Saturday, October 6, 2012

forward

My whole family is ravenous.  We eat meals, go for seconds, then polish them off with a heap of peanut butter (except for Hazel, who polishes-off with mama's milk).  We are feeling the harbinger of winter deep within our bodies.  Today I packed away sundresses.  My man and I talk about how we feel both stressed and relaxed at the same time.  We feel the thick, handknit sweater of autumn wrapping our bodies, we sip tea, time slows down...and yet we feel the crunch, like squirrels scurrying to fill their cache before the first big snow, the first drop of a foot or more.  I love seasons.  
The other day I made roasted red pepper soup, my man took the girls on the trampoline and basked in the warm, evening sun.  We knew it would be the last.  The weather report showed the next three days as crispy cold, with cooler autumn temps to follow.  We soaked in that last bit of heat, lapped at the shore, dove in for more.

:: Oh, how Juniper's...(obsessions? fixations?)...change like the weather.  If only I could record each and every one, but as soon as I get a handle on one, she's on to the next thing.  Lately--and maybe it's the autumnal shift, the slowing down, the moving inside--Juniper can't get enough of her books.  She "reads" them out loud, to herself, to us, to Hazel.  She sleeps with them.  She sneaks out of bed at naptime and reads.  I let her sleep with a library book and she ate the corners.  It was a favorite.  (Ahem, now we own it.)  The other day, she asked my husband to show her how to read.
::  At least twice a day my man and I each say out loud how much we're going to miss having a chubby little cherub in our midst.
Our chubby cherub still isn't crawling and it's really starting to tick her off.  Her frustration is palpable.  She has been *this close* for weeks now.  Meanwhile, we bask in the fat rolls over her knees, the rubberband creases on her arms...knowing it will be all too soon when she is moving forward, burning off that chub.           
Sometimes, Juniper and I get down and show Hazel how to crawl.  She thinks we're hilarious.
:: We started to add Hazel's prints to our family portrait.  We got one hand and one foot, but as it turns out, she was totally not into it.  Too soon, I think.  
:: This photo is several weeks old, but...I have been liberated!  Thanks to my dad taking the time to rig this up, I can now bike to the park, the library, the post office, Juniper's soon-to-be preschool....
:: Slowly, I have been putting our garden to bed, anticipating how grateful I'll be come spring when all I have to do is put seeds in the ground.  Hazel Iris is usually content to sit under a shade tree and chew on pinecones or old french breakfast radishes that Juniper yanks up for her.    

 :: Easily, our pre-winter to-do list--that scurrying squirrel within--is two feet long.  Our last "weekend" (my man's days-off are typically during the week) we had decided to get shit done.  And we did.  For one day.  And then we bagged it and took the girls hiking.
 It's always worth it to exchange chores for a romp in the crisp, wild, autumn air.  It felt so good to have tight quads pressing into earth, propelling forward.

3 comments:

  1. Love the book eating. I have consumed a fair number in my life but never took the chore as literally as juniper. Bless her! Happy hibernation prep;) x Ashley

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  2. I *always* love your pictures. Happy fall!

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