This is our third time of having the two families together and it means a lot to me. Living so far away from our parents, I love that the boys get to have these special visits so that they know what very special people they have for grandparents.

It’ll be exhausting for me, I always struggle when things go outside the norm, out of schedule and synch but it’ll be the good kind of exhaustion, the kind that leaves me happy and grateful. I’m hoping that my recent beginnings of a meditation practice will also help me to keep perspective and be more flexible.

Of course approaching a child’s birthday leaves a parent full of memories. Thinking back to the day when they were born. The time in the womb of the hospital, the craziness of that first Christmas with brand new infants, those first few months of no sleep and postpartum depression, the joys of the first year with little walkers, sign language, and talking, followed by the exploration of two year olds, and the recent year of the explosion of imagination for three year olds. As much as that first year was hard, every year since has been such a joy. We are blessed with incredibly kind, intelligent, and healthy little boys.

Logan is talking in rhymes.  They aren’t always real words, but he’s finally got the concept so he’ll go whole days where he tries to rhyme his words constantly.  It’s really funny and way cool. A couple of weeks ago he was into explaining that he understood things. He would be talking to me and then would ask, “Does such and such word mean that this and that?” I can’t remember exact examples but he seemed to be picking more abstract words and making sure he understood them correctly.

Forest is now able to build Legos or Lincoln Logs by looking at a picture and/or following complicated image steps.  Here are a couple examples of his doing so:

From December 2010

From December 2010

Of course my favorite is when he builds his own creations, but it seems like a cool developmental leap to be able to look at a picture and figure out how to copy it, especially when you can’t see all the sides and have to make assumptions. The boys have both been talking to me about those assumptions when they look at pictures recently, explaining that they understand distance and perspective.

Yesterday we did some cute Christmas crafts. The boys were really into it and did a great job of following instructions without getting frustrated (as often happens if I plan something specific, it won’t go as planned!). He wanted pictures so here you go:

From December 2010

From December 2010

From December 2010

From December 2010

From December 2010

The day before Thanksgiving and the weather is WARM. So the box guys play in the sprinkler.

Notice that the feet and the "face" do not match.

Soaked but happy little boys.

Today I’m thankful for the amazing imaginations of little ones and the ability to laugh so hard I cried.

Forest the knight encounters a box.

What is in that box?

There's a brother Logan in the box!

Logan loved his makeup and costume so much he kept running to look at himself in the mirror.

From Halloween 2010

From Halloween 2010

From Halloween 2010

From Halloween 2010

From Halloween 2010

This lack of a schedule is extremely weird and yet also liberating to me, someone who has lived and died by her schedule her whole life. I’ve thought several times about trying to create one again but find that I’m kind of enjoying my leisurely mornings of a cup of coffee while reading after breakfast and housework.

Since the weather cooled down and the boys have taken control of the schedule, the boys and I have started having regular picnic lunches at local parks. Throw a couple of peanut butter (and jelly for Logan) sandwiches and a water bottle in a small bag and away we go. Here are some recent images that I captured to share with you.  By the way… who are you?  Who reads this thing anyway?  If you don’t mind, I’d love to have you comment so that I have some kind of idea of who reads this blog, just for curiosity’s sake.

Forest ooohing and aaaahing over a particularly pretty tree in the Target’s parking lot of all places.  Kids really do remind you to stay in the moment and see what’s around you.

Forest striking a serious Fireman pose.

But there is that smile.

Speaking of smiles, here is Logan doing the traditional kid fake smile.

And then a real one.

This grin is the one that I get to enjoy regularly creeping across Logan’s face as Forest does something cute or funny.  It’s a neat experience to watch one child make the other smile.

And here is Forest and how he’s making Logan smile.

I couldn’t resist posting this cute picture that Forest took of Logan exclaiming over some ants in the tree.

And here are some beautiful fall leaves that I came across at the park.  We don’t get a whole lot of color here in Texas, not comparatively anyway, so this is a real treat and one of this photo is now my computer and iPhone screen saver as a way to capture that fall beauty.

It wasn’t excessively exhausting to do a 10 x 10 room and we were able to take time away to eat sushi with a wonderful couple last night and hold another couple of good friend’s four day old baby girl.  But at home this weekend I patched drywall, applied caulk, sanded, painted, and cleaned up spilled paint on carpet.  Having never done any of these things before, I feel an incredible sense of accomplishment and pride.

From paint

Scary first coat of the green that was more like a 1980s florescent green in the can.

From paint

Second coat of the green and it’s more of a olive with a yellow hue to it.

From paint

First coat of the blue.

From paint

The final product. Two coats of green and two coats of blue with a white stripe for definition.

From paint

With furniture back in.

From paint

Ta Da!

It doesn’t get much richer then walking through the trees, hearing the hawks cry, collecting shells from the creek, picking veggies from the garden, watching lizards and butterflies sun themselves, playing guess who made that huge hole in the path.

I started off this adventure with photos of me with the boys simply because we were hanging out together when I thought about it. So yes, these are those photos you take of yourself while holding the phone out. And I loved how they turned out.

Me and both boys

Me and Forest

Me and Logan