Summer Has Arrived!

Just in time for the unofficial start to summer, the hot and sunny weather has finally made an appearance. And boy are we ready to soak up every ounce of that Vitamin D! We're off to the lake to open up camp and see all the family we haven't seen in 7 1/2 long winter months. As Ethan says, "I really, really can't wait!!". Happy Memorial Day weekend!

No Sun But Still Having Fun

We are trying not to let this weather get to us. We are pretending it's spring. Let's hope Mother Nature is eventually fooled into cooperating.

Sick of indoor activities, we hit the Gray Wildlife Park Friday morning - what a fun spot! This place rescues animals who are hurt or sick, rehabilitates them, and returns them to the wild if possible. So all the animals are indigenous to Maine and very well cared for in their natural habitats. The moose was the big favorite...

followed by the bears. Of course, the wooden bear peep-through was far more exciting than the real thing.

Climbing on fences was probably the most fun of all.

And although we suited up in raingear, the clouds parted and we actually got an entire two hour dry spell while we were at the park. It's a good thing, because Mr. I-Refuse-To-Take-Precautions-That-Keep-My-Clothes-Dry (aka Mr. I-Refuse-To-Wear-My-Raingear-Unless-It-Is-Sunny) would have been even more soaked had the rains came.

The other two hour dry spell we got this weekend happened to coincide with a birthday party at an indoor bounce house place on Saturday afternoon. Fabulous! I couldn't have asked for a place I would rather be when the sun finally decided to grace us with its presence than a huge climate-controlled warehouse with no windows!

Ethan didn't seem to mind.

Because the boys clearly did not get enough animals on Friday, I took them to Smiling Hill Farm this afternoon on the way to see Daddy's tennis match. They've just had a slew of births at the farm, so we got to see lots of baby animals. Adam loved walking up to each animal and shouting right in his face "HI GOOSE!" or "HI PIG!" as loudly as possible. Thankfully, we were the only ones there. I guess people don't look outside when it's 50 and drizzly and think, "Let's go get ice cream and wander around outside for an hour!"

Ethan gave a cursory glance to the newborn animals before he revealed his true reason for being there. Here he is driving Mary Anne:

I think that the weather app on my iPhone might be broken because it just has that picture of a cloud with raindrops every single day for the next 10 days. Could it possibly be true?

Mud Season

Is it just me, or does my son look a bit like a homeless person?

"Who, me?"

A puddle-stomping mission gone awry... With a few days of rain behind us and many more forecast for this week, we decided to ignore the drizzle yesterday and go trail-walking (or "treasure-hunting", as my boys like to call it) in the back woods behind our house. Donned in boots and jackets, we went in search of puddles to stomp in. Adam quickly decided that a rain jacket was not necessary, claiming "I'm too cold" (I think he got his temperature adjectives confused), and that sitting in puddles is far more fun than stomping in them. It was hilarious to watch this part messy monkey / part neatnik wage an internal battle between wanting to get muddier and wanting to wash his hands clean. I think it's safe to say that the mud won out in the end.

Clearly, a rainy walk in the woods was not enough for my little bundles of energy, so we spent some time on the swingset when we returned. There were lots of "Watch this Mommy!" and "Take my picture doing this!" so I obliged. The boys are very proud of their growing abilities on the yard equipment - it is amazing how much farther and faster they can climb than they could last fall.

We're working on pumping and climbing independently because then, after all, Mommy can sit on the deck and read her book (if we ever get sunshine, of course) - imagine that!

The Name Game

Meet the newest members of our family:

These arrived a few weeks ago via our fantastic hand-me-down line and became instant fight-starters in our house. We don't have a lot of figurine-type toys yet, so it is fun to see the little worlds the boys create and the stories they tell with this single mom and her three kids. No, I think they are actually meant to be a teacher and her students, and they sit in an accompanying school bus (so maybe she is the bus driver and not the teacher?...details details). Anyway, the boys (well, Ethan) promptly named these four as soon as they made their presence in our house, and the names stuck immediately. From left, they are Sal, Aiden, Sophia, and Hedja. Yes...Hedja. Now I know that many of you are already used to your kids coming up with wild names for their playthings; for you, this is probably not a very interesting post. But our house has historically been very literal with our creature/doll/plaything naming. We have Horsey, Baby, Lion, Pooh, Lambie, Talking Goat, Duckie, Froggie, etc. etc. etc. So you can imagine our surprise when these four were quickly named something other than "boy", "girl", "other girl", and "teacher". The roots of the chosen names are for the most part easily traceable. Blueberries for Sal is a big hit in our house these days, so Sal was a natural choice. We have friends and cousins named Aiden, and Sophia, well that was the #1 girl's name in 2010 so I'm sure the boys have heard it a bunch. But Hedja? At first, I thought maybe Ethan and I were having a failure to communicate. "Do you mean Heather?" I asked Ethan. "No Mommy, her name is Hedja. HED-JA. Hedja. I told you already." Huh. Maybe this is another literal naming and he means "hedger", as in one who trims hedges? Highly doubtful... I'm sure Hedja is a character in some story or TV show and one day we will happen upon it and I will have an "Aha!" moment. But for now, we'll just accept Hedja for who she is - a very tall bus driver with a keen sense of style (check out that orange vest!).

Moms Rock

Happy Mother's Day! We were surprised with gorgeous weather today, and spent the morning soaking up the ocean sunshine and the salty breezes. I am loving spending the day with my little monkeys, even if they refuse to take a decent picture with their mama.

On this Mother's Day, I am sending out love and admiration to all my fellow moms, especially my own mom, my daily source of inspiration and unwavering love and support. I wish we could celebrate our special day together. But the support and inspiration doesn't end there - I am surrounded by a wonderful circle of moms who I depend on for love, companionship, advice and laughter. I celebrate them all today, and hope that they too are being pampered and appreciated as I am, and as they deserve to be. Hooray for moms!

Motherhood

When I was tucking Ethan in a few nights ago, he asked me if I was going to take a shower, as I often do right after we put the boys to bed for the night. When I told him I was, he reached up and touched my hair gently, looked at me with those big brown eyes, and said "After you shower, I want you to put your hair back just like this because you look so pretty Mommy." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry (and did a little of both in reality). I chuckled because I looked and felt anything but pretty at that moment - I had taken a run hours before and hadn't yet gotten around to showering (yes, Melissa, this still happens), my crazy hair had just been yanked out of it's haphazard bun during a raucous story hour, I didn't have a touch of make-up on... But at that moment, there were tears too - tears of joy and love, sure, but also tears of sadness and loss, grief in the knowledge that this amazing, awesome moment was fleeting.

Being a parent is such a wonderful gift for so many reasons, but the unconditional love, that unadulterated adoration that these little love machines we create constantly shower us with - that's the greatest gift of all. This adoration is strong and unwavering, even on days when it feels undeserved - when we're snappy, or we don't have enough patience, or time, or both. It's raw and awesome and powerful and sometimes even feels a bit smothering and weighty, with all the responsibility it brings with it. But I know life won't always be this way. Sure, our boys will always love us, but they won't always think we're perfect. They won't always run to us with open arms and unabashed smiles when we pick them up at school, their cheeks almost unable to contain their sweeping smiles. They won't always want to hold our hands, let us smother them with hugs and kisses and tickles. There will be a time when something exciting or challenging or scary will happen during their day and we won't be the first ones they long to tell. There will be a day when they'd rather spend time with someone else. And that, that is what slowly breaks my heart. Parents with children older than ours say that this is all for the better, that what you lose in love and affection is replaced by maturity, independence, no diapers!, pals with whom you can travel and do fun activities, and the ability to regain some piece of your own life back. Although I want to believe these wise parents, I can't help but think they are only saying these things to make themselves feel better. Because this, this right now, it can't get any better than this.

Every once in awhile (or more often than I'd like to admit), I work myself into a tizzy on this topic, panicking about how big the boys have gotten, how quickly it's all flying by, how soon they will be grown and off to college and beyond. And then I remember that they are only 4 and 2, that I need to slow down and savor these moments. I need to collect them in my heart and on paper, so I can look back years down the road and remember a time when my little boys thought their Mommy hung the moon.

And so when I took Ethan to our special "Moms and Muffins" breakfast at school this morning, I held his hand as we sat and ate our muffins together, I showered him with praise as he presented me with a yellow flower he selected just for me in a vase I will cherish forever, and I hugged him tighter when we said goodbye. And I'll keep doing all this as long as he'll let me.

Of course, having said all this, Ethan appears much more into his muffin than his mom in this picture.

Welcome Spring, So Nice of You to Finally Join Us

I won't bore you with all the yard and garden projects we accomplished this weekend (although someone else might, if you make the mistake of asking him), but suffice it to say we loved loved loved being outside the whole whole whole weekend (except for maybe a teensy weensy bit of royal wedding watching on Friday morning, which to my dismay, thrilled no one in my house. I tried many "Look boys - horses! Look boys - fighter jets! Look boys - they're kissing!" Okay - that one actually got Ethan's attention...but I digress.). We also mixed some fun in with all our hard work - two farm trips, a long-awaited and oft-rescheduled visit with the Lee clan, and family errand day. Some might argue that family errand day falls more squarely in the "work" bucket than the "fun" one, but our boys would probably disagree. I mean, what little boy doesn't love a trip to Home Depot? And getting a lollipop in exchange for getting your hair cut doesn't seem like a half bad deal either. Adam has figured out the drill there - when we were discussing our plans on Friday morning, he said "I will get a haircut for a lollipop." Pavlov's dog, that one. Anyway, you get the idea - planting, cleaning out gardens, trips to Home Depot, more trips to Home Depot, using some power tools, building some wooden structures, grilling, riding bikes around the neighborhood...basically a standard spring weekend in the 'burbs. I know - we're a thrill a minute around here, aren't we?