Baby face

 

Meet Danica Thanh.

Six weeks old the day I met her.

 

She's a doll. 

Who wakes up looking this cute?  

 

"Are you my mom?"

 

 

"Where is mommy?"

 

"Okay lets play. Want to hear me sing?"

 

 

Bored...

 

Potty in progress. 

 

Summer 2012 is officially over.

I'm sad about it.

Sad about all the growing up that is happening.

is that wrong? 

These three dumplings have become so independent. 

I so enjoy being a stay at home mom and all the little moments we share together.

 

It's the first day of school.  Ethan is entering the big times in Mrs. Adler class. 

Kindergarten.

We are all so excited for Ethan.

Aidan has been telling Ethan all about the school.  The library and the nurse and the fun assemblies. 

They want to walk home by themselves.  We live around the corner and they never need to cross the street from door to door.  But still I worry. 

What if this and what if that.  More like what if they can really do it and I'm out of a job at 3:15? 

I guess Elise and I will draw them a welcome home mural on the driveway every day. 

We will greet them home with rainbows and trees and flowers in chalk.

 

Elise is so fun. 

I totally get her and she totally gets me. 

We'll stay home, play house all day long

and read parts of many books backwards. 

And make a stack of books with only puppies in them.   

I love this picture because it's so not the three of them. 

They never sit still. 

But that's okay because who needs a gym membership anyway right?

More on summer 2012 and first day of school to follow. 

Cinderella

Elise likes to do the wind shield wipers on the table with her arms after she's done eating. I asked her to pick up the Cheerios. After she ate a few off the floor, little Miss. took a little break under the table. She lay there happily singing.

Two cute

Daddy daughter pal around in a parking lot while waiting for brunch guests to arrive.

These are her faves

Elise eats so much variety in her daily diet. She loves to feed herself. Corn wheels and plain vermicelli noodles are two of her faves.

Banana smoothie

Yum, yum, yummy!

year in review

Its been almost a year since Kyle completed this water color I started with the kids. He added the apples I think to represent the fall coming upon us during the move in September 2011.  I save this painting as a master piece most highly treasured because it is a time stamp of our family's experience.  I remember the kids and I gathered around a tiny dinning room table in the hotel suite painting away on a stormy day.  We cover our orginal art over the framed pictures in the suite. The first priority in every move is to create a sense of home.  All other tasks fall second.  60 days at the Holiday Inn, how did I ever survive?

It was the move from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, three hours apart to be exact.   Miles and miles from the life we built in Trumbull.  I miss it there in our unassuming ranch home with the circle driveway, grand fire places and the gardens we built.  Our neighbors are some of the most kind people.  Almost daily, Aidan and Ethan would run across the street to pet Shea and Maggie.  After Kyle diligently cleared the brush that separated us from the Verbitsky's we built a 'friendship' path as a shorter and safer way for the kids to run freely between priorties all four seasons.  It was story book perfect for our budding family. 

I act like stone during a move.  All jazzed up for the change ahead and certain the greater friendships we already established will only get stronger with the test of distance.  As Aidan is growing up and has experienced a few big relocation processes himself to memory, I see myself in him.  Like stone as the transition unfolds and yet the frustration comes later as we  reorient our footings in the new location. 

Looking back, there are never regrets but gratitude for our experiences and our love for the land and people at each destination.  Penn Field Beach in the summers and Jones Farm in the fall.  The laughter and joy we share with our friends echo in our hearts.  We miss you Trumbull.  Its taken a year for me to make sense of the past twelve months as our greater friendships have sufficed the distance.  Penn Field Beach and Jones Farm become apart of our visits to Trumbull. 

Today we are settled and looking forward to starting a new school year in Warrington.  I've spent a year hosting fewer play dates and making sure the kids are a tight knit trio.  We've spent half the summer traveling both local and coastal.  Most important, the move from Connecticut to Pennsylvania has taught me that feeling 'settled' is not where you are physically but how you feel in your heart. 

water color heart by Ethan