!
Almost 7 months in to life as a family of five and I find myself with more to say than time to say it. There is a reason why there are certain phrases that are labeled as “everyone says”. It’s both comforting and simply a reality; those universal truths. The most popular of which are often related to children, “Don’t Blink!” “They grow so fast!” Both of which are true and no matter how many times I tell myself this, I am continually shaking my head over where the time has gone despite my best intentions to soak it in. This littlest of the Sistred remains, sweet as the Sugarplum she is named for.
She is quick with a grin. She has the warmest of chuckles when you locate her tickle spots. She locks her gaze, raises her arms and dives into your face for a quick gum on the nose when she wants you to notice her. She sits and studies your face when you aren’t paying attention. She chortles to Barney and relaxes to Baby Einstein. She stares down the pink stuffed bear who is her same size when placed in a face-off. She plunks her toys on the ground enough to ensure a good round of calisthenics for her dinner partner. She snuggles in to your warm body when she is ready to drift off and kick, kick, kicks her pudgy little legs when you suggest she should and she whole-heartedly disagrees. She prefers to sit, stand, jump and play than to be left laying anywhere. She wants to be certain to be tucked in with her sisters wild rumpus rather than be left in a quiet spot to relax.
the sling- or her home within her home
She would rather you tuck her in to a sling and enjoy her company than be settled on the floor. But if you to intend for her to spend any amount of time on the floor, you best bring along a toy that she play with. Her little hands are busy, busy, busy these days. And along those lines, you might just hold off wearing any dangling earrings or necklaces for a while. Her long little fingers prefer to entangle themselves in anything they can find.
She sits!
Oh how we love our dear Sugarplum-
Also of note in the last month:
She grew two teeth! There was strangely, the start of a molar before either of these showed up, but then it sunk back into the gums and up came these pearls!
And she began her career as a foodie! First bites were oatmeal!
She met her Grampa!
Sunday Still Life is an evolving mindfulness project; a weekly invitation to pause the busy of our days, to re-center and celebrate the beauty and depth of life. If you are leave inspired to join in, please leave a link in Erin’s comments.
Sometimes I wonder how many times I’ll underestimate this kid before I get it right. Last week at a Halloween party she very patiently watched the big kids bob for apples tied to a tree. When they were done, she marched up and signed apple to me. Within seconds I started to say no, that it was a big kid activity as I mentally ticked off “the facts”. The apples are too high, her coordination would not allow her to bite in to the apple, the game was done…etc. But she stood her ground. In fact she did better than that. She marched over to the mom/hostess/witch and pointed to the apple tree and signed me. This good witch leaned down, plucked her up and made her way over to the tree with a fresh apple. The Quail fixed her gaze on her target and started bobbing. She can play. It’s only those of us with preconceived notions in our heads, if not our hearts that keep her from it sometimes.
1. friends
2. travel planning
3. warm babies
4. sitting babies
5. 3 year olds doing well in class
6. pictures
7. Instagram
8. insurance options
9. a well-check going well for a certain 6 year old
10. November- a month to give thanks
11. Special K Popcorn chips- my new favorite snack!
12. first report cards
13. a certain 6 year old contesting her first report card
14. IEP progress
15. a chatty little 6 month old talking up a bear her own size
16. not getting Halloweened out till after Halloween this year
17. early to bed more than once in a week
18. a few minutes to chat
19. my mothers’ laughter
20. my sister’s good idea for family time
21. holiday season upon us
Ordinary Afters... 