The Sand Box

At some point over the past 12 or so years, I mentioned to Abel that when I was growing up my family had a big tractor tire as a sandbox.

I have very fond memories of that sandbox -- losing and rediscovering Star Wars characters in its depths, no matter how grubby the middle sand was, still being able to dig into pure white sand inside the rim -- and Abel got completely hooked on the concept.

You'd be surprised, though, how hard it is to find a big, used tractor tire.

A few months ago, Abel was out at a sod farm buying some sod for our backyard hilltop sanctuary (more on that later!) and he noticed they had a handful of old tractor tires stacked in a barn. How much for one of those? he asked. Take one! they replied.

So a few days later Abel bribed a friend and his pick-up with some beer (consumed post-drive!) and brought the tire home. These are two strong guys and it was an effort for them to get it off the truck and rolled into the yard. It's one big, heavy tire!

Abel dug out a donut for the tire to sit in, put some weed cover fabric down, and filled it up with sand.

He even built this handy cover out of wood from another project:

And this little guy fell in love. The first weekend I found him laying--face down!!--in the sand. He can't get enough.

Many toys have already been lost and re-found in its depths. I wonder if, come September, there will still be clean sand to be found around the edges....



Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Touch

At the pool on Wednesday--a mid-week holiday-turned-to-survival-mode--Lucas was climbing on me, over me, nearly into me, it felt. His hands grabbing at my shoulders, my neck, my head. His legs climbing on my legs, attempting my shoulders. Climbing. Pulling. Grabbing. Slapping. Soothing.

This very tactile child was even more tactile than usual. His clamoring was needy; desperate, nearly. He and his brother had been up since 5am when we woke them, dressed them and carried them to the car. His father and I had been up until 2:30am making the emergency arrangements and woke at 4:30am to get dressed ourselves before waking our babes. Then driving Abel to the airport airport for a  6:40am flight, him running to the gate because a closed road necessitated a detour, and of course we were cutting it close anyway. No traffic at 5:30am on a holiday, right?

And so while Nathaniel and I napped at home, the six-year-old did whatever six-year-olds do when they are doing anything to avoid the long-given-up nap: TV, Legos, aimless wanderings through the house.

So that afternoon, with his dad gone to be with his sick grandfather and a group of friends telling him he wasn't in their "club" and couldn't play their pool game, and his mom's attention focused on the suddenly-too-daring-for-his-own-safety 2yo brother, Lucas took the attention he needed by force.


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Named

One of the most amazing and miraculous sounds I've ever heard was when my babies called me by name for the first time, Mama. And not the gurgle-babble of stringing two or four Ms and As together, but Mama as directed toward me.

Just before my sister, Sarah, and nephew, Sawyer, visited, Sarah mentioned to me that Sawyer calls me Mimi when they play with the photo puzzle. And so my hopes were up that he'd have a name for me in person, too.

And he did! What a feeling it is to be named, known, recognized by a baby. Mimi! he'd say as I left the room. Mimi! he'd say when he saw me in the morning. Mimi!

The funniest thing is that Nathaniel learned the word and understood it referenced me as well. And so he tried it out on a few occasions -- all with a bit of a smirk, I do believe. And then, home again after our visit, Nathaniel tried out Aimee as he stood in his crib fighting off sleep. AIMEE!! AIMEE!!

Sorry, Nathaniel, I'm thrilled to be Mimi to Sawyer and Aimee to the world, but to you I will only be Mama.



Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Much

There's a lot going on right now and there's much I need to blog about, but for now, please go over to The DC Moms and check out my latest post, I Joined a Cancer Study. It's hard to explain how I feel about it, but it's very good. I feel like I've taken a bit of control against this terrible disease, that I'm doing something about it, fighting back in a small but hopefully meaningful way.

Because we need more research.


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

Power Priorities

What a weekend! Friday evening we were hit with the craziest storm, which, thank goodness only resulted in a few downed limbs in our yard, but that we later learned was actually a microburst which caused severe damage to neighbors as close as a few hundred yards away. (The house in that picture is currently vacant, thank God!) Like most of the area we also lost power immediately following the storm.

While Nathaniel went to sleep and Abel and Lucas went for a walk to hunt for mud puddles and survey the damage, I enjoyed a quiet hour-or-so on sitting on our front stoop.

Then I got bored and hot and started wondering how long we'd be without power.

When Abel returned, I learned more about the many huge trees that had fallen and brought down power lines with them. And he announced that he'd better get out the generator.

I had COMPLETELY forgotten that we bought a generator after last year's hurricane!

Friday night it powered our sump pump (#1 priority!) and our refrigerator (#2 priority!). We spent a restless night trying to sleep in the heat and were all up very, very early Saturday morning.

And the question of the day was: would our party go on?

You see, we had planned a blowout summer bash for that afternoon, including rental of a bounce house from a mid-winter Groupon deal. But we still didn't have power. No worries, Abel was confident that since we didn't need the sump pump anymore, we'd have enough juice to run the refrigerator (new #1 priority!) and bounce house (new #2 priority!) via the generator.

And so by about 4pm we had loads of coolers full of ice and about 75 neighbors in our backyard enjoying plenty cold beverages, grilled and non-baked foods. Plus a bounce house full of joyous children.

And Karma rewarded us for forging on with the party anyway -- our power came back on about halfway through! Although some friends returned home to a lot of continued clean-up and hours (or days) more without power, we had a fabulous time with great near-by friends on Saturday. Proving once again, how grateful we are to live in such a wonderful neighborhood!


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

A new end-of-the-year tradition

Several months ago I saw a pin on Pinterest with a really neat idea and we're actually making it happen! {I very much want to give credit where it is due and I think I've traced the original post back to here.}

You see, my darling husband loves Dr. Seuss. He loves reading Dr. Seuss books and one of his favorites is Oh, the Places You'll Go! I, on the other hand, very much dislike Dr. Seuss books. I very much dislike reading Dr. Seuss books and I'm not a fan of Oh, the Places You'll Go!


Lucas follows in his dad's footsteps: he loves Dr. Seuss books and loves being read Dr. Seuss books.

So. I saw this idea, mentioned it to Abel, and told him he should make it happen.

The idea is that you purchase a copy of this book (we already owned it!) and take it into your child's teacher each year and ask them to write a note in it. Then, you present it as a gift to the child at their high school graduation, they get to look back and reminisce about all their great teachers, yada yada.

At the very end of the school year, Abel did just that. He took the book into Ms. T., Lucas's kindergarten teacher, and not only did she write a note, she wrote a very sweet and personalized poem--kinda' in the style of Dr. Seuss!

We all adore this teacher and even if we totally drop the ball for the next 12 years, I know this particular book will always have a special place in all of our hearts, even mine, which apparently doubled in size and made room for a little love for Dr. Seuss.





Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!

A Pinterest Birthday

 
I consider myself to have been an early adopter of Pinterest and, obviously, the first board I created was My Wish List board. To my delight, the few people who bought me birthday presents this year relied heavily on that board for their gift ideas.

I couldn't have been more thrilled!

My parents got me a Fitbit which I pinned after being convinced by this post by Jennifer over at Hip As I Wanna Be. I am pretty competitive by nature and since wearing the Fitbit I find myself going out of my way to walk more, take more stairs, etc. So far so good!

My fantabulous sis send me this beautiful plaque, which is even more lovely in person! I adore it and am still deciding on the perfect spot for it.

And darling Abel got me an amazing pair of designer sunglasses. When I pinned these, I will admit, I knew I'd never in a million years by them for myself. But I also knew that they were just the type of gift that Abel liked to buy for me. Even better, that particular pair was not to be found but I fell in love with another pair that was less than half the cost! And when I wear them I feel like a million bucks!

Thanks Pinterest and my wonderful family for a birthday filled with lovely material gifts -- on top, of course, of the best gifts of all: wishes and hugs from an abundance of family and friends!



Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!