Meditations on Life and Parenting
“Waiting insistently in front of a tightly closed door is unfair to all of the open doors! Give a chance to the open doors!” – Mehmet Murat ildan
There was a lot of excitement in our house for the UW vs Michigan game last week. It didn’t quite turn out as we hoped but it wasn’t for lack of cheering.
Shredding and cooking. Two distinctly different activities but done in our house with the same amount of enthusiasm.
“A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.” – Ogden Nash
Word!
“The only thing an old man can tell a young man is that it goes fast, real fast, and if you’re not careful it’s too late. Of course, the young man will never understand this truth.” – Norm MacDonald
Cooper! 20 weeks ago the stuffed polar bear was 1/3 bigger than Cooper. 16 weeks ago, Cooper drew even. And now, Cooper is at least 1/3 bigger than the bear. No wonder every time I take him to the vet she looks at him, smiles and says, “He’s going to be big.”
And to make sure he stays on track, Cooper is willing to sleep right outside the closet where his food is kept. As close as possible…
Rock climbing and hiking, including find a bus in the woods – but not one that could carry us out of there.
Delivering some neighborhood cheer.
For anyone who giggled at my story about the Christmas present laughter…
The heart and the sign of the week. May you all have a whole (not fractional) great week ahead!
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault
This post started out as my ten favorites but I found I couldn’t pare it down that low. Even then I’ve cheated because with the featured pic, it’s 21… 🙂
These pictures are chronological. In the beginning of the year, I commented that we never made it full-circle on our favorite hiking trail. By September, we did it – without me carrying anyone!
While I can still pick up my kids together, the days are numbered.
A license plate, a horseshoe and a boot. It’s like the set-up for a great joke- or the most creative birdhouse ever!
Worms (not the first or the last time)
And wishes.
Sliding
Paddling
And blogging friends (the amazing Libby Saylor in NYC)!
Wagons with fake dogs
And the introduction of our puppy, Cooper!
Grandmas and binoculars – because they both add perspective
Training…and patience
My favorite sign of the year. (Which also helps with training and patience)
From youngest to oldest…
And the day the dog ate Miss O’s homework.
Coincidentally finding a Spider-man on the dock when wearing a Spider-man sweatshirt.
The moment the cat decided to be friends.
Getting ice cream.
And Vicki’s great suggestion that I should solicit caption ideas…
(All pictures are my own).
“Kindness is love made visible.” – unknown
Somebody ate our Christmas cards and was feeling pretty good about it!
The elves busy working on Christmas gifts.
Sticking with the Christmas theme of this week’s roundup – going to The Nutcracker and Santa with my brother and sister-in-law.
Christmas lights on the Space Needle and the sign of the week.
“If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it.” – Toni Morrison
Cooper’s first vacation. I think he enjoyed it – and the rest of us did too even in windy and stormy conditions!
Cooper – wondering what to pack. And the cat showing that she might have even missed him just a little bit.
How is it that Mr. D can look pensive about chocolate chip cookies but enthused about worms? I’d question his taste…but maybe it’s just some sort of wormhole effect. (To the extent I know about wormholes, it’s just enough to know that there’s no relation to real science or astronomy in that statement.) 😉
The latest grocery store soda display and the sign of the week. Seems like with inflation, the charge should be higher.
“Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it. – Soren Kierkegaard
Ice cream and worms
Puddles and singing holiday songs in jammies with candles
Bouncy houses and pile-ups
Eye glasses and looking through the key hole
Hearts and signs. Eat the cookie before you read the sign.
“All of life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The pets seem confused this week. The cat is sleeping in the window box planters. Cooper is an English golden retriever in an American house carrying a Canadian flag. And Cooper also thinks the Christmas tree is a self-service chew toy stand.
Making Gingerbread Houses with my friend, Jill. Weird how no licorice actually made it ON to my house. Or, given my sweet tooth, it’s probably no surprise to anyone.
Not sure whether to caption this science week or eye-wear week but either way we seemed to find pouring and pounding a lot of fun.
We made it to the finish line of a 5k that Miss O had been practicing for. Mr. D did 4k of it running in rubber rain boots without any training which was almost as impressive as Miss O pushing him for the other 1k. Running isn’t my sport but I was glad that I secretly trained enough to be able to make it through. We all felt like super heroes in the end!
The heart and the sign of the week, because who doesn’t love quoting John Muir?
“Bless our house as we come and go. Bless our home as the children grow. Bless our families as they gather in. Bless our home with love and friends.” – unknown
Sometimes it takes out-of-town friends to remind us of the places in our own city. In this case, Pike Place Market which has the famous fish throwers. See orange circle in third picture which, now that I look at it, likes kinda like flying squirrel. No, I promise it’s a fish. But now that I’m thinking of it, catching a flying squirrel would be pretty impressive too.
Mr. D and Miss O at the Market do their best fish, pig and cute impressions.
Cooper graduated from Puppy Kindergarten and now thinks he’s ready to read. And also to make slime with Olivia and friends.
Rock ball star? And Miss O and Mr. D doing “pad” at night which is when she helps him write downs his thoughts and feelings before bed.
Leaning in to the holidays. Everyone and the dog is so helpful!
The sign of the week (also from Pike Place Market) and a found-in-a-bike lane, but still very cute and soft, heart.
“Life is a canvas. It’s up to you, what colors you choose to paint this canvas of life into a beautiful Masterpiece.” – unknown
Ah, the joys of learning to roller skate.
We got a new boxing toy. Anyone want to guess how many times we played “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor this week? Exactly right — enough to make you want to go out a punch something!
My work colleagues were in town this week. Seattle did a great job showing itself off with spectacular weather.
Thanksgiving theme for the neighborhood skeleton and soda display! It’s been a while since we’ve had a good soda design.
Cooper and his puppy kindergarten posse.
Heart and sign of the week. I selected this sign for its straightforward approach to letting customers know what to expect from their local coffee shop.
“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’” – Maya Angelou
In a slight variation on the Maya Angelou quote from above, apparently it’s not just life that’s saying “let’s go.” These days when we go on a walk, we have our dog, a snail, and even our cat following along.
I adore Mr. D’s preschool teacher, so I’m prefacing this comment that I’m amused and not bitter about the short notice for “dress your child as a favorite book character” day coming just a week after Halloween. But I do suspect that one day if she has children, she may look back on some of these ideas with an “A-ha, that was kinda of a mean thing to do to those parents!”
But no problem, because Miss O and I just informed Mr. D that he liked Harry Potter even if he didn’t know it yet. Because the only other available costume was silk robes.
We think that if Mr. D keeps getting squished by the bear he might end up looking like the man we found in the ice cream. Someone just wrote a post about Pareidolia, or seeing something significant in an inanimate object, right?
And the heart of the week and the sign of the week kinda go nicely together.
Surprised By Joy 