Beautiful Boy; Blue Sky

"Move over so I can get in" and my little boy climbed into the hammock with me just as he does in the middle of every night climb into our bed. We snuggled together; I looked up into the trees and saw a beautiful Autumn sky.
A bright spot in dark November.
A warm day after a series of cold ones.
I know which side of those trees is ours. It's clear from this angle. Our branches hang heavy over us, our neighbors side is shaved to the trunk.
We hear the whispering leaves rise and fall around us. Max hugs my neck and climbs over me. The hammock is a toy, a game, a momentary thrill. He tosses, and rolls. He almost falls out. He squeals and hides, and poses for me.
I take a picture of this beautiful boy.

Last Day of Soccer

Impressive how some of these girl's play now. Intentionally competitive. Amira's last day of soccer for the season, and maybe forever, was this morning. Despite enjoying the time with her friends and being an excellent runner...this is not her passion. Perhaps after winter she'll feel differently.

August in New England

Walks, hikes, drives. We camped in the White Mountains, first time as a family. It poured, soaking us through the walls of the tent. The brook next to the campsite became a raging river, the noise making it hard to sleep the night after the rain. The top of Mount Washington is other worldly, cold and windy not accurately depicting what it's like to stand on top of the world in a cloud dressed for summer. Amira and Adrian braved the weather, Max and I jumped back in the car. The kids caught fish, and fed birds from their palms. We spotted turtles, but missed seeing moose. Around home, we grew better vegetables and flowers than last year. The sun scorched the plants for a few weeks, but they survived, some barely, some incredibly. No more training wheels. Max lives in goggles, jumping from the pool, to the beach, to the bathtub. Batman persists. Amira runs back and forth between our house and her friend's. Family visits. Birthday parties. And now we are in September. A couple of the best weeks of the year happen this month, a sweet way to part with summer.

Green & Gold

Light is glittering this season. There is the golden light on the fading green leaves, and also some incredibly bright moons - Our whole house was lit up the other night!  This is incredibly helpful to the little one in my house who likes to wake in the middle of the night and find his way to my bed. We've been good about keeping up our adventures, and the little one is starting to draw on paper and not just his skin (and tongue!). And we are having fun! Routine can remove pressure, so we are diligently keeping to our commitment. But really, it's been much easier doing activities with the kids these days. They can walk, and communicate, and amuse themselves to some extent. They can follow direction. This fall has really been a time to see they are not little babies anymore. They are little kids - and that baby phase is fading away. By no means is it totally gone - we've still got diapers in the house- but its clear how soon it's going.

Carefree

I cut Max's hair. He has refused this all summer, and his hair has been getting long, with adorable wheat colored curls. Lately, he has been tilting his head up to see past the hair in his eyes, so a trim seemed in order. Friday night, when he was trying to not have his hair brushed, I said "Max let's cut your hair" assuming he would as usual say "no thank you". But he agreed, and climbed up on the sink like he remembered the last time we did this -months ago. I cut an inch or two of his lovely locks off. Amira applauded his hair cut, and he was proud to show her, bending all the way over so she could get a good look at the top of his head. However, I am having a bit of trouble getting used to the new do. Maybe Max is just a long hair kind of guy. Maybe I shouldn't have intervened and cropped his carefree style. That said, I can see his eyes much clearer now, and he is just adorable.

Summertime *Not* in the City

This summer, we "staycationed" for more time than Adrian and I maybe ever have. Having moved out of the city last year, we decided to explore our surroundings. This is as good a vacation as any to the kiddos - Amira now referring to any day off as a "vacation". And we started our own adventures & art, bringing drawing materials on hikes with us, and stopping with the kids to picnic, draw, and enjoy the outdoors. I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed having some simple family time, to take the time to do what we want. And in truth, we even took some time to ride the train into the city - and that was a blast too!

Today.

 

A year ago.

A year ago, while Adrian repaired a door frame, I took the kids to King's beach for the first time. Since then we have visited six local beaches. Today -after Amira's preschool graduation!!!-we took a walk at Marblehead's Devereux Beach. Looking forward to visiting many more beaches this year!