Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Wagons ho!


Two of our very good friends here -- Aunt S and Uncle W -- gave the boys this Little Red Wagon for their birthday. I stick them in it and schlep them around the property every once in a while. They love it, but close to 60 pounds of toddler bouncing over gopher holes is hard on Mommy's back!

First kiss

I can't believe I haven't blogged since July. Oy.

In my defense, I will state that I am now living with two little chimpanzees -- two utterly adorable, incredibly sweet-natured, loving, adorable (did I say adorable? well, it bears repeating) little chimps -- but still chimps, who grab EVERYTHING THEY CAN GET THEIR (FOUR) LITTLE HANDS ON and strew it to the four corners of the earth. Or simply sit down and rip it up on the spot. Or eat it. Or attempt to eat it and give me a heart attack when I see what they have gotten hold of this time. And now that Sam and Gus are 32" and 32 5/8", respectively, now, they can reach an awful lot of stuff.

Oh. And they climb.

So I haven't blogged since July, and my email with friends and family has declined to such a state that my cousin actually emailed D at the office last week politely inquiring whether I was still alive since she hadn't heard from me in oh, months? D forwarded my cousin's missive to me, no doubt thinking I'd reply that very afternoon. And slug that I am, I haven't written her back yet. Because I know that a one-sentence email such as "Yes, I'm alive, we're all alive actually, thanks for asking, bye now!" will not be well received. So I have to actually write her a real email.

And I just don't have the strength for it at the moment.

Sigh.

Maybe tomorrow.

In any case, I just popped on to record a lovely, lovely occasion: My first kiss received from one of the boyos! They'll be 19 months on the 16th. They've been working up to a kiss for some time, kissing their hands at people and so forth, but the mechanics of actually planting a kiss on someone's face seemed to elude them.

Then last night, I had just given Sam his final bottle (subject for another post, I guess -- they are eating real food very well but are still Adamant that Little Gentlemen Drink Milk Only From Ba-bas, Not Sippy Cups) and was waltzing him off to bed. I had stopped by D for the Night Night Daddy Litany of "Go to sleep now, there'll be lots more fun in the morning, Mommy and Daddy love you, good night!" and then stopped by our copy of "Portrait of Miss May Sartoris" (artist: Frederic, Lord Leighton) to let Sam say night night. (We say goodnight to that portrait, to all of Daddy's marathon medals, and to the thermostat in the hallway.) Sam kind of blew a kiss at her, so I held him up where he could kiss the portrait like he does his reflection in the mirror. It was, I need not tell you, adorable. Then I said, "Do you want to kiss Mommy?" and lo, he puckered up like a little pink-lipped goldfish! So I leaned in and offered my cheek and Sam dabbed it with a kiss. I thought my heart would explode.

By golly they are cute.

More soon.

Below: "Miss May Sartoris" by Frederic, Lord Leighton