Go Dog Go

Despite wanting to fit in long, leisurely hikes with the dog on a weekly basis, it doesn't always happen.  Enter Lyndsey from Boulder Doggie Adventures!  I feel so spoiled having her come by and grab Gibson for a fabulous outing.  Here is one of her "pup-date" pictures.  For almost 12 years old, Gib's still got a lot of spunk!

Jumping into Fall

We've had a lovely autumn.  I think it's coming to a screeching halt today with the snow that's moving in, but in the meantime we've been playing the leaves, going on "hikes" (we never get very far), and making batch after batch of applesauce from the apples we picked from our neighbor's tree.   

Willa picks up Cal

Wide leg jump

"Cal, you try to tackle me..."

Some nights before bedtime, the kids have a last surge of energy and frequently end up jumping on my bed.  This night, Willa wanted to wrestle. 

What a good dog!

Cal and I spent most of this morning collecting squash beetles in the bug catcher.  He took a break to love on Gibby and asked that I take their picture.  Glad I did!

Gibson regularly lets the kids walk him.  We always get comments about "If that was my dog he'd be dragging them down the street!" 

The Simple Life

I frequently have daydreams about living in Africa and having to walk miles every day to get water from a river and carry it back on  my head in a basket that I have made myself.  This is a soothing daydream for me.  I think about it in the same way that I might envision myself of an extended camping trip where after days in the woods I have achieved peace and serenity.  Mind you, in my particular brand of daydream I am not hot, I am not starving, and I have access to excellent health care and nutrition.  That is to say, I am not really daydreaming about what it might be like to actually live in the rural part of a developing nation, but rather am piecing together images of what I think of as a drastically simpler life.  I'm not complaining. I love pieces of my life right now immensely.  I love having vicariously entered the world of Kindergarten again and watching Willa make new friends and learning to read (unbelievable process!).  I love having an exercise routine that I stick to every week.  It feels so good to have time carved out for myself, to go and work hard, and feel so much calmer when I'm all done sweating.  I love getting outside every day to walk the dog and to notice the little changes happening everywhere.  (This morning there are little wispy snow flakes - early arrivals from the storm heading in later tonight).  And yet somehow I still feel crazed half the time just trying to do what's in front of me instead of intentionally making my way through my day.  Despite my following those snappy top-ten advice columns on how to simplify (Cancel your magazine subscriptions! Block junk mail! Get rid of stuff you don't need! Do things you "want"to do not "should" do!) my life does not feel simple. I'm sure it could, but it doesn't yet. 
On that note, here is a day in the life (in this case, yesterday):

5:15                 Alarm goes off.  I wake up. 

5:15:0001        Cal wakes up across the hall. How does he know? 

5:16                 Snuggle.

5:20                 Snuggle time over. Brush teeth, get dressed, make coffee. Willa tries to sleep through Cal's "whispering," which sounds eerily similar to yelling.

5:45                 Babysitting crew arrives. Leave for Spin/Yoga.

7:15                 Quick luxurious shower at the Rec Center.  I don’t keep an ear out for all heck to break loose on the other side of the shower curtain as I wash my hair. Not one person asks me to wear a giraffe hand puppet as I get dressed. 

7:40                 Pull into garage.  Willa opens the door and yells, “Let’s go to school now!”  Load the kids in the stroller and walk to Kindergarten drop-off.  Willa is looking fabulous wearing her *new* corduroy twirly skirt and tights.  Cal walks Gibson until he starts pulling to hard.  We roll up to the door just as the bell rings.  

8:05                 Walk up “big hill.”  Jump off rock, and run down other side of “big hill.”  Collect Gibson from his waiting spot.  Cal pretends the sky is a big ocean.  

8:21                 Load in the car to drop Cal off at friend’s house/daycare.  Grab my lunch from the fridge and a Tupperware for the canine urine sample I’m supposed to collect.

8:35                 Drive to work with dog in tow.  Listen to Book on CD, do belly exercises on the way.

8:55                 Attempt to collect Gibson’s urine sample without getting splashed in the face.  

8:56                 Dig wipes and hand sanitizer from the car.  Drop-off what I hope is a big enough sample in the car for later.  Go to meetings.   

10:30               Meetings end.  Swing by Vet’s office.  Secretary grimaces at my measly urine offering.  Head outside to attempt to add to the cup.  Startle dog by lurching at him every time he looks like he’s about to go.  

10:40               Return to secretary with what looks like the exact same amount although I promise her it’s not.  She disappears through the back door with the cup and returns saying they will try to work with it.  

11:00               Stop by ATM to get money to repay co-worker who bought baby shower gift for pregnant co-worker.

11:05               Back at work.  Quick visit to the baby shower.  Write dubious parenting advice on a 4 x 6 pastel card.  Choose an “It’s a Boy!” sticker for the poll.  Head downstairs for actual work.  

12:00               Decide to work from home as am too distracted at office.  

12:05               Stop by library directly next store the office before getting in the car.  Politely decline to talk to the Planned Parenthood lobbyist on my way in.  Grab 7 new kids books.  

12:15               Head home.  Continue with Book on CD, belly exercises.  

12:35               Arrive home.  Pull items from freezer to thaw for dinner.  Put rice on stove.  Really start to work.

4:30                 Quick work break to run to liquor store and grocery in anticipation of gluten free, dairy free, tomato-free, low-fructose, partly-vegetarian dinner guests.

4:45                 Alternate between working and cooking dinner.  

5:20                 Sister arrives.  Work officially over.  Chat.  

5:30                 Kids arrive home with friend/daycare provider and her kids.  Kids are starving.  Hope I don’t unwittingly make dinner guests ill.  Kids eat two rounds of dinner.  

5:45                 Wine glass in hand. Kids running all over. Sister trying to motivate to head back to her work but is feely crappy. 

6:00                 Lovely chat with friend.  Sing Happy Birthday and blow out candles.  (There is no actual birthday – this activity is purely for the candle-oriented).  Fend off requests to “come upstairs right now!”    

7:17                 Feels like 10 p.m. Friends leave after a lovely evening of playing and talking.  

7:20                 Kids ask for a snack.  Provide snack.  Do dishes. 

7:45                 Put jammies on, brush teeth.  Dig out 2 flashlights.  Load in the stroller to walk the dog.  

8:05                 Back at home.  Kids manage to find another snack.  Secure promises that they will brush teeth again by themselves if they eat the Cheerios and raisins they have found.  

8:10                 Brush teeth.

8:15                 Read books - 2 of which I hope are “cross-over” books that will entertain both of them. Then the Princess and the Popstar for Willa.  Cal only looks up from his reclined position on my lap one time to see the Popstar’s guitar. 

8:50                 Receive video text of little friend in new homemade Hedgehog costume.  Watch video 3 times.  

8:52                 Into bed.  Willa is out in less than a minute.  Cal is out in 10.    

8:53                 Get ready for bed.  Take my “Words with Friends” turn.  Get out my book and reading light.  Never actually open said book or turn on said light.  Lay quietly.  Send text to check in on my sister and text to friend who is leaving on a week-long trip. Lay quietly.  

10:20               Fall asleep.     

 

Part of the problem with a Blog is that when I feel like sitting down and journaling, sitting in front off a computer screen does not appeal to me.  We've also been entirely too busy these last handful of weeks so I'm happy to say that things are slowing down.  To catch you up lightning-speed, we had one last hoorah of summer with warm weather and fields of flowers before it really started to feel like fall.  Then we have slowly migrated to new walking locations and a varied morning routine.

 Morning painting trumped the morning walk this day.  Sorry, Gib. 

 Apples!!  Our neighbor has a tree with a ton of apples that he doesn't want to have to deal with, so this is out haul from ten minutes of picking.  We've made more than one apple crisp!

 One of my favorite dumpster-dive finds of all time is our chiminea!  Cal and I walked to the hardware store with our neighbors to get butcher block wax to cure it.  In the process, we played "lawnmower guy" for about an hour. Gibson loved this detour because it meant a longer walk and treats from all the Lowe's employees. Cal and Jude could have stayed all day!

After curing the chiminea, we had some friends over for a soup and marshmallow party.  The marshmallows don't actually get roasted by the flames, but it certainly feels like a mini camping experience.  

We switched up one of our evening walks to join Auntie Amy and Nana for a picnic dinner and hayride on the farm.  The kids loved the ride and got to drive the tractor at the end before putting the chickens to bed.  We are so lucky Amy and Wyatt are farmers!

 

The following picture is intentionally cropped because by this point in the ride Cal had liberated himself from his diaper.  Freedom reigns in the pumpkin patch!

 

We are so lucky to have such lovely neighbors.  Jude is always cheerfully greeting us from his garage as we head out for our evening walk.  This particular night, he and his sister joined us.  Joey was fading fast until the kids invited her into the 2 person (oops) stroller.  I'm not really sure what Willa was trying to do to her, but whatever it was it worked.  Joey loved the ride!

We've been having a beautiful Colorado fall.  As the mornings have gotten chillier, it's taken us a little while to get into the new groove of putting on so many clothes!  The first morning we had frost, Willa took it for snow and rushed excitedly to put her boots on.  There wasn't much to stomp in, but she made the most of it.  Cal, on the other hand, was not happy about all the clothes!  Where o where have the days of running naked through the pumpkin patch gone?!

Ditching school

Willa wasn't feeling great on Monday so we "ditched" school.  Literally!  Willa stayed home and the kids were back in the ditch for the whole morning.  The bakery business is booming and mud sheet cakes are now on the menu!  I felt validated when an older gentleman and former NASA engineer walked by and offered his opinion that a day in the ditch can be more valuable than a day in school.  I don't think I'll make it a habit, but we enjoyed this one last throw-back to our summer days. 



Willa is adjusting beautifully to Kindergarten.   I wouldn't say she loves it, but I think the novelty of it is fun for her and she is doing well.  She likes her P.E. class best.  When we dropped her off yesterday morning Cal lingered by the door and said, "Me go in, too."  It's hard being the one left behind!  He already talks about when he will go to Fireside.  In the meantime, he's loving his days with Allyson and Nana.  He came home from Nana's yesterday with a bug catcher.  Mima and Bpa took him out and caught a bunch of black bugs that have been frequenting the clover in the field.  He was really disappointed when I told him he couldn't sleep with them in his bed. 

Today was our first taste of real fall weather and right on cue I was the nasty Drill Sargent getting everyone out the door.  Needless to say, we are still adjusting to our morning routine. 

End of Summer Camping

We had such a great time camping near Red Feather Lakes this past weekend.  It was the perfect storm of dear family friends, good weather, great ages, and a kid-friendly camping site complete with lake and gentle rock outcroppings.  We rolled out of the tent in the morning and immediately parted ways - the kids to climb on what they dubbed "Chipmunk Rock"and the adults to make instant coffee (say what you want about Starbucks, I do appreciate their Via!).  Note to self - no matter how desperate you are for caffeine, a Whisper Lite backpacking stove was made for individual use only.  I repeat, individual use.  Sadly, it will never ever in a million years heat enough coffee for 3 adults. 

After our recent experience with the Vieiras, Cal has a new-found love of fishing.  Thankfully, he's 2 and imaginary fish are still as entertaining as real fish.  We didn't catch a thing.   



We did, however, manage to get 7 people into the canoe and row out to the nearest island for some exploring.  This picture (and the 4 others just like it) had so much potential. Sigh...
 

Willa was slightly chilled in her crepe princess dress and curled up in the sunshine on this rock.  Batman had me undo the safety pin (ahem), I mean Bat-Clip, on his cape so that he could drape it over the fair maiden as she slept.  Does she have any idea how adored she is?  Yes.  Yes she does.  And she eats it up.  I'm not sure it's healthy.    

While Romeo and Juliet might be moving into pre-adolescence, Cal and Rosie are still solidly in happy-go-lucky toddler hood.  Here they are dancing to their own music.  I could eat them up.  

The farm

Before we went for our regular walk tonight, we spent some time walking around Auntie Amy and Uncle Wyatt's farm.  The kids found about 25 old golf balls - it felt a little like Easter! 
Happy birthday, mom & Wyatt! 

"Here, Cal. Take my shoes."

There is an irrigated section of lawn directly in front of our townhouse complex that is lush and easy on the feet.  Just beyond the sprinkler's reach, there is a wild section of grasses and weeds that we call the "pokies."

Earlier in the year, the kids could walk across this pokey section without batting an eye.  But as the grasses have dried out and been mowed, they are getting more uncomfortable to walk across with bare feet.  On this particular morning, Willa had worn shoes but Cal hadn't. When she and I decided to take a shortcut across the pokies, Cal was stranded behind trying to figure out how to catch up.  I was already to the lush grass by this point and kept slowly walking, half-waiting to see if Cal would ask for help across the pokies.  At this point, Willa looked back, and said "Okay, okay" to herself in an, "I've got it.  Here's what you do" sort-of way.  She then ran back to Cal, kicked off her Crocs and said, "Here Cal.  Take my shoes."  Cal obediently put them on and followed Willa who had hiked up the hem of her Rapunzel dress and was tiptoeing across the pokies back to where I was waiting.  She seemed genuinely and pleasantly surprised when I told her what a nice thing that was to do.  What a sweet pea. 

Camping

The kids had a fabulous experience fishing with close family friends this past weekend.  Ever since we've been home they've been talking about touching the fish; catching the fish; winding the reel "around and around."  Willa's likes to tell about how she moved a rock that had slid off the edge of the "observation pool" and onto the trout.








Cal is at the stage where he likes to read the same book over and over and over.  One of his current favorites is "The Quiet Book."  Each page describes a different kind of quiet - lollipop quiet, sound-asleep quiet, underwater quiet. 
As our little group was walking back from playing in the stream bank, Cal and I fell behind.  We held hands and walked at a toddler's pace down the dirt road that would lead us back to the tent.  There were trees and a grassy field to our left and a steep incline up the mountain side to our right.  We could hear the voices of the other kids up ahead and the grasshoppers clicking all around us.  It finally occurred to me that he and I had been silent for quite a while.  I looked down at him and quoted the book, "Best friends don't need to talk quiet." At which point he beamed up at me and said, "yeah!" knowing exactly what I was referring to.  Then we kept walking.  Quietly. 

The Night before Kindergarten

I've known it's been coming, but I still can't believe tomorrow is Willa's first day of Kindergarten!  She is definitely being braver than I am.  She's sound asleep in her bed.  I'm sitting in my bed as I type, a stack of wrinkled and water damaged papers beside me.  These are what is left of the "getting ready for Kindergarten" packets I received back in May when this whole process started.  I dug them out tonight to see if there's anything I've forgotten, certain that I have neglected some super important detail.  Here are the things I'm worried about (in no particular order):

1.  How will she make it through the day without me providing hourly snacks?

2.  How will one teacher and 21 kids ever hold a candle to the wondrous Disney Land experience that was Allyson's house for the past 3 years?
3.  Who will wipe her butt?  (I know.  Not only TMI, but also clearly answerable with "no one" as she will resist pooping at school at all costs and hold it until she can race home to poop in privacy).
4.  What if she pees on the floor and the kids make fun of her?
5.  What if she needs a hug?


Here are the things I'm excited about (in no particular order):

1.  She's going to learn to READ.  By HERSELF.
2.  She gets to walk to school.
3.  Her school has a garden.

(photography by the fabulous Kirsten Boyer)

Return to routine

I got back from backpacking (which is an entirely different post) and we are slowly getting back into our routine.  It took me a while to get the kids out of the front yard and to the bike path last night because they were too busy making mud soup.  They are becoming extraordinary mud chefs!  Their menu so far - mud coffee, mud cakes, and mud soup.  I feel a pot-luck coming on...









Their favorite seasonings : crab apples and flowers.





I finally lured them on a walk with the promise that Cal could play "lawnmower guy."

Marching Band and Mud Cakes

This might be one of my favorite days of all time.  Our neighborhood friend joined us on our walk this morning and the kids ended up playing in the ditch for 2 hours.  They made mud cakes and played "marching band."  There were no time constraints, no adult directions, and lots of activity.  The kids kindly shared their toys, took turns being the leader, and were totally engrossed in their own world without once getting bored.  Wide open space in more ways than one.  Ahhhhhhh...

Dog props

The reason we starting walking twice a day.  Thanks, Gib.














Shortly before this picture, my daughter ran towards the two boys in an all-out sprint screaming excitedly, "You guys!!!  I have BUCKETS!!!"

Journaling

I don't know why I started a blog.  Really how this site functions for me is as a journal and as a keepsake for my kids.  And yet, when I think of sitting down and journaling with pen and paper, it doesn't happen.  Something about knowing that your words will go out where someone can read them makes a difference to me.  Not that I necessarily want anyone to read them.  It's just that someone could read them. 

I do occasionally picture my high school girlfriends reading this and it makes me feel more connected to them.  That part feels warm and fuzzy.  It makes me feel like someone's watching out for me.  Thanks, girls.  xoxo

My daughter starts Kindergarten in 3 weeks.  I feel the loss of her now almost like I did just before my son was born.  I knew that a golden period of our lives was ending.  It was bittersweet - after all, she was gaining a sibling and I was gaining a son!  But I was losing the solidarity that she and I had almost exclusively for three years.  I cried like a baby over it!  I'm not quite weeping over the transition to school-age yet, but I'm sure I will be on the first day of school.  Every cliche out there about parenting is true; "They grow up so fast!"  "You'll blink and they'll be in college!"  When did life become a Hallmark card?!

I'm leaving for a two day backpacking trip tomorrow.  It's been forever since I've been out in the woods with all that time and space and nothing to do but walk.  Ahhhhhh...

The Beginning - July 14, 2012

I'm a single mom who lives in a townhouse with two young kids and a dog.  Not wanting our small courtyard to be the dog's bathroom, the kids and I walk the dog on a loop around the neighborhood and nearby bike path twice a day.  I chose the loop out of convenience; it's a fairly safe loop where I can let the kids run without fear that they will be run over by cars.  I started out harried and grumpy most mornings, wondering how I was ever going to get to work if I had to slow down to the pace of a 2-year old, a 5-year old, and an 11-year old dog every morning.  Now, after several months of our routine, I'm still sometimes harried and grumpy but I love it.  It's easily become one of my favorite parts of the day.  We have been able to carefully stroll through the seasons, collecting rocks and dirt in our buckets in the spring and moving onto berries and crab apples now that it's summer.  The kids stomp in puddles, look at bugs, explore the 'wilderness' that surrounds the drainage ditch and utility easement.  For someone who grew up exploring the woods behind her house all summer long who now lives in the forest-free suburbs, I'm so glad I can offer the kids a little space to run wild in nature every day.