Memorial Day Weekend

 Cesar's parents, his brother Rafael, and Raf's son Charlie all made the trek to our house for the long weekend.  Vovo made octopus and Hugo ate it!  Well, truth be told, he liked the body of the octopus just fine, but wanted nothing to do with the "arms and legs" of the creature.  Cesar showed off his efforts with our lawn as I pointed out the few plantings which I managed to not kill off with my neglectful gardening the past two summers.  Hugo was stuck, like a fly on paper, to his cousin Charlie.  It was awful sweet to watch.  The girls hugged their grandparents and showed them all their tricks.  They tried to say Vovo, held onto fingers while leading the adults on paths to no where, hugged, smiled, chattered nonsense, and generally were splendid toddlers.  Couldn't have asked for a better start to our family weekend.

Sunday

We enjoyed a family walk-about this afternoon.  The lawn was freshly mowed and we chose a good spot to relax and watch cars drive past.  I worried the girls would be bummed out with no dandelions to pick and make wishes with, they didn't seem to mind at all.  So we sat, Cesar and I, and the children climbed upon us, switching from one parent to another.  We ate apples.  We watched cars.  Evie the Cat darted here and there.  I thought up a new name for her, Lightning Streak.  Then we lifted our old bones upright and we walked some more.

A Date

Our day was full with lawn mowing, a friends birthday party for Hugo, and a date for Cesar and I.   I think I vibrated all day long as I counted down the hours to our date night.  And boy was there a lot to do to have the house and children ready for the sitter.  Whew!!  We are waaaaay out of practice in the date department.  (Sssshhh!  This past February marked two years since our last evening out, without children.  Can you believe that??  Me neither!)  How did the date come about?  I texted Cesar Friday afternoon, informing him that he was taking me to dinner and a movie Saturday night and gave him a choice between 3 sitters for the kids.  I even pulled off the wall, a long overdue gift certificate for dinner which we received when we purchased the van, back in 7/09!  When I called to make reservations, the gal had to check with the owners to see if our certificate was still good.  Dinner was delicious and beautiful and then I made Cesar suffer through the movie Water For Elephants.  It was a wonderful night. 

Sweetness

The girls are practicing their list of words randomly throughout the day now.  They're like little parrots, copying and mimicing what we do.  Their favorite words are - no, Papa, thank you, sock, shoosha, shoe, and we're working on boot.  Once the girls figure out that we are heading outside, all I have to do is ask them to sit, and I only need to ask once, and they'll drop to the floor on their wee bums with hands clasped in their laps and wait patiently for me to help them pull on their boots.  Makes me remember Hugo and his first camo boots, oh how he loved them.  This also reminds me of our hurry up so we're not late for school, out the door routine this morning.  The children were sitting together, three on a step.  I helped Hugo to pull on his high tops and tied his laces in double knots while the girls watched.  Then I turned to the next child on the step, who happened to be Marlo, I pulled on her boots.  I slid to the right again to assist Sabine by pulling on her boots.  From behind me pops out sweet Marlo, who was holding both of my green garden shoes out for me.  She realized that I did not have my shoes on and she wanted to help.  Filled my heart with love, she did.

I weeded the upper and lower parts of our driveway, took me two days.  I also baked garlic bread for dinner.  It was yummy!

Happy Things

One of my favorite parts of sharing my living space with small children might surprise some people.  I love finding the toys strewn about the house!  Well, not all the time.  The mess of toys and dumped kitchen cupboards can be annoying, but mostly when I'm in a rush, or when I've just finished cleaning that room, or why do I even bother to keep the diaper bag packed and ready to go when it happens to be both girls favorite search and dump site?  I do find joy, real happiness even, in discovering the trail of dropped and discarded toys and found objects stretching from my bedside table to out my bedroom door and down the hall and around the corner and on into the girls closet where they've made a clubhouse with their big brother Hugo.  This might be a symptom of not having children for so long.  The sight of mini socks stuffed into heart shaped purses, the crunch of Cheerios at the bottom of my rain boots, and the site of chucked pillows and Hello Kitties out of cribs each and every morning and nap time, all tell me that the girls are happy, moving, discovering, exploring, and learning.