Mother's Day, like all other holidays as they get older, was more exciting for them than anyone else. They all got up early, practiced their dance that Ryan apparently choreographed the night before, and sang to me "Happy Mother's Day! We love you!" on repeat for five minutes. It was awesome.
These kids have made me happier than I have ever been. Being a mom is the hardest job I have ever done and yet it is the most rewarding. I learn more and grow more because of these three little beings and that fascinates me. As they get older and are more exposed to that "outside world," things get trickier, questions get tougher, worries become larger and I hold on tighter. I miss their little voices and babbling toddler talk. I look at pictures of the three of them as babies and vividly remember so many details yet it seems so far from where we are now. But I also look at them as these wildly independent (yet so dependent), strong willed, free, happy children that are coming in to their own. They say things that remind me how important what we say, do and feel is. Becoming their mother is a celebration of it's own capacity. One beyond what I ever imagined it to be.
And the other great distraction in our life is this box turtle. Ryan's mom had found him on their property and gave it to Declan. The turtle was life's greatest obsession for a couple of weeks....until a little sister forgot to put him back in his box. We went a week or two without Little Foot (grandma named the turtle and Declan was a fan) and then one day he appeared right under our feet, quite literally. He was just a step off the patio area burrowed beneath a flower box. So Declan was happy as a lark and Little Foot became his job every waking minute. That is, until the evening he and Ryan built a home for him. They made a little brick surround for him underneath the playground slide. Needless to say, turtles dig and he dug himself right out of there. So he's gone again. Declan searches for him every day. He isn't sad, he doesn't cry, he's sure he's still out there somewhere... He said that maybe he needed to find his mom. He suggested that we move every stick, leaf, stone, and item in our yard, and he does just that--multiple times a day. Tonight as he put money in his piggy bank he said, "well, I guess I'm saving my money for that hundred dollar turtle again...can we go to Petco?"
The following weekend, Isabella had her third on stage performance. This time, in her ballet school's production of Snow White. Sadly, Eleanor and all of her friends were performing on the following day so she did her production on Saturday and I took her on Sunday to see the others. She loved watching just as much as she loved performing. Isabella has always loved ballet. Quinn quite possibly has her beat in the obsession department (which I didn't think was possible, but it is!) and she loves learning new dances and dressing up and now, performing. It still amazes me to watch her up there. Makes me a little teary, much like all major "life moments" do, but I am so proud of her. Our little blue bird.
Isabella also had her first field trip since she's been at her new school, which still makes just her second field trip so far. She gets pretty excited about riding a bus, of course, and I just enjoy being able to watch her in a scene that is pretty foreign to me. Her class went to a dairy farm and then to the Children's Museum. They all had a lot of fun, the most fun of course, being the baby cows and the fact that they would suck on the kid's fingers, but what's better than a baby cow when you're six?
Declan needed a little field trip too. He watches Isabella as she's learned to read and write this year. He is impressed by all that she can do. Quinn has a favorite book right now, Ballet Kitty, that we read on repeat. We've now reached the point where Quinn can read the book to us. She has the expression, the words, and the gestures down pat. And Declan has recognized this as well. He told me today that Isabella and Quinn can read now, but he just hasn't learned. I tried to explain memorization to him, but he's convinced Quinn can read. The other week we were going through the bins of preschool stuff I had from last year when we did preschool at home with Isabella, Danielle and Abbey. He asked me when school was starting again. I asked him what he meant and he said "I just really want to have preschool again. You know, like in the playroom at the old house...with the table and just us big kids doing work. I want to do that some more." So I promised him that I would kick myself into gear and make him a "preschool." He just said it's only school if he sits at a desk...
I took him and Quinn on an impromptu trip to the Arboretum the other day. We grabbed some bagels on the way, which were long forgotten as soon as he spotted the ducklings.
Oh, but then....Then, we walked around the pond and Mr Big Eyes spotted a turtle way out in the middle of the water. It was all he could do not to jump right in. As we rounded the bend, he spotted a whole family of turtles sunning on the rocks. At that point I really thought he was going to fall in. He got as close as he physically could, knelt down and stared. He spotted an egg in the mud and was just beside himself with excitement. We then proceeded to walk around the pond no less than ten times, each time stopping to stare at the turtles, get as close as possible, ask a million questions--which thanks to the pile of turtle books that we check out at the library every.single.time, I now know the answers too... and dream about the day he builds a pond with "hundreds of turtles." Because to every one he sees, he tells them about the "hundreds of turtles...and one egg" he saw (by the way, there were maybe twelve turtles).
Sometimes I wish I had half the energy of these kids. What I really admire though, is their uninhibited love for something that is right within their reach. They don't have to go far, it's right in front of them. They love life.
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