Thursday, July 10, 2008

Has Your Heart Grown Fonder Yet?


Hey…

Come here often?

Oh… you do?

I guess I would know that if *I* came here a little more often, huh? You might have noticed my absence in the past couple weeks. I have spent what little free time I have working with a friend on a project of hers, dealing with the media and information and rumor control for a big funky yearly festival of sorts we both usually attend (but didn't this year). But that is winding down now, and I can now give you all the love and devotion that you all so richly deserve.

That is, between working on the photos of a wedding I photographed last weekend, shuttling my kids to appointments, planning vacations (two of them!) and just, well, maybe I will toss in a little parenting here and there as well.

Life here is busy…

Noah is winding up kindergarten. He is reading “level 6” books and they start first grade at "level 7". He can write full sentences with creative spelling, knows the cycles of evaporation and condensation and can tell you all the layers of the earth. He has seen baby chicks born, dried his own raisins, seen a couple plays, been to a couple museums, learned a few circus tricks, and how to play well with others.

Somewhat.

Ethan’s language skills are taking off and he is perhaps as big a fan of Super Mario as Noah is, and this only because he loves to watch his older brother play video games. I am doomed, I think, to a boy’s world of video games and competitions. Even though he was the twin born first, is bigger and has better language skills than Luka, he is a bit of a follower, copying things Luka does (except things that will hurt him) and saying words the way Luka says them even though he knows the proper pronunciation. He is the sweetest little guy and knows how to use his facial expressions like a master, to flirt, to sway your opinion, or show you he is sorry.

Luka, finally, is occasionally putting two words together. Yesterday he said, “more toys!”. Yeah, I AM doomed. His favorite words are “Sure!” and “k’you!!!!” which is short for “thank you”. He also likes to wag his finger at people and say, “No! no! no! no! no!” My brave boy has also become fearful of loud noises but still jumps off the back of the couch. He loves Indian food.

Michael bought a bicycle and sometimes rides to work now for exercise, although that adds to his time away from home, which has gotten longer since they added patients to his work load for the past month. Hopefully, that is going back to “normal” soon.

Me, I am looking forward to my parents and my brother’s son arriving in a little more than a week! I plan to show my nephew (who is 14 now!) a grand time, and do some relaxing. Michael has taken a couple days off during that week to spend some time being “touristy” with us. Gonna see some museums, hang at the beach, wander down into Mexico, and maybe see a play.

In late August, we are throwing the family into the ‘ole minivan and taking our first real family-of-five vacation together to Yosemite! (Yeah, it was gonna be Big Sur, but, well… that’s all on fire and stuff). We would like to become a camping family and plant our feet in nature as often as possible, but at two and a half, we aren’t ready for herding the twins while cooking over campfires. So we are getting a cabin.

One with walls.

So, that is what we are up to, and have planned for the future. I think we are all caught up now. Sorry it’s been so long.

So… ‘we good now?

2 comments:

Cindy said...

Hey, I've been wondering what you have been up to. I was just thinking I should email you and make sure everything is ok. Glad to hear you were just busy. Sounds like everything is going great. Enjoy your time with family and your vacation!

Snowbird said...

Well, hello there! I'm like Cindy. I was wondering where you were too. I thought maybe you had left town so you wouldn't be there when we arrived. :-) I LOVE the picture of the boys. The twins have gotten soooo big. Where did my babies go? Can't wait to see all three boys--and you and Michael, of course. Love you!