A Pattern of Words

When the neighbor gets a delivery with dry ice, experimentation ensues.

Exactly a year ago, I drove almost an hour away to pick up an $85 mud kitchen for E’s birthday (then realized I’d have to hide it for almost a week – that was fun). All summer long I watched as it barely got used. “You win some, you lose some,” I told myself. Then, low and behold, during the COLDEST winter months this year, I suddenly noticed the girls constantly huddling near the structure. Jars and yogurt containers started being swiped out of the recycling bin on a regular basis and cardboard got requested a lot. The nonstop, imaginative play has only revved up as the weather has warmed. They’re making mud pies, flower topped pizzas, rock cakes, and sneaking pitcher after pitcher of water across the yard (I finally had to put a stop to them filling the pitchers up in the bathroom sink – they’d leave behind dozens of muddy footprints. I resigned myself to the fact that no matter how many times I’d forbid them using the hose, it would still happen.

All that typing and I’m realizing this photograph doesn’t even include the mud kitchen itself. But suffice it to say, it’s getting used a lot and I’m very glad I decided to buy one. Birthday gifts can be so difficult. In this photograph, E and cousin R were discussing their creations as E filled up (yet another) pitcher of water to carry over to the kitchen. I think I need to buy her a water barrel.

For so long it seems like I’ve been tethered to children and suddenly I’m realizing: this is IT. This is gonna be THE summer! The summer the kids all disappear to play with neighbors for hours at a time and I won’t even know which house they’re at and THAT WILL BE SO COOL. N took her first spin all the way around the block by herself on her bike and I got nervous and dashed to the alley to see if I’d see her crossing over, but she beat me and was back at the front door before I knew it. This summer, I fully anticipate the boys regularly going to the playground on their own (about 4 blocks away) to shoot hoops and meet friends. They might even discover that the 7-11 down the block sells blue icees that only cost a few bucks and will change the color of their tongue. Today they stayed home alone while I drove to pick up groceries and dropped a package off at the post office. That felt so big. This is the summer I bet E learns to swim and possibly tries jumping off the diving board (the kids all discussed the idea in the car and she was completely open to it for the first time ever).

The anticipation and the sometimes-nervousness and the glee at seeing them so independent is real and it hurts in the best way possible.

Happy as a clam every time I let her sit and hold the chickies.

Morning stretches and yoga.

Chickies round two! This time the difference in kid interaction is startling: the big boys want to hold them all the time and I’m fairly comfortable letting them do so solo, N is a little nervous and loves them but mostly from afar, and E’s delight is over-the-top and rough – lots of reminders to be gentle and fears that I’ll find she’s killed a chick with her enthusiasm.

She’s always always hungry, so she’s my regular companion in the kitchen (or following me around the house whining “Mama, can I PLEASE eat something?” when I’m not busy cooking). Thankfully she’s also a pretty good chair-dancer and enthusiastically joins me in any kitchen dance parties.

It wasn’t warm outside – not at all. But I found these girls out on the front porch, snuggled under a heavy picnic blanket, sharing their popcorn with giggles and whispers.

Is any birthday complete without the pure sugar high of a Mamele cake and wrapping paper ending up everywhere?

Meanwhile, when nobody was looking, S snuck back to polish off everyone’s pieces of cake. Aren’t you so confident in our babysitting skills, M & G?!!

Užgavėnės – everyone got into the spirit of scaring winter away in order to welcome spring to the land! This spring in particular has felt incredibly hard and long (mentally – not weather wise) and gosh I’m ready for hot days, warm evenings, and less wind. We live in a valley and the wind is truly intense in the spring. We’ve had a table flip over a fence, a flag ripped out of our flagpole so violently that the entire flag post is now hanging limply, we frequently find random objects in our yard that got pulled out of neighbors’ yards, and my kids’ cheeks, lips, and noses have been raw for weeks.

In E’s words: “Isn’t it Easter YET!?”