| life. photography. motherhood.

the other two

The thing is, they are just easier.  They don't require two dozen books a week or pages upon pages of math quizzers or explanations of area and perimeter and learning half the times tables all before lunch.   Being home with my kids, with someone always quite literally underfoot, a math lesson might only be twenty minutes, a request for "quizzers" over lunch may be overruled by knock knock jokes. There remain endless math equations to solve.   Books left unread will still contain their tales.  When the words themselves can't yet be read, pretending your way along has a magic all its own.

life as an iPhone mom

I'm not sure if I love or hate the term iPhone mom.  Really, is anything that reduces me to a cliche a good thing?  If I think about it, it was actually an iPhone Dad that turned me into an iPhone mom in the first place.  In a waiting room of course.  My five year old has

magical two

This little guy lucked out with three straight days of birthday bliss between his family party, his dad's belated family party and our little family of five celebration this evening.  There is magic in the quiet still moments of just us gathered around with nothing between us and the sweetness of (cup)cake bliss but a hope and a wish for the year ahead. Each of the girls had a small heart-shaped cake on one of my grandmother's, actually her mother's, depression glass plates.  And my guy of course had this ginormous number two made of 24 tiny little cupcakes.  I make them in muffin tins without the liner as our tradition is to let the kids eat or sample as many of the cupcakes as their little hearts desire.  

I posted a funny photo on Twitter of my guy taste testing (as they are meant to be I suppose!) a tree from the Little Alouette Etsy shop.  I'm sure that's just the beginning of the love and wear that these toys will see.  At some point a few years down the road, I will sneak them back, put them on a shelf or a dresser top and then tuck them into a memory box a few years after that.  Years on they will be the 'you got these when you were two' remembrance and the toys that gets passed on long after they've been passed over in the toy box.  So on to the magical wonder that is this age,  in the time before spirited two catches up to the emotion of three or knowing of four and beyond.  

the third year ahead

I'm thinking if this photo captures the essence of the year ahead, we are in for a treat (or a trick!).  I made the mistake of unboxing the cake long before guests arrived and he sat with rapt attention waiting and watching.  If two is all about this kind of patience, well bring it on. 

you know there's a three year old in the house when. . .