Us

On Saturday, our little family realized that we had pretty much an entire day without anything planned. This is so rare - there are always birthday parties,  family visits, errands and chores or work and goodness-knows-what-else. Lately, our weekends have been extremely busy.

So, this past Saturday, we found ourselves with an (almost) entire day at our disposal. This was a welcome relief after a long week of work, busy travel schedules and other general craziness of life with two littles. We, naturally, took full advantage of it: and in the late afternoon we found ourselves playing legos and singing songs and reading books together. Just the four of us.

Basically, it was perfect.

Tangled hair

Daisy has long been obsessed with Rapunzel. She loves for me to tell her the original fairy tale on long walks or over breakfast. She loves the music from the Disney movie Tangled, and has all the words memorized to “When will my life begin.” She loves the animated movie. She loves any book about Rapunzel and will spend hours pouring over all the pictures. She loves to build Raunzel’s tower with her Lego’s. She loves to dress up in her “Tangled” dress and will act out scenes from the fairy tale, or imagine an entirely new story with Rapunzel as the main character.

The other day, Daisy found a long white ribbon that we had lying around the house. She asked me to tie it to her hair so that should could have Rapunzel hair. For the rest of the day, she refused to answer to her name, only answering to Rapunzel or Tangled. At the library, an older woman smiled at Daisy and admired her ribbon, and Daisy responded with a “Thank you, my name is Rapunzel.”

I guess I should go ahead and change her birth certificate and passport now.

Daisy Bell

One of my earliest memories is this song, my mom singing it to me over and over and over. We are laying in my bed and she is stroking my arm, and her voice soft and lilting, my eyes heavy, my blankie tucked under my arm.

And now, some thirty years later, I sing it to my daughters nightly, almost whispering it in their ears while they lay cuddled in my arms, their eyes heavy with sleep, their blankie or lovey tucked under the crook of their arm.

And after we read stories and we snuggle and I whisper sweet nothings in my daughters’ ears I sing Daisy, Daisy over and over and over always stopping mid-verse:

I’m half crazy all for the love of you…

Still the one

There were spontaneous weekend road trips. There were study dates. There were coffee dates. There was mini golf, sleepless nights, and lots of laughter. There were picnics on the beach. There were new jobs. There were butterflies and the skip of a heartbeat every time we kissed.

There was the threat of rain. There were ascot ties and tails and black tea-length dresses. There were yellow calla lilies and pink tulips. There was bubbly champagne. There were clicks of camera shutters and the stomp of dress shoes. There were his arms around my waist, my breath atop his lips, there was our future upon the horizon.

There are diapers and slobbery baby kisses and middle of the night snuggles. There is heartache. There is joy. There are tears. There is happiness and still lots of laughter. There are coffee dates and dinner dates and family dates. There are long lingering kisses and quick welcome home pecks on the cheek. There are muddy handprints on the walls. There is an adventure every single day.

Happy Eight Years my love. The best eight years of my life.

Ten things I love about my daughters right now

1. Every time I get Daisy dressed to go out, if I blink my eyes she strips and dresses up in a princess dress.

2. No matter what’s happening in the evening, when J walks into the door Lily drops everything to greet him with a hug.

3. We read chapter books regularly – Daisy gets one to two chapters before naptime from a book she and I read together (recently finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and starting Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon). Surprisingly, she is retaining some of the plot lines.

4. Lily really likes playing in water. And mud. And dirt. Really, anything messy.

5. Daisy has a couple dozen books and a seemingly limitless number of songs and rhymes memorized. She is constantly dragging a picture book of the shelf and “reading” it out loud – every word perfect.

6. After 13 months of reading daily to her, Lily is finally sitting still long enough to snuggle up and read a couple of picture books together. I love that snuggle time. Her favorite is Happy Birthday Mouse. She always claps when Mouse gets the cookie.

7. Daisy lives in a world all her own. Yesterday she told me a story that involved a polar bear, a dragon and a princess together on a lunar rover. She is particularly interested in Rapunzel and Thumbelina, so just about every story features someone named Rapunzel and/or Thumbelina as well.

8. Lily is a big believer in giving spontaneous kisses. It melts my heart every single time.

9. Lily’s one-year molars have finally cut through; along with four other teeth. After several rather painful weeks, I am happy to report that my sweet baby girl, who smiles and sleeps through the night, is back.

10. Yesterday, while at the checkout at Whole Foods, Daisy greeted the cashier with, “Hey Bebe, What’s Smokin’.” I just about died of mortification.

36 months

My darling monkey,

I have been pondering for days on the exact way I should begin your letter. Should I open with a tidbit about your blossoming creative imaginative play? Or a dissertation about the extraordinary intellectual leaps you are making? A list of ways in which your vocabulary is developing; for example, last week you used the word “melancholy” contextually correct. (MELANCHOLY!) Or how most people gasp when they hear you are just three after hearing how articulate, expressive and polite you are. (“What shall we do now, Momma?” or “I’m not quite ready, Momma” SHALL! QUITE!)

Or should I instead start this letter talking about your newfound love of artful self-expression? Your obsession with “writing letters.” Should I tell you about the ways your eyes light up when you see collage materials and glue on the table after naptime? Should I make jokes about your love affair with glitter? Should I tell you about the many, many afternoons you spend with a paintbrush in hand, painting picture after picture. Or perhaps, I should try and explain the sheer giddiness exuding from you when you cut the junk mail.

Maybe I should relay your love of ballet and tap. How you constantly dance around the room practicing first position and shuffle ball change as you sway your arms and move to whatever music you hear. Maybe I should discuss your obsession with all things fantasy – your fascination with your princess dresses to your constant appeals to go “mermaid watching.” Or maybe I should tell you how adorable it is seeing you mimic our daily activities – from seeing you sweep the back patio to making dinner for daddy with your play kitchen to giving your dolls a bath because they are “smelly.” Or maybe I should tell you how proud of you I was after your first swim lesson, you listened and followed directions and loved every second of being in the water, your first time without me.

Or maybe I should tell you how incredible it has been to see you grow as a loving big sister. Maybe I should tell you how much it makes my heart sing watching you love on Lily. Maybe I should tell you how you reached out and comforted her when she received her one-year vaccinations: “Sissy, it’s okay, be brave like me, I’ll hold your hand.” Your empathy astounds me.

Or maybe I should tell you how much joy it brings me to see your fascination with and connection with the outdoors. Maybe I should focus on how much I love our lazy sunny afternoons where we wander down to the green open space and watch the creek bubble by under the wooden bridge. Or how much we love to picnic, or watch your love of hiking and running and long walks develop. Or maybe I should tell you about the elaborate stories you concoct with only a single flower as your inspiration.

It’s all so amazing, so unbelievably amazing, that I cannot even begin to capture the magic of this age with you in words.

I love you more than all the stars in the sky and the water in the ocean.

Love, Momma

The BIG three

I saw this idea on Pinterest a few months ago and filed it away. You ask your child the same twenty question on their birthday every year, so you can see how they change. So today, over a picnic lunch at The Gardens at Heather Farm I fired away: 

1. What is your favorite color: pink

2. What is your favorite toy: Legos

3. What is your favorite fruit: strawberries

4. What is your favorite movie/TV show? Curious George

5. What is your favorite thing to wear: Minnie Mouse shirt & pink crocks (for the record, she does wear bottoms, I just don’t think she’s partial to anything specific)

6. What is your favorite animal: a lion

7. What is your favorite song: ABC’s & Tangled (Momma’s note: When will my life begin)

8. What is your favorite book? Pirate & Dragon books (Momma’s note: I was not expecting this, Winnie-the-Pooh or Fancy Nancy would have been my pick, but now that I think of it we have been reading an awful lot of The land of long ago and The pirate cruncher.) 

9. Who is your best friend: Annabel

10. What is your favorite breakfast: Daddy’s pancakes

11. What is your favorite lunch: peanut butter & jelly (too bad today we had cheese, crackers, granola bars and apples with peanut butter)

12. What is your favorite dinner: grilled cheese

13. What is your favorite snack: smoothies

14. What is your favorite dessert: cupcakes with sprinkles & chocolate ice cream

15. What do you sleep with at night: Blankie

16. What is your favorite thing to play outside: paint & run

17. What do you want for your birthday dinner: peas mixed with strawberries (Momma’s note: you have only eaten peas at one point in your life, when you were 9 months old, and then only freshly pureed from the farmer’s market. You have never eaten them since no matter how hard I try or how many different ways they are presented to you. So, what we will instead have are Panini sandwiches with deli ham and cheese with sweet potatoes “fries.” We will have peas as a side dish alongside strawberries, but I fully intend on being the only one who eats the peas.

18. What do you want to be when you grow up: a Mommy & a garbage truck driver

19. Where is your favorite place to go: to the library

20. What is your favorite game: chase with sissy

p.s: the birthday girl picked her outfit today, down to the mix-matched socks paired with pink crocks.