A Little Lately

In the past few months, many things have filled our attention and peripheral time. It's about time that I took a couple moments to write about the boys and their latest developments and goings-ons. My, how they change within days, weeks, and months...

As of a month ago now, Owen is walking!!! His ginger steps and falls of the first week have become steady, balanced journeys across the room. His face and eyes light up with each movement forward as if to say, "Goodness, will you check this out?!? I'm walking!!" So sweet.

His language has grown, as well. Now, when I walk in to pick him up after his nap, I am greeted with a "Hi-ee!" It's incredible. And it sounds exactly the way I say "hi" :) It's one of my favorite moments of the day to walk in, pull back the curtain around his crib and hear "hi-ee" before seeing his smiling, rested face peering back at me.

Yesterday I was reading him a book and the book says, "Bump, bump, bump." He immediately said those words right back to me. It was so surprising and exciting!

Owen's personality is SO fun to see unfolding. He's silly, laid-back & opinionated at the very same time. He makes funny faces that keep us all in stitches and he LOVES to be included in absolutely everything.

He's started carrying books over for us to read, which is just the best.

Ian is really into playing WITH someone and doing joint activities. This bleeds into almost every single activity of the day, be it picking up toys, getting dressed, playing with toys, you name it. Life is meant to be shared.

He speaks often of moving to New Hampshire and it's clear that he's processing what it will mean for him. One day on the way to Parent's Morning Out (PMO) he told me that PMO and Ms. Natalie and Ms. Kristy won't be coming with us to New Hampshire. He said that he would have a new school. Once we arrived at PMO I asked if they had been talking to him about this and they said no. At home I asked Jim and he, too, said that he hadn't. Before we were even having the conversations, Ian was starting to process it. And now, today was his last day there. It was bittersweet for both of us. He seemed to understand it and lingered there just a bit longer. We waved goodbye to the building and both teared up a bit.

We've shown him pictures of our new home and he talks about it often. He'll say things that he wants to do there and things he wants to bring with us when we go. It's on his mind a lot, which makes sense because we are all talking about it a great deal, these days. It's amazing to process something like this with him.

He's also VERY into asking the question, "Why?" A new level of understanding brings the new question of why things are the way they are, why people feel a certain way, you name it. I often sing the Mr. Rogers song in my head, "Why, why, why, why, wonder why... "

These boys adore each other. One day, we were playing at a friends' home with lots of other children running around. I looked across the room to find them in a longggg embrace. It lasted so long that other moms started to notice and comment. Ian had been outside playing and Owen just noticed that Ian was around again. He went over for a "welcome back" hug. This mama could hardly stand the emotions :)

What they love best is being outside and playing together. We are THRILLED that this is the case. We cannot wait for them to have space to explore the backyard in our future house. It's not long now.

We celebrated Mother's Day at home this year. It was lovely. Jim made me a huge breakfast spread, we built a super cool fort in our backyard, we had a relaxing day in our home & yard. Then Jim made a yummy dinner. My belated mother's day gift was to take a needlepoint class in Blowing Rock, NC with one of my friends. Last Saturday we took the whole day and drove down three hours, took the class, ate lunch and walked around the super sweet town of Blowing Rock (I want to go back!), before driving back. We chatted the whole way, both of us gone from our second babies for the first full day ever. It was lovely and so nice to spend time with this dear friend.

We also celebrated Jim's birthday!!! He turned 31 last week! We enjoyed dinner outside and then had, at his request, mint chocolate tiramisu cake. We enjoyed a sweet family celebration and gave Jim a few little gifts. His favorite was an interview of Ian about the birthday boy <3

Life is moving so fast. So much paperwork and phone calls, visits and goodbyes. We just want to savor and linger in each moment. I know that I am only barely skimming the surface right now on this blog. I hope to catch up again once more soon. Boy, am I thankful for my little family. For these boys who provide us with so much laughter and make us beam with love and joy, and for Jim who's finishing up this grueling & rigorous season so very soon.

A friend asked me if I've been able to process moving and it's a hard question to answer. I am trying. I am journaling. I am attempting to do the things we love in these last few weeks, but it's also difficult to imagine that I won't mourn it. Seven years of love and roots have been placed here.

We are SO thrilled & excited for our new location and a place to call our own. And cannot wait to start putting down roots there, too, but this current season is about saying goodbye before I can move completely forward. For some friends it's only a "see you later" though, and for that, we are grateful.