Notes From June

JUNE 23: First day at the pool. The boys loved it, especially since their buddies Landon and Adler were there too. (Thanks Kari for the picture!)

The Garden


Our garden gets bigger every year, and each year, Isaac is more interested and better able to help. This year, he planted potatoes and flower seeds, mulched with grass clippings, and even planted his own bean plant, which he has helped water.

The first food we harvested is above - the snap peas grow like crazy through June and into July. They love a shady fence, and Isaac loves to eat them right off the vine.

Below is the rest of our garden, with corn coming up in front, raspberries out of control in the back, and potatoes growing like weeds in the middle. There are also tomatoes, eggplant, mustard greens, squash, beans, basil, epazote, cucumber, cantaloupe, watermelon and blackberries, along with a grape plant in the side yard and other herbs in pots in the front. Jonah doesn't care about the plants too much yet, but Isaac loves to help me water and see the changes week by week.


I think these flowers are so beautiful. Any guesses what they are?

Answer: potatoes. When they bloom, you can go ahead and harvest the new potatoes, though for storage potatoes, you have to wait until fall when the vines die off.

Below is yet another pumpkin that planted itself - this one in the compost pile. We have two other volunteer pumpkins that are getting huge. And we haven't done a thing for them - we haven't even watered them.


Here is Isaac with his bean plant:


Conversation and Stories:

JUNE 21
At the stoplight on the corner of Federal and 26th, Jonah looked up and said "Safeway! Safeway!" then started saying "Me...cart. Me...cart."
I almost always take the boys to Vitamin Cottage, which sells mostly organic foods, but Jonah not only recognizes Safeway (where he's been now and then with Adam, but not often!) but Safeway is the store he begs for! And he's starting to speak in the first person too...

JUNE 24
Jonah wanted to send Adam an email at work. His message, typed word for word by me:
"Dada dada. Hi Dada.
Hi Dada. Hi Dada.
Hungry. Crackers all gone. Highway downtown.
Bee ant. Bee ant. Bee fly.
Windy.
Bye."

Ohhh...it's so cute, and it's so Jonah!

-----
This week, Jonah has been waking up crying around midnight. A few times, he's been calling for me, so I got him from bed and snuggled with him so he could settle down again. Then I put him back down and blow him kisses, and he's fine.
On this night, it was pretty hot, and he felt sweaty and almost clammy when I picked him up. Adam was still at work, and I brought him into my dark sitting room off our bedroom. We laid down on the futon next to two wide-open windows, with the attic fan pulling the cooler night air over us, and we just talked. Mainly, Jonah talked. He was a chatterbox at 11:45 at night. These are just a few things he told me:
Again elevator. (He wants to ride the Telluride gondola again.)
Watch lightning minute. See lightning...(He's always asking to watch more lightning. In a minute.)
Adler sad water. (Adler was crying a lot at the pool, and Jonah can't stop thinking about his friend.)
See light! Fan on.

I just love that I can know what he's thinking about.

JUNE 26
Isaac was crying loud and long over something rather insignificant, so Adam said to Isaac: "You have 5 seconds to stop crying or you'll have to go to another room."
Jonah's response: "ome two free four RRRAH! (tiger roar at the end)

We all burst out laughing, even Isaac.

JUNE 28
One night while I was feeding the kids dinner, and Adam was at work late:

Jonah: "Again elevator! (gondola in Telluride)
I told Jonah that next time we ride the elevator he will be 2.
Jonah, with big smile: "WOOOW!"

In the middle of Isaac's fussing over something, Jonah said: "Go...away...pimy." (Smokey the dog) "Go...idack (Isaac)...pimeout." (timeout)

Isaac and I looked at each other and laughed like crazy, and Jonah was surprised but pleased with himself.

Isaac and I were just talking about going to Charlotte soon, and I asked him what he would do first when we got there. He said: "The most thing I want to do is play legos. And go play trains at the bookstore."

JUNE 29
On a Wednesday night before soccer, Isaac said gleefully: "I LOVE that soccer team."
Jonah answered: "Love soccer too."

Jonah doesn't get to play with the bigger kids yet, but it was still pretty cute. And if Adam needed a reason to keep coaching the kids, that would be one. I think it means the world to Isaac to have his Dada there.

June 22: First Soccer Night

A mom from playgroup organized Wednesday soccer nights at the park. Every week, a bunch of families get together for dinner and playground time, and then soccer starts at 6pm, complete with coaches (parent volunteers, including Adam, and led by a mom who is a very talented teacher), goals, balls and orange cones. It's really cute, and the kids love it.

I hope to post pictures of the soccer players soon, but I spent the first night chasing Jonah, so these are mostly of him. He was happy to find his buddy Adler, whose big brother Landon was on the soccer field.






And our soccer player at the end of practice, rehydrating:

June 16-18: Telluride Bluegrass Festival

Telluride is one of Colorado's legendary towns, and its bluegrass festival each summer is one of the best in the country. We'd never been to either town or festival, so this year I got 4-day tickets and a campsite pass (in February, before they sold out!), and we planned to spend a long weekend there.

The trip ended up shorter than we'd hoped: Adam had trouble getting away from work and a drawn-out case, so we left a day late. Then Jonah, whose nose had been running like a train track for a week, threw up just before we entered Telluride. We changed his clothes at a pull-off next to a rushing mountain stream and rode into town in a car that smelled of vomit. Jonah was up and down after that - and his ups were fairly normal, while his downs were lethargic and full of sad moans - but when he threw up again the next day after breakfast, we knew we'd better leave early too.

So in the end, we didn't hear that much of the festival, but we were blown away by the beauty of the place. I'd always heard how beautiful Telluride is, and the San Juans are my favorite Colorado mountain range, but this town and canyon are unbelievable in person.


The first night, we stopped in Eagle County and spent our first night in a hotel room as a family of four. Isaac slept in a double bed with Adam (his first time without a bed rail), and Jonah slept in the other double bed with me. After the initial, hilarious excitement of turning out the lights and giggling in the dark, the boys did great. They slept through the night and seemed to love the adventure of it.

We arrived in Telluride the next day and set up our tent. Isaac loved being in the tent, and Jonah loved wandering around the campground and trying to open everyone's containers of water.


They were hard to keep up with at times.








After the second throwing-up incident, we still really wanted to hear some music, so we headed to the festival. This is the view just before you enter.


Isaac was loving every minute of our adventure, and we couldn't stand to tell him we had to leave already. There was a playground right by the festival grounds, and we hoped some playtime might cheer him up. He has turned into such a good traveler - riding for hours in the car without needing much entertainment besides a window and the passing rivers and canyons - and he is so excited to go new places now. We promised him we'd come back to Telluride, maybe even next year.






At first, the boys were happy to hang out and hear the music.




They even showed off their dance moves.






But then Jonah kept wandering off and trying to walk off with other people's things - old cups, a little knife...and he just wasn't himself, anyway. I could hardly tear myself away from the gorgeous canyon and the bluegrass (we even got to see cloggers!) and the atmosphere of it all, but we knew Jonah needed a lot of sleep and some quiet. So we stopped by the family tent on the way out - where our two boys practically fell over laughing at the puppet karaoke - and then went back to get the car.

The car was at the top of the mountain, and we had to take the gondola to get there. We'd ridden it down the night before, and the boys were enthralled. When we first dropped over the steep mountainside, Isaac's face was alternating between laughing and crying. Jonah was completely serious and told our fellow passengers that we were in an elevator. The next day, and for weeks afterward, Jonah has been saying "Again elevator!" He is begging to ride again. Isaac loved it too, once he got over the initial shock - he was old enough to look down.


The boys and I played on this little playground by the high school, while Adam packed up our things.


Isaac is getting so big and strong, so long and lean these days.




And Jonah...poor Jonah. It was so hard to leave, but this face says it all.

June 12: Spiderman

Adam had to leave early on this Sunday morning to go research a case in southern Colorado, and we weren't going to see him until the next day, so our friend Shawn invited us to dinner. We brought some leftover ground beef from a DYD cookout the night before, and she fixed us a perfect summertime meal with burgers and lots of toppings, corn and fruit. The boys soaked themselves with water balloons - what a treat - so Shawn kindly sent Jonah home in Zack's old Spiderman pajamas.

Our boys, unlike most, don't usually wear clothes with characters on them, mostly because they don't watch TV and have no idea who the characters are. But Jonah looked adorable, so we took some pictures while hanging around out front before bedtime.










What happy boys on what would have been a lonely Sunday...we are grateful for good friends here!

June 7: Camp Fun - Tie-Dye

The second week of Camp Fun was tie-dying. We all brought white T-shirts (I even brought one for myself!), and the kids played on the playground while 2-4 at a time sat at the picnic tables and tie-dyed their shirts. It was sort of a short-cut method that involved squirting the dye with droppers instead of letting the shirts sit in buckets, so there's more white space and less color than normal, but it was really fun.

Isaac, as always, would rather run than just about anything. Jonah loved hanging out with his buddy Adler, as always, and of course snack time was another favorite activity. (Thanks Shawn for these 4 awesome photos.)












Here's Isaac between his good buddy Zack and Ryan, both of whom were in his preschool class.


After snacks, Jonah discovered the puddle.




And here are the shirts:

June 5: Bianca

Bianca is our 2-year-old neighbor and one of our boys' very favorite friends. Isaac and Jonah adore her, she loves them too, and they all follow each other around. Isaac has started inviting Bianca into our house and upstairs to play trains. I have to be quick because before I know it, they're in the front door and charging up our steep stairs. Every time we pass Bianca's house, Jonah yells "Nya-naaaaa!" hoping to see her.

We are good friends with Bianca's parents too, so we all see a lot of each other. Adam rents an office in the same room with Custo, and Rina and I and the kids meet up out front a lot in the evenings while we're waiting for the guys to get home.

Sometimes I worry that our boys will end up competing for Bianca's affection, but for now, they are usually a happy trio running around together.

On this day, we were all playing out front, and Isaac invited Bianca to come play in our backyard. Jonah was in the sandbox, and here are the other two in the hammock, happy as can be: