The boy... and egg...

 

Boy and Egg

Every few minutes, he wants

to march the trail of flattened rye grass

back to the house of muttering

hens. He too could make

a bed in hay. Yesterday the egg so fresh

it felt hot in his hand and he pressed it

to his ear while the other children

laughed and ran with a ball, leaving him,

so little yet, too forgetful in games,

ready to cry if the ball brushed him,

riveted to the secret of birds

caught up inside his fist,

not ready to give it over

to the refrigerator

or the rest of the day.

 

~by  Naomi Shihab Nye~

When I first read this poem (in Reader's Digest of all places) I fell instantly in love...

...perfect description of Walter.... 

...perfect egg...

...perfect poem.... 

(near as I can tell)

Have a wonderful weekend!

His love....

He said, "Come away and be my love....

....and share this life with me."

She took his hand...

and together... 

...they explored, and believed, and shared, and loved.

He took her face in his hands....

and kissed her breath away....

until their love exploded into great, rolling waves....
of unquenchable laughter.

{You + me = love}

{Happy Anniversary}

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

(one for each year)

all papers, frames, and templates from {Sassy Designs}

Walter's First Day

He rode the bus with Daddy this morning..... his first day of preschool
No fear.... just a smile of anticipation and delight.
How quickly the fledglings wing from the nest.....

You will fly far, my little one.....
that's my big, brave boy.
(*tears*)

I ♥ Faces -- Overhead

The theme at I ♥ Faces this week is "over my head" -- a face with something overhead.
Here is a photo of silly Walter with grass clippings on his head -- does that count?

What I like most about this photo is the mini-photographer reflected in his eyes.
"Hi, Mom!"

Walter's 4th Birthday

Here's the birthday boy! He turned a wopping 4 years old last week!
Doesn't he look proud?
(we celebrated his birthday at Great-Grandma's house)

Walter was very concerned that Grandpa's fingers were going to get burned!
Then, while we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, he did a robot dance.... he he
(where do little kids learn these things?)
One of his favorite things to say is,"Everybody dance now! Na-na-na!"
What a silly boy!!!!

Making a wish.....

My wish for you my little man --
have a wild and wonderful summer,
don't ever quit telling me that you want to give me a hug,
and bottle up the fount of joy springing from your soul and spill it liberally on those around you.

I love you.

(PS--in the scrapbook image above, I made the cloud and balloons by using the custom shapes tool in PSE as clipping masks. Just learned that one from Jessica Sprague.)

A little Maternal bragging.......

Time for a little digi-scrapbook goodness, maternal bragging, life documentation
.... whatever you want to call it.....

A few weeks ago, Wyatt performed in a school musical followed by preschool graduation.
He was just a tiny bit excited..... can you tell?
The preschool boys were weeds and the preschool girls were flowers.....
As we were weeding the garden last weekend Wyatt kept asking me, "Are all weeds boys, and all flowers girls?"
I think he may have taken the musical part too literally. I'm sure he'll get it straightened out sooner or later (after I explain it to him about 14,765 times)...
Anyway, he did a really good job and had a REALLY good time!

This brought tears to my eyes ....thinking about how far he's come since his leg was burned.....
... you wouldn't even know by looking at him ....
.... dancing with his shadow in the back of the gym during Wyatt's musical......
(I could hardly watch him for fear of breaking down altogether)

Next bit of bragging..... here is Reid (and the 1st grade class) at the spring concert earlier this week.
Reid was very nervous..... he's the kind of kid that likes to plan ahead, and in this case his planning ahead was worrying about being on stage.....
(Gee, I wonder where that came from, mama?)
He even had to worry for the kid in his class that had a speaking part, "Mom, I hope he does OK."
(Reid, Reid, Reid, life is too short for such worrying -- ask me how I know....)

They sang, "You are My Sunshine", "The Crocodile", and "ABC Rock".

I love this photo -- I just wish it had been Reid's face vignetted while all the others were moving....
....Oh well, better luck next time.

Here's hoping YOU have a WONDERFUL weekend!!!!
(and that I shake this head cold..... I am SO dragging)

Potatoes

It's a good thing we planted potatoes yesterday.
Today, the average wind speed has been about 30 mph. The max wind speed has been 46mph! Ugh!!!!!
I have been trying very hard to think of one single reason to be thankful for such wind.......
.....I'm still thinking on that one.......

But yesterday was a sweet reprieve from the wind and rain.

We spent as much of yesterday outside as we could-- we all needed it.

This year we saved our own seed potatoes. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't.

It just happened that we had nice potatoes still left over that we could save.
I usually plant red, white, and yellow potatoes.
--my favorites are pontiac(red), kennebec (white), and yukon gold (yellow) --
(with some interesting links about them).
I have the best crops with these varieties. I use the red for early potatoes, red potato salads, garlic smashed potatoes, and roasted on the BBQ. The kennebecs and yukons are both good for keeping long term and for all around baking and mashing.
Nothing beats home grown potatoes.

Digging holes for potatoes and putting the "seeds" in the holes was good counting practice for Walter.
Wyatt was the "tractor" that covered up the potatoes. They were both great help.
Reid was disappointed that we planted potatoes while he was at school.
And Nona? She sat in the potato holes and gnawed on dirt clods and potatoes. Lots of help.

After the shoots emerge and get about a foot tall, Randy mounds up soil around the plants to promote potato development and to prevent sun burn on exposed potatoes.
Besides, it's much easier to dig potatoes if the are mounded up.

Keeping our fingers crossed now for some warm weather!

Unwrapping Joy

Stop.

Smell.

(en)Joy.

{Linked to Tuesdays Unwrapped}
{Go visit more gifts unwrapped today}

Blue Eyes

Yesterday we went to the park. It was 5o degrees in Lewiston -- beautiful weather for this time of year. My camera tagged along. I found some blue eyes peeking out at me. Walter's eyes have changed from blue to bluish-green with gold flecks. I think they may turn more green as he ages. Who knows?

These eyes are gorgeous. I have no idea who they belong to. A nameless boy -- nameless to me at least. He kept looking out the peep hole at me. I think he wanted his picture taken. I am not in the habit of taking pictures of other people's children without asking (friends aside). But his eyes were begging to be photographed. I snapped two quick pictures. It made him happy (it made me happy, too). Above is the original photo, no editing except my stamp. Doesn't he have beautiful eyes and skin?

Here is the picture with a little editing in Photoshop Elements 7. First I cropped the image and cloned out the piece of dog/cat hair on his hat. Then I made 2 copies of the background layer and set one copy to overlay, and the other to screen -- and adjusted each layer opacity to taste. Then I selected the blue part of his eyes and made a brightness/contrast layer. I upped the brightness and contrast just a tiny bit -- his eyes were so pretty already. Then I ran the unsharp mask, added my stamp, and resized the image. The only difference between this photo and the one below is that I blurred the heavy texture of the playground equipment just little bit with a gaussian blur -- it was bugging me.

Ah...... the wonders of Photoshop......and I'm sure I know only a tenth of it.

PS-- I bought my first photography book, The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby. He's a funny guy. I'm learning lots.

Perfect Peace

After a hard day of play group, afternoon biking and exploring, and then swim lessons..... Wyatt fell asleep before 8 PM. His expression is so peaceful. He curled up in one of the leather club chairs (with his trusty camera at his side -- a boy after my own heart) and was gone into dreamland in seconds. Swimming lessons are hard for Wyatt. He loves the lessons, but he CANNOT for the life of him float. He sinks like a rock faster than he can swim. Randy says it runs in the family. Poor boy. He has been mildly terrified of water over his head since he was little, and then not being able to float...... I think the two probably go hand in hand. So to swim lessons we go. He at least seems to be enjoying the lessons better than he did last year. But it takes a lot out of him.

This child, on the other hand.... do you like his scowl? Believe you me, that is just the tip of the innocent little iceberg baby, just the tip. Everyone at the pool last night got to see more than just the innocent little tip. He has NO FEAR when it comes to the pool. And since he cannot swim yet, that is a BAD thing. The little "tadpoles" are supposed to keep one hand on the rail of their submerged stand continually.......so that they don't end up tad-poling the bottom of the pool while the teacher is helping another child. Walter didn't listen. Walter had to sit on the edge of the pool for 5......long.......minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if he had to repeat this little scenario next week. One thing for him, he is the only tadpole that will completely submerge himself under the water, and that will gleefully jump into the pool......time and time again if he is allowed. If Wyatt's not careful, Walter may just catch up to him in swimming lessons. Poor Wyatt.

Christmas Loot part 2

More Curls

Nona's not the only one with curls. Randy has pretended not to notice that Walter's hair is getting longer. He is of the opinion that short hair is best -- and I agree, especially when it comes to Randy, Reid, and Wyatt. Randy and Reid both have thick, coarse hair that quickly gets unruly the longer it gets. Wyatt has stick straight hair that just looks shaggy the longer it gets. But Walter, now his hair looks just looks more gorgeous the longer it gets. I know that many a woman would kill to have his beautiful hair. It's a shame to keep it 1/2" long.

When it was so cold and dry earlier this month, Walter's hair was a mess. I kept wetting it down to try to get some curl back in it. I threatened to cut it -- it was so ugly with all the static electricity. Even with the humidifier running 24/7, the house was SO dry. ( Aren't you glad I didn't cut it?) So, his beautiful curls got a reprieve for now. I imagine the reprieve will not last forever, but I am enjoying it while it lasts. (Thanks Randy for looking the other way;)

Walter Faces

My chocolate faced 3 year old and "his" cap. I love his many facial expressions. These pictures were all taken in about 60 seconds. (My Grandma lives in Indiana and my parents both attended IU). Walter has been going through a developmental growth spurt lately. He has been getting himself dressed -- all by himself -- multiple times a day. He even puts his dirty clothes in the laundry *sometimes* (as opposed to his next biggest brother who *never* puts his clothes in the laundry). Walter has been spending as much time as I will allow him on our old computer (no internet) playing Jumpstart Preschool and Animal Genius. He is a little computer whiz. He also loves to dance. He and his little sister both start dancing every time I turn on some Christmas music. We like to have "dance parties" in the middle of the kitchen. Growing, learning, changing.....it is exciting to watch him grow......but just a tiny bit sad, too.

I am immensely proud of you Walter,
but I have to let you in on a little secret --
you will ALWAYS be my little snugglebug--
no matter how big you get.

3-yr-old Lunch

Nope, that's not lunch that is 3 years old, it's lunch of a 3-year-old.

Whatcha have there Walter?
Cheese.

Say cheese?
You are being silly.

Walter, silly? Never.
I love you, Walter -- silliness and all.

Talking to Molly

I am thankful for children not born to me but still dear to my heart, and for {Skype}. Did you notice my blank, titleless post earlier this morning? Well, it really wasn't mine....it was Walter's first blog post. Unbeknownst to me, he was clicking away on my computer trying to "talk to Mwally" to quote him. And somehow, he not only rearranged my desktop, but he also made an empty blog post. Good thing I wasn't browsing eBay--he might have purchased something!
Earlier this week the boys all got to talk to {Molly} via Skype and that was what Walter was trying to accomplish while he was clicking away. Skype, a free internet phone service, makes it possible for us to talk to and see Molly who is a half a world away in Abu Dhabi. There is a little time lag in conversations and we sometimes talk over each other, but still it is a wonderous thing. And did I mention it was free? So many things to be thankful for.

Walter Photos Fall 2009

Last weekend, with Randy's help, I finally finished getting pictures of the kids. It was windy and cold -- not the best for picture taking -- but at least it wasn't raining and black outside. Walter had to be bribed with M&Ms and still it was a struggle (thus the outstretched palm waiting for more chocolate). He is always on the move, so getting a clear, sharp, well composed photo was challenging to say the least. Which photo do you like the best? Grandparents, would you please put your order in? Thanks.

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