Ezra made the cutest little prophet for Fall Festival at our church. My crafty daughter fashioned a giant fish from foam board last year and Thomas gave out candy from inside the belly of the big fish. This year, we borrowed the fish and Ezra played the part of Jonah. I’ll be honest, I expected …
Sleep’s Daily Miracle
“Bye bye,” repeated Ezra, waving to everyone in the room. He wasn’t leaving. He was ready for his nap. At only sixteen months, he’s adept at communicating. When he is hungry, he repeats, “Nak nak,” or he goes to the pantry and begins bringing out whatever he can reach. When he’s ready to play outside, …
Forever Changed
Ezra is one of those rare and wonderful children, at least in my experience, who can still nap after age one without ruining bedtime. He enjoys his nap time and will tell you when he’s ready for bed. He points to his room and says bye bye to everyone. Even at my house, we have …
Covered In Dust
I turned my face away as the wind gusted dust from the unusually dry red clay upward. The little rain we’ve had this fall has been quickly dried by sun and wind. Ground that was saturated in spring and early summer is now parched. We have been waiting for October to plant grass across the …
Temporary Shelters
A blanket fort still stands in my bonus room turned playroom. I am amazed it has lasted this long with four very active under fives coming and going but the weather has been quite nice lately so we have spent much of our time together outdoors. It only took a few throw pillows, a quilt, …
Hard Hearted
I asked Amelia to choose two apples from the crisper drawer. She wanted to help make apple cinnamon pancakes and she had already pulled her stool up to the kitchen counter. She turned to open the refrigerator and stopped. “Ezra can’t help,” she started. Then grinning slyly, she continued, “Tell me I’m gonna be last.” …
Coming To An End
“Do we get to have another sleepover?” Amelia asked as I tugged her pajama shirt over her head. “For sure, we will have lots more sleepovers!” I replied, misunderstanding her question. The kids and I had packed up what probably looked like half of what we own to bring the cousins to Great Wolf Lodge …
Reason To Celebrate
“Amelia learned to spell her name,” Valentina confided, proudly, as I hoisted Ezra onto my hip and took Amelia by the hand and headed to the Lolly bus. “We’ve been practicing in the car,” she continued. “I only spelled it two times for her before she could say it by herself. Tell Lolly.” We’ve learned …
Don’t You Care?
“How is it Tuesday already?” I wondered, not for the first time. I am keenly aware that we all share the same twenty-four hour days rotating around the sun but some days and weeks, some seasons just feel different. Sometimes time seems to stand still and then it flies warp speed ahead. When sharing a …
Immediately
Thomas hurriedly ate his dinner and began what my daddy calls “chomping at the bit” before my husband had filled his plate or tasted his first bite. He’d been waiting all afternoon for Poppy to get home to take him fishing. Now he half paced, half bounded around the kitchen table, before announcing, “All right, …
A Fitting Reply 