THESE DAYS

I've realized that something about parenthood eliminates the need for constant big-picture analysis. The fun is in the details! There is a time and place for deciding on a family vision and frequently assessing parenting goals, but it is a relief to find that the most significant and important thing that I can be doing each day is not to figure out a parenting philosophy, but to gaze into my daughter's eyes and really hear what she is saying about what happened in school that day, or why she has to wear that particular hat (because Mary Poppins would wear that kind of hat, and she is pretending to be Mary Poppins, so, duh.).  

The lesson of parenthood is probably different for each person but I guess what I'm saying is that my own particular lesson of letting go and leaning into it, instead of over-analyzing or being too self-conscious, is liberating. 

Most of this post is me doing the thing of sharing tons of photos that I have taken of the girls over the past few weeks. My favorite thing these days is observing how they interact with each other and those little moments feel like the most monumental of moments. Here I am, leaning into it! 

Saturday mornings, we pitter patter around the house, taking it slow. We don't need to rush out the door and I savor this.  I particularly enjoy watching these two unfold the morning together by playing, sharing, negotiating and just being in each other's space.

One night when I was nursing Logan, Sloane quietly crept in the room and laid down in her bed (she usually goes to bed half an hour to an hour later than Logan). She had a book with her and started looking through the pages. When Logan noticed Sloane there, she shimmied down from the chair we were sitting in and ran over to her sister's side to look at the book with her.

These two photos was taken on a weekday after we got home in the vening. I was so happy to see Logan, Sloane was so happy to see Rusty.  

Logan wants to do everything Sloane is doing, and because of that, she is doing so much!

The amount of older-sistering that Sloane does increases with each week that goes by. She even shares her fruit with her like this all the time, which is saying something, because they both are crazy about fruit.

This was a Sunday morning when I walked in to discover that Sloane had pushed a stool over to the crib for easy access and was trying on various headbands on Logan to find her the perfect one. 

On the left is Sloane guiding her to make sure Logan goes the right way. On the right is at Costco, happy to be sitting next to each other and gleeful at being whizzed down the aisles as fast as I will push them. 

Logan loves to pat Rusty and gives him hugs whenever he lets her.  Even though sometimes her squeezes are a little too hard, he doesn't seem to mind all that much - probably because she enthusiastically throws him food from her high chair whenever he comes around.

Towards the end of Eden's party, Sloane wanted to read with Elijah, so they found a room with books and Elijah hoisted Sloane on to the bed when she couldn't get up by herself and read this book together. 

We finally found this owl costume that I had made for Sloane a while back (it was lost after the move) and she fully committed to playing an owl all throughout the house last week.

A dear friend was in town the other weekend and I loved seeing her and baby Eli. We both have chunky babies and are extremely pleased with ourselves about it.

This was the best photo I could manage of the three babes - seems appropriate. 

Summer IS ending whether I like it or not and we have been trying to squeeze in a lot of pool days.

Geez, I cannot get enough of that face and that smile!! 

Some of our college friends came down the other weekend with their babies - seven kids! - and we all had such a great time catching up. 

We did manage to get a proper group picture of the kids at the end of the day, but I'm going to include this one because I like how it captures Logan trying to escape as fast as she could away from the scene.