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Sep 25, 2012

These Kids of Mine...

This weekend Lori, Lena and I went on a winter wardrobe shopping spree for Lena at Once Upon a Child.  Love that place.  LOVE that place!  We stocked up and, honestly, over bought.  But that's okay because she needed a lot.  We found two tons of sweet dresses, which are her go-to fashion choices most days (mine too).  And two pairs of high top Chucks - one pink and one purple.  Those are my absolute favorite!

This dress is Lena's very favorite thing we bought.  She carried it around the store and calls it her "pwetty dwess".  I love that.  She's too darn sweet.


 
Meanwhile, Sam's imagination has been in creative overdrive.  Every morning he wakes up and describes what he dreamed.  Yesterday morning he told me, "Me, you, Lena, Daddy, Henry and Miles...the whole family...we were flying around on a big rainbow."  I love that he dreams fun, happy, crazy things.  Just like a kid should. 

This morning he's been playing with playdough for over an hour.  He showed me this and told me "My guys crashed landed on this planet and lost their ship!"  I said, "Oh no!  What will happen to them, Sammy?"  He answered, "It's okay Mommy, it's just pretend."  So funny. 


     

Sep 18, 2012

Rainy Days and Mondays...

"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down"...amen, Karen Carpenter.  I'm with you.  Mostly the rainy days part, but sometimes a Monday can really send me to the bottom of my barrel. 

It's the gloom. 

I cannot stand the gloom of rainy days.  Or the eternal grayness of Ohio winters.  The cloudy shadow that hangs over Columbus in the fall and winter changes me into this weird person who I just don't like.  As the years stack up behind me, the more intense it gets.  I've always been sensitive to light deprivation.  But I'm starting to wonder if I'm developing that seasonal disorder or something...

All right.  Now I sound like Woody Allen, falling deep into hypochondria.

I know rainy days are necessary.  I know that gloom makes us more appreciative of the light, literally and figuratively...spiritually.  I'm not ignorant to that.

It should come as no surprise that my mind and emotions sometimes conflict.  This is just one of those instances.  Logical or not, the fact is that sunshine makes me the me I love to be.  I'm my favorite version of myself when the sun warms my face, when I can feel its heat through the shirt on my back and the skin underneath.  Even when the weather is ice cold and a blanket of snow covers the ground and hangs from bare tree branches, if the sun is shining, I'm me.  I'm good.  I'm my naturally happy self.  But when the gloom inevitably returns, that me often retreats and the other me, the slacked-shoulder, melancholy, smiling-is-a-chore me takes her place. 

Picturing myself like that...all sullen and sad, walking around wringing my hands and grumpy...wearing my thick plastic-rimmed glasses...

My God. I am Woody Allen. 

 

Sep 12, 2012

Dancing Queen

Lena got a ballet dress and ballet slippers for her birthday.  She calls them her "pretty pwincess dwess and pwincess shoes".  They are the absolute sweetest things and she looks precious in them.  She was dancing and spinning around in them last week and I caught a few whirling shots. 

My sweet girl. 




Sep 10, 2012

Cops and Kids

We intended to go to Delaware's annual horse parade yesterday, but I'm sick and Sam's kind of sick, so we decided just to go on the first leg of our planned outing.  Westervillle's Cops and Kids day. 

It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine, cooler weather and the event was at a nice park in Westerville.  There were SWAT vans to tour, police cars and motorcycles to sit in/on, K9 unit dogs and fire dogs to pet, police and SWAT men and women to talk to, talking coast guard boats, food, blow-up slides...it was super fun.  And totally free...even the food.  You've got to love that.

The kids got police hats and tattoos and trading cards and stickers and lots of other cool stuff from the dozens of cops and SWAT guys who were there.  In Sam's words, "This is the best day ever!"








Sep 9, 2012

Sam's First Day

Sam started his second year of preschool on Thursday last week.  He picked out his new backpack and new school shoes, which he asked that I photograph.  And after a fun first parent/kid day at school, he told me "I love my school, Mommy." 

That's a great thing for a mom to hear. 

My boy is growing up so fast...