Grampa!

I just want to post a picture of my grampie.

He's not doing very well these days. He doesn't light up the way he
used to when he sees the kids, and he sleeps a lot. But, Max made him
belly laugh like he used to and it made all of us feel good.

I think he's going to follow my grandma pretty soon. I like to think
they'll be together again out there.

First Blood

Although it doesn't really look that bad here, Max gave us our first
'Oh Holy Hell Let's Get This Kid to the Hospital NOW!!!!' moment.

He was running into the house to show me something when he slipped and
face-planted right into a cement stair. Robert was right behind him
and scooped him up on his arms and called for me.

Robert had him on a cradle hold and when I came running in, he tipped
Max up. As he did, a gush of blood poured out of Max's mouth.

Lor-dee!!!

I grabbed a washcloth and blotted away as much of the blood as gently
as I could and was surprised to see only a small gash. The bleeding
there stopped after maybe a minute, although the area continued to
swell.

We figured the mouthful of blood must've accumulated cause Max was
lying in Robert's arms.

The next day the swelling was worse, so I convinced Max to let me
investigate further. Sure enough, I discovered another bigger cut
inside. Apparently his tooth punctured all the way from inside his
mouth through to his face and the edge of his upper lip.

My little guy!!!

We waited a day to see if the swelling'd go down and it did, so...
all's well that ends well.

We're actually shocked we've not had to take Max to the hospital yet,
the crazy, little gremlin.

A Memory: Indelibly Etched Forever

The other day I was pulling weeds in our pea patch. To take a break and stretch my legs, I followed Max when he told me he wanted to show me something.

He took me to a ladder my Dad had fastened to a maple tree, and asked if I wanted to watch him climb up to a little platform that was about twenty feet up.

With a touch of trepidation, naturally, I said, "Of course!" And I watched as he proudly scampered up like the monkey that he is.

After gazing around at his new view and reveling in being taller than me, he called down, "I wish you were a little girl so you could come up here and sit with me." I called back, "Well, I can't be a little girl, but that doesn't mean I can't come up there and sit with you! Do you want me to still come on up? " Ecstatic he yelled, "Yes!!!"

So, up the ladder I went.

When I got to the top Max was over the moon that I'd come to be with him. He grabbed my face with both of his warm, sweet little hands and gave me a big kiss. Then he snuggled down, put his head in my lap, and just laid still looking up at the peridot spring leaves dancing against the backdrop of the robin's egg blue sky. And yes, there were fluffy, perfectly-shaped, pure-white clouds sailing by.

I watched the breeze playing with his beautiful hair and my heart just overflowed with love and the absolute wonder I feel sometimes that this amazing child should be mine.

God, I love that kid.

Doin' Our Bit

 ...to stay lifelong learners... the first picture's of our local library. They've got a spectacular kid's section. We're still reading to Max for AT LEAST half an hour a day. I estimate he must have read over 1500 books by now. I do get a couple of re-reads for him and it's amazing that every single time he says, "Oh yeah! We've read this book before!"

...to eat food that is more responsible and ecologically sustainable. I made up four pounds of asparagus from my parents' garden (pic 2) into dee-licious cream of asparagus soup. I got to freeze three meal-sized portions in addition to the one we ate to cut down on energy consumption through cooking. And in pic 4, Robert's tossing compost made up of old sileage onto our garden here. We're going to let it lie fallow this year because we planted so much at my parents' and also because our soil is almost pure clay. We need to condition it for a bounteous harvest for next year. 

...to again cut down on energy consumption by hangin' our clo'es on the lines outside. If you'd have told my eight year old self that hated going to hang clothes outside that my grown-up self would be tickled pink to be able to hang my clothes outside, I'd have given you a look of such withering scorn that you'd smarting yet. Although now you'd be laughing your ass off. Rightly so.

... to support the local economy by eating at Michael's Custard. Really, it is so lusciously tasty!

Country Roads

I just had to post this right away for Kikirinikikibeanie because she asked if I was serious when I said only two cars passed me on the forty minute walk to my parents' place.

This is what it looks like! : )

Snuggled in Our Happy Hollow

Tonight is the third night of being in our new home.

I have to say... it is absolutely lovely. When I walk through the house I breathe deeply and just admire all that I see. It's just like the picture I created in my head when we decided to put an offer in on it. And it's profoundly tranquil here. No noise. No lights. No neighbors in sight. Just delightful.

The one picture I posted above is of our living room... it's the only room that's close to being done. See that blank space of the room on the right, where there's no furniture? Robert got the brilliant idea of putting a floor to ceiling bookcase there. So once we get some extra dough, he's going to see if he can engineer a plan to put it in. 

He really did a magnificent job pulling all of this together. Plastering practically the whole house, laying down the floor, organizing everything... of course, I did my share of work, too, but he really kicked ass, and it has SO paid off. My handy guy.

Once we get the other rooms ship-shape I'll post more pictures of them.

And, hey, thanks so much to everyone who called to wish us a happy first night in our new home. That really meant a lot to us. I know we've been so busy we haven't been the greatest at keeping in touch, but... thus the blog! We'll be better now that we're here. Hopefully.

Gotta hit the hay, getting up early to go to Chicago for an audition. G'night.