An explorer and a "big hik-ah" at the zoo 

A very rainy Spring 

A brave man

loving to play together 

more rain coming in 

Together for Holy Week

Loving her Easter photo shoot 

We managed to get these lovely pictures of our baby girl after quite a rough couple of days recovering from grammy and grandpa's departure.  We had a lovely time with my parents, despite Ben being sick half the week, but our little four-year-old just couldn't handle it when they left again.  He bonded with them in a new way this visit, but he also had much more complex emotions about their leaving and just didn't know how to handle it.  It's beautiful to see him growing up and also painful to know he is struggling.  

We'll have another chance at this transition in a few months when Aunt Amy comes to visit.  We need a plan!  

For now, a few pictures of our grandparent visit. I was frustrated while Ben was sick that we weren't getting out to do more things with them, but Mom reminded me over and over that they were here to visit us, not for the activities. I know Ben was glad Grandpa was able to sit on the couch with him for hours on end when he had a fever.  Another advantage to lots of home time is that dad did lots of fixing around the house. He made short work of what would have been extremely expensive and/or time-consuming projects for us, and we always appreciate it!  

Stopping to smell the bluebonnets on the way out to Homestead 

These kids just brought their grandparents book
after book after book the whole week long 

Grammy extended their attention span for watercolor painting way longer
than I can do.  Great to see grammy in her element with paints.  And grandpa
in his element fixing our house.  

And we finally got to take them out to the Waco Wetlands.  

Celebrations

My Valentine.  I'm so lucky to have one who enjoys cooking and putting
together a picnic.   

I spent my birthday this year bringing the kids around to three different birthday parties.  Birthday parties for other kids.  JB was away on a men's retreat for the weekend, so it actually ended up being a great way to pass the time.  One of the parties was just a gathering at the farmer's market, which we enjoy going to anyway, so no pressure there.  Another party was a where-what-you-choose "masquerade ball" and Benjamin had it in his mind that he wanted to make a mask.  Specifically, the fish mask in the middle of the page below from "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub":   

It would have been pretty easy to shift his attention away from this project.  And I don't really do big involved crafting projects.  But why not, really?  It's not so hard to make a papier mache mask, is it?  

I'm actually very glad we took this on.  The kids both had fun with it--especially the painting and decorating part.  I had a loose plan, I let go of perfection (or even a tail that stays on!), and we all had fun.  Ben was delighted after he got over the initial fear of putting the thing on his head.   

Benjamin has also been enjoying making cards and "scenes" for people.  He makes these great little scenes and then says that they are for specific people, puts them in envelopes, and I never see them again.  So I've started taking pictures of them before they disappear.  

Here's the one for the masquerade ball.  It was so much fun to watch him delight in figuring out (more or less) the spelling of words.  The picture at the top is "The Giving Tree," by Shel Silverstein.  He looked at the pictures in the book, counted the falling apples, falling leaves, and the rocks the boy hides between and put just that number in his own picture.  I love it.  

For my birthday I asked for a scene of my very own.  What I think was at first a purple scribble turned into a map of our trip to Caddo lake last week.  On the left is our house.  The road leads around to grandmommy and granddad's house, then to our cabin in the woods, and finally to the canoe we took out on the Cypress swamp, in all of its gloomy glory at the bottom of the picture.  I think all of us people are squished in there in the swamp.    

Birthday trip to Caddo Lake

Conveniently, my birthday often happens to fall right at the beginning of Waco and Baylor's spring break.  So whatever we do for spring break doubles as birthday celebration for me.  I'd like to think this means I get an extra bit of say about our plans.  This year JB and I got to bring the kids to Caddo Lake in East Texas.  The last time we were there, we were not yet married.  I can't say I didn't know what I was getting into when I married someone who's idea of a romantic getaway is camping in a swamp!  

The point of this trip, when it comes down to it, was taking Benjamin canoeing through the swamp.  We had a few setbacks on the way including pouring rain the evening we drove out, flooding on the bayou which meant the state park wasn't renting canoes, and arriving too late and on the wrong day for any restaurants to be open for supper.  But we made the most of it all and bought Benjamin some rain boots (they light up!), rented canoes further into the swamp, and ate peanut butter and banana sandwiches for supper in our little heated cabin.    

And we got to canoe in the swamp.  Ben loved sitting in the middle, learning the rules about riding in a boat, pulling water plants from the swamp, and asking endless questions about the cypress trees and the spanish moss.  We even found a baby turtle he tried to bring back in the canoe.  We decided the turtle would be happier right there in the water.  

Without grandmommy and granddad's help, we would not have been able to do this at all of course.  They came out for the day and played with Eliza Jane while we went canoeing.  A bit of a long trip out just to babysit, but we all had a good meal together on the way home, and we hope it was worth their while.  Eliza had a great time being a "big hiker"--her face just lights up when she sees her grandparents.      

Well, I'm running on adrenaline right now waiting for a sick child to wake up again and need her mother.  Poor Eliza went down hill fast this afternoon and into the evening as she developed a considerable fever.  But I am alert and ready to go.  Some sort of extra mothering power kicks in when my children are sick, and I become hyper-responsive and attentive yet calm.  I like this response.  I know I'll be tired in a few days when it is all over, but for now, this just feels right when a child is sick.  And I have a little extra energy to write before going to bed (or not, as the case may be).  

It feels like the kids and I have been in a pretty good groove these last few weeks.  JB's knee continues to get better, but he still needs to rest more than usual and he's not ready for something like the hike the kids and I did at the wetlands last week.  Benjamin's eagerness to see the duck blinds at the wetlands  happened to coincide with my own desire to do a nature hike, so off we went. 

The  Lake Waco Wetlands are not a glamorous or spectacular display of nature but the quiet, the open, the water, the grasses, the birds...all make it a place so different from anywhere else in Waco that they feel like an escape.  Winter has a particularly barren kind of beauty out there, I have to admit, but my own appreciation of it was affirmed by the kind artist we passed on the way out who offered to show Benjamin her easel and paints.  They had a little talk about what she might paint.  

Another thing we did in earnest this week was clean.  I have just not been able to keep up with it all, but what a relief to just spend a whole morning working on the upstairs.  Benjamin knows the value of a clean room and can articulate the feeling of calm one gets being present in one.  He gets a bit frantic when his room is a mess. I know the feeling.  

As soon as the room was clean, Benjamin immediately dumped all the big blocks (above) on the floor.  At first I was annoyed. But then he started talking about his tower with a drawbridge, guarded by a cheetah and peopled with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. So much more creativity, so much less complaining in a freshly cleaned room.  I think Eliza Jane was happy too.  

But then speaking of messy...these pics represent only the beginning.  It was actually an exercise for me as much as a creative outlet for the kids.  I was consciously trying to be less controlling of Benjamin while we did this.  I set everything up for success in keeping the (washable) paint contained, but knew there was only so much I could do. Benjamin is more interested in the experience and experiment of paint than the end product.  Someday we'll look back on his Jackson Pollock phase, I'm sure.  

While Ben's painting is a bit frenetic, he often surprises me with his ability to sit down to write and draw with calm and focus.  I was so proud of him this afternoon when Eliza was lying down on the couch with her fever.  I tried to explain to him why he needed to give her space and asked him what he could do to care for Liza.  He immediately got a paper and pencil and sat down to draw her a card.  He wrote, "TOO ELIZA" and then squished the word "LUV" between the other words because he thought he should have the word love on the card.  He drew a picture of Eliza Jane ("look mommy I drew her curly hair!") and the collage turtle that he draws on everything.  And it was just so perfect that I wanted to cry.  

In recovery

We are all in recovery this month.  JB's knee surgery went well last week and his recovery seems to be going as it should.  Who could be down with such fun kids around...all the time...pulling and prodding for attention...clambering up with books...  Well, we are trying not to be down.  Grandmommy's timely visit last week helped with that for sure.  

And the kids don't stop.  Below, they are re-discovering their toys after I re-organized them in the shelves.  That seems to be another thing that Christmas is all about.  

And then there was Christmas.  A wonderful one, but I would say we do need to recover somewhat from the stimulation of lights, trees, santas everywhere all the time.  Benjamin was a santa pro by the time he came to visit at school:    

This one below seems to be the only one I got of our own house at Christmas time this year.  Hm.  

For Christmas we traveled to Sulphur Springs this year.  It seems so far away now that I'll just show a few highlights.  Eliza loved chasing Hokey the cat.   

Benjamin got a train ride through a sparkly Christmas wonderland.    

We all listened to "Twas the Night Before Chrismtas" and the nativity story.  

And the kids rocked their Christmas jammies.  

If I weren't focusing on kids and pictures I'd also need to mention Richard's delicious duck dinner, the Christmas pudding, Jeff's Christmas eve recital, the music Jeff, JB, and Sarah prepared for the midnight vigil at the Episcopal Church, Hank and Richard falling ill on Christmas day, Christmas dinner in Dallas with all of the cousins, and our last minute (and blessed) decision to head home on Christmas night rather than staying in Dallas another day.  But as it is...

One of my fondest memories from Christmas morning is Eliza's response to the stuffed koala.  Her surprise, wonder, and trepidation were the same reactions she has had with real animals.  I think to her that koala was just as real as it could be.  She recovered enough to invite koala to tea:  

The kids are both enjoying their new riding toys.  In the last few weeks Benjamin has learned a LOT about riding a pedal bike (with training wheels).  It has been amazing to see his strength and coordination blossom as he learns  to pedal and steer and brake.  

And this girl is going to be asking for a real horse just as soon as she can put the words together.  

He loves his new red bike, but still wants to learn to balance on his balance bike.  Here he is adjusting the seat on his own bike.  Because--as we celebrate and sigh over--he continues to grow.  

Fall into Christmas

I like this family photo from a wedding we attended before Thanksgiving.  At least one of us is smiling.  

The bradford pear out front has shed its colorful leaves.  

From a spontaneous hike along white rock creek some time
before Thanksgiving.  

The Christmas Place, as Benjamin calls it.  The weekend after Thanksgiving
in Sulphur springs.  This place has some magic for us.  Here's Mary Lucy giving
out the popcorn--a moment recalled frequently throughout the year.  

Santa on the other hand does not have much magic yet.
The candy canes make it worth it for the Ben.  

B loves the playground with Uncle Richard.  

And this is the strange spectacle that is
Christmas in Waco.  "Waco Wonderland" with
some sort of plastic ice skating, a mini fair, santa.  

I think those are reindeer hats.  I think I was giving a final exam
at this time and JB took them out. 

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