Remarkable

To you, my sweet children, because I know you will not always be like you are now. I will not always be your favorite (or second favorite). You will not always be so cute and wonderful.

So, to document a few things that characterize your delicious little selves at this stage in your lives:

Vera - you have totally captured my heart. Your tiny, sweet skinned, blue eyed, shocking angel white haired, enthusiastic, mosquito enticing, chipped teeth, adorable voiced, calloused feet, stunt girl self has entirely won me. I think you are amazing. I love that your tiny-ness lets me hold you lots still. You weigh exactly half as much as your brother.

You are tough as nails, of course. You barely had a choice as you early on were fighting off flying matchbox cars and invading-your-crib giant brother, bear "hugs" and tackles. But I'm noticing something else too, as of late. You try to make things more exciting and daring. When you "ride" the 40 yr. old spring suspended horse, you intentionally jump so high that your little bum and feet leave the saddle and the pegs. Yelling craziness at the same time. When you ride your brother's bike . . . and you do . . .. you stand up on the chain guard, you let go with your hands, you rock it back and forth, you lift your legs out to the side. And you have this ornery, "i don't care" giggle. And going down stairs . . . can barely talk about it. You try to walk down as I do, except that you don't engage your miniature leg muscles. I'm convinced if I let you that you would practically throw yourself down the stairs laughing until you realized it hurt. Except that your pain threshold seems to be pretty high. Note skinned knees, bee sting, and double shiner complete with forehead scrape. But when you do cry . . . Lord help me . . . your giant tears would drown anyone's hard heart.

Here's another remarkable thing about you. A few weeks back (when you were barely 15 months), you patted your tummy after breakfast and said, "boop boop". I thought to myself, "I think she just told me she needs to poop". Took you to the toilet and sure enough, you promptly squeezed and splashed and wanted off. Holy moly. 2 weeks later you are nearly doing every little poop in the toilet and we haven't hardly trained you at all. Even did your business in your fanciest dress at an outdoor wedding reception in a port-a-pottie. Gross, I know, but seriously. Thank you Jesus. What a treat.

This isn't remarkable, just funny. You used to be the shy-est of shy. Only wanted me and it was wonderful sometimes and terrible other times. But now, you have decided you have 3 mommies - maybe more, actually. The three adults you interact most with right now are all your mommies. Me, Brett and Gma Rita. There is no "daddy" or "gma", just "mommeeeeeee"

You like spicy jalapeno chips

You like to ride passenger in the motorized jeep while your brother drives you everywhere

You enjoy eating sand. Oh please will you stop? You don't ever spit it out and even try to sneak handfuls while we're not paying attention. It's terrible. Your poor teeth have taken such a beating already.

You consistently pick up small animals with a noose-like grip around their throats. All the while kissing these precious kitties. 'MMMMMMMMWAH'

You made the front page of the paper. So did your brother, earlier this summer. That's what you get for small town-we-play-outside-all-the-time.

Warrick, you have stolen my heart in a very different way. Loud laugh, loud walk, loud drama, loud loud loud. You still love people and hate to miss a social gathering. You enthusiastically contribute all sorts of bizarre and random facts in an effort to entertain and make people laugh. You are still beautifully affectionate with all kinds of people. You are reputed to have the best hugs this region and they are often requested. You still love anything with wheels. You have requested an animal party. More specifically, a goat party. Weird. You love to build things, work with gma in the garden, do eskersize, snuggle, quote movie lines. Love to ride daddy's bike, drive the motorized jeep and have unbelievable driving skills. I've watched you lace that thing between closely parked cars at top speed (it has two gears), calculating your stop time (including skid distance) to park it at the back of the garage between your bike and tractor. Impressive.

You love your sister and frequently say, "Vera's so cute!" while you make yourself smaller trying to cradle her little face in your hands and then hug/tackle her. So sweet.

You are kind of a regulator. You have a new car seat and sometimes I forget to buckle it and you always tell me, "Mom, I'm not buckled!" You also tell me how to get places, when I'm driving too slow, when I need to adjust the music, etc.....

You notice song lyrics I don't hear. Need to be vigilant on this, I think.

You also still like to throw everything.

You still think your dad is the coolest strongest fastest man alive. I love that.

Any other little kid is referred to as "my friend". I love this about you.

Going digital

I've been creating things for a long time . . . as long as my memory. However, this will be the first time to post my work - odds and ends that they are - on the world wide web.

This weekend I will be part of an artisan's event/sale with some new friends. I've been given a great opportunity to work with some women who have been creating and selling their work for much longer than I. I'm certain to learn much from them and grateful to be welcomed into their circle.

Here are some pictures of my recent ceramic series that will be in this show.