here in this moment, here in this place, here in this beautiful life
My blurb book arrived today! I love it. It even smells like a great book. I wanted to wait and see what I thought about this one before I started editing the 2007 one. Now that I have this one in my hands, I’m excited to begin again. All the time and the slight expense? So worth it. If I could afford it, I’d buy lots of copies and start handing them out on our street corner. The professional binding and printing makes this a thing of beauty despite all of my own shortcomings. I’m proud.
…and sometimes he says things like this, when Henry is trying to play with eat his play-doh:
“I don’t want a baby. I’m tired of a baby. I’m tired of his feelings.”
“Can I have more vegetables when I am finished with this dinner?”
(Him, wanting more squash and zucchini after he finished his take-out deli sandwich).
The bedtime story tonight began like this:
“When most people think of a piranha, they think of a savage, blood-thirsty fish. Can a group of piranhas really strip an injured crocodile of its skin and flesh in just a few minutes? Can they turn a human swimmer into a pile of bones in about the same amount of time? Does the scent of blood in the water send piranhas into a feeding frenzy? Yes.”
When he is excited: “WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA!”
When he is sad/tired/cranky, while following me throughout the house: “maaamaaaa maaamaaa”
When he is happily playing: “whooo whoo whoo” (like an owl) or “wooo wooo” like a siren
When he sees a dog, wants to see a dog, or wants to read a book about dogs: “woof woof”
When asking a question: “Eh? Ah?”
And multiple times throughout the day, for no apparent reasons, while strolling in the library or sitting at dinner: “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” (Phil’s description, “a screaming rattler firecracker”)
William’s nicknames for Henry:
“Baby”
“Hen-ro,” “Ten-ro,” “Men-ry,” “Pen-ry”
“Brudder”
and the kicker: “Cholesterol”
(I entered Henry in their Land of Nod birthday sweepstakes contest. You have to scroll down a little bit to see his full-size pictures).
Today was the big day.
It all started with these “vintage” placemats I found years ago at a nearby antique store. I figured I had better use them before Henry is old enough to vocalize his choice of birthday themes.
From here, the carnival theme took on a life of it’s own. I had a lot of fun with the party planning.
Thank you to everyone who helped out so much:
Ellen, for keeping the boys busy all day Friday while I got things ready, and set-up on Saturday, and for the clown cupcakes and facepainting work…My mom, for running all my errands…Sherri and Andrew, our clean-up crew…and Nathaniel for going to all the trouble of providing calliope music…(ha!)
I know it’s a lot of work for a one-year-old who won’t remember it, but we all will, and one day, we’ll tell him all about it. And also, there will be the pictures:
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| Henry’s Carnival |
William recognized me in this picture, but not Phil. He told me I looked ugly. I asked him what ugly meant and he said, “not very good.”
Today is our fifth anniversary. Phil took the day off to help get the house/yard ready for Henry’s party tomorrow. I think a weekend away is in store after summer.
After opening gifts this morning (an antique piano stool for him, a Madonna statue for me), William asked what his present for our anniversary was.
“Life,” I said.
