The Silver Lining

So we all know this economy is about as horrible as it can get.  Most days it's all I can do to force myself to not let the worry get the better of me.  But I am trying mightily to look for the bright spots where I can find them.  One of the benefits for us in this down economy is that the developer of our neighborhood hasn't yet built the homes behind us that were supposed to go in two years ago.  This means we have quite a few acres of land around our home that are ripe for the discovering.  Kennedy and Jake braved the tall weeds last week and ventured out to see what treasures they could find.  I was watering the garden and snapped a few shots while I watched them in the blowing wind.  It was one of those moments where all was right in the world, even if only for that brief moment.

Appearances and Reality

This little post is about appearances vs. reality.  Or maybe I could call it ying and yang.  Anyhow, there are the happy smiling moments I capture of my kids, and then there are the moments just beyond those, where the truth comes out, be it good or bad (as you'll see below).  First case in point: Kennedy.  She's always ready with a great little smile for a picture.  But it's not long before her silly side comes out.  I am glad.  I am glad she has a silly side.  Just the other day I gave her a funny look with the choice of socks she had picked out (bright blue, which completely clashed with her shirt and shorts).  She looked at me and said, "what?  They're just socks,mom."  Thanks for the reminder, Kennedy.  There are much more important things in life than matching socks.

Then there's this little bitty:  Jake and Leah, so sweetly toddling over to the grassy hill at the park in our neighborhood.  Me as the mom sitting across the playground thinking, "I sure have cute kids."  So I snap away a million pictures (what did we do before digital cameras?).  So of course I catch the very moment when Jake turns around and instead of hugging Leah, gives her a great big, "I'm the big brother" kind of shove, sending her tumbling down the little hill.  Thankfully, Leah is a rough-and-tumble kind of girl, so she shakes it off with only a slight whimper.  The best part of the whole shot is Jake's face.  He thinks he's pretty tough stuff.

Summer Has Arrived (sort of)...

Who is this little blue-eyed, orangish-haired snaggle-toothed little girl?  I've been fiddling with some of our old home videos from when Kennedy was this age (15 months) and can't believe how different they look.  The sisterhood is still obvious, but these two girls were built quite differently.  From the hair to the eyes and teeth, and most definitely the personalities, these two are night and day.  Yet they share the most scrumptious little bond that is so much fun to watch.  Leah's the spitfire that gets Kennedy laughing, and Kennedy is the gentle hug Leah needs every now and then.  Leah just runs up to her and flings her arms around her legs and rests her little head on Kennedy's thigh.  Like I said, so much fun to watch.

We officially broke out the swimming pool last week, as we had our first day over 80 degrees (which makes me randomly think of when I was little, and my mom would tell us we couldn't turn on the sprinklers unless it was 80 degrees outside, so we would call the little hotline-on the mustard yellow rotary phone, no less- that would tell you the time and temperature, just waiting for it to say 80 so we could break out the hoses).  The best part?  I could get out that pool and set it up knowing I wouldn't have to pull Jake away from it to go to therapy.  Brian and I pulled him from his preschool/therapy a couple months early so that we could have a full-fledged summer, with no running around to therapy.  It's been almost 4 years since we haven't been doing that, and I have to say, it feels heavenly.

Leah is always rearing to go as soon as she hears the screen door open in the morning.  In fact, she watched Jake bring me his shoes so he could go outside the other day, and she promptly toddled over to the front door area, picked up her sandals, and brought them to me in outstretched hands.  She figured shoes were her ticket to the outdoors.  Her first stop out back is usually the flower pot.  I think about half of the flowers that should be growing there are actually there.  You see the one in the smaller pot that has no blooms on it?  It used to have two big beautiful ones.  They lasted one full day before they were gone.  Hey, at least she didn't tear out the whole plant, right?  I remember Kennedy doing the same thing, and so I remember to be patient and let her enjoy the outdoors.

Here she is, ready to take on the world (or at least the back yard).

Leah sharing her granola bar with Kennedy.

It's always tricky to try and keep the hat on her head.  And for the record, I did attempt to cut some bangs into this wispy hair of hers.  Unfortunately, she turned her head right as I made my first cut.  Now she has extremely short bangs in the middle, and longer on the side.  I figure most people just assume one of her siblings did it.   For now, I pull them all to the side and hope they blend in.  Sigh.