It’s great weather for August—cool and clear, a far cry from the “sweet corn days” of a few weeks ago. This morning I took the kids down to the woods for the first time in several weeks. Alex picked wildflowers in yellow (a daisy), white (Queen Anne’s Lace) and magenta (sorry, I don’t know what that flower is, but it’s quite striking). He also picked up a dozen rocks to bring to the house. Every rock is interesting to him. I try to encourage him in that. One looks like a marshmallow sandwich; another is smooth on top and rough on the bottom; the third is a fossil of some creature with a shell.
Julianna, meanwhile, did her usual, which is to rake her tiny fingers through the sand and pebbles and stick rocks in her mouth, just to make sure Mommy’s paying attention.
We forded the creek, which is as low as I’ve seen it in our one-year residence here, and looked at raccoon tracks in the sand. But after a while we all got slow and sleepy, and Alex asked if he could sit on my lap. Well, he’s too big to sit on my lap, but he cuddled up between my legs, and then scooched down till he was lounging on my stomach. That was Heaven. He’s so far beyond snuggling most of the time—heck, Julianna’s even beyond snuggling these days, unless she’s really shot. To have him resting against me was just wonderful. And he was quiet, which is no small thing.
Julianna, of course, couldn’t have Alex and Mommy having a tender moment that didn’t include her, so she came up with a new sound (“Nigh! Nigh! Nigh! Nigh!”) and lunged forward to grab hair, ears, foreheads and noses. That set Alex to giggling. Finally I shut her up by giving her socks to play with. She’s really into underwear and socks, don’t ask me why.
It was a nice morning to be in the woods. Now I just have to convince Alex that a nice day to be in the woods isn’t necessarily a nice day to go to the pool.
