Around here...

I overheard some parents complaining that there weren't enough eggs, or that it was too muddy, but I thought it was perfect. One egg each and covered with mud was the way it was supposed to end.

She apologized that the quilt that she made us for our wedding gift wasn't finished sooner. I couldn't believe that something this intricate and beautiful could be delivered with an apology. It's already all crumpled and slept in and smells like us. It was right on time.

We had lobster sandwiches for lunch, and homemade chocolate cake (from scratch) for dessert. In between we visited the local children's museum, and bought pansies for my planters. It was fun for me to think about her planning birthday parties for my husband when he was a child. So much thought put into the little details. She must have been really good at it.

It had been two years since we last saw her. She came bearing stories of her life in Arizona, her job, her boyfriend, and his Mother. We were all captivated, but especially Greta. And of course no visit would feel complete without a couple of games of Parcheesi. There is comfort in that.

I have no pictures that do her first birthday party justice. I took hundreds, but all of them with my sister's camera. I got to experience the "Aunts Perspective" through the lens. It is like we get to shuffle our roles around now that we are both parents. But believe me, it was everything that a first birthday party should be and more.

He took them to his Mom's house for two nights during school vacation week. I had open ended alone time. I saw a movie, and did errands on bicycle. I went to the Farnsworth Museum, did a crossword puzzle in a coffee shop, and got a massage. I worked a long day too, but it was with friends and in the kitchen, so even that was relaxing.

Greta had been speculating for weeks about the color of the tulips in our dooryard. She even peeled back the bud leaves a little to peek. They bloomed in time to welcome her home. We had fiddleheads for dinner, and fresh picked dandelions as our centerpiece. Yup, it's spring.

My Benefits Package...

Our weekday morning before school hustle and bustle has shifted to include two more children to the mix. Their Mother was offered a temporary teaching position which left our little friends needing a table on which to eat their breakfast, and some friendly faces to share it with. Minimal missteps have led us to tweaking our routine slightly (it really does require a lot more time to get four, rather than two children herded out the door), but overall the addition has been seamless, and has taught us all a lesson in flexibility. When Greta was a baby, a wise veteran Mom told me that if you can treat your first child as if they are your fourth, everyone benefits. I watch as the children help each other out without prompting, and feel deeply grateful for the lessons in letting go. The girls feel empowered when they brush and braid each others hair, and I have to let go of the urge to redo it, because there just isn't enough time to. But I think those loose lopsided braids, worn by proud and competent young ladies are examples of the benefits.

Cat and mouse games...

We've been suffering all winter from the kind of rodent infestation that leaky, old houses in Maine invite. Between the baiting, trapping, and constant disinfecting, we researched ways to permanently evict our messy little freeloaders, and came up with only one tried and true long term solution. So here she is, Izzie Juniper Knox Dority Bishop, it takes major compromise to agree on a single name, so we gave her many. Our solution:

"I rode my bicycle past your window last night...."

Ever since the UPS truck stopped in front of our house during dinner yesterday, and dropped off Simon's wildly anticipated new bike, I've been humming "Brand New Key" by Melanie. I'm not sure why, since, besides the first line of the song, it has nothing to do with bicycles, but it's stuck in my head. The kids and I have listened to numerous versions of it this afternoon, thanks to YouTube, and now they're humming it too. Just a sweet song that I remember from my own childhood, that creates a snappy soundtrack for the scenes that follow the arrival of a little boy's first bike.

"I ride my bike, I roller skate, don't drive no car
Don't go too fast, but I go pretty far
For somebody who don't drive
I been all around the world...."

Today....

I might be a total sucker for letting the snow shovels and winter coats make their way to the back of the garage, and the bottom layer of the coat hooks, before the calendar says it's officially spring. But I have. I've let them migrate on their own as beach toys and fleeces work their way into daily rotation. I could be back to bundling wee ones, and scraping ice off windshields next week. But the warm days, and the blue skies, and late light has gotten to me. I could be a sucker for believing that Spring has arrived early this year, but the color of the sky, and the way the laundry smells after it's spent the day being tossed around in the wind has totally gotten to me. If it snows tomorrow, I'll deal with it then. Today is an absolutely beautiful Spring day!

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Spring Sappiness....

Greta volunteered yesterday at a nearby farm, tapping trees and collecting sap for the upcoming maple syrup boil. The little girl that meets requests of picking up her dirty socks off her bedroom floor with eye rolls, tromped around through the woods lugging gallons of sap from tree to tree effortlessly. She was a sap collecting super hero, and excitedly purged all of the information she had learned to her Dad when he got home from work. Simon and I tried to help too, but kept getting distracted by the friends that watched us from their nearby pen.

"You can't have one without the other...."

When Simon asked Greta "What's the water doin'?", on one of our outdoor adventures this past warm weekend, she responded with "The water is just making the land the land."

When the day begins with the twitter of songbirds, and jackets are left by the wayside by noon, and I am tempted to take off my shoes and socks outside (but only tempted just yet), there is nothing I'd rather do than play by the sea, and watch it make the land the land.