Wave

Tollie waves a lot.  Like he waves at my coffee cup on the counter and at the metal rooster on top of the armoire.  He twists his hand, which looks snapped on at the wrist, so that it usually seems more like he's waving to himself, his palm open toward his own face.  He raises his whole arm high, and instead of saying "hi" he makes an "sss" sound.  Maybe it's his way of asking 'what's this?'.  Any object worth identifying gets a wave, sometimes repeatedly - the thermostat, the faucet, the pumpkin on the front porch.  More than once though, when his hand is above his head and his voice is hissing, I've thought he might be talking to his sister.
JEB

It is

It's Tuesday.   Tucker has smiled and gone to school and eaten leftover pizza and played ball and practiced writing his name and watched Wall-E and walked to the library and caught bugs and listened to marching bands.  It has been a good day.
You know how even when it looks like nothing remarkable is happening, it is?

Tot Chef

More tub pictures

We're asked often whether any of our children look like we did when we were kids.  Compare this post with the one below and decide for yourself!

 Andy and Adam, circa 1979

Jenni & Katie, circa 1981

I looked back for an image of Celia in the tub too, for the sake of comparison.  Forgive me.  I couldn't choose just one. 

Celia, early 2008

*We've updated the Current Fundraisers tab with more information about Celia's Walk 2012, and with several other easy ways you might be able to support BDSRA.

Scrubbing Backs

 and washing cracks.

Pretending

After I switched off his light this evening, Tuck said Mom, I have to tell you something. Once upon a time there was a mama. And it was you! And we went strawberry picking. And you made a strawberry cake! And then the ants took a bite and then they ate it all and then we BOOMed them away. The end.  Night, Mom!

We are in the middle of hardcore make-believe. There’s a lizard habitat in my bedroom. An upside down laundry basket, underneath which lives a teeny green lizard named Avocado, along with an empty almond jar in case he gets hungry and a sock for a beez.

I can draw the city.  See the taxi and the train under the ground?

I love how Tuck's imagination has helped me get back in touch with my own. When he brings me a stick and says it is a fish or a frog or an alligator, I can see exactly what he means.  I appreciate discussing shapes in the clouds and pretending to launch rockets and shielding myself from imaginary swords.  I appreciate this fantasy phase.  I love that he can become whomever he chooses, that he spends so much time creating complex dramas.  I love that he loves to dream, that he spreads wonder and whimsy through our world.  But before this?  I never imagined that all this play could feel like such hard work.
We have to deliver dinner, brown-bagging bean burritos and boxing up pepperoni pizza, knocking on the dining room door.  We have to let Tuck answer, presenting a palm full of coins from the kitchen junk drawer, exclaiming Fanks! I'll enjoy! before he'll sit down at the table to eat.
We have to run, RUN, around the house and then we have to run out of energy, which requires elaborate "battery changes."  For example, the green battery goes in your elbow: Hold your right arm out, let me unzip your skin. I'll throw the dead battery in the trash, did you hear it crack? I'll put the new battery in, it is green, that means go again! 
We have to find "keys" to unlock "gates" and remember passwords to travel over "bridges" just to get from one room to the next.

 I'm a friendly bear, not a ferocious bear, just a friendly one.  Hear me roar?!

I do realize that someday we may look back on this hardcore make believe stage and wish for its return, realize the energy it requires is nothing compared to whatever's ahead.  But right now?  Right now we're trying to teach Tuck how to play "Let's pretend to take a nap."  I'll close my eyes and you close your eyes and we'll be very quiet and lie very still...
JEB

real time

 1.  night out for NCH hospice

2.  "pet" grubs

3.  bake sale to benefit BDSRA

4.  big boy

 5.  ladies who lunch

6.  obligatory pre-service veggie check

7.  ready for some football

8.  Slice of Cbus

9.  new art 

10.  funnel trumpet

11.  close to the kangaroos

12.  four days away

Insta pics tell tiny stories as they happen in real time.  

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