We took the girls down to Ghirardelli Square for a little street festival not long ago, and the conditions were perfect for some kite flying…

-M

As previously mentioned, the girls have taken many trips to tile stores and places like Home Depot with us over the last two months. But as the photo below indicates, someone has renovation fatigue!

-M

What kid hasn’t, by now, sung and danced to Gangnam Style? My girls have certainly done their fair share of rocking out to it – and you might see the second video below played at Zoe’s wedding someday.

-M

Zoe was really grumpy one weekend afternoon and was clearly in need of some rest. She yelled and lashed out when I suggested a nap (naps are for babies, after all), and I wound up taking her to our rocking chair to calm her down. She didn’t want me to sing to her, so I started telling her a story (about a lake I visited as a child), and I soon felt her body relax against mine. And after a bit more of the story, she was asleep.

I can count on one hand the number of times Zoe has fallen asleep on me in the last several years – and being on the rocking chair together was an even bigger rarity. I don’t think either of us was terribly comfortable – her limbs were spilling over the sides of the chair, and my back was killing me by the time she woke up about an hour later – but it was a sweet reminder of days past.

-M

I’ve been so busy filling the blog with pictures of our various activities that I haven’t given an update on just life. The truth is that, in the words of Ferris Bueller, life is moving pretty fast. It seems like just yesterday that the new school year began, and now we’ve moved on to other things: the start of camp (including a new one for Zoe), our house project, Avery’s recent birthday (still can’t believe she’s four) and several trips (starting next week, we’re taking three vacations in seven weeks). Despite the occasional stressors, life is good - it just seems to be moving in a flash.

(Zoe even commented the other day, during a discussion on her being a first-grader now, that the school year had flown by. “I hate to tell you, Zoe, but time goes faster the older you get,” I told her. And I didn’t have a good answer to her follow-up of “why?”)

I’ve also been thinking lately, as I often do, about how different life is with slightly older children. With two increasingly independent girls (who have long slept through the night), I’m no longer physically exhausted. I’m also mostly free of the baby- and toddler-related worries; I no longer have to stress about leaving home with a million snacks and a change of clothes, or getting home from some activity by 1 or 2 for naptime each afternoon. (Amazingly, the girls lasted the entire day when we recently visited Great America.) But I feel way, way busier and emotionally exhausted than ever before: Long gone are the leisurely walks or mellow playdates with my little ones*; in their place is loud interactions with two spirited girls who often demand my full attention. And dealing with school paperwork, taking kids to/from various locations, and managing the family schedule sometimes feels as if it could be a part-time job on its own!

But as Ferris Bueller also said, “if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So I better start looking around…

-M

*I fully recognize, upon a second read of this, that I’m glamorizing life with a little one. It’s not like my days then were all peaceful and, as I put it, “leisurely” – and I’ve got my blog entries to prove it! But we tend to forget the hard times after they’ve passed, don’t we?

Zoe went to Fairyland on Saturday, too – and she sure has changed since her first visit there!

Spring 2009:

Summer 2013:

Spring 2009:

Summer 2013:

We had a birthday party at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland yesterday, and Avery spent the bulk of her day running around with three of her little classmates. The girls were so cute – constantly hugging, jumping up and down in excitement, and riding on rides together. And it was so fun seeing Avery as bubbly, happy and silly with friends as she is at home with Zoe.
-M