Baby Makes

Thanks for your patience, ladies and gentlemen. I have just been given my life back so please take your places on blog for the top of the next saga.

(that’s my stage manager voice)

We have just returned from Picton for the last time. We arrived home on Sunday morning, did chores, had a birthday party for Annechovie and Uncle Matty and started work on Monday. Arras is flying solo in the shop since his awesome boss is on vacay. I am flying solo in the office because that’s how I roll. As soon as Arras uploads all his pics from the summer I will have much to show and tell but for now, I have just returned from a board (bored) meeting and must drink a g + t.  And quick.

Tomorrow: speech with Cameron while Jo watches Jackson, and then more work…I am hoping to blog tomorrow night but who knows. A little more of life might take over. God knows I won’t be updating my prompt script for archives because my attempt last night resulted in my losing all the computer files. Typical given how the summer went. But I won’t get into that.

Bear with me folks, we’ll be posting regularly from now on.

We’re back. It was a week full of this:

And some of this:

A little of this:

and some of this (minnows):

There were:

And:

By day we would:

And at night:

And one day, when someone was supposed to napping, he got into the diaper cream:

Ah, discoveries.

Cameron and Jackson have been invited to Hadley’s birthday party today at 1pm. As soon as received the invitation and saw the time of the event, we started hatching plans. A lot of kids Cameron’s age don’t nap anymore, but Cameron still does and thank goodness because I can use the time to knit do chores.

So, plan hatch #1 involved skipping the nap altogether. The vision of consequences to #1 were too brutal to bear so we moved on. Plan hatch #2 involved putting the kids down early the night before so they would get up early the next morning so they could nap earlier and be ready for the party. Methinks the ‘getting up early’ part was too much for some us to bear so we moved on. Plan hatch #3 involved putting the kids down an hour LATER than real bedtime, in the hopes they would sleep in, and so could some of us, and we would still have steam to get through the party. We settled on this one. Some of us reluctantly.

Funny story. We put the kids to bed an hour later last night, feeling horrible that they were practically ZOMBIES by the time we mercifully let them go, and then this morning rolled around. Ah beautiful sleep in…

NO FREAKING WAY.

5:44am I woke up in a pool of my own where-is-my-AC? sweat.

5:48m Jax woke up, chatting away, then getting a bit more serious about getting out of bed.

6am Cameron woke up, all kids were changed and put back to bed…

6:20am or so we were ALL downstairs, ready to move on with Plan Hatch #2, the discarded plan.

What to do with kids who HAVE to sleep before a 1pm party? Feed them carbs for breakfast, pack a picnic and hit the water park.

8am and shady temperatures found this:

All kids are in bed now…we’ll let you know how the rest of the afternoon goes….

UPDATE:

Total success. Both kids were a bit cry-y just before leaving the house, and once Cameron arrived he was a bit shy and slow to warm up, but then? Both kids the JOY of the party, not just the life, AND the most well-behaved, and socially cool kids I have ever seen. What up with the adults though?

And we didn’t get lootbags, we got lootbooks – how great an idea is that? A Backyardigans book for Cameron (how did they know?) and a beautiful board book for Jackson.

Dave and Astrid scored a bouncy castle on loan for a couple of days before a Charity event they’re helping out with this weekend.

Day 1: Cameron and the Girls

Day 2: Add Jax and two balls

Stay tuned for a movie of the adventure!

Arras got straight to his b-day gift and then promptly blew air into tires, dust off of anything dusty…

Cameron and Gelan explored the latest in computer technology:

Jackson got up close and personal:

Handmade cards…very detailed work.

Yesterday I gave our daycare 30 days notice that we will no longer be requiring her services. This decision has been a long time in coming, but we couldn’t ignore the facts any longer. The boys deserve better, we deserve better, so we’re making some big changes.

Our plan is to have J, babysitter extraordinaire, who helped us when I went back to work after having Cameron, and who helped us at our own wedding, look after the boys  through the summer months. This will give them the attention they need and deserve, and in their own home. I am looking forward to planning activities for them to do all together – trips to the library, the store, the beach, the park,  playdates…I am excited for the boys!

It feels so great to make a decision that is so right – I wasn’t nervous at all giving our notice because my confidence came from knowing my children would be better off. Once we were all back home, I felt giddy with relief. We are no longer locked into something we don’t like. We are no longer at someone else’s mercy when it comes to OUR children.

They are going to have a great summer, and in the fall we are going to start a whole new chapter – Cameron will start school, Jackson will hopefully have a structured program in a setting that has a foundation of equality, neutrality, and mutual respect. Arras and I will continue to love our jobs and make the choices that benefit us all as a family.

I mean COME ON! Look at these kids!

So our after-dinner activity has turned from going for a walk or dancing to playing with the bubbles on the back deck. This evening, the grrls next door caught us and hopped the fence to join us. But before that happened, this happened:

These boys, Grandy, they need a good camping trip.

We think of you often and of course those thoughts lead us to thoughts (and memories!) of Cove. This past November was one year gone since we lost Grampa Jack and I think of him often as well. His passing was so unpexpected, and I long for the opportunities not taken when we had the time. But I know that he is with us, in every thought and memory we have of him, and I know he is full of love and pride for the family that carries on in his absence.

Jackson turned one on the 21st, and I look at him and see the same strength that I saw in Grampa Jack. The same silent acceptance of his world around him. Jackson is a big boy, and so often content. When things don’t go his way, he accepts, he moves on. I never knew Grampa Jack as well as I would have liked – time and distance weren’t easy opponents to beat, but when I was with Jack, he made me feel at ease. My second son, Jack’s namesake in part, shows that same ease that Grampa Jack was so effective in creating in me.

I wish all of Jackson’s namesakes were here to see him grow so big and strong – I can see my own Gran laughing at his blunders and efforts gone awry; at his discoveries. She is the Deane in his name as her family is the Deane-Butcher family.  He is Gran, and Grampa Jack in his quiet strength and peaceful calm that I knew so well, and he is Andy in a way I will never know. I feel Andy with us too, watching, laughing; his Cove quilt keeping us warm in the family room where we play, rest, dance, laugh, and sometime sleep.

My baby is one year old and I am so proud to have him be of the same lineage as you, and of my Gran. You would have been fast friends I think.

My hope is to bring the boys to Cove Island, to camp out as Arras and Gelan did long years back. I wish for them the wonder of staring at the stars as they drift to sleep outside; I wish for them the sound of the water on the shore; I wish for every beautiful discovery they can make at Cove, for “knowing every inch of their backyard” as Arras described his upbringing in the country as being. I wish for them the backyard of Cove.

Thwarted eggscape attempt:

Eggsaust fumes:

Eggsploration:

Eggspectation:

Eggsamine:

Eggstract: