Becoming...

Today was a very productive and fun day for me. The girls were enjoying their weekly visit with Ama, so I spent all day battling (and conquering) the weeds in my vegetable garden and then mulching to keep myself from having to do this again for awhile. While some may say, "That doesn't sound like much fun to me...", I know that Sarah and Tina will understand the simple joys I felt today while getting dusty, sweaty, and sunburnt, since they are what you might call "gardeners" while I am what you might call "a hack". I realized that when one has to weed an entire bed with a full size spade rather than a trowel, it's probably a sign that one is not the best gardener... But I had fun! And I got to do a lot of thinking while doing all that digging. Things always fly by while I'm taking care of the girls and it doesn't leave much time for really enjoying them at each stage. The baby manual I'm currently reading (Your One-Year-Old by Ames & Ilg - I highly recommend it Shan!) says this about kids their age:

"There is hardly anything in the world more exciting than something which is on the verge of becoming. When this something is a human being, a human personality on the verge of declaring itself, the excitement doubles...we as parents and grandparents see, or imagine that we see, the person emerging more clearly at about Eighteen months than at any succeeding age. Later on the child will have become. Right now he or she is becoming. When he is no longer a baby but is not yet a preschooler, his very in-betweeness on good days can be a delight to behold."

I invite the authors to see what my eldest daughter was "becoming" at Trader Joe's yesterday when she didn't want to give up the kid-sized cart... ;) But seriously, this really is an amazing time in their lives, and I keep trying to soak in as much of it as I can. Between doing endless dishes and changing diapers and picking up hundreds of small (and getting smaller) toys and wiping crayon off walls, I peek at them and wonder what their interests will be when they are my age... how will they choose to spend their lives? Who will accompany them in their adulthood? Current trends indicate that they will have each other to lean on, at the very least. They are both good at looking out for each other, bringing one another toys and giving hugs when one is crying. And we suspect Alex will enjoy something that requires movement and agility and a little bit of fearlessness, maybe dance or downhill skiing or synchronized swimming... And Dani loves to stir pots and pans with spoons, spatulas, whisks, sticks and she cracks herself up while going around pretending to feed people, so maybe she'll be a world-famous chef, or a kind-hearted nurse, or a scientist (perhaps the mad variety!). To my delight, they both love to read books and draw. :) So we'll see what our pumpkins become. For now, I've made a little compilation with mosaic maker... maybe these are clues as to what they'll become!



Let's hope Alex actually doesn't become the Hulk... (thank goodness for washable crayola finger paint!)

On a side note, it's been brought to my attention at a recent wedding (Thanks Allicia! Congrats on a great day!) that we have a few international friends who are following our little Indy life. I love that my goal of reaching out to my loved ones has become even lower maintenance than I ever dreamed! Being a lazy, bad friend doesn't always kick you in the butt, I guess. Yeeha! Visit again soon, dearies!