are the moments where I catch myself in the moment. LIke the other day when I came home to find this jar on my nightstand with the surprise gift from my little boys and a bedroom that smelled like a garden.

Imagine my heart ache when I came home the very next day to discover this:

This fleeting feeling of life surrounds my thoughts and my comfort comes in remembering the beauty while it lasted.

One of my favorite parts of listening to Henry’s growing vocabulary is how he takes ideas and makes connections that we as adults would never make. Like this morning we had a follow up foot appt. to his accident last week. Diagnosis: infection and needing antibiotics. He handled the hour well and so when he asked for a pineapple smoothie afterwards we said sure.

When he saw this out the window

He said “Look, a tree smoothie!”

Today families were invited to Paul’s T/K class for singing, awards, and snacks.
I love his teacher
and the principal and yes, I cried, to see my little boy with his classmates and realize that this school year went by so fast.
Besides reading, writing, and counting this year he also had his first crush (She’s a cutie!)

My friend Sarah has a daughter named Fiona who is a petit three year oldwho lovingly passed on some awesome pairs of shoes.

So suddenly our little walker has a whole shoe collection (yay!)

but I think if it had been up to her she would have been fine taking home the play kitchen with the sound of a magical boiling pot that lit up.I wish I could include the sound she made..sounded like an “ohhhh” with a chuckle.

I woke up to find I had no more chai so I made another batch, but this time I used some cinnamon a friend sent in the mail. Since it was a holiday I splurged with whip cream on top!
Baby girl has officially started to walk so we have new shoes.
She likes to play with the velcro which helps distract her from tugging at pig tails.
We also like the matching books by Eric Carle because then we make all sorts of animal sounds.
Dinner with family and a quick stop over at a friend’s house
with babies on wheels
in every direction and Henry tried to ignore the bum foot.

We have books in shelves, bins, stacks, and piles which I am fond of because books serve a multitude of purposes.
I am finding comfort and healing in the pages of a Henri Nouwen book (love him)
and also finding books that sometimes better express how I feel so that I can talk with my children about grief while Henry is learning all about the body from a book he loves.
Paul is practicing his decoding
but also his comprehensionand then using books to inspire creative play.
Joe is happy to thumb through the newest addition in our vintage book collection this one from the author Lois Lenski (She rocks) We have already started compiling our summer reading list.

We are lingering longer in pajamas and watching Mr. Rogers episodes on-linewhile Henry is mostly on the couch with frequent icing and elevating.
Joe made lemonade
while I made my friend Cara a birthday cake topper in the form of a mini banner (because I am better at crafting than baking-Thank you Whole Foods). An evening out with lady friends talking about teaching and weddings. Paul spent the morning crafting an elaborate diver costume.
He becomes insistent with his ideas, but I am always blown away by his creativity
and I redirected his frustration about a mask that wasn’t turning out like he imagined, by quickly making a “sea cave” with a blanket and tossed in treasure pieces for him to dive after.I sometimes wish real life problem solving was this easy.

Today we called with enough time to avoid urgent care and instead get a same day appointment for Henry. I raced home from work when Joe called to say Henry had hurt himself while stretching his leg out into the moving wheel of the bicycle, while wearing flip flops. When I came in the door this is how I found him.
Joe took him and said he was exceptionally patient while they x-rayed him.
Two hours later, they came back with a sprained, wrapped, ankle.
Bonus: he was given dinner on the couch so he could keep his foot elevated
and after dinner was done we gathered around to read stories
and share lollipops
and he will say he only has one leg right now. He isn’t supposed to walk, climb, run, etc. If you know our Henry, this is near impossible. He is our go, go guy.

We bought a pineapple tonight after plenty of inquiries by Henry. Repeatedly he has pointed it out at the market wondering aloud “what is that?” and “can we buy it?” Like any loving parent: we gave in.
After dinner we set it on Olivine’s tray, not realizing she was not so fond of its texture, size, or shape. Yikes! Joe whisked it away, to the cutting board, using our wonderful tool
that will slice off skin and core it in just a few twists.
All of which made Olivine calm but still serious
and I can’t forget that for all the hard work there is a reward (in liquid form).She quickly discovered the sweetness of this new fruit
or as her cousin Fiona likes to rate fruit- I think Olivine would say this was a real “elbow-licker”
and Henry would agree
while Paul’s face says it all.
Dessert is sometimes like a party and we love that.