Seasons

I think a combination of Lyla's age (I'm realising how mind-numbing the baby years were), some gorgeous weather and just the loveliness of Michigan (yup, just wrote that) made this a really great year for us.  The seasons seemed so well-defined and each filled with its own lovely traditions.  The autumn was particularly lovely, warm days, amazing leaves, hay rides and pumpkins and apple cider...very American.  I think that after 10 years here, I'm actually starting to feel at home, hard to admit though that is.

amateurish foliage shots



at Verhage farms



We had about 23 opportunities to wear halloween stuff...

Zoo Boo

 And it just seemed that fall would never end, more and more perfect, warm days, the kids playing in the playground every day after school...but then, the first morning frost...

Then, yesterday, the first few inches of snow.  What a difference a year makes, last year she liked it, up to a point, this year, I can't get her to come inside (thank you large deck!).

There are snow angels...

And swimming (with a good amount of eating thrown in)...

And buckets and spades

And warm cuddles afterwards...

And the countdown to Christmas begins!

The Circle Game

It's a time of firsts for the kid - first trip to the dentist (oral surgery may be in her future...great! This dentist is so behind the times, doesn't he know that a diastema is THE look for fall.  Look at all the gap-toothed beauties around, Anna Paquin, Lauren Hutton, Vanessa Paradis, MADONNA for goodness sake!), first hair cut (made bearable by a dum-dum and a swag bag at the end).


what d'ya get??

And then, of course, the first day of school.  For a start, it's basically playgroup, she's going two days a week for two WHOLE hours at a time, secondly, this was just a meet the teacher, parents get to stay day, not even the real waving goodbye day and I was still a messy puddle on the floor.  The kids played for a bit then had their first circle time while we all looked on and snapped pictures.  I wasn't expecting the tears at all, but they just all looked so grown up and earnest.  The official end of babyhood.

I'm a walking cliche with lyrics from The Circle Game going through my head "we can't return, we can only look, behind from where we came and go round and round and round in the circle game".  Wonder if Joni has kids...



Update: You know what's fun for getting the heart rate going? Sit and watch your fearless three year old have her first solo swimming class supervised by two flirting teenagers, who instruct her to hold on to the side then turn around and don't notice for a couple of seconds that SURPRISE the child doesn't listen and lets go and sinks like a stone...oh hahahahahahah, awesome!

I think there's a new Wonderpets on!

OK, I've never actually said that, but I've come pretty close a couple of times. Lyla's new favourite game is "Animal PreSchool/Playdate". All the animal mummies and daddies drop the kids off at the dollhouse where the poor old girl doll is expected to serve them tea and entertain a dizzying mix of small animals - don't tell me having a lion and a pig over at the same time will end well. Oh and there is no baby zebra so the cat is his kid because, "not all families look the same and that is OK", sometimes I'm so pc I even annoy myself. So after it's all over, each mummy shows up to collect her offspring, one tiny animal mummy at a time, and each one has to say, "do I really have to go, and thank you for having me and let's do it again soon". Then the whole thing starts from the beginning again. It is literally all she wants to play. It was adorable for a day, pretty cute for a couple, after a week it is teeth-grindingly annoying. Yes, yes, I'm awful, foster her imagination, blah blah, blah. The worst part is, my guilt over her lack of a fictiously perfect younger sibling always ready and willing to play this frankly very tedious game, brings me back every time. So, no, I haven't yet suggested the WonderPets, but I'm getting close. Amateurish photo illustrations follow:

Almost Three

What is Lyla like at almost three? How can I capture the essence of her right now? I can look at photos in a year or two or ten but I'm not sure I'll remember what she is really like right now.

She's feisty and dramatic and demanding. She's learning that saying "Please can you, would you mind" makes us more likely to give into her demands. She's ecstatically happy one moment and in a flood of tears the next. She is unafraid of most things, spending ten minutes gently getting a spider to crawl into her hand so she can bring him to show me. Grabbing handfuls of the blackberries that grow at the edge of the little wood in our garden and cramming them in her mouth until purple juice drips down her chin. She'll eat just about anything, especially if you give it to her a couple of times but she would be perfectly happy to survive on milk and fruit. She's in love with a cartoon pig and a whiney French-Canadian pre-schooler. While she's surviving on that milk and fruit, she'd like you to read to her please, constantly. She can play for ages with her little plastic animals and "zoo" (see above) making up stories and adventures. She's incredibly loving and sweet, whispering "I love you" in your ear and giving you a big wet kiss on the cheek. I think we'll keep her.

Summertime and the living is...

carefree, serene, pleasant...easy.

I could live in Michigan forever for the summers alone. Winter here is harsh and brittle. Black ice covered roads, dirty slush piling up everywhere, giant icicles hanging precariously from buildings, people with grey, pinched faces. But the summers...this is why people live here. And the fact that you've been through the winter and know that another one will be coming around soon enough just forces you to make the most out of every day. So here are a few things I love about Michigan summers...

the hammock

the fruit (dear god, the fruit)

the beach

Farmers Market Day

More gorgeousness from the Richland farmers market (farmer's? or maybe farmers'? a market made up of farmers or a market for farmers? farmers doesn't look like a real word now). Anyway, peonies...how utterly lovely. Description defying. Or maybe it just defies me...something about Victorian undies, maybe?



And the first strawberries of the season, yippee! I was starting to get a bit sick of rhubarb. So fresh they still have sand on them, which is quite a pain to wash off, actually.



And then incredibly easy spinach and parmesan gnocchi for dinner, plate swimming in olive oil, yum.

Oh and Lyla in her Elmo (not Victorian) undies is pretty gorgeous too.

Lovely Things

The child continues to grow like a weed, think we might need to start her on the ciggies soon.

These crudely drawn chalk illustrations obviously represent mother and child...jumping.

************************************************************

Our first (little, tiny) farmer's market haul. The rhubarb ended up as rhubarb and strawberry crumble, asparagus roasted for 10 min then demolished in 5, and the basil is doing well on the deck.

**********************************************************

This guy came to visit us this weekend...

Among other kid related things, we subjected him to a hot day at the zoo with a two year old...

It was one of those times when you haven't seen someone for ages (almost 10 years) and yet it was as if no time had passed at all. Lovely things.