Good Papa

He may be a Mama's boy who is going to grow up and Take Me Out to Lunch but every boy needs a papa and this un's got one.

K's a great dad. Plays fort, makes waffles, changes diapers, dispenses band-aids, and tells his kids how much he loves them.

No wonder every evening holds thirty seconds of shining faces and clapping hands when the truck pulls in the drive.

Kidlets

It broke.

Today we have the screens open. The sun is shining but not beating down. There is a cool breeze. A/C is off.

Keep your fingers crossed.

There's a white bean and roasted garlic soup on the stove, the kitchen floor is clean, and the bebes are napping after a long morning of waffles, Woody the Woodpecker, hanging on the porch, playing outside, swimming in a kiddie pool, strewing said kiddie pool with zinnia petals, and eating their weight in grapes.

They fight and laugh and wrestle and hug and yell and hit and hold hands together. Caspian won't go to sleep without Annaliese in the room. Annaliese is always trying to get Baby Brudder to join into her games, for which she has a VERY specific role for him, and getting mad when he won't like down and get tucked in like her dolls.

I love these two.

I think they love each other too.

I'd like to do a photo collage thing of the last five years, but this isn't it. Our actual anniversary celebration isn't until January, when we're taking four days to ourselves somehow somewhere, but we ate steak and drank wine and had apple pie anyhow.

I'm trying to keep some herbs inside over the winter. Despite the fact it is still hundred degree summer here, I went ahead and transplanted them.

The kids have been exceptionally great. We went on an "a-venture" to Fred's the other afternoon and I got the kids new art supplies, 5 dollars and an hour's entertainment worth.

Annaliese got paints.

Caspian got crayons. He spent his time moving them from container to container and freaking out when he dropped one, but he seemed to like them.

Then he got sick and has been ill all weekend. Coughing and snotty and low-grade fever. He came out of it mid-day and hasn't stopped talking since.

He's better. Monday's coming. I can't believe we're almost into October and it's still so frickin' hot outside. That's all I got.

The Daily Grind

My mom asked me the other day about getting something at wal-Mart, and I was all like "woman, I don't leave water Valley anymore."

And it's true.

Mon-Friday: give kids breakfast, turn them over to K at 7am, arrive at store at 7:30, open at 8, work until 2:30-3, pick up kids, play/pick up house/ make dinner, K gets home, we eat, we clean up, we clean kids, we watch a show or settle down with a book or 2x a week, he leaves at 7 to work on renovation projects and I clean-clean the house-- mopping, bathrooms, etc. Sometimes we have a date if it's Friday.

Saturday: K stays home with kids and I work until 1. I walk home and we kiss and switch. He works on renovations until 7 while I hang with kids/garden if it's cool enough/etc. He comes home after kids are in bed and we chill together.

Sunday is family day. No one leaves. I get up with kids and let K sleep in a little. I usually get an hour or so to play in the garden. In the afternoon, we tend to go to the Oxford library and replenish books. We do a lot of laundry and take the garbage out and occasionally mow the lawn.

Rinse and repeat. What with the 6th day of work, I'm clocking in 42-ish hours a week at the store, alone with the children for 16, and we don't have a maid or a yardman.

Good thing I love my store. Good thing I love my kids. But 4 months in and Mama's ready for a bit of vacation.

PS Dinner Tonight

Tonight, I asked K about his day. Before he could answer, Annaliese said these exact words:

"Can I talk about my day?"

And we of course said yes. So how was her day?

"Good."

And then she picked up some grapes and said she was through talking about it.

talking kids are awesome.

Fall?

Tempting fate but man the weather is nice. We journeyed north yesterday to meet my friend Danielle in Holly Springs at the Hummingbird Migration Festival, held at a totally cool 2600-acre antebellum plantation that was deeded to the Audobon Society in the 60s and now features native plantings, bird habitats, etc.

Other than the MISLEADING "wagon ride" which turned out to be a 40-minute, glaring sunshine, cramped nature tour entirely unsuited for talkative adults and small children, it was a win. The weather helped a lot, since there was no A/C to be had.

We had fun. Kids had fun.

Until they didn't.

(bottom pics actually from lat week's pep rally, but they get the point across.)

And then we went home.

Perfect outing :) LOVE those friends who get toddler limitations and have fun anyway!

aMUSING Stories

1. No secret that I fell guilty about my love of the daycare. I love it. I do not pine at all for the year- (ish) I spent at home with each child until they started.

Friend in town recently had her second child; oldest started at Annaliese's place when he was 2 years old. This one? I saw her out and about and I asked where the baby was. "Day care," she said. "Miss Linda said he had to be six weeks old so he couldn't start until after Labor Day."

It was Tuesday. (The day after Labor Day).

Made me giggle.

2. The other grocery store here recently go a makeover. I knew this because their out-of-state painting crew came into the store to get some of Billy Ray's milk. About time, I thought; the store hasn't been freshened up in years.

But no. Not just ANY paint job, BUT

faux-brick walls with large signs and murals proclaiming "Water Valley Farmers' Market" and "Farm-Fresh Dairy" (even though they carry shrink-wrapped squash and Best Choice milk).

Faux-brick! FAUX-BRICK!

Heh.

3. Last weekend, Annaliese ran behind the swings at the state park and a kid swinging knocked her over. Totally an accident; the doesn't understand physics, he was just swinging. Whatev. This morning we were cuddling on the couch and she told me emphatically that a boy had knocked her over. "When honey?" I said. "On the swing," she replied. " I wasn't sure if she was talking about a recent incident or what, so I asked, "which boy?" And she paused and then said, "The black one."

Ok. Hmm. Kids are descriptive little beings but it's kind of interesting she said black instead of brown, number one, because he wasn't black black. We don't really talk about race. I figure I'll wait until she actually says something racist before I whip out my we-'re all-equal speech; don't want to impose the long weight of our countries' history with race on her 2-year-old observation, but still, it gave me pause.

I just said, "Oh, that was an accident," and kissed her head. She seemed affirmed by that.

And yeah, that's the end of that story.

Cuteness

Do you know how HARD it is to get two kids in the same place, not moving, smiling, so you can take a pic of the CUTIEPIE MATCHING SHIRTS I bought on sale yesterday?

Ignore the crazy photographer and the blue crayon scrawl on the mirror. Someday you will have kids and understand. Or you will die childless and well-rested.

K's gone on a brief business trip. We had a nice Labor Day weekend. We're having sweet potatos for dinner. I recently realized I weigh 800 pounds since starting the store, apologized to K for getting fat, and am doing super-fun things like foregoing cookies and running up hills. Everything's good, in other words. Work, but good.

I really love this picture.

Caspian's getting pretty close to talking. He says Mama now sometimes, as well as Daddy. Annaliese has taken up waking at the crack of dawn but these kids have me so happy to be getting multiple hours of uninterrupted sleep that I don't really care.

Hold K in your hearts and wish him home quick. Otherwise, peace be with YOU.