Matching Tracksuits

fun in fours

seasons

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.

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Morning Walk

Sunday 30 March 2014

Blue skies in the morning, and there’s only one thing to do: take a walk. It’s been almost two years now since I was taking daily walks with the Boy in the summer mornings. School was just out; the Boy was able to do little more than open his eyes and look straight ahead. On this lazy Sunday morning, with Polish Mass in the afternoon (the last Sunday of the month comes around with surprising suddenness), we have the time for such a trip back through time.

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The difference, of course, is in the air, in the trees, in the flowerbeds. The walks two years ago with the Boy were in the summer, when the temperature could rise to the mid-80’s by late morning; today, there’s a cold breeze that reminds us it’s still March.

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During the summer walks of two years ago, the shade of trees brought relief; today, the trees are still almost completely bare, and shade only makes us feel the chill more acutely.

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Then, the flowerbeds were not nearly as colorful as the beds today.

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Then was a beginning, with E just a little bump in the stroller; today is a beginning, with the buds opening and the Boy kicking his feet on the wheels of the stroller and doing his best to chat with me about everything he sees.

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“You really want to talk, don’t you?” I ask as we turn to head home.

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“Taaaak!”

Green Feet

Tuesday 04 June 2013

Every summer it was the same: shoes came off in May and stayed off unless we were riding bikes. The bottoms of our feet went from light green in the early summer, a shade that we could bathe off daily, to dark forest green in August, a color that was almost impossible to scrub out.

We start now.

Evening in the Yard

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Spring is here?

My Tongue Twister

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Do icy icicles ice on icy icicles? Icy icicles ice on icicles.

I like this because it's winterish, and now it's winter.

Icicles
Photo by Smabs Sputzer via Creative Commons.

This isn't the perfect winter, though. My perfect winter is snowy. Poland snow! That means it's higher than a horse.

I saw snow that deep on Curious George. They were at their country house. And it started snowing and they didn't know. But then, the snow was higher than their house and came into their house. So then the Man with the Yellow Hat had to clean it up. I wish I had that much snow I could play in the snow and make a snow angel and eat snow. I once did eat snow. It was freezing cold and white. I spit half of it out.

This is the first of probably many posts by the Girl. She tells me what to write; I write. -- gls

Leaves

Friday 23 November 2012

When you have a backyard like ours, with so many huge trees with so many thousands upon thousands of leaves, there's only one thing to do on a late-November afternoon. It takes a bit of work at first, but the Girl loves work when it's play -- a sort of Tom Sawyer in reverse.

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Yet quickly enough, the fun begins.

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The Girl remembers from last year the fun of jumping in the leaves, but she's forgotten -- or simply not realized -- the fact that she weighs significantly more this year. And this means a harder impact, for leaves don't provide as much cushion as a five-year-old might assume.

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The Boy, on the other hand, takes a totally different approach. Calm, curious he sits among the leaves and wiggles his feet, swings his arms, and enjoys the newness of the situation.

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It's easy to credit this to his age, but there's a personality difference that's indisputable.

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There's a certain explosiveness to the Girl ("You think?" responds everyone who's ever met her.) that finally finds direction, throwing leaves here, there, and just about everywhere.

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The amount of leaves in her hair after this little adventure astounds. And we haven't even begun burying each other.

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Still, we sometimes manage to get her calmed down within the near proximity of the Boy for a portrait.

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But the calm doesn't last.

Leaf Us Alone!

Still, it wouldn't be the same family if it did.

Sunday Downtown

Sunday 11 November 2012

We never made it to Falls Park during our walk yesterday, so the family decided to start there today. I would have guessed, were someone to ask me, that we were too late to get much of an autumnal view, but I was happily mistaken.

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This time, though, we took the whole family, including our one-and-a-half tooth Wonder Boy who seems willing to smile at just about anything.

First Tooth

The Boy's smile probably had something to do with my wiggling fingers and silly face, but with colors like this, though, who could resist a smile?

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As we headed into the main downtown area of the park, the sun came out fully and consistently, making the Peace Center glow. We, though, were less glowing, especially the Girl, who had by then adopted an all-too-familiar refrain: "I'm hungry."

Peace Center

Nothing is quite as filling on a fall day as an ice cream cone,

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and it never tastes as better than when outside. Or so someone told me.

Ice Cream on the Stairs

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday 21 October 2012

We first went in 2007: a Girl, a camera, wonderful afternoon light, and lots of time.

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October 21, 2007

The next year, we took a photo that was a personal favorite picture for a very long time -- still is, in fact. Our first year in the pumpkin patch and the Girl was exceedingly playful. Giggles all afternoon.

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October 26, 2008

The next year, it was the same. It was a photo shoot that almost shot itself: all I had to was point and shoot, literally. The Girl took care of all the rest. She was so easily excited, and almost everything thrilled her instantly and completely.

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October 4, 2009

By 2010, she was a little lady. Photos were fine, but they had to be in some meaningful context. Gone were the days of, "Put her by that pumpkin" and clicking away. She wanted to help. She wanted to lift. She wanted to compose.

"I'll just move this one over and then sit down..."

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October 15, 2010

Today, though, she had competition. And while the Boy was an easy target -- he can't move, so there's little choice; he can't talk, so there are few protests -- the Girl had other ideas.

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The Boy was far too fascinated with the straw and hay to make much of a fuss about anything. The only trick was trying to get him to sit up long enough. Then we hit on the idea of holding him in such a way that the support was not immediately visible. Then we just gave up and shot.

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We managed to talk the Girl into a few photos,

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but she was far more interested in picking a pumpkin, and even more interested in hauling said pumpkin to the wheelbarrow.

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And so I guess we'll be recreating all the autumnal photo shoots with the Boy that we had with the Girl over the last few years. I can't imagine more exciting prospects.

Autumn Sun

Wednesday 10 October 2012

It’s the angle — no doubt. The sun is hitting the earth at a decreasing angle as the northern hemisphere moves further and further away from the sun. Yet that astro-mechanical explanation somehow doesn’t do justice to the quality of light this time of year. We sit down for an early dinner and the light outside is simply magnetic. One must head out to the deck to get a closer look.

Autumn Sun

As the sun goes down, though, attention turns to more important things. The Girl can now read a book — a single book — to E. Perhaps in the recent past it would have been more a question of memorization than anything else, but these days, there’s no question she’s reading.

Reading to Brother

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the Boy is comprehending.

The New

Sunday 22 July 2012

With temperatures what they are, the new will have to wait. Exploring this or that place with a sweaty infant does not in the least sound entertaining. For anyone.

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So a third afternoon out of four at the pool seems the only logical response.