whatever normal is

what does the aftermath of a day of playing at the camp, throwing sticks for dogs to swim after, going "fast in a boat!" and swimming in the river look like?

something like this:

'bout sums it up.

three minutes down the road from the family camp yesterday, john was passed out with kitty in arms.

it was a good weekend of family time. we went to the balloon fest on saturday evening and caught the balloon glow. john loved it. he kept telling me about the balloons lighting up, and asking to see the eagle balloon again. he told us he wanted to get a balloon to take home. i had to convince him that it wouldn't fit in our house. i think next year we'll spend a longer time at the festival, because it was really a pretty cool environment.

then sunday was the camp, with lots of family members. it was a great escape, and i was *so* very proud of john swimming in the river with us. he had his life vest on, and he mostly hung onto my back and shoulders and did some little kicks, but he had a good time and didn't panic even when he got water in his face or went under a tiny bit. even though it always spooks me a little to be floating in that swampy water with no clue what else is swimming around me ... it is extremely relaxing to float in that river with the family and just hang out.

and then it was monday again - that just keeps happening. fleeting weekends, quick weeks, and suddenly it will be october. where does the time go?

Comments

on lullabies

i am not a singer. if you've sat behind me in church, you know this to be true. (and i'm sorry.) a musician, yes. a singer no. and yet i find myself singing to john almost nonstop. and the beauty is, he seems to actually like it! (there's no accounting for taste. he also thinks i'm the most beautiful woman in the world. i'm no ogre, but i'm certainly not winning any beauty contests outside of my son's brain!) and actually, i've written some lullabies for john that are pretty nice. and it made me think: did your parents sing to you? do you remember what they sang, and better yet, if you have kids, do you sing the same songs to them? reply in the comments!

i'm furberizing my baby

ok, let's get this straight right off the bat: i don't know if i am literally following dr. furber's methods of sleep training. there are so many versions out there. but saying we're furberizing john is WAY more fun than saying that i'm letting him cry his little lungs out in an attempt to teach him to sleep on his own. it's night two of our efforts. he went right to sleep last night, which was great. and he slept for 5.25 hours (!!!!) before waking up at 2:30 a.m. when he woke up crying, i let him cry for 5 minutes before going in to soothe him. (the soothing barely works at all, by the way, but it's what i'm supposed to do ...) then i let him cry for 10 more minutes before going in to soothe him again. next on the agenda was a 15 minute stretch of crying - but he fell asleep after 8 minutes. so a sum total of 22 minutes of crying. not too bad for night two. i've heard night three can be the worst ... so we'll hold on to our hats tonight. mean

home

annapolis rock 1988 thirty years ago, my family moved from denton, tx, to a tiny rural town in the mountains of maryland. i remember being sad as we sold our things (we were packing everything into two old cars to drive north) and actually crying over the sale of our washing machine. transition does strange things to kids' emotions. yet i remember arriving, excited, into this strange green mountainous place, and i remember even more anticipation as we found a home ("the old taylor place") and got ready for school to start at smithsburg elementary. third grade -- the same grade john starts this school year. i remember meeting my first friend on a dusty dirt road - the "alley" that ran behind the high school tennis courts and athletic fields from our home just at the town's outskirts to her home just outside downtown. (if you've never known a small town downtown, that's probably hard to envision). it was an amazing place to be a child. 199

john's mom works

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