It's 9am, and my baby is... asleep?

He was up from 5:30 to 6:30 or so, while I cuddled him and whispered "nigh-nights, Jack, nigh-nights, Mommy's tired...  Then at 8:15 Ella came in to get me :).  Yay for sleeping babies!

Ella's final art class of the season is today.  I love seeing my mommy friends and participating in projects with my little artist, so I'll miss it.  But we are picking up a third day of preschool, so we'll be extra busy anyway.

Halloween is so close!  I love it, and I love watching my kids love it even more.  Ella, after a long flirtation with the idea of a "fruit bat," has settled on a "blue dragonfly."  Her super awesome Nana found one that also manages to combine a princess theme, and this kid is in HEAVEN.  Jack's gonna be a tiny zombie with his uncle Adam :).  As per usual, we'll set up the bouncer and cook dinner for friends and family and then go trick-or-treating.  Good life - great times. 

Ella has numbers up on her shelf counting down to Halloween...  She took down the four today!  Hooray!

Little handprints

I'm sitting across the room from my baby man, watching him pound the television screen with his palms. It makes him happy :), and doesn't hurt anything that can't be cleaned up, so why not? The thing is, I really hate washing those little fingerprints off the glass... Every time I think, I will never see exactly this print again. His hand will never be exactly this size, in exactly this position. And he just keeps on growing, despite my admonitions and pleas...

Ella's new preschool has occasional playdates so that the kids can get to know one another, and get comfortable with the teacher and the idea of a daily schedule. At one of these playdates I was speaking to Teacher Shaya (no, I don't know why we all call her by the full title "Teacher Shaya." But I roll with it.) and she said that she likes to have the kids do lots of handprint projects. When her kids were small they created some, and she saved them. When they were much older she went back through their school things and found that she loved looking at the memory of their growth that a handprint uniquely records, and that she had all too few of them. So she makes sure that we get them all the time. So we can watch our babies hands grow as they make their way through their first years of school.

I'm so grateful for her - in general, as she is a marvelous teacher and influence for my daughter, but especially for this. I already have three handprint projects created especially by my little girl. Proudly presented to me from her own paint-stained, happy hands :).

And if you come over and their are handprints on the tv, and on the bedroom mirror, and on the walls and the windows and the tables... Smile about it. They'll be clean again much, much too soon.

and years go by

I haven't been here in too long a while.

My baby boy, Jackson Scott, was born on September 3rd of 2009. He is the little love of my life. I didn't know how many kinds of perfect love there are in the world - I never imagined there could be something different but equally amazing as my heart full of Ella. I love them each completely on their own terms, and completely brilliantly. I am blessed beyond anything I could have ever anticipated.