Monthly Archives: May 2012

seven months

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Phoebe Jane is seven months old! That means she’s closer to one than she is to being an infant. Oh my! She is almost sitting up on her own and is really into grabbing everything. She likes to move around on the wood floor by lying on her back and pushing her feet against the floor and gliding around. She loves to have her feet played with and she’s crazy about her sister. Nothing brings her more joy than being silly with Wren. Wren loves to call her “little marshmallow,” “little topato (potato),” “Phoebs,” and most recently,”Phoebester.”

Chris keeps saying, “oh don’t grow up yet little baby. Please stay a baby forever!” And Wren gets really mad. “No! I want her to grow up so she can do everything I can do and we can play together.” I can see both sides…

Happy 3rd Birthday, Wren Sabina!

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We celebrated Wren’s 3rd birthday at her favorite park last weekend with a “turquoise” party. Her first birthday featured orange and pink and her second featured purple. I wonder what next year will bring? 4, what?! Yikes.

There was ample sunshine after a long morning of heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightening. Phew. Lots of smiles from the little birdie amidst her buddies – she just loves a party! And no meltdowns. She’s becoming such a big girl.

We had fun making this number “three” pinata for the party after Wren kept seeing a Dora pinata at the store. She really wanted one and I really didn’t want one… I tried to tell her, “but Wren, you wouldn’t want to hit Dora, would you?” To which she looked at me, exasperated: “Mama, it’s not really Dora. It’s a Dora PINATA.” Duh. We got her involved in making it and Dora was forgotten. For now.

More on the pinata making process soon. Stay tuned!

Oh little birdie, we love you so much. Happy birthday!

three is fun

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My little baby birdie turned three this week. Crazy! As it turns out, being three is a blast. More insights later – looking forward to a fun rainbow! strawberry! “turquoise!”party for the little birdie this weekend. Enjoy some recent pics. Do you wish you could be three again? Aah, the simple things…

Being three is also very exhausting. And not just for the Mama!

Happy 3rd Birthday, my lovely little lady!

Triple Falls

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Another highlight from our trip to North Carolina was a balmy evening spent at Triple Falls. Apparently, part of “The Hunger Games” was filmed here, as well as “The Last of the Mohicans” so it’s been drawing quite a few tourists although it wasn’t busy when we were there. I can easily see why. It’s incredibly beautiful; I could only imagine just how much more stunning it was a couple weeks earlier with the forest of rhododendron in bloom. Although I was sorry to have missed the rhododendron, it was so nice to take a little hike and be rewarded with a misty spectacle at the top. Even Phoebe squealed and kicked when we were in the mist. And Wren had a blast playing on the slippery rocks and giving me constant heart attacks as there is nothing between your quick child and the falls. Fencing? Ha.

slow gardening

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You know about the Slow Food movement, well I’m here to tell you that there’s another movement in the works: Slow Gardening. We’ve made minor progress with our garden and we good some new plants from a indoor plant store this year and everything has taken seemingly for-ev-er to get done. Let’s just say that this Mama is (finally!) understanding that everything naturally slows down with little ones underfoot and in arms. And this is OK. And this is OK. And this is OK. Although it was 90 and humid this weekend (what, northern Michigan?!), it’s still been freezing a bit early in the mornings so that has helped me to find some contentment with feeling behind with my gardening work. I’ve seen neighbors covering up their seedlings at night and I’m thankful I don’t have one more “baby” to snuggly tuck in at night.

Plus my gardening helpers are really cute with their sweaty, dusty little heads so I’ve got that going for me…

And really, I just looked back at last year and we had also JUST planted the majority of the seeds this very same week. Sigh of relief! Phew.

strawberry picking

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I hadn’t even thought about strawberry picking when I envisioned our trip to North Carolina last month. But I kept seeing fresh strawberries on just about every corner as we were driving around the Hendersonville/Asheville area. I jumped online to Pick Your Own, a great resource for finding local farms in your area that allow you to pick your own fruit and vegetables. Sure enough, there was a family-friendly farm only about fifteen minutes from my Dad’s house near Hendersonville. Fun! So one very hot and sweaty afternoon we headed to the strawberry farm to get some of our own. So gratifying to find those red jewels under their lush green canopy.

Strawberries are my favorite fruit (and probably Wren’s too) so we were in heaven while strawberry picking. There really isn’t much more wonderful than picking strawberries in the late afternoon and enjoying a fresh, real strawberry shortcake a couple hours later. And then a big bowl of strawberries and fresh cream the next day. Strawberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner, yes, please and thank you.

Bonus: we returned home to northern Michigan and realized that our own strawberry plants will bring us another round of strawberry heaven. And soon! They are looking really good this year. Something about this weekend’s 90 and sunny catapulted us right into the middle of summer…

Happy Mother’s Day!

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So blessed and grateful to mother these two lovely, full-of-wonder little ladies. My little loves. It truly is the most simultaneously difficult and gratifying work I’ve done. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Mamas out there. Keep on, keepin’ on making the world go ’round. XO