Miss Eva is now 9 months old, and is such a relaxed, happy, curious, friendly little cuddler. She totally steals our hearts every day!

She can crawl now (started at 7.5 mo), and has almost 6 teeth! :oO The teeth are a total shocker to me, as her sisters didn't have a tooth until they were 10mo. :P She loves to dance to music, and is pulling up on the furniture. Today, I found her climbed up on the first step of her sister's bathroom stool! She loves pulling all the tupperware out of my bottom cabinet, and banging on my metal mixing bowls with a spoon. She adores my parent's Westie, and tries to follow her around with her mouth open to get puppy kisses...ewwie! She has a steady, easy going spirit, and is really into trying new foods these days. Carrots and mung beans are big favorites, as are bananas and tangerines.

She's a solid sleeper, and is such a good natured little punkin, even while she's cutting 3 teeth at a time. She tends to wake up in the morning with a big grin on her face, ready to explore. She hates being deterred from something she's trying to reach, and doesn't like waiting for the next bite of food, either, hehe.

Evie loooves to talk! She signs "hungry" and "puppy" and waves byebye. Her words are just astounding me...

She can say: mama, dada, sisseh (sissy), hungry, "hi dada", "is good!", good, byebye, puppa (puppy), beh-beh (baby), dis (this, what's this) and ball. :O)

We are a household of intensely creative individuals. Nate's an artist in his own rite, solving problems in ways that are ingeniously innovative. He has the ability to see the obvious answer that defies social convention, and tackle projects until they're DONE.

Essie is an inventor. An inventor of gadgets, an inventor of story, an inventor of ways to stop her mommy's heart every day. Her intelligence dizzies me.

Naomi dances in a pretend fairy world of whimsy most of the time, seeing things that the rest of us can't see. She lives in a rainbow colored bubble, that one. Like her father and sister, she also possesses a dogged problem tackling streak. Bookcases 4 ft above her head, in between her and a coveted pair of scissors? A boring detail.

And me? I'm an inward thought traveler. I get lost in internal rabbit trails. Useful ones, mind you, but I tend to be solidly locked into a world of brilliant oblivion until someone snaps me out of my trance. I'll sit for an hour thinking about something and never notice the time passing me by. My feet can be as cold as ice or my stomach growling like the last dredges of bathwater down the drain , and I'll only experience a vague annoyance until someone else points it out.

I often have to trick myself into participating in the "real world" (as if the inner imaginary weren't real...ha! ;OP), and find ways to involve myself into the juggling act that is motherhood. For me, no small task. Sometimes, playing music moves me on to the next concrete task, such a supervising play dough or washing laundry or actually remembering to switch said laundry over.

Sometimes, I talk on the phone. Sometimes, I talk to my children, something I honestly enjoy. I'll admit though that the onslaught of uncomfortable external stimuli makes me head reel, and I tend to get stuck, holed up and unable to move. Librivox.org has saved my proverbial derriere on more than one occasion.

The fact that I appreciate simplicity and beauty in my visual field helps with the intimidating amounts of housework that pile up with three active children under 5. That spurs me on to a degree. Still, it's a work in progress. Nothing sounds more beautiful, at times, than a hammock and a book and silence. Or a creative pursuit with absolutely nothing else going on but a bowl of cherries, a glass of wine and some nice, loud music. I suppose that's what your eighties are for, eh? ;OP

Snow!!!

Here in the SE, we hardly ever get snow. Rarely. Almost never, even. As a matter of fact, my 3yo didn't really know what to make of our gorgeously flocked yard this morning. We opened the blinds to our warm upstairs bedroom (where it's warmer in the winter...all our beds are currently up there), and we were mesmerized by a sparkly whiteness that rivaled ALL the collective Cullens. It was that flipping gorgeous, dear ones. <3

Our relatives in Manitoba frequently have a snicker at our definition of "winter weather", but today, winter was our candy cane ready to be licked. Metaphorically, of course. Essie has so little experience with snow that she opened the back door, crowed with delight and charged out into the stuff....barefooted. :P Here are some snow pics from this morning, as well as one of the girls and some friends making ginger bread cookies. :O)

We made our advent wreath today!

We collected some rosemary, pine and cedar today and tied them to an antique embrodery hoop to make our little advent wreath. (We went small this year, maybe we'll be more ambitious next year!) The rosemary was blooming little purple blooms...so pretty! <3 The girls wanted to paint their faces in celebration, so Esther was a bird and Nomi, of course, was a cat.

We'll have to do double duty on the candle lighting each Sunday, since we got to a late start this year, but I think they'll enjoy it a lot. We also got our Christmas tree up! I'll have to post pictures of that later. :O)

In Retrograde

I'm watching her grow young.
She's finding wonder in the simple things
Finding newness in the familiar,
Unlearning all the things she once taught me

She's traveling backwards at the speed of light,
With snowy hair and vertigo,
Dizzy and unnerved as the past shrinks small out of sight,
With familiar ground re-appearing beneath her feet

She's learning how it is not to coordinate her limbs,
How not to be in charge,
How to be dependent
And to wonder what comes next.

She's reclaiming peace with the unknown:
Afternoon naps,
Loving hands buttoning her down and caressing
As she blushes at her new-found ignorance.

Unsettled, unfocused, unsure,
But never unloved
She's whizzing in reverse
Growing older and younger.

I'm happy to hold her hand.