Jude at 4

This guy has grown up so much in the last few months. He's become more independent, more self-possessed, and more confident. He's always been a tender little heart, which is wonderful, but it's been fun to see these other characteristics develop as well. Jude started preschool in August, and loves coming home to tell me every last thing about it.

He's got a wild imagination, and loves trying on the scenarios that scare him by telling stories about how these bad things once happened to Baby Beaver (his special toy), but Baby Beaver survived. He prays nightly that our house won't catch on fire, and is unreasonably concerned that a bear might crawl through his second story window some night.

Jude loves "reading the pictures" in books, visiting the art museum, riding his bike, wrestling anyone, pizza, chickpea tacos, superheros, airplanes, doughnuts, strawberries, lettuce, remote control cars, the National Air Force Museum, and jogging. He is definitely his own person!

We love him insanely.

Still Here

And still taking the same predictable, up close, smiling pictures of Eden. I can't help myself. 

If you're thinking that these smiles look extra genuine, you're right. Kris had just tip-toed up and put a bucket on my head. Hilarious.

So, what's new since my last post (8 months ago?)? Here are a few things:

1) Eden finished her beloved kindergarten. She regularly tells me that she doesn't want to go to first grade, because it's BORING and you have to do TONS of homework. She knows, because the kids on the bus said so. I'm curious what she'll say when she realizes that the summer work packet they sent with her, which she begs to do every day, is...homework!

2) Kris is gearing up to slide over into a different management position at his work. That should be good, and hopefully make him a little less cranky. Just kidding. He's not cranky. But are you seeing that stank eye in the photo above? Meanwhile, I am headed back to work! I'll be teaching a writing class a couple of nights a week at our local community college. I think it will be minimally disruptive to our family, and a lot of fun for me.

3) We said good-bye to our best friend neighbors, who are moving with the military. That's been pretty sad. We'll be getting new neighbors there next month, and just hope that one of them can take over the job of pouring puddle water on Eden's umbrella. Big shoes to fill.

This is a pretty sorry update. But it counts for something, right?

Golden Fall

It doesn't produce the straight-on-and-smiling shots that grandmas love to get on Christmas cards, but my favorite way to photograph the kids is when they are totally engrossed in some sort of play. 

Lately, those opportunities have been easy to come by, since we can't get enough of our backyard.  It has been (I'm told) an extra mild fall in Ohio.  At first I fretted that too many leaves were falling without turning; it felt like fall in Louisiana all over again, all promise and no glory. One of these days, maybe I'll learn patience.  It has turned out to be absolutely gorgeous!

I don't love every single thing about our house, but the lot? Heaven help me, I'm in love! The best part of it is wooded, such that we have a solid population of chickadees, finches, cardinals, blue jays, nuthatches and titmice, millions of fireflies all summer long, and now a curtain of gold.

So I do what any sane person would do, and take way too many pictures of the kids playing out there. I'll also do what any narcissist does, and make you see them all :)

We inherited the swing set from our neighbors, and the kids love it. We honestly have the nicest neighbors ever.

Hunter likes sniffing around in the leaves, looking for trouble.

This could just be the fall time talking, but I think that if Ohio grew a mountain or two and wooed our families into living here, it might just be the perfect place.

Show Boat

This is Jude on his balance bike. The boy who cries when I leave him alone in our basement for two seconds has absolutely no fear when on a bike. He rides up to the top of our little cul de sac and then comes screaming down the hill so fast that we all think he will die (mostly because he's busy checking to see if we are seeing this, rather than watching where he is going). Total show boat.

I dread the day when he gets a peddle bike and can go even faster. They don't make a helmet for that kind of crazy.

Eden, meanwhile, has learned to ride a peddle bike all by herself, no training wheels. Thankfully, the child is a chicken. She pumps her breaks constantly on any sort of hill. I can keep up with that.

In case you are wondering, Eden was wearing her winter jacket. It was 70 degrees, or as I like to call it, "colder than our last Christmas in Louisiana". Bless our hearts, we are in for some pain.

After the kids get bored of bike riding, they often spend their evenings playing in the grove of trees between our house and the neighbors. They collect sticks, climb trees, and pretend to be birds. Here I caught them in an impromptu embrace.

And just to prove that I don't only photograph my kids, here's a gratuitous picture of heavy dew and a leaf in a spider web. Why not?

PreK

Who started attending a preschool co-op? This guy. I'll be honest: he doesn't need the school part of it at all. At all. Colors and shapes? Please. Do you want them in Spanish or English? Jude lives for octagons. Counting is a breeze. He stops me numerous times each day to explain what letter a word starts with and which other words rhyme with that word. His current conquest is alliteration. He is three. Academia, meet your match. 

Now let's talk social skills, shall we? When I was a kid, I would do anything to disappear when forced into a group of people I didn't know. This is why I spent recesses during my entire semester of kindergarten with my hat pulled over my eyes. Actually, that was so the kids playing tag couldn't see me. I don't think it worked. The point is that I was born socially awkward and, though I've learned to fake it under duress, I'll die socially awkward. Kris meets me there. Our daughter is some strange Aphrodite who basks in the reciprocal adulation of the masses. Our son? He's a cagey soul with a lethal stink eye who saves himself for the last ten minutes of the pool party, having an absolute blast once all of the other kids have removed their pruney bodies and he's got the whole place to himself. We understand him better.

And that's where preschool comes in. We want him to develop the confidence to exist (dare I say thrive?) without coasting on Eden's social coattails or hiding in my arms. To learn to advocate for himself. To learn to endure his initial shyness and open himself up to friendship. To be a little bit better at that than we are.  

Good luck, Jude.  And don't worry: We can still hide out at home, alone, the other five days of the week!   

Kinder

Tomorrow, Eden starts kindergarten.  But is she ready?

I'd say this picture about covers it...

She's the jumping out of her skin kind of excited. As we watched the big kids get on the bus this morning, she was sure that they were headed to paradise. She just can't wait to meet all of her new friends.

Eden picked out her first day outfit weeks ago, and has had her backpack packed since the first day of August. When we talk about our day during bedtime, she often tells me that staring at her backpack was one of her favorite parts. This kid has a serious crush on kindergarten.

Let's hope it lasts. I'm pretty sure that hugging trees and identifying the birds at our backyard feeder aren't part of the curriculum. As long as she gets to hug the class pet turtle, I suppose it might work out.

Jude and I are going to miss her so much that it hurts. I feel a little like I'll spend tomorrow wandering around the house like Jerry Seinfeld after the Soup Nazi has spoken. "No Eden for you!"

 This face. Who could help but love this face? She's going to be amazing.

Beginning

A month ago, we left Louisiana.  I've been a little surprised at just how much I miss it.  Like, I didn't expect to take it so personally that the grocery store here doesn't sell a single "Slap Ya Mama" product.  Where, oh where, have all the Cajuns gone?

We made such good friends there too.  Eden sometimes cries about how much she wishes she could have them all over to play.  Jude often packs a bag and tells me he's headed to Shreveport.  I just mope in silence and swear to never make another friend again as long as I live.

In truth, we're doing fine.  Ohio is beautiful and full of such nice people.  Our neighbors have welcomed us with open arms. In the evenings we head outside so the kids can ride their bikes with their friends two doors down.  It's actually shady and cool enough to do that here!  Plus, no venomous snakes. Loving the absence of snakes.

The move wasn't without a few bobbles.  We spent two weeks living on base, and then another week and half camping out in our empty house.  In spite of the fact that Susan Bell's moving service didn't come bail us out this time, our main living areas are all unpacked. One round of the flu, one round of strep, and a good case of food poisoning (thanks, Cracker Barrel!) haven't stopped us. Life here is beginning.

After all, we're together.  We have ice cream and bubbles. What more is there, really? Team Bell, doing this thing.

P.S. How about that Ohio Mama Barber strike?  It's really taking a toll! Maybe one day Jude can loose the shag...