Bird Nest

Birthday Part 2

So, after overindulging in cake, we headed out for an adventure - or an expedition as we often call it. 
First stop, Multnomah Falls in the Gorge.  Then on to Hood River for lunch, ice cream and general lolly-gagging-about. 

Headed off to a windy spot of beach where Rooster got fried to a crispy burn and Jbird played and splashed about.  Sparrow and I spent most of the time hiding out from the wind, watching the clouds go by, with a short exploration of the sand.
 
Then back into Hood River for a bit of park time and kite flying.  Finally we headed home, so tired from our long day. 

For now I savor that Jbird doesn't want or expect birthday parties.  I expect I'll wait until he begs to have a party before I pony up.  In the meantime, it's sweet to have family time and to create special days without too much planning.  Truth be told, I don't want to share the cake!

Looking forward to watching our Jbird navigate his fourth year.   It's certainly been a wild ride last year and I am so honored to have him as my guide.

He's Four

My.  Oh My.  So many pictures.  So many moments to document over the last few days.  I'll begin with the birthday morning.  Egg breakfast was followed by gifts and cake.

My little Jbird turned four last Wednesday.  We celebrated all day, but that day began with cake.  I baked a cake inspired by the Honey Cake recipe in this very inspiring book.  I added berries in the middle and went a little over the top with the late night cake decorating.   The rosemary might have been my favorite ingredient in this cake.  Oh, and I think we finished it off later that night.  It was that yummy.  (Or maybe Rooster and I just have that little willpower.)

After cake we headed off to many adventures.  Pictures to come.  I'm still in a bit of shock that my first son is four year old already. 

Sliding Into Summer

After a dreamy trip to Seattle we are back and sliding into the Summer season.  Today we joined our neighbors and friends for Sunday Parkways - a six mile loop of closed streets for biking (and walking in our case.)  It was so sweet to hit the streets and watch as crowds of bikers and walkers took over the roads.  The loop passed through multiple parks with events and music.  Most sweet was watching old and young out on bikes, and of course all of the super awesome family bike setups.  I've been so inspired by these and can't wait for our sparrow to be a bit older for me to feel safe strapping him aboard.

Sparrow and I awoke from a nap to find Rooster and Jbird setting up for dinner on the patio.  I am so thrilled to get back into the swing of patio dining.  We felt a bit rusty figuring out the chairs, the set up, but it was so worth it to eat outside and enjoy the fresh air.  I'd love to have it all be a quicker set up, perhaps something Jbird could handle on his own - so we would be more likely to eat out there every meal.  I recall so many fond meals when I lived in Belgium on foreign exchange as a teenager, my host family always setting up the summer meals outside, even breakfast.  So many things I'd like to "move closer to."  I hope it's the summer we fall into new patterns, new rhythms, new rituals.

 

A Dandelion For You

It's not always frustrating.  Often it is sweet and heart melting.  Often it takes your breath away.

The Best Plan

What to say when you don't want to blog about how you are hating yourself for being one of those exasperated and yelling mothers you cringe over.  What to say when you don't want to talk about how hard it's been recently, even though it's not always this way, just sometimes.  What to say when you want to be hopeful and positive and give your children the benefit of the doubt.  Hoping that if you hold faith in them pulling through, they might just.  Of course they will.  It's just hard to see it in the thick of things.

Maybe I need to put down the camera, the laptop, and get back to reading my parenting books for more strength and inspiration.  That, or a nice big drink.  Or both might be the best plan yet.

Sparrow's Tree

No, the irony isn't lost on me.  Yes, my last post was titled:  For Trees So Tall.  And yes, we did just obliterate our superbly tall tree.  Somewhere a black mark has been placed next to our name.

We had a very naughty tree living in our parking strip.  So, after much to-do over the years, after gutting our sewer and water pipes, after ripping up our sidewalk and growing it's roots clear across our front yard into our neighbors and after much litter and darn sweet gumballs, we decided the time had come.  We got permission from the city to have it taken down.  But not without first selecting our replacement tree.

That was tough.  We were limited to finding another LARGE tree (think 100 footer) and included in the cities outdated list was our own offender with shallow roots, the Sweetgum.  So, I knew that we had to do more than just pick from the short list they gave us.  Finally after much searching, we diverted a bit from the list (and size) and purchased a Ginkgo and were given the clear from the city.  The arborists were called in and we all gathered to watch when they took it down.  It's amazing what brings everyone in a neighborhood together.  All the neighbors, outside in the street, watching the tree come down in pieces.  Everyone was giddy with excitement and all had stories to tell about other trees they had seen on the street over the years.   When the trunk sections came crashing down it shook the whole street and left scars on the street.  It was quick.  Like pulling a bandaid.  And I felt a tinge of guilt - but kept thinking of all the damage it had done, and was destined to continue.  I tried to focus my irritation at the folks that planted it in the parking strip, not the best home for a sweet gum, a bit short-sighted.

Tonight, ever wonderful Rooster plowed in and dug through the clay dirt and root tangles to create space for the new tree that had been delivered.  We planted it with Sparrow's placenta, which seemed like the perfect way to mark the occasion of this new tree coming to our home, the very place where Sparrow was born.  It was raining, Jbird was an overtired mess, and we were so rushed to get it into the ground before bedtime, before dark.  There was no ceremony.   In fact, I almost forgot what we had planned and thankfully Rooster remembered before we placed the tree.  Perhaps by the time Sparrow is old enough to hear about his tree, we'll have forgotten how we left out the ceremony.  We'll have created our own story by then.

For now, the story starts with this tree, planted in honor of Sparrow and his birth in our home, in our family.

For Trees So Tall

Oh Dear, yet again, days have passed by.   Another moment passes and I barely to manage to celebrate it to the fullest extent, let alone capture it here on the blog.  Perhaps I'd be in worse shape without this blog biting at my heels.

Today we brought another chair and the baby seat for Sparrow to officially join us at the table.  It was so nice to look over at him and see his smiles and giggles (instead of watching him scoot around on the living room carpet while we eat.)  As a first meal, we offered avocado.  Hard to tell if he liked it or not, but he was fairly fond of the spoon at least.  I'm sure if I handed him the bowl he would have taken to that as well.



We don't yet fall into the solid meal time rhythm that I aspire to.  Sometimes it's a bit haphazard.  Often I am nursing Sparrow, or Rooster is still in kitchen, we all graze, or Jbird might be running back and forth to the table, creating some sense of boundless joy.  But I promise myself that someday we will have the discipline to follow through for all meals - having our "bottoms" on the seat, candle lit, blessing sung, hands held.  For now, we do that sometimes, and other times we just do parts.  It's a journey.  And the intention is there.

Tonight Jbird picked the following meal blessing, and we actually held hands across the table;
" For trees so tall, And sky so blue, For friends, family and food, We Thank You."

Indeed.

Exploding

 
These tulips landed on our dining room table for Mother's Day.  Every morning we sit at the table and watch how they explode and open further.  I keep thinking they are past their tipping point and yet the next morning they are reaching out even further, the colors even more determined to amaze us.

And this is in many ways reflective of how I feel about the family we have birthed here.  Our lives. Our little family.  My heart looks like these flowers when I take a moment to look around and see where I stand.

I feel so incredibly lucky.  Not in the sense that this life, these blessings have been handed to Rooster and I on a platter, but that we have found this path, this existence and somehow we have just floated through these smooth waters into the perfect spot.  I mean, we work hard and it's an effort to make things work.  It's certainly an effort to make things fit into the outline we've drawn out and dreamed of.  Some of our choices have not made things easy, a bit of swimming upstream to say the least.  But mostly, I'm amazed at how beautiful this thing is - this thing about being partners in this journey, about raising these children and creating our own little family.  Mostly, despite the grumbles and the cries and the heavy lifting, mostly our life looks just like these exploding and hopeful tulips.  It fills me with joy.  And I'm so thankful.

Sarsaparilla and Lemon Balm

I'm pretty big on holding back with my kids.  I figure they have their whole lives to find out about the world around them, including such things as sugar drinks.  But I just couldn't resist introducing Jbird to the world of root beer.  Of course, drinks like this will still only be for special occasions in our household - but still, he was pretty impressed with his "Sassparilla".  We had just encountered it in a book and when I saw it on the menu, I thought it sounded perfect.  Thankfully, he didn't ask for one this morning when we woke up for breakfast.

We've been heavy in our spring gardening.  We planted three more blueberry bushes (small ones) in our front garden - which means we will have five blueberry bushes out there.  I love having real food out front, and even better to have it mixed in with the garden flowers.  We filled out another garden box and are replacing and filling some gaps in the original garden design.  I've spent the entire week crashing through the garden books selecting just the right perennials.  And of course, multiple trips to the largest nurseries in town.  And now that the garden has just exploded in new green growth, I see I have my hands full weeding and cleaning out all of the errant visitors that came uninvited.  That, and it looks like the Lemon Balm went to seed and exploded in the entire garden.  I can see those little lemon balm seedlings laughing at me in my dreams.

Happy Spring days to everyone.  It finally feels like Mrs. Thaw has finished her work and Spring is here for good.

Spring Sun Rays

 

A little wizard hat for the dress up basket. Jbird also wants an owl hood type thing but I don't know how to even start that project. 

 

And there are now some photos in flickr of the garden at request.  Nothing too amazing, but I'm very appreciative of the work our previous owner did in establishing these garden beds.  And every day I watch with anticipation to see what will bloom next, what will fill into the spaces.  Beyond our new vegetable boxes we just built, I'm thinking about using one of the 4 boxes for more landscape gardening.  I'm madly pouring through the native plant options as well as taking inspiration from what I see in our neighborhood.  I'd like to add a few more blueberry bushes.  These were such a hit last summer and are so sweet in flower gardens.  Who can resist a blueberry from your own back front yard?

As you may have noticed, most of our garden and vegetable work is right in our front yard.  We do have a back yard.  Indeed, a multi-tiered landscape that is partially tamed and also partially shaded.  However, for us, the main gardening happens in front.  Right out on the street.  I find it refreshing to walk past it every day, coming and going.  And often, we are right out in our front, playing on the sidewalk, talking to neighbors watching the world go by on our sweet dead end street.  We can have privacy in our back, or even on the side patio, but usually, it just feels right to be right out in front.   And it looks like we'll be out there all summer tending our new plants and vegetables.