Arran's questions of the day

As we were driving to church yesterday, these are just some of the questions Arran bombarded me with

"Mommy...did God create aliens?"

"Mommy...does space go on forever?"

"Mommy...is heaven before or after space?"

"Mommy...is there air in heaven?"

The stuff that memories are made of!

Arran has such a phenomenal memory and constantly astounds me with the level of detail he remembers. Last Summer, a family from our church (who also happen to be the parents of good friends of ours) opened up their garden for picnics after church and would invite everybody over. The kids loved it.

Ever since the weather has started to improve, Arran has asked, on more than one occasion, when we could go back to Gracie's Grandma's house? Well this weekend was the weekend!

The weather was lovely, the kids did great and had so much fun all just hanging out, being kids, playing, eating, paddling, splashing. These are the things that I want to be etched in their memories. The memories of childhood.

I think the only thing missing was watermelon!

Cars

This weekend was Petaluma's Salute to American Graffiti. Most of the memorable scenes were filmed downtown, so it conveniently provided one more excuse for Petaluma to have another celebration.

It was a blazing hot day and we were long done before Arran was even close to being ready to leave. I had told him that I wanted him to choose his favourite car to take a picture with, so the hunt was on. There were all sorts of classic cars and he loved it. The Cars movie was one of his early favourites and these were all classic cars so he completely related them to that. He was determined to find a 'Lizzie' and fortunately just as we were about to turn into complete puddles of sweat, he found her.

Hurray for friends!

I love taking photographs of my kids and creating a visual memory of some of the things that we do together. So often they feel like snapshots, which have a true worth of their own, but one day, when my children are older, I would love to do more with my photography. For now I am reading and practicing and learning as much as I can.

To achieve our dreams, we need to have specific goals and take steps to actually reach them, to not just keep dreaming. Very rarely will things 'just happen' without some work to 'get there'.

A step I need to take is practicing outside of my family, so last week I took my first ever maternity photos. My guinea pig was a good friend of mine. She is tall and beautiful and despite being in the last weeks of her pregnancy, looks amazing and was a true sport. The lighting conditions were not ideal as it was the middle of the day, but her Mom had graciously agreed to watch all four kids (my three and her one) so we could do this and that added to working around nap times...well I'm just grateful to get whatever I can. Hopefully in a couple of weeks there will be a gorgeous little newborn to practice on too.

I am still wading through and editing the results, which has been a lot more time consuming than I had anticipated, but I am learning and enjoying it. If only I had more time. I am about half way through on black and white conversions, before tackling a few to try as color.

Here is just a little sneak peak!

Mother's Day

Sunday was Mother's Day. For some reason, Father's Day is celebrated on the same day in England as in America, but the Mother's Days are months apart. This is good for me. I was always able to celebrate my mum on the English version, and the American version was my day, which means (as I realized this year) Mother's Day is not tinged with sadness for me, now that my mum is no longer here.

I LOVE being a mum, more than I ever knew or could have imagined I would. I LOVE my kids. The honour of watching them grow, not only in stature but in character and personality. The joy of being a part of their achievements as they reach different milestones. Their unconditional love.

These have been such precious years; such a time of closeness. I see the changes ahead and am excited and sad at the same time. They will always be my babies, but their need for me will lessen, their desire to be with me at all times will diminish. I will once again have to find a new identity, outside of being a mother. It still seems hard to imagine, so for now I will revel in the moment, in the pleasure and joy that they bring.

I am blessed indeed.

Life's a beach

What a great weekend. The weather is so nice again, very warm, but not hot, just perfect for being outdoors. So Saturday morning we packed up a picnic lunch and headed out to Fort Cronkite beach.

It was so much fun. All the kids are at the stage now, where they can enjoy it in their own way. Asia has passed the crawling and eating sand stage and is happy to sit relatively close by and just dig forever and Arran and Bryttain as well as loving to dig, had a blast playing chicken with the waves. They were so cute, they really are best buddies and play so well together, I just love to watch them. They would inch closer and closer to the water's edge and then as the incoming waves got nearer and nearer, they would spin and yell and scream as they raced back up the beach towards us. They did this over, and over, and over again. It was their best workout in months.

James and I were able to just lie there and watch them, without hovering incessantly, it was perfect. The simple things can bring so much pleasure. Just seeing the grins on their faces as they would run and jump, was contagious.

Bryttain my beauty

Bryttain has been without her dummy (pacifier) since April 18th. The original plan was that her third birthday would mark the end of that era, but as we had a long flight ahead of us two days after, not to mention the jet lag, we decided to postpone it for a few weeks. The landmark was moved to daddy's return from Mexico.

It has been hard for ALL of us!

One of the hardest things for me to deal with has been the fact that naps came to a screeching halt. This little girl has so much energy, and now cannot seem to calm herself or stop and be still long enough to fall asleep. It gets frustrating, but today, as James was home at just the right time, I decided instead of letting it get to me, to use the opportunity to spend some time with my beauty and take some photos.

Needless to say, she was very excited to not have to be quiet and in her bed and jumped at the chance to put on a dress...but it was short lived. It was fun for all of fifteen minutes. Oh well, I'll take what I can get.

Here she is singing and dancing...she really is so much fun and full of life.

Love her!

Priceless

I love the things my kids come up with:

Asia is trying to say so much right now. Her favourite word of the moment is 'No'. She doesn't say it in a belligerent or aggressive manner, or yell it, but she purses her cute little lips and and says "Noo OOoo", with a little inflection in the middle. It's very clear and unmistakable and has appeared far too soon. As I was holding her yesterday she, in her own gentle loving way gouged my eye as she said "Aeye", then poked my nose and said "Nooooo", then grabbed my hair and said "Hay'. James was standing nearby and I was curious what her answer would be as I asked "Where's Daddy's hair?". Without missing a beat, she reached across and patted his face :)

Last night as I was picking up clothes from the kids' bedroom floor, Bryttain told me she had seen a fly. Apparently it had 'told' her that it would like to be a part of our family as it didn't have a mummy or daddy of it's own...at least that was her story and she was sticking to it.

Arran had his own brilliant idea as we were driving home from Costco (also yesterday). He saw a 'No Smoking' sign and asked why it was there. As I explained about the health risks, and also expressed my undisguised disgust for smoking, he suggested "They should put no smoking signs over the WHOLE world!" He'd make a great future world leader, huh?!