Things that make us happy

We are total groupies of this band- Rocknocerous, yesterday we went to see them play at Wolftrap, theater in the woods. Colonel Purple Turtle is Sloane and Cort's favorite song.









Riding bikes.











Here comes yummy!

creek time

This summer we have spent a lot of time in creeks. We prefer playgrounds near creeks. We never ever come home dry or clean. This is how it is: Jackson is first to scramble down rocks and in the water, Billie helps Cort. Sloane wears dresses or skirts no matter where we are going that day. Cort wears a Hibiki helmet and pajamas.

I'm Cort, I'm free!

Cort is THREE now, he says it 'Free' and connects his ring finger to his thumb in an odd way of pointing 3 fingers up to show people. He says this to random people, in an elevator, sitting at the next table in the restaurant, strangers in the pool..."I'm Tort, I'm free!"
Jackson gave him his own 'pirate ship' and he got tons of weapons, which are his favorite things. We went to the Air & Space museum and had a very happy birthday for him.

Berry cute

A fun summer day.

How on earth do you do it?

So, there are definitely times when we are moving, packing suitcases for 10 months, living in hotel-like homes, not getting too settled where we are, leaving all the comfort of what we know and wandering into new territory and I think this is just CRAZY. Seriously, what are we doing? And then we get pictures of our new house and it looks like this. And then I'm like- oh yeah, I can totally live with this.






Really, there's a lot that moving around offers us; at all times the promise of a new beginning is on the horizon. We can enjoy the time where we are knowing that we'll only be there for a limited time; we don't sweat the small stuff...it'll be gone soon enough. Crappy celing fans, cranky neighbors, bad haircuts...who cares?


Moving helps me sort through our 'stuff' and stay focused on what's really important. Each time we move I have to think about who I'll miss, what I need, what I want to change, what rituals I want to keep, and what I want to forget. It's like New Year's Resolutions but more often and more through. I have grown to love the cleansing-ness of a new beginning. I can move there and pretend I have always had dreads, I can start over as a Mom who never yells (we'll see how long that one lasts), I can set up a 'quiet room' for yoga, legos, puzzles, as I've been meaning to do for the last 2 years. It's suddenly a time to re-new.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a solid ground, a home that I considered MY OWN, with mosiacs in the kitchen that I had made. For the kids to have neighborhood friends that they play with ALL the time, to be part of a knit group that was going to keep meeting for the next 20 years. To have a spice collection or a pantry that really contained everything...

Moving isn't always easy but it's constantly exciting to wonder- what will our next home be like? Where will we be? What new people will I meet? What adventure is out there just waiting for us?

Stay tuned for my next post when I whine about all the things I just said I love: Sorting, stuff, wondering, unknowns, etc.

July

Jackson had the best birthday ever. Meeting up with tons of friends at the playground, we provided snack foods which required no plates or silverware ( twizzlers, cheese sticks, decorate-your-own-cupcake station with icing and sprinkle choices, fruit and granola bars).
We also made up a TON of yo-yo balloons- a big hit for all ages and we hid treasure stones amoung the trees and kids had to hunt for them. I made them all the day before so I just put silly bands inside and baked them at 200 degrees for maybe 20-40 min depending on how hard they felt, when the stones feel hard I take them out.
Jackson had a fantastic time and we all went to see Despicable Me the next day, a water park the day after that and yet ANOTHER water park the following day. It's been quite the fun week. Happy 8 years old!

extra ordinary

So, the thing with Jackson is that he's different. There are words like immature, Asperger's, objective-defiant disorder, genius, gifted and boy that all seem to fit him at times. Basically, I'm not interested in labels and diagnosis. I just want to deal with Jackson as the person that he is.
Today he taught Sloane to knit. Watching the show Charlie and Lola is like being with Jackson and Sloane. The other day he decided to make a list of mammals, which brings up questions like "Do Octopuses hear?" he filled three + pages.
He sometimes gets REALLY REALLY ANGRY over very minor disturbances to his things. He doesn't have control over a lot, as he's 7 and he's in a family that has to work with 5 other people and their schedules/likes/dislikes/attitudes.
He's amazingly kind and responsible and shockingly immature at times. Yesterday at the park a mom came up to me and asked "Is that older boy your son?" She wanted to tell me how kind and thoughtfully he included her younger son in a game he was playing with another kid. Today his zoology teacher told me he was incredibly smart and made great contributions to the class. This is a slice of the one and only Jackson.

Sloane's world

Sloane is 4 and a half years old. She's darling and wonderful and frequently writes me letters which say "To the best Mommy and Daddy in the world who are the best we could ever even know about having such a good mommy and daddy and I love you so much even so much more than the biggest house and even more than a tree and I think you are very, very, very great."
She draws these intricate drawings that contain lots of little parts and careful pieces all over. They are machines that can bring us pancakes and houses and people. There are letters scattered through the drawings S, L, A, B, E, N, M, W and she doesn't put them together to make her name but sometimes writes a string of letters to ask what it says.
Sloane is very mothering, always looks out for Cort.
Apricots are her favorite food and she'll eat fruit all day long if I let her.
The other day Sloane learned to pump all by herself on the swing. Jackson taught her by tying a jump rope to her swing and pulling it to swing her until she got the motion on her own. As she pumped herself up high she sang out "Jackson is my HERO."
She has been following him around and answers all his requests with "Yes, your majesty" for two weeks since.

How I spent my summer vacation

Today we cut up old t-shirts to make spy masks a la Teenage Mutant Ninja Solleys.

opps, I did it again!