melted smoosh

dearest Sweetpea, with the warmer weather, you're absolutely loving spending time outside! it's no coincidence that you say "sigh" for both "outside" and "slide", since you could easily spend an hour going up and down the hand-me-down Little Tikes slide our neighbors generously gave us. sometimes you get to the top of the slide and just sit there, calmly surveying your domain. it must be fun to see the world from a new vantage point!  you also love to "help" Daddy with yard work, picking up leaves and trying to use the rake. you're intrigued by caterpillars, ants, and any creepy-crawly thing, although the texture of grass on your barefeet still gives you the shivers sometimes.  your sense of humor cracks us up. sometimes you'll walk around with an exaggerated strut (and check over your shoulder to make sure we're watching). other times, you'll be giving your baby doll her pretend bottle, when you suddenly pu

it's a contemplative sort of day. a day that finds me observing, remembering, pondering, life and relationships and all the tiny details that give our lives colour and depth and pathos and meaning.  i'm curled up on our living room couch, listening to the genteel pulse of the mantel clock, while Greta vroom-vroom s her wooden blocks around the floor like so many little cars, then suddenly hurtles across the room to look out the window, barefeet slapping unevenly on the hardwood. Kaiser lets out a soft warning bark as someone walks down the sidewalk outside. the comforting scent of rosemary wafts in from the kitchen, where the filling for tonight's steak and cheese pie is cooking. (it's a classic British dish, in honor of today being the Feast of St. George, and i am unashamed to say that i got the recipe from a Buzzfeed article.) the living room is strewn with books, the pots and pans from Greta's kitchen set, and  a few errant plastic Easter eggs. her Easter ba