This girl, oh this wonderful, mellow, sweet, drive me up the wall insane little one. In our family, Tyler and I are both fire. Because his personality is so much like mine, I feel like I already know him. Lately, things he says and does take me back to specific moments in my childhood where I did the same thing. And I love that familiarity, the many bits of sameness that we share.

But this girl, she is air. And this family needs air. She has this way about her that I can’t explain. She is quite verbal so every thing she does has a reasonable explanation and it makes us smile. “Well of course I need to do that, I am doing this.” It all makes so much sense and is so reasonable – she has no idea why I am in such a tizzy about it. She sings made up songs all the time. She has a wonderful imagination. All trash is treasure and can fit into whatever she might be carrying at the time.

“We should talk to Uncle Dean about going up to his house in the snow, because I like snow.”

Or whenever she is enjoying something, “What fun! What fun!”

When you clean out her play kitchen you will find just about everything that has gone missing in the next month. I found Star Wars’ R2-D2 in there yesterday. Chris said, “she likes R2-D2.” I also found rocks, pipe cleaners, paper, more paper, pens, pencils, toys. Whatever is special in that moment goes there. I also find many things special to other family members in there too!

She is so self-reliant. She is hungry and so this little momma raids my fridge. It is all so matter-of-fact. She will only eat a bit of what she gets though and store the rest of it back in the fridge.

She is so charming. Even when I am angry, she has a way of being that distracts me from my anger. I end up smiling or laughing even. And I am not one to let go of anger easily, but somehow she makes it so easy.

She just has a way about her and if you have spent a lot of time with her you know what I mean. She is so unfamiliar to me, though I do see glimpses of Daddy in there. Still, I love the mystery, I love how light it all is, and I am enjoying seeing what comes of this silly girl who goes about her day enjoying life.

This picture above and one below was taken in November. She got back in her cradle the other day and so I snapped another picture. This cracks me up. This little girl of mine loves to cozy right into her cradle with her dolls because she can. And so she lays there covered up in “blankets” singing songs and chatting with her dolls.

In two weeks she will be 4 years old. I really can’t believe it. I really can’t.

1. Playing ball with my Dad
I blogged about the latest with my Dad separate from this project, but this morning thought, I really enjoyed playing ball with my Dad. It was a moment of connection with the man I knew. I am looking forward to spending more one on one time with him. I need to have a few visits where I get to be the kid with her Daddy.

For the longest time, visiting my Dad with the kids was not hard as they were in the same place and enjoyed the same things – simple puzzles, outings and building with legos, blocks and the like.

But lately it is clear that those things are not as interesting to my Dad. His ability to do simple tasks is fading. On our last visit, we found him in the dining room listening to music with other residents. After sitting with him for 4 minutes, we stood up and were trying to get him to come to his room with us.

He thought we were leaving and started to wave goodbye. After many attempts, I finally had to put my arms under his armpits and lift him up and then he understood I wanted him to stand.

One of his favorite things to do these days is to sit outside and watch the birds. He gets so excited when he sees them, “Doot, doot, doot, doot, doot” he will say as one flies across the sky.

It can be hard because as he slows down and does less, my kids are more active and are moving onto advanced things. I must say for the most part, they still do incredibly well with Pop and for that I am so thankful. But I will miss the time they could so easily connect with him and know he was merely a bit confused.

His disease is more obvious to them now as they see us having to help him brush his teeth, cut up his food, make sure he washes his hands, etc. There are many skills they have now mastered and these same skills are so difficult for this adult in front of them. They see him so utterly confused as we try to get him to stand up.

It is a new stage and we will figure it out. This next stage may be more one-on-one visits while the kids visit Grandma at her apartment next door. More time for me to sit and watch birds with him or just go on a quiet drive.

There is one active thing though that he still loves and it is one of my favorite things to do with my Dad these days. Play ball – he loves it! And as I have noticed and my Mom has confirmed, his reactions in this realm are still quite fast. I want to go and visit him sometime without the kids so we can enjoy a good catch and throw game without the interruption of little ones who want in on the action.

On our last visit, I was very excited when while looking at some pictures of Yellowstone, where Dad has been, and he says, “oh! Oh, holy!”. He was looking at a picture of “Old Faithful”. He recognized it and I am pretty sure was trying to say the name…but it came out as holy. It is always cool to see a moment of connection – where a thought was able to weave its way through his warped roads and actually surface in such a way that I can understand. Those are the moments I hold onto…and take a picture of if my camera is nearby.

And that is where things are these days. I hadn’t seen my Dad in a few weeks, so it was nice to see him twice this week and have some time to spend with him.

1. Making fun, seasonal treats

This is an horchata (rice milk) granita. We infused cinnamon into the rice milk and then added homemade simple syrup, lime zest and lime juice. Freeze, stir, freeze, stir, freeze, stir, eat!

Oh my it was so good! No machine needed, so a fantastic, easy dessert. The combinations are endless. This week we also made homemade lemonade – lemons, water and agave nectar..yum!

Now that summer is here, I am having a great time visiting recipes I haven’t seen in many months and discovering some new ones! Just one of the ways I beat the heat.

1. Ideas becoming reality
Lately I have been letting ideas bubble up almost like a slow volcano. It keeps me from expending too much energy on every whim. And so the notion of putting an art wire on our dining room wall has been gnawing at me.

This day I had a stack of art on the table and made the discovery that magnets would not work on the front of our new fridge. That was the impetus to just do it. Wire + 2 nails and a bag of baby clothespins = problem solved. The items were all on hand in the house, so in a few minutes the project was done and I love it!!

And now I want more!! We need more places for art, so I am currently surveying other parts of the house that would be suitable for art display.

First pic:
I painted the “You brighten my day” postcard. It made me smile the moment I finished it and I couldn’t bare to let it go. I wanted it to be somewhere I could see it so I could say those words to myself. And every day on my way out of the house I see it…and I still smile.

Second pic: (from right to left)
A Maze – by Quinn (cut up doilies and yellow marker)

Tent – by Quinn (folded up and taped doily)

Downtown – by Tyler (watercolor, wanting to paint the same picture as Mommy. He did really well!)

Out at Night – by Mommy (watercolor)

Paint Collage – by Quinn (watercolor. They had done this at school a few weeks ago and she was trying it on her own again. She note card the paper where she wanted and the folder in half.)

Spring and Summer – by Tyler (watercolor on doily)

Pond – by Tyler (watercolor and collage. He painted a doily, cut it out and then cut out little fish adn added them to it. He then added more paint around it.)

1. An adventure rhythm
I am really happy. We have gotten back into our adventure rhythm and so every weekend space is made for us to go somewhere. The unexpected happens all the time and this adventure was no exception.

We went to Perdenales Falls and to our usual spot near the falls. Usually it is easy to spend many hours here, but it was hot and sticky. Hanging out near water but not being allowed to get into it was cruel today. And I will admit I was cranky too.

So we decided to head down to the swimming part of the park. We had no swimming gear with us, but decided we needed to cool off, so in with our clothes we went. The current was still a bit strong, but the kids still had a great time as did we! We hung our for another our and a half enjoying the river and the lovely cypress trees.

On the way home we stopped to get some cherry and strawberry limeades. They were so tasty! Another great family adventure fully enjoyed.

1. Creating art

I am loving watercolors. It is a very easy and forgiving medium and a wonderful new outlet for expressing myself and creating in the process. Sometimes I start with an idea as in the city scene and sometimes they just create themselves as I go along as in the rocks and waterfall one.

I am usually a person who needs directions, patterns or recipes to create – that is just how I roll. When it comes to painting or drawing though, it comes from me. I am comfortable to start from scratch do whatever and so I find it quite freeing.

I do postcard size paintings. A smaller canvas so perfect when there isn’t a lot of time, easy to mail some love to a friend and easy to hang or store. Some of my faves I want to hang on a wire with some baby clothespins. It will be my “happy wall” full of things that make me smile and inspire me.

Yay for art – so good for the soul!