Can it be?? Will I turn into yet another mother asking, "Where does the time go? How can my little baby be ___ already?" Alas, it seems like yet another thing I said I would never do and then come to realize that it is an inevitable part of parenthood. Here I am celebrating my daughter's first year on this earth and I truly feel like it was yesterday that I was holding her in my arms for the first time. My current favorite phrase to capture this phenomenon goes something like, "The days are long, but the years are short." And boy have we had some long days here in the Marcis household. Days filled with diapers and food all over the floor (and ceiling) and paint spilling down the stairs, and full speed ahead wipe outs on the asphalt, and more diapers and much more food on the floor. Then all of a sudden your little baby girl grabs your hairbrush while you're brushing your hair and tries to comb her own hair while grinning in the mirror and you realize in a blink she will be 16 and getting ready for the prom and where has all the time gone??
What can you do but try your hardest to stay present and celebrate each moment. We had a lovely joint birthday party with a baby born just a few weeks apart from Whitney down the street at our little play park. We all had a blast and I finally learned how to make a cocktail (15 short years after turning 21:) Whitney is now an advanced crawler and working hard on her climbing skills, but doesn't seem too interested in walking. She does manage to get herself in all sorts of precarious situations; one morning she pushed my guitar across the floor to use as a step to get herself onto the couch. She then crawled across the couch to the end table, where I found her sitting on top and calmly leafing through a magazine. You may wonder why I didn't notice this happening: he whole guitar to couch to end table to magazine maneuver took her less then a minute. She is a quick one.
Lyell has picked up on all the terms of endearment we use for Whitney, calling her, "Darling" or "Sweet Baby." He loves to have her up on his new big bed, where they play endless rounds of diving under the blankets and then suddenly reappearing to squeals of laughter. Lyell also insists on picking out Whitney's daily wardrobe, a practice that has resulted in some bold new fashion pairings. And don't think you can smile and then swap out a shirt while Lyell's not looking- he will be onto you before you know it.
Lyell continues to make me laugh out loud and steam with anger simultaneously. He is exploring his world and his boundaries with great zeal right now. An example from our day: Lyell is playing in the backyard where I can watch him easily from the kitchen window while I do dishes. However, he cannot see me watching him and thinks he is all alone. I watch him pick up a shovel from the sandbox toys and carry it over to our little pond. He looks around casually before dangling the shovel over the pond and letting it drop into the water. He waits, looks around again, and heads back over to get another sandbox toy to drop in the pond. I watch him for a few minutes and then quietly walk outside and catch him just as he is about to drop the next toy in. "Lyell, what happened to the sand toys?" I ask. Lyell puts his hands on his hips and looks up and me. "I have no idea," he says.
Now it so happens that I am reading a chapter from the book NurtureShock about children and lying, which explains why this is a natural reaction, and as I stand with my son and a pond full of sand toys I cannot help but laugh out loud when he continues, "Mommy, I have no idea what happened but I think we need to make a fishing pole to get them out." A-ha! Once again I have my friend Curious George to thank, as George made his own fishing pole to use in his pond. I think I'll wait a few years before I start him on the Swiss Family Robinson stories.
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| Roasting marshmallows during a Potluck Preschool "campout" on a stormy day. |
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| Lyell got on skis for the first time this winter and got progressively more excited with each trip. He seems to be very happy about skiing as long as Matthew sticks right by his side. |
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| Lyell even got to go up a chair lift by the end of the season! |
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| We took a field trip to our local fire station and Lyell was a captive audience. |
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| Lyell gets to try on the "big mask" |
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| A rare moment of tranquility in the bedroom. |
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| Whitney sporting a dirndl that we bought almost 30 years ago when my family travelled in Europe. |
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| Lyell and his buddy Cooper take a walk in the rain. We had given the boys umbrellas and looked away for a minute and they had taken off up the street on their own little path. |
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| Whitney showcasing her special talent for eating just about anything that is put on her plate. |
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| Lyell and Whitney "helping" me make Birthday Scones for Whitney's birthday brunch. |
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| Notice who is doing most of the opening of Whitney's birthday presents. Fortunately, she didn't seem to mind. |
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| Whitney on her first birthday. |
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| This month Lyell says farewell to his cousin and best friend Georgia as they are moving back to Hawaii. Don't worry, Georgia, we will be visiting very soon! |
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| Whitney enjoys her carrot cake muffin at her Birthday Luau party. |
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| Sushi, spring rolls and kebabs were on the menu for the birthday bash, along with our 'signature' Mai Tai. |
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| We had a joint birthday celebration with our neighbor Phoebe, who was born 3 weeks after Whitney. |
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| The craft table at the Luau |
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| We joined in the Easter fun at the annual Yosemite Valley egg hunt. |
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| It was an epic spring day in the Valley, with Yosemite Falls raging behind Lyell as he looks for eggs. |
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| The Easter Bunny himself even made his way up to the mountains to see us! |
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| Lovin' on each other in the Radio Flyer. |
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| Lyell and Grammy making Easter cookies |
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| Three generations of Marcis boys having a picnic in our backyard! |
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| The drawers of our new bunk bed seem to be the current favorite play spot. The game goes like this: climb in with all your stuffed animals and scream at the top of your lungs. |
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| Matthew and I snuck away for a final ski date as a cold April storm blew through and dumped 2 feet of snow! The quiet of the forest in newly fallen snow brought us gently back into balance. We are thankful every day to live in a place so filled with wonder!!! |
