President's Day: 2017

Oh man, oh man! A three day weekend? Yes please!

To celebrate Pops' birthday, we took Pops to the zoo!

You were excited about the animals and the company, sure. But the big hit was the cotton candy. And the Cotton Candy was as good as y'all remembered it from last time.

Then...sushi!

The next day it was 'warm' enough outside so you guys chose to do a car wash!

Which then turned into something else entirely..

And then, in what seems to be our annual President's Day tradition, we went to the dentist!

The most exciting news is that x-rays show that you, Aidan, will be losing your first tooth soon! Your front, bottom, left tooth (which you can see on the right in the x-ray below has almost NO root left on your baby tooth!) You were so excited about your loose tooth, Aidan!

But, you're hanging on to those front top teeth for a while. 

And Julia, your x-rays show a lot of root still left in there, but you were SO psyched about seeing your adult teeth coming in that you spent the rest of the day telling anyone who would listen- mommy, the neighbors, our waiter, our bus-boy- that you have adult teeth coming in!

And- come on- the best part of the dentist is the free floss (which you requested, Julia, when they didn't put it in your bag) and the toys!

You couldn't wait to show Mimi and Pops your clean teeth too!

Add in a driving lesson, to boot, and you got yourself one heck of a President's Day Weekend!

Julia and Maui the Skink

One Saturday, we were all working in the garden, when Aidan and I caught a skink.

Aidan was very interested in the skink and observed it in a jar.

But then, Julia, you asked Aidan if you could play with the skink too. He said 'sure!'

You two checked out the skink together and then Aidan played with the water hose.

But you...you continued to marvel at the marvelous skink.

And it was true love.

You named him Maui.

You cuddled him.

Let him crawl on you.

He seemed pretty calm and collected and enjoyed your warmth.

You cuddled him for at least an hour.

You loved him.

And then he eventually hopped away and went on his merry little life.

You were sad.

But, you'll always have the memories of Maui.

That Thing You Do: Dandelions

Aidan, ever since you were a very young lad, you delighted in stopping to smell the flowers. You still do. 

And while that is an enviable trait, your botanical appreciation goes even further. For as long as I can remember, you've been into dandelions. You love to blow them away and make wishes upon them when they're no longer yellow. You love to smell them, to stop and look at the bees flitting in and out of their yellow heads, to pick and gather them wherever we may find them...and to give them to people you love.

You've picked out dandelions for me, for Julia, for Yaya, for Shamsy, for Pops and Baba and Joseph, for Rebekka and Molly. For the Long triplets. Even for Toby to have a little snack!

But, if we're being honest here, most of the dandelions you pick are for your Mama.

You are so, so sweet.

You find beauty where others may see weeds. And you selflessly give that beauty away, to brighten some one else's day.

That's the beauty of a dandelion. It is more symbolic of love than a rarer flower such as a rose or orchid. Because love is everywhere. You just need to open your eyes and see it. And just as the dandelion flower turns to a seed that can be spread with a breath and a wish, so to can love.

No matter where you go in life, my son, remember the dandelion. It, like you, is sunny, is life, and is love. 

Shuffle- Random Awesome Videos

There's a saying about "the cutting room floor." I don't know what that saying is, but let's just say that there is a LOT of awesome video of you guys that I don't really ever show you on this blog. I don't really want it to go out into cyberspace and then you'll never see it. So I put a bunch of it together into one awesome, totally random video, featuring a lot of 'happy birthday' singing to cousins, some new skills, some adorable laughter, some cousin love, and some additional snippets of our lives together!

We love you for all of these little moments- even the ones where no cameras were running! But it's cool to get a snippet window into your lives for posterity!