Friday, August 27, 2010

Condensed thoughts

Yesterday I wrote a long and eloquent blog post... and it disappeared. So, here is the long and short of it - I am trying harder as a mom and a wife, finishing my deadlines on time as always and mourning the early death of a coworker and friend from breast cancer. My son, when finding out where ribs came from, refused to eat them and may well be on his way to becoming a vegetarian at age four. I've finished my fun job for Scholastic, but can't reveal it till October (which is too bad cause I am very proud of it). I am working on a whole new website for myself, as well as a very fun book for Fitzhenry and Whiteside and another book about Dinosaurs. My cousin had her beautiful baby girl. The summer is almost over and for the first time in my life I did not camp. Mostly due to the fact that our little girl was too little, but we ARE doing a canoe trip in September and I can't wait. Zaley is crawling, Mo is starting to read - albeit when he doesn't think he is. I have lived through my son's very first public tantrum and came out on top - not giving in AND remaining calm. I have also learned to save what I have written.

That's it. In a nutshell. Now I am off to bowl some zombies.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Baby-wearing Nod

My husband sports a beard every winter, and used to full-time. He has always said there is the bearded man nod, a look, a glance, a tip of the head to another who understands. Well, I am now experiencing the Baby-wearing nod, the look from other mommas like me, wearing their kiddies in places that are not our typical places to be. Like, lets say - the Napanee Fair, the Demolition Derby to be exact. I saw three other mommas with their little ones asleep in slings/wraps and carriers. We all got the nod and a smile. Moms, who like me, have little boys who love things like cars and smashing. We circled the perimeter - all of us, proudly wearing and nursing our babes among the crowd.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Metamorphosis and other miracles


There are times when you just have to pause and wonder at nature...

About two weeks ago Shawn came home with a box of caterpillars, very hungry ones in fact, from the people he is building for. We have a lot of Milkweed around here, so Mo and I fed them and within 2 days they had wrapped themselves up into a chrysalis. We have been watching the whole thing with wonder... and today, the first butterfly made its appearance. I was in the kitchen getting our stuff ready to go to the pool and Mo comes running in from the back room shouting, "mom, mom, the butterfly hatched and it is BEAUTIFUL!". SO we carefully removed it from the covered box and delivered it to the garden, where it flew from Mo's hand immediately.

It was amazing.

And then, I look at my children - in five months Zaley has become her own little girl - talk about metamorphosis -

from a purple, perfectly squished newborn to this beautiful child I cannot take my eyes off of.

Then there is Mo, who, just yesterday had his own special words for bugs, who was just learning to talk and walk...

is now a full-fledged boy. He will be FIVE soon, and I cannot believe it. I am not sure where the time goes, but it does.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Five months and a paddle!!

Today Zaley is five months old, and she went for her very first paddle. It was lovely, we went to Sheffield conservation area and paddled for a bit, found some nice rocks to picnic on, saw lots of birds and ended the day with a swim. She was great - but her lifejacket did not allow for finger munching - which is necessary now since she is cutting tooth #2 as we speak, but after nursing in the canoe, and whining a bit she fell asleep.... Mo was awesome - he swam and swam at the end and did not want to leave ( a seemingly common occurrence when there is water involved these days) he was so funny trying to catch sunfish with his bare hands. And now we have no camera to capture any of these moments. You forget how much you depend on technology... I guess we will just have to remember it the old fashioned way!

I also got my five covers finished tonight - now on to book thumbs and a double page spread!