A Lovely Day

Feeling the Crocus

Smelling the Snowdrops

Standing Among the Crocus

Running to the Beach

Happy at the Beach

Working in the Sand

Making a "Noodle Forest" out of old sea grasses

Ready for Mary Cassatt to Paint Her

That Big Old Moon

Baby with a Potato

We had a quiet St.Patrick's Day at our house. While Penelope napped in the afternoon, I stood in the kitchen washing potatoes with Baby on my back, and I had this overwhelming sense of normalness come over me. The whole day was like that, and it felt good. I had taken the girls to their Music Together class in the morning, and there was lots of dancing to Irish music and happiness. Then I took them to the playground and for a picnic lunch. I brought home two happy, but tired girls and put them down for a long nap. Violet has been teething and wasn't sleeping well, so I put her on my back and began to make dinner.

From where I stood at the sink, up to my elbows in potatoes, I could see the two pretty loafs of soda bread I'd made and the cupcakes cooling. Penelope has been asking when the next birthday party will be because she wants cupcakes. I thought, why do we have to have a special occasion for cupcakes, anyway? Couldn't I just make her some for no reason at all? And if there needs to be a reason I'll just color the frosting green and call them St. Patrick's cupcakes.

I felt so happy in my cozy little house, with the afternoon sun streaming in, children sleeping, Irish music playing softly. As I washed my potatoes I thought of how every woman in my family has probably stood in her kitchen, cleaning potatoes at some time or another. Many of them probably while their babies slept in the afternoon. There was just something so timeless and wonderful about the NORMAL I was living in. The whole day was really nice, but this particular moment, in the kitchen with the potatoes and sleeping baby on my back was special in a way I can't really describe.

We all went for an evening walk together, down to our little beach. Something we do all the time, but even this was magical and special. So many crocus were blooming and Penelope was overcome. "My whole world is full of flowers" she cried out, arms outstretched to illustrate just how big her world was, or how many flowers were filling it. As if they were all for her alone. And when we got to the beach everything was beautiful in the light from the setting sun. My children looked to me like children in paintings from long ago, and I wondered how many years have people been bringing their children to play at this beach in the beautiful evening light?

And oh, that moon! What a moon we have had this week. Even the same moon that has been shining on me my whole life was special. For whatever reason I have been relishing the normal, ordinary moments of life lately. And really, I guess that when everyone is healthy, when you have a safe and cozy place to call home, good food to put on your table, beautiful sunsets, amazing moon filled nights, and you are lucky enough to live with the people you love most, all those normal moments are really special, even extraordinary. There are endless bright blessing to be counted in a normal, ordinary day.

Oh, The Outfits

The Long Sleeve T-Shirt Paired With Bikini Bottom

The Pink Polka Dot Bathing Suit Bottom With Pink T-Shirt And Flip Flops

Pink Flower Hat With Gorgeous Hand Me Down Sweater From Cousin Celeste And Ever Present Tutu Skirt

My Little Fashionista

Annoyed With Me For Taking Her Picture

Spring Dress With T-Shirt Underneath And Tights, Tinker Bell Sunglasses, Purple Rose Headband, And Mardi Gras Beads

Penelope The Movie Star And Violet the Strawberry

My Personal Favorite, Last Night's Pajamas With Bathing Suit Bottom Over Them, Yes she slept like this.

Some very interesting clothing combinations have been happening around here. Most of them amuse me to no end, I love it that she is thinking about how her clothes look and trying different things on. She comes out of her room with a smile, already knowing she looks divine, and asks "how do I look?". And the happy bonus to all this, I have discovered, is that her vocabulary is expanding to include many new adjectives. Such as, divine, spectacular, amazing, stunning, enchanting, marvelous. And she is all of these things, with the outfits or without. She is one of the most divine, spectacular, amazing, stunning, enchanting, and marvelous people in the world, in my humble opinion.

Has Spring Sprung?

Starting Seeds

Trying on Bathing Suits

Not Entirely Sure About Swings

Pen Rocking the Eccentric Bag Lady Look

So Happy To Tire Swing Again!

Slide

Little Miss Sunshine

Splash!



Happiness



Stuffed In The Stroller AGAIN While Pen Runs Around

Could it be? Has spring begun? Maybe, I am hesitant to say so, I don't want to jinx us all, but I think it may be true. We have been able to get out for a nice walk for a couple days now, which has made such a huge difference in our collective sanety. Penelope was happy to try out her new raincoat and boots today, and I didn't mind the rain because it was warm enough to be out and not freezing. The birds are singing, we have seen crocus and snowdrops and the daffodils are growing taller. And just today we spied pussy willow. Hurray for that happy, little, soft and furry bud. How can you not be glad to see it's return!

I'm afraid to get too excited, but I am, really I am! It's been a long, hard winter. We will enjoy this spring as much as we can. Oh, will we ever!

A Trip To The E.R. = A Lucky Day

24 hours after the stitches. Children heal so fast!

Dancing with Charles.

Grooving to the 80's music.

I was on my way home with my brother Charles to celebrate his birthday when the phone rang. All Steve said was "Pen hurt herself. Come straight home." That horrible feeling you get when someone you love is hurt is somehow magnified in a particularly sickening way when it is your baby that is hurt. And when you are not with her it verges on panic. " If it was an emergency he would have called an ambulance, not me" I kept telling myself as I raced home.

When I got in the house there was quite a lot of blood. Penelope was crying and shaking, whether it was because she was in pain, scared, or cold ( Steve had taken off her princess dress because it was saturated in blood and she was only wearing underwear) I didn't know. I held her and tried to get a good look at her face. She'd fallen on a toy. One of Violet's toys, not even a sharp toy. It had gone nearly through her face, just above her lip. And on the inside of her mouth her tooth had done a nasty job so it was hard to tell with all the blood if the wound went all the way through or not. We decided to go to the hospital. She cried even harder at the thought of no party and the terror of the hospital and the possibility of stitches. We dropped Charles off at his house on our way, he was a good sport about it, and headed to Hasbro.

We were amazed at how quickly they brought us in, even before we were registered she'd been looked at by several people. We were brought into our own room and then the waiting began. We were all so hungry, having not eaten since lunch, and Pen wasn't allowed to eat before she got her stitches so we waited and waited. We'd brought Charlotte's Web, which we are reading, and the staff provided Pen with lots of new crayons and pictures to color, but it was hours and hours of waiting until the Dr. came in. It was noisy in there. There were so many crying babies and children and they cried the whole time. And in the room next to us was a young girl, maybe 14 or 15 years old. She was very distressed. She'd hurt herself somehow, there was a guard at her door and she kept saying nobody loved her, nobody cared about her. It broke my heart. I have no idea where her mother was, or what her story was at all, but it was clear that she needed a mother there, holding her and loving her and telling her it was all going to be fine and she didn't have that and it was heartbreaking to listen to.

When the Dr. finally came in we'd been there for 5 hours. Penelope was wrapped in a sheet, like how one wraps a cat before administering it a pill or clipping it's toe nails. This terrified her, but she was so very brave. I held her down on one side while somebody else held her head and the Dr. stood on her other side and sewed her back together. We were really only there just in case because Penelope held herself very still. She began to cry a little as he stitched her up, but she didn't move. The Dr. told her she wasn't a baby and not to cry and it took all of myself control not to punch him in the face and scream at him "it's four hours past her bedtime, she's been in a lot of pain for a long time now, and your effing sewing up her face right before her very eyes asshole! Why shouldn't she cry!!!" But instead I kept telling Pen what a good job she was doing, how we were almost done and then we'd go get something to eat and go home. To make matters worse, for Pen anyway, is that Hasbro is a teaching hospital and he had 3 students from Brown observing, so each stitch was done slowly so the students could see what he was doing. The good news is that if  I'm ever stuck on an island and someone needs stitches, I now believe I would feel confident doing the procedure if necessary. Not that I ever want to.

So finally, we left the hospital with our newly stitched up little girl. We headed to Whole Foods for something quick to eat as we were all starving, exhausted and emotionally drained. As we passed the floral dept. Penelope found a broken rose on the ground. It was pretty, and smelled divine, but only had 2 inches of stem. "Oh, this must be my lucky day" she said, beaming. Well, beaming with the side of her face that wasn't a puffy, swollen, bloody mess. I laughed, at the time thinking how sweet she was to think that after all of the horribleness it was her lucky day, but upon further consideration I realized she was completely right. Of course it was her lucky day. She could have fallen on something worse than a baby toy. She could have gotten her eye instead of above her lip.She was in the hospital for a while, got sewn back together and went home with her family. She wasn't in there crying nonstop like so many other children were. She wasn't lying in her room alone feeling that nobody loved or cared about her like the teenage girl next to us, I don't think she's thought for a second of her life that she was unloved or unwanted. Yes, she was right. Of course she was, it was her lucky day indeed.

And today Charles came over for his party, and seeing as today is his actual birthday it was better anyway. And I really amazed myself by managing to get every single blood stain out of her princess dress so she could wear it while she danced with her uncle to his "new" vintage 80's records that she and I had picked out for him together.

Happy Baby

From Penelope's Mouth

"There is something strange in my throat, that's why my voice sounds so deep and awkward." - Penelope, about the frog in her throat due to her cold.

Baby's First Sign!

Violet has mastered her first sign! She has been consistently using the sign for milk to tell me when she wants to nurse. This sure beats the heck out of her past technique of head butting me right in the chest when she was hungry. It is so cute I can't stand it! It is so nice to be able to teach a very little baby how to"talk" so the rest of her family can help her get her needs met. The cutest part is when she is full she gives me a drooly, milky, toothless smile and signs "milk". It's like she's saying "thanks for the snack Mom".