March 20

Spring in New England is like our silly cat. It lies on the floor. Still. Wagging it's tail in anticipation. And then it pounces - really quickly - before you know what happened. Every year we wait through these long winters for the first sign of warm sun and early spring flowers, and then the crocuses bud, bloom and die in what seems to be a day. And the weather goes from the 40's to the 80's overnight, and we all find ourselves scrambling to find those bins with the t-shirts and shorts.

But there are those early spring days that one needs to look a little more closely to appreciate. When the ground is still covered with snow, and the air is still cold, but the pussy willows slowly start to show there fluff to all who are watching for it. The days subtly get longer, and the sun starts to warm the trees just enough for the sap to flow.

Of course, it doesn't always go like this. And this year, after a winter with very little snow, and warmish weather from January on, we found ourselves on our annual sugar shack trip on a 70 degree day.

No sugar snow for us, but the first local crop is here, and that is reason enough to celebrate.

We are pancake crazy at our house - especially in the winter, when blueberry pancakes dominate the weekends - so what better way to celebrate spring, and sugaring season, than by eating them. We got to business at the Straw Bale Cafe, which I imagined to be some rustic place where you sit on straw bales, but really turned out to be a building actually made of straw.

I'm sure all that natural insulation would have been great for a winter's day, but it was hot outside! And that's where I wanted to be. Even though it did feel wholly unnatural to be eating our sugar season breakfast without earmuffs on.

As a side note - the heat was not great for the sugar farmers, but many of them now use tubes and vacuum suction to extract the sap, rather than just waiting for it to drip down into an old fashioned bucket (which are still ubiquitous in these parts). Staring at a bunch of tubes strung from tree to tree did not exactly cause reminiscence of my childhood (in Northern Vermont, when I could wander around in the woods, stealing sips of sap out of any bucket that crossed my path) but it still made me think - spring has arrived.

After our breakfast, we headed home for some spring cleaning. (Yes, that IS our Christmas tree)

This next photo scares the crap out of me. I think she just wasn't in the mood to get her photo taken. Hopefully she doesn't channel the pouty supermodel again until... well... ever.Later that afternoon, we went over to friends' house to celebrate their son, Walter's, fifth birthday.If there is anyone I know who was born to ring in spring, it's Walter. He is such a sweet soul, full of life and silliness, and a ray of sunshine to everyone he meets. I didn't count, but he must have said "thank you" to each person at the party at least ten times. True gratitude from a five year old could melt the coldest snow.

Walter told his parents he wanted to have hot dogs by the fire outside for his birthday, and that if it rained, people would just have to wear their rain gear. Fortunately for us, it didn't. What a glorious day...
Claire - she looks like trouble, and she just might be...

Walter rockin' his new bounce house! Go Walter!

Emerson made Walter a card,

and on the back she drew this. It's a kiss, a hug, and a heart with ponytails, legs and shoes. I had to take a photo of it before I let it go.


But enough with the Valentine hearts Emerson,

spring is here.

there she goes...

Ode to Ophelia

Throughout this blog I've talked about Emerson's flu, her struggles, our relationship, her Christmas gifts, her school, her well being, etc... Did I ever mention I have another child? The little fuzzy one in the background of all the photos, looking silly? Did I mention she had the flu too? And that she celebrated her first birthday since I've started this blog? A thus far undocumented birthday.


A rushed birthday celebration that we sandwiched in between holiday preparations. (Her birthday was the day before Thanksgiving this year) Here she is taking a bite of her last minute, throw-together carrot cake. Click the photo, then on to the turkey...I am a second child too, so you would think I'd try to compensate for it, but I don't. Teeth show up in her mouth without me realizing it. I don't have a sheet of paper on the fridge (and subsequently for her baby book - what baby book?) with all her first words. Her early life is not overly documented via photos or videos. I think I even said to my brother one time after setting Ophelia on the kitchen floor - with no toys - "don't step on Ophelia." But is any of this really a bad thing? I turned out ok. And my brother - frankly - is insane. Self-proclaimed, and in a good way most of the time, but insane just the same. And don't take my word for it, just look at this photo of him with my niece (also a second born)...
Anyway, I have no doubts that Ophelia is doing fine. I do feel guilty about her getting lost in the shuffle a lot of the time, but I think the benefit that her life is not overly scrutinized (as Emerson's still is - poor Emerson)

balances out the score. Ophelia is perfectly happy to toddle about entertaining herself. She's into everything all the time in a way that Emerson never was, and is a lot more physically able and determined than Emerson was. It's amazing to have two children who are so different in every way, but not surprising, and it is great the way they complement each other. And although Ophelia often times seems to be in charge, she loves her big sister, and wants to emulate her every move.
Ophelia has a sweet side. She loves babies.
And books. "Eeh?" is her favorite thing to say, which means -do this for me. Read me a book, hold my hand, turn me around, give me a cracker. And she's always in motion. Here she comes with a book...
She's a sweetie, and she's bright,
but mostly, she's just plain FUNNY. She's so funny and crazy with her noises and her big belly and her stomping around. We thought Emerson was silly, but no one tops Ophelia in this category.







She's our goofy little baby, who has turned into a toddler overnight. Her silliness is now balanced with tantrums, and she likes to be in the middle of everything. She's no longer content to sit on the sidelines. She's making her presence felt, and I'm excited to see who she will become over the next year. We love you Ophelia! We're so lucky you're here!

Sparkle

When we told Emerson we were moving into this house last summer, she was pretty hesitant to leave the two little girls who lived downstairs. She kept saying things like "I don't want our own house. I like to share a house." We couldn't blame her. There is nothing better than running into your yard and having two friends waiting for you. So we came up with the best response we could: "At our new house, you can have a CAT!" (We couldn't have pets at the apartment)

So after months of putting off the promise, we came through for Emerson. Sparkle Elsley has arrived.
As far as I can tell, "Elsely" is after Emerson's best friend, whose last name is "Hensley." We don't know if they'll be such good friends next year, but the legacy will live on as long as our cat does.Getting an animal has actually been in the cards for a while. We were just waiting for the time to be right. I think it's so important for children to have beloved pets when they are growing up. All the adults I have met who didn't grow up with animals seem to be missing something in the compassion department, and when you lack compassion for something more helpless than yourself.... You get my drift.

That said, it's Matty and I that are really having our compassion meters tested lately. From her meowing all night long on her first few nights here, (which we expected) to her peeing all over our clothes, bed, and walls, (which we didn't) I think we have both had moments when we wanted to pack her back up in her kitty-carrier and send her down the river.

But the kids love her (of course they do - they don't have to clean up after her) and she is a very sweet one. So after a couple of vet bills, three different kinds of litter, and blocking off areas of our house temporarily, I put my foot down. I like having a cat around, but I'm never going to be someone who buys cat magazines, takes my cat on vacation, sends photos of the cat dressed as a reindeer to friends at Christmas-time, buys clothes for the cat, takes the cat on walks, etc... The cat will use the litter we chose, eat the food we chose, not jump on the table or counters, not scratch the kids, and not pee in the plants. Take it or leave it.

I think she has chosen to take it, because we haven't had problems for a week or so. As Emerson said to Matty the other day. "Daddy, now there are five of us in the family."
As for the trees - there is no logging truck in our driveway to date. We can still hope for a cold snap - it is, after all, only the beginning of March - but we may have to live another summer in tree limbo. I have to admit that I've been enjoying the warm weather just as much as the next person. I'll never be one to kick a gift horse in the mouth.
Ophelia has been enjoying her new boots - almost as much as she enjoys saying "BOOTS!" She still has a little trouble walking in them though...
This weather also makes me look forward to summer - a time that is less structured. School and swimming and music and all that stuff is nice, but after doing it all for the entire school year, it's nice to just nice to wake up in the morning and have nowhere to be.

And the house is coming along. We've been working on the kitchen lately - I'm not sure what Ophelia is going to do when she can't sit in the cupboards anymore.
Love that ugly linoleum! But it's going to have to stay for now, because the beach calls...





And who needs a sling when you can just use a blanket?