And Now the Beach

When Ev was a small fry, we had the enviable luck to have lived on the Outer Banks. Now, while it wasn't our favorite place to live - none of that had anything to do with the beach.
We loved the beach. We went nearly every day, year round.
I loved taking Ev there and watching her mind get blown time and time again. I think having kids at the beach is healthy. Not as in "getting Vit D" or "fresh air" but, all of it. The air, the sun, the wide open space, the water, the sounds, the big birds swooping above, the little shore birds darting back and forth, the smells, the dirt and grit, the cerebellum work out they get from walking in that sand. It's healthy in a way that not only post-insitutionalized children need, all children need it. The air, the freedom, the experience of being there.
It's healthy for the mind and the soul.
Even as adults we remember this. It's not a coincidence that tired, overworked, stressed out adults retreat to the ocean when they can. We long for it deep in out hearts and minds, that peace the ocean brings. That way you feel when you stand on the shore and take in all of that water, swirling and moving, teaming with life and vitality. The in your face reminder that your troubles in life will pass. That we are small as individuals but, as a whole we are a part of something big and grand and singular in the Universe.
And so every day I would pack my little wounded bird of a daughter up and we would head to where the ocean meets the land. We would go for the fun of it, we would go because we could, we would go to find ourselves.
And now I have another little heart in my charge and I find myself missing the ocean and all of Her help.
But The Ocean has sisters.
When you can't get to the Ocean?
Find a Lake.

 Let your son stand in the strong arms of his Papa as the Lake whispers in and tickles his feet. Watch him dig in the sand and get really dirty. Let him watch and hold out his little arm as he holds a discourse on the things he is seeing.
And know that he is healing and having fun and just...being.

Makeover

One of my very favorite bloggers- at  Bushel and a Peck is hosting a blog makeover contest.
I have entered.
I entered because I love her blog and her designs, also because I get a little tired of the "out of the box" layouts that I have used since the beginning. I just don't have the computer chops to figure out how to do that sort of thing myself.
So here's hoping I have a little luck!

Walk in the Woods

Last week ( I can no longer remember the specific day), we loaded Liam and Ev up in the stroller and went for a walk on our local trail.

Liam loved it. He sat there, rapt, in the stroller. Pointing and rah rah-ing over every thing.

We stopped for pictures at a pretty place and eventually Rah Rah fell on his face, in the loam. A brief tragedy to break up the peace of the walk. He was fine, with just a bit of a scrape on his chubby cheek.

Eventually we came upon this huge field and we got him out of the stroller and let him run wild.
I am not sure that he has ever been in nature this way. He seemed so excited but cautious at first.

But before long he was running and hollering. Rolling about on the grass with Papa.

Sitting right there under the open sky, watching clouds and hawks move above him in that bright blue sky.

Of course Ev loved it. She always loves to be out.

She did her fair share of running wild too.

And then don't you know? She found an entrance to a Gnome Home and left a Peace Offering.

Here is to many more days in the sun little guy.

Rah Rah

You may have noticed that the Blog title has been changed.
Liam has his nick name now.
It's not anything that I had in mind, but it has stuck.
Rah Rah.
That's pretty much the sound he makes. For anything and everything.
Rah Rah!
So that's kind of what we call him other than Liam.
We are not being mean, it's all very cute and we love it and we love that about him.
So Rah Rah it is.

Triple Trouble

That's Liam's New "Smile for the Camera" Smile

Magical Thinking?

We had visitors on Wednesday. Gma, Gpa, Lissa and Brev came up for just a short visit to see the kids.
Things were going well unitl Evelyn checks in with me to confess something that she had done wrong. It seems that, while in the basement play area, Brev was talking and keeping Ev's panda awake ( ok whatever).
She handles this situation by: 1) Covering his mouth with one hand
                                        and 2) Punching him in the stomach with the other

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What the? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In an attempt to be  even keeled, I refused to talk about this with her until I was ready. She had the gall to be miffed at that. Because she had to sit quietly on her bed and wait for me, oh the nerve of Mothers.
When I thought I could talk to her without loosing my mind, I went in her room and we had a talk. I had Les come in and sit in on the talk as well (for the record this also miffed Her Highness- witnesses you know?)
So we have this talk and I inform her that she is going to bed at the same time her baby brother is, that she has missed out on cookies and milk on the porch swing and she will not get to finish The Karate Kid ( the original one thank you very much). Now she is really getting it. I go on to tell her that my nephew means very much to me and that she was no better than the bully at Daycare that gives Brevin trouble. That my home should be one place that he comes in to and no one treats him mean. I tell her that I am very sad about the way that she acted and that I will see her in the morning. I walk out.

Later I go in and hug her and tell her that I love her and that I hope she understands how ugly she behaved.
She says, "yeah I am sorry about all of that".....
"But Mama? Did you feel my magic towards you stop?"
I say, "Yes, did you stop it when you were mad at me?"
We have had this sort of thing before, where I am duly informed that she has stopped ALL of her magic
(you can read that as love if you like) coming to me until I can make her feel better. Or behave.
I proceed with the conversation. I tell her that even though I get mad at her sometimes and that I get embarrassed when she is mean, that my magic never stops going to her.
Then she lays this one on me:
" It's like this Mama. I have cords that go from my heart to my family. That's how that magic goes. When I get mad, I stop the magic and it comes back through the cord to me where there is a light bulb, that magic I hold back comes into me and lights that bulb and it glows, when it glows long enough, it burns away all of my bad feelings and makes me happy again. So I need to do it."
I was stunned at her imagery. I truly was.
" I look at her and I say well, Ev, I see that you have it worked out. I am glad that you know how to take care of yourself and get happy again"
We hug and I kiss her and I bring her over onto my lap and we sit there in the dim room and I stroke her hair.
After a few minutes, she says, "Mama?"
"What child?"
"I know that you love me. I can see it sometimes"
I sit there and wonder what she will say next and I mumble "oh yeah like what?"
Then she says " Well it's your magic to me. It's silver and bright and it's all around you and it reaches out to me. It's beautiful"
Now I am stunned for real.
I say "When do you see this magic?"
" You know alot Mama. Like when you smile at me or do something for me just because you know I like it. Sometimes when you are cooking dinner. Like that"

And I try with all of my might to take my silver light and surround her with it.
Even though she socked her cousin in the guts.
Because she is my magic.