Floating Upstream: hump day nuggets, 10/26/11: cherish

little bits of the season in words and images from the past week, as inspired by digthischick

I left home at 7:20 am this morning and returned at 4:40 pm, which made this the longest day I have ever spent away from either of my children. As I squeezed their warm bodies into a welcome hug, then listened to their breathless stories at dinner, read books to Raya for thirty minutes before bed, and then lay next to Sava for another fifteen as he drifted off to sleep, I registered, besides utter exhaustion, only the feeling of ineffable gratitude to which Emily Rapp's essay gave voice last week. That feeling is still very much with me.

Random conversations with friends this past week reminded me how hard we all work at parenting, and left me in awe of the fierceness of our love for our children. Whether we parent them "hand-in-hand" or with "love and logic," home-school them or pay our life's savings so they can attend private schools, spoon-feed them or allow them to eat whatever they feel like eating, nudge them to learn math and reading or let them figure it out at their own pace, urge them to wallow in mud or follow them around with a clean towel, keep them away from screens or teach them how to navigate educational apps on an iPad (for more recent news on the subject, check here and here), we all mean the best and we all try our hardest. It helps to remember that "none of it is forever" and to celebrate our differences rather than agonize over them. Most importantly, it helps to seize the present and cherish the heck out of it.

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We're still getting the hang of two children and one-and-a-half jobs around here. It happens to feel right to us that our kids' need for attachment needs to be a priority in our life, and there are days when balancing that need with our jobs feels more than a bit like a crazy juggling act. I suspect all parents feel the same, whether they work one or three (or more) jobs, and while we complain on occasion that it is hard to "do it all," much of the time we are just thankful to "have it all": loving kids, jobs we enjoy, a comfortable home in a beautiful corner of the world, and friends and neighbors whom we love.

Winter has yet to arrive here, and the days open with crisp mornings, followed by some seriously genial midday sunshine. Hidden Villa overflows with the smells and tastes of summer.

It's been a challenge to get outside the last few weeks, what with sickness, busyness, and end-of-the-week exhaustion, but even an hour out in this beautiful garden makes me plunge headlong into fantasies of moving some day to a homestead in Western Montana.

Sava is thinking about it, too, and doing some research on the subject.

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Speaking of, it may be fair to say that the highlight of my week occurred two days ago when, upon pick-up, one of Sava's teachers helped him get in the car and, without any obvious provocation, said: He's such a good boy, and such a model for others, too.

You betcha this mama almost peed her pants with pride.
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Number two, on the other hand, figured out after two good days of preschool that this is not exactly the deal she thought she had signed up for, and now will not be left at school without making a scene, which means that, for the moment, she is not left alone at school. Grandpa is always there. Work in progress.

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I like her range of expressions, and the fact that she always has something to say is, for the most part, endearing.

She knows the names of every neighbor to whom she has ever been introduced, as well as the names of all neighborhood dogs, whom we see or visit daily.

The pictures above and below offer a good view of the hemangioma, which seems pretty much static at the moment. Nothing seems to have changed in the last few months, and it does not look likely that much will. If she becomes painfully self-conscious about it before school begins, more laser is probably in our future.

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Pumpkins were finally carved here and, at his insistence, Sava's pumpkin looks exactly like the "scary" pumpkin in the Trick or Treat Berenstain Bears book.

He drew the face and carved some of it himself.

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Raya's really into taking barefoot walks with her "baby Malcie" and her "pink stroller."

Sava also likes "the babies," and they are both diligent about buckling the babies up in their car seats.

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In an effort to eke out the last of the summer sun, we held a spontaneous after-school lunch at the park.

Raya is fearless on all play structures, and I still get about a dozen heart attacks during an hour-long visit to the park.

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From being the kid who would rather cry than sing in front of an audience, Sava now loves to perform, thanks to his school's daily tradition of starting the day by singing on stage in the theater. He gets to sing on Mondays and Fridays--Kindergarten and boys' day, respectively--and complains that it is boring to sit and watch the first and second graders sing on the other days. Who woulduv thunk??