stop looking at me like that...: May 2015

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Belated Asa Birthday Letter

So it is now May 12th and i'm realizing i did not ever post an Asa birthday letter. I'm sorry my darling. I am just not organized or time aware these days (if ever i was). So here it goes:

Dear Asa,
You are now SIX years old. SIX. I can hardly believe it. I am always afraid i will blink and you will be a man. But for now. You are a boy. An amazing SUPER boy. This has been a pretty good year for you. We took you off the gluten-free diet (and nothing bad happened!), your last dentist visit was uneventful, your pediatrician still thinks your small but i drew the line at endoscopys and horrible things like that so we are all done with that crap. I have reached a limit and am determined to trust myself, you, and nature to do it's thing.

You are in Kindergarten this year. You have the same teacher Esther had and you are thriving. You are reading like a champ and have an affinity for numbers. You are obsessed with superheros, legos, rocks, weapons, the prospect of battle, working in the shop with grandpa and dad, and you LOVE to make things. You make monsters out of wood scraps, paintings out of metal scraps, mosaics with rocks from the driveway, and always lego ships...

You are still my little Buddha and enjoy talking about meditation, the elements, and we do acro-yoga together. You inspire me on my personal spiritual journey and i'm always grateful i have been given a son to show me the way as much as i am to show him.

You are still shy and quick to temper. You and Esther fight quite a lot still, though you're getting better at working out your problems without me, albeit it takes time and it's so LOUD. But you are learning and for all the shouting and whatnot, you truly love each other.

Thank you for being my son. Thank you for all the things you make me (cards, drawings, rock and wood monsters, clay food, etc), all the love you share through hugs, kisses, tackles, snuggles, and even whining (though that's not as nice). Thank you for being a brilliant, fun, sweet, creative, joyous, spiritual, hilarious, wild, and free person. I love and adore you beyond words.

Love,
Mama

Our Story

This blog started off while my husband, Ben and I were living in Prescott, AZ. I was there finally finishing a belated college degree, getting in fist fights at the local bar, rock climbing, and being care-free. Ben was blacksmithing, drinking at said local bar, and feeding snails to John’s chickens. December of 2005 I graduated in a flurry of finishing my [unpublishable] manuscript, speaking and reading at several graduation soirees, and packing up all our worldly possessions. We arrived in Maryland on Christmas eve. After the holidays and while waiting to hear back from graduate schools, we began the settling in process. Looking for a place to live, obtaining (supposedly) temporary jobs, opening new bank accounts. But about a month later, one day before receiving my acceptance letter from Hopkins, and one week before moving into a house, I peed on a stick and was rewarded with two pink and rather smug lines. Now after years of cow-eyed baby gazing, you might think this was an answered prayer. But here we were completely up-rooted, living out of duffle bags in my parents’ house, with nothing to our names but a couple old pick up trucks and enough student loans to pay off the national debt.

So after a few glassy-eyed days and some feverish fit throwing we happily embarked on a completely different future.

Long story short, after backing out of our lease, 9 months of me crying while trying to squeeze into my pants every morning, Ben building our teeny-tiny cabin in the woods, and three days of labor, Esther was born. 2 years, 2 months, one addition onto the teeny tiny house, and 9 hours of labor later Asa was born.

So this blog has gone from mundane college crap to everyday baby-blogging crap, and here we are in our little house in the woods, with our two wild babes, one unruly vegetable garden, and lots of plans.