Saturday, June 30, 2012

only at the beach


There is a reason I've only posted pictures from our latest beach trip. And, I think as I addressed shortly after G-love's birth, there is a reason all children after the first born have fewer pictures. They are the same reason. It is not because the subsequent children are loved less or ignored or forgotten.

It is because life is too busy if you are not loving less or ignoring or forgetting your subsequent children.

For example: In the last 24 hours there have been some potentially gorgeous shots I could've taken of my children. There were also at least 4 moments (one per child) that would've been great to have had some record stored somewhere on some electric gizmo that I am still dependent, by lack of sleep and time to learn otherwise, on Big M to download or transfer or store or whatever it is that you do with such records of your children.
 
But instead, one or more of the following has happened :
1) My hands have been too sticky with peanut butter, or peaches or spit up or boogers to pick up a camera.
2) One or more of the other children have been too sad or angry or tearful or hurtful to cast aside to take a picture.
3) I have been too tired.
4) 3/4 of the children are fully aware of the power of their opposable thumbs and have wandered off with the required gizmo needed to record their growing selves. With this one, it is also most likely that they have taken a bizarre series of pictures of say, close-ups of their tonsils and armpits and sweaty hairlines or the peanut butter, peaches or boogars in which I was recently covered.

So. You only get beach shots. That is the only time I've not had any of the four above reasons occur in a very long while. The pictures are still questionable at best. But they are pictures and slime free at that....Posted by Picasa

Sunday, June 24, 2012

head on

I have a newborn in my arms most of the day. This state of affairs causes me to have not much else to do but stare not only at my newborn but also at my three older children having lots and lots of fun with me on the sidelines. So, I've decided to enter them in a pretty kid/pretty baby contest as staring at them without much sleep makes me sure that they are pretty dang adorable. We won't win. Not because I am defeatest, but because of the entry requirements. The entry requirements are that the child look the camera face forward and not be a professional photo. Yah, right. The most interesting kids - like mine - and the most photogenic kids - like mine are also the most active of kids - like mine.Sure, I will admit to my personal bias. I mean, I am their mum. But bias aside, they REQUIRE PROFESSIONAL INTERVENTION on most matters and especially if you wish to capture a head on photo. My kids never do anything head on. Ever. They have conversations walking away from me. They argue with me looking down from treetops. They eat and even sleep whilst moving continually. That's why you only get photos of the Slumbering Tulip. She is the only one still long enough to get a reasonable photo and even then it isn't head on nor is she slumbering at an hour that would be helpful to my own sonorous wants. sigh.
  
 
 
 

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Monday, June 18, 2012

Tulip

The best part about having a newborn is the daily reminder that at my core, I really need not prove anything to be loved. For example, Tulip doesn't tell a good joke. She soils my ill-fitting machine washable clothes daily if not hourly or even more frequently. She cries often and moans about her needs at incredibly inopportune times. She interrupts good conversations and my sleep. The list continues, but I don't mind. I really don't mind. She need not prove a darn thing or bring anything else to the table to be loved. All she needs to do is snuggle in and let me care for her. Enjoy the pics. The world is this small so very rarely...

 
 
 
 
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Saturday, June 16, 2012

but first...

I know, I know...you want pictures of Tulip. But really, I just can't give you a photo or two until I tell you that there is no way - absolutely no way - we could have the family that we do without Little M.



Saturday, June 9, 2012

How to Celebrate a Life


Today is G-Love's 5th birthday and I am stuck.

G has always loved anything to do with a slumber. She loves bath time because it comes before a slumber. She loves jammies because she wears them to slumber. For five years, I have wondered what G loves besides ART and HER OLDEST BROTHER and I am just realizing as I write this that she also loves ANYTHING TO DO WITH SLEEPING. 

Today she had a tantrum of lightning and thunder proportions. Truly, teeth barred, tears dripping, snot dribbling and drool drooling, she would've called forth the power of the heavens if she just hadn't been so out of sorts. I learned way back, back even before there was Little M and when I only worked with littles, what wise farmers and weathermen already know: It is better to let storms blow their course than waste energy trying to abate them. Thus, we are at home - Tulip and G-Love and I - whilst Big M and her brothers and a family friend are off on a hike in the gorgeous Forest Park. 

At first, I chastised myself for my "really great parenting." It seemed logical with a tantrum of this magnitude even on a birthday, to lay out the clear consequences for G-Love: "If you cannot sit in the back seat without biting and screaming and crying and kicking then you cannot go on a birthday hike." But then I was stuck. Stuck on my sofa at home without a remote and with a baby and a G-love and a laptop on my lap. "IT IS BORING AT HOME" screeched G aloud as well as my inner unvoiced voice. "Great! Parenting yourself into a corner and then left with only watching tears and spit-up to dry on my sofa," I muttered.

There was only the mercurial Oregon-in-June weather to watch. Rain, sun, a warm breeze, hail, and a thunderstorm have all visited as my daughters fell asleep on my lap. Tulip snored and burped like an old and unaware man. G-Love drifted and twitched her tantrum-prone self away in afternoon dreams. I felt badly for her:  I am a consistent parent, probably to a fault. I mean really it is her birthday! Why be here stuck on the sofa and not have any fun in the great outdoors? 

But then, as I end this entry I remember how I have celebrated the birth of each of my children: with a nap. I have given birth and then slept after each one of them. So, it seems fitting that G-Love naps an hour away on her 5th birthday drooling on my lap with her newborn sister. 

If only I could reach the camera just a few feet away and get a picture of her fabulous birthday dress...sigh....the picture from her birth and from her latest nocturnal preferences will have to do...

Please note, the chalkboard bed (art), her oldest brother, and sleep - her favorite things all rolled into one in this picture....