Back to school sales start when the temps are still in the 90s. The thought of wearing leather, or wool, or flannel is laughable. The sun sets a little earlier, but not so early as to impact my day. And the trees might start to take on a little more color, but I’m never really sure whether it’s because fall is coming, or that we just went six weeks without rain.
*Seattlites don’t really want outsiders to know that it rarely rains here in August and September, so shhhh…. let’s just keep this between us.
We live on a little lake, populated by ducks year round. Theses ducks are a part of our landscape, any time of year. In the spring, they’re accompanied by ducklings, following their mama around the lake, until one day I notice that mama duck is accompanied by smaller ducks. By the time fall comes around, I can no longer distinguish the parents from their offspring.
The trees around the lake are just starting to show a hint of red and gold. The color change happens gradually, but I never experience it that way. One morning, in the not too distant future, I will look out over a brightly colored landscape and wonder when this transformation occurred.
It happens this way every year.
Just as every few months I look at my daughter and wonder when did she get so big, but she was maturing right under my nose all along.
I let my little girl play with the junk mail because she loves the pictures, and the bold, eye-catching fonts are great for learning letter recognition.
But I didn’t expect her to fill out a credit card application.
Some day soon, I’m afraid our junk mail games will have to include a conversation about usurious interest rates, and the weight of debt. But for today, I’m just going to marvel at her form completion skills. This is an important life skill; it’s practice for the SATs, right?
The bookshelf is the first thing I check out when visiting someone new. It’s utterly fascinating to me what other people read, and often adds depth to my impressions of them.
I’ve recently discovered the “what’s in your bag?” trend, and that has me captured as well. There’s a strange voyeuristic thrill in seeing what other people carry around with them every day. I flip through the photos of items neatly arranged in front of the bag, and it makes me wonder about the people who carry those things around. What are they like? What are their values? Are they tall, short, young, old, extroverted, introverted? Do they use these items every day? Carry them around for just in case? Are these items precious to them? Did they even know what was in their bag before all the items were laid out to be photographed? Did they edit before the picture?
Every once in a while, I see the contents of a bag and think – I want to meet this person! How is that? We are making instant judgments based on the contents of a bag. Still, I find it interesting. And from an anthropological standpoint, I wonder what there is to learn from the averages of our bag contents, as well as the fact that the information is documented in the first place. How will this inform future generations about what life is like in our world today?
Since, I’m peeking in other bags – here’s what’s in my bag.
The sickness and poorer part of our vows were not an invitation. I’ll have you know that despite pneumonia, cancer, myasethenia gravis, a combined 18 nights in the hospital, more than 10 dashes to the ER, 8 years of at least one and usually both of us as full-time college students, layoffs, hours cut, car trouble, eviction notices, healthy diets, exercise, a sweet and miraculously healthy baby girl, daily “adventures”, good friends, a lot of wine, belly laughs, a home full of books, homemade dinners, long conversations late into the night, snuggling, holding hands, and occasional long walks on the beach, we’re happier and more in love than ever. You should also be aware that we have not given up hope on the richer and health part of those vows. You know where to find us.
Also, Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband. I love you more.
I posted on Facebook that Gem wants to be a dinosaur ballerina when she grows up, and our my cousins responded with shock. The shock, it turns out, was appropriate. Unbeknownst to us, they were in the midst of planning a dinosaur ballerina birthday party for their soon-to-be 3-year-old. Their little girl is even more crazy about dinosaurs than Gem, and knows ALL the dinosaurs.
This should be cute, I thought.
I had no idea.
When we arrived at the birthday party, Gem was helped into a dinosaur tail and tutu.
My happy little girl was giddy. Dinosaur Ballerina!
The birthday girl’s grandma handmade dinosaur tails for all the kids, and coordinating tutus for the girls.
The weight of the tail dragging behind them cause the kids, especially the littlest ones, to exaggerate their waddle as they walked.
Cuteness overload
The lawn covered with littles followed by their tails.
A back yard dinosaur dig
Dinosaur ballerinas discussing books and their favorite dinosaurs
Even the birthday girl’s daddy had a tail.
Happy birthday, Isabella. Here’s to many, many more.
Wouldn’t you like to be a dinosaur ballerina, too?
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