APPLE PICKING WITH BABES

Yes it's true, another post about apple picking! Get excited, you have apples and babies coming your way. 

It was a cold and blustery morning, and we bundled up with hats and scarves and left the house 50 minutes after we had planned. That still felt like a victory;  getting four adults and three kids out the door, fed and dressed is worth celebrating. And we were duly awarded- the crowds hadn't formed just yet, the morning was brisk and sunny and the Fuji apples were ripe for the picking. I had been hyping this up for weeks with Sloane and I was pleased down to my toes that she was excited for it too. She wanted to pick her own apples and ate through about 5-6 little ones, most of them unfinished before being tossed on the ground for the sake of another one asking to be picked: "Papa said I could throw the apple like this here!" I chomped through three big ones - they were SO GOOD. Crispy and ripe apples straight from the tree is probably in my list of top ten best foods ever. 

For starters, an adorable little bear of a baby. I miss her all the time. 

The first thing we did when we got there was fill our bellies with apple donuts and apple cider. I highly recommend this sort of pre-game.  

She loved her cup of hot apple cider.

Teeny tiny people! who are climbing towards the grove of Fuji apples. While we were going up the mountain, I was walking right in front of a group of people who were discussing where the best apples were: "I heard that the best apples are over....." "Wait, you should whisper," said his friend jokingly. "We don't want people to hear," and gave me a big wink and grin. "Ha ha I was totally listening in for it, " I responded jovially, hoping my cheer would mask my deathly serious determination to find the best apples.  It must have worked because they spilled the beans.

I captured this moment because this is Ken polishing off an apple he picked for me.  He may not have meant it that way, but in my book, this is a romantic gesture.  Next up, I'm trying to get him to plant me an apple tree in our backyard.

Look at these cuties! 

Let's end it with the sweet baby bear, shall we? She slept most of the time we were there, but while I was snapping a photo of her she opened her eyes and looked at me like this.  What gives, mom?

oh wait, I'm not done yet.

Family photos! look! we each have one to hold!

A NORMAL DAY

"A normal day! Holding it in my hand this one last moment, I have come to see it as more than an ordinary rock. It is a gem, a jewel. In time of war, in peril of death, people have dug their hands and faces into the earth and remembered this.  In time of sickness and pain, people have buried their faces in pillows and wept for this. In time of loneliness and separation, people have stretched themselves taut and waited for this. In time of hunger, homelessness and want, people have raised bony hands to the skies and stayed alive for this....

A normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savor you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hand to the sky, and want more than all the world your return. And then I will know what I am guessing: that you are, indeed, a common rock and not a jewel, but that a common rock made of the very mass substance of the earth in all its strength and plenty puts a gem to shame.

The day is over, and now I will sleep."

- Mary Jean Irion

HIKING HUMPBACK ROCK

I like this picture for several reasons:

One, it looks like the bunnies on her shirt are going to hop off and scamper off into the woods.

Two, her determined face.

And three, a reminder of a lovely morning in the woods.

It was a cloudy and windy morning last Saturday when we packed ourselves into the car and drove westward through the grey, until we got to a particular spot on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Afton, Virginia: the hike to Humpback Rock.  It was a one mile hike up that Ken and I had done before: a few times in college and once after college while we were dating.  It is a simple hike because it is only one mile (two miles up and down), but it is steep enough to keep it interesting, and the view at the top is worth it.  So we (us and our good friends, the Clinches) did what any nature (and challenge) loving parents would do, we brought our kids and made an adventure out of it.

I want Sloane to love enjoy hiking up a mountain for all the many reasons so I decided early on that I would encourage her but wouldn't rush her.  Our progress required a balance of stopping with her to observe the little things and encouraging her to keep moving.  

At the beginning of our journey she had picked up a bunch of leaves (for her dog, she said) and sticks (for her family, she said) and kept them in her hand as she walked, which was slowing her down. I kept offering to hold them for her, but she was determined to hold them herself. Eventually, later on in the hike, I convinced her to leave the sticks (but only if we promised to pick them up later) and then she picked up a couple of stones (her "treasures") that she held on to tightly. As we got closer to the top, to help us make it through some of the tougher parts, I started telling her a story about a little girl who climbed a mountain and collected leaves, sticks, moss and stones. In the story, when the little girl threw the leaves, they turned into butterflies, when she threw the sticks they turned into snakes, when she threw the moss it turned into a magic carpet, and when she threw the stones they turned into birds.   

Sloane realized when we got to the top that she had lost the stones she has been carrying, and when she asked me with a bewildered expression on her face where they had gone, I told her that they had turned into birds. The next day when we were home, she picked up a couple of stones from our yard, turned to me and said, "Mom, can we turn these stones into birds?" 

In the first five minutes of our hike, Megan spotted a chrysalis! It was perfect and looked like an exquisite jewel.  I didn't get a picture of it, but I snapped a photo of the nature observers and documenters taking it in. 

Here we go! The explorers, including the ever faithful, Gigi the dog. (And do you see Sloane clutching her leaves and stick?) 

This bunch here is just the best. 

Os & Sloane (and again, Sloane's leaves and stick)

After the first 20 minutes, we waved the Clinches on, with promises to meet them up there.  Sloane was taking her time, and I didn't want to rush her too much or slow the boys down. 

I don't know if you can really tell from the pictures, but almost the entire hike was at an incline and just got steeper and steeper as we went up.  That's Sloane's walking stick. 

Ken wore baby Logan up (and then I wore her down).

This is what she thought about the hike.

It started getting steeper and rockier.  Sloane did such a good job trucking on through, and she was determined to do a lot of it herself.  Eventually,  some parts got to be both rocky and muddy, and I carried her through those parts.

This was a place where we stopped for a breather and a snack right before the last 800 feet to the cliffs.  That hammock though, I need one in my life! 

Three peas in a hammock.

The adventurers. 

Sharing snacks

And then we were at the top!! Sloane kept exclaiming, "wow!" at the view, and we took turns saying it.  It was beautiful.  And then we pointed out all the broccoli (the trees) and the rivers (roads) that we saw from where we were. 

The Clinch Family

Ken climbed down into some rock crevices.

Can we take a moment to sit with how strange and surreal it is that we used to come up here when we were in college, and this time we made the trip with two of our babies??! 

What is happening? 

I'm so glad we were able to do this trip together as a family, and with our family friends.  It was exhilarating to be in the woods during this time of year, and I loved being able to do it with the kids. They were amazing!

And now that I know we can do it with a 3 year old and three month old, I'm determined to do more of it.

If you look away too quickly you'll miss it, but that's Sloane strapped to Ken's back. The hike back down was more treacherous than the hike up, so Sloane got a ride down and she loved every minute.

LOGAN AT 3 MONTHS

I am enjoying the heck out of this baby.

I get excited every time I see her and I desperately feel the need for more days full of nothing else besides snuggling her and trying to make her smile. I know all too well how quickly this time flies. 

This past month, she has been even more smiley and will occasionally even laugh. Sometimes when I have to wake her up in the mornings to get her ready, she starts smiling even before she opens her eyes.

Sometimes she wakes up once in the middle of the night, other times (like last night) she wakes up four times. For the most part, she's on a regular schedule and eats and sleeps really well.

She wants to always be sitting (or sometimes standing) up and have recently had these long bouts of "talking" and cooing that are quite passionate. 

I often find her staring up at her fist, which she has raised up, with an expression of, "whoa, is that mine?"

She likes clasping her hands together under her chin, and she looks like a little darling when she does it. 

She is squishy and kissable and I am so grateful she is ours.

Doesn't this baby looks like she knows how to have a good time? 

WHAT I'M READING V. 9

With me being back at work I haven't had as much time as I crave to read, but here are some of the books that I have my toes dipped in these days.


Attachments: Why You Love, Feel and Act the Way You Do, by Tim Clinton

There is a lot of revealing things in this book - self-revealing and also in that it sheds light on why people act the way they do in general. I'm about halfway through and I'm having to go slow because there is a lot to chew on here.

Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke

I came upon his poetry in college and instantly connected with it. I picked up this book shortly after that, and recently picked it up again to re-read. Here are some of the goods I've been cleaning from it this time around.

"You are so young; you stand before beginnings. I would like to beg of you, dear friend, as well as I can, to have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day. Perhaps you are indeed carrying within yourself the potential to visualize, to design, and to create for yourself an utterly satisfying, joyful, and pure lifestyle."

The Faith of a Writer, by Joyce Carol Oates

Another book on writing! I especially love these where the writer shares how they got to where they are. 

H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald

After I had this recommended to me several times, I got sample of it and after a few pages, I was sold. The book is a memoir of her experience losing her father and how that leads her to raise a young goshawk, a type of hawk that is notoriously difficult to train. If you don't care too much about hawks, you might wonder how this book would be of interest to you. But it's written so well that you find yourself mesmerized by her descriptions of both the hawks and her grief.

LETS HEAR IT FOR THE GRANDPARENTS

I keep starting a meaty post and not being able to finish it. It's probably a combination of not enough sleep and not enough time, and I think I'm okay with that. I'm prioritizing things like roasting kabocha squash and snuggling with my babies. 

While I was going through some of my drafts on this blog, I came across these photos of my parents with my girls a few months ago. It makes me so happy to see these and so grateful to remember the time they had here to visit right after Logan was born. 

Aren't grandparents the best? My girls are so lucky to have such good ones. 

(It's uncanny, Logan looks exactly like Ken when she's sleeping! )