Ozark Mama Deer

Monday, March 10, 2014

10|52

10|52

Loukas: is very expressive
Jasper: loves books (almost as much as brother)

Saturday, March 8, 2014

What I like about this series is that they were all taken within about an hour's time. I tried to not rearrange and tidy or stage, but instead show the reality of what our messy, beautiful life looks like on any given day. These were all snapped yesterday afternoon while bone broth simmered on the stove, just before little boy's nap.

1,2| Kitchen scenes, tangerine orange hybrid fruit snack (that was too acidic for our little one's winter chapped lips, they've been pretty inflamed for weeks, poor guy)

3| An always over-full Jacket/Bag Rack scene

4| You Must Live in the Present

5-13| Followed Jasper up to the playroom. My favorite of this little series is the one where he pretends that he will use the tiny ladder to dismount the play table he scaled. That's him- he climbs it all, and he's a jokester.

14-18| Home scenes- all the things colorful and blanket, never know where you'll find a stash of cars, and a to-do list that has been neglected

19| "yi-ite" (light) The little one is the keeper of the light switch, always wanting to adjust the dial

20,21,22| Boys' Room Scenes- The cloud and hearts shower that I whipped up one morning in the last weeks of my pregnancy, to hang over Jasper's cradle & other colorful messes

23| Our little hand washer

24| Loukas' dashing dress by stripes and leopard print look that he put together all on his own- pretty impressive. (plus a little green potty photo-bomb, which by the way, is seeing little action! Jasper is not a fan. All in time)

That is all.

Just an hour in the life for ya.

Happy Weekend!

Monday, March 3, 2014

09|52

09|52

Jasper: cheese

Loukas: cheese

Playing Star Wars

It usually starts with a request to cuddle or a session of pretend sleep, a ploy to get on our bed to play. One day Loukas declared he was a Storm Trooper and told me to hit him with a pillow... from there we developed the (pretty much daily at this point) "Playing Star Wars." The light was beautiful late last week so I brought my camera for a quick few photos to document this cute game that will, surely, soon be in the Past. The laughter is infectious and their falls are dramatic- the sessions are short and often end in tears but they ask to play over and over.

**This is my first attempt at doing side by side photos (I use Lightroom 5 for editing my images) and I'm not sure why but in printing the file they came up sepia toned. Going with it for now **

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Saturday In Summation / Slices of Life

We are officially Iced in thanks to Winter Storm Titan. Sounds pretty official, that storm's handle. There's been Thunder Sleet galore, which is quite literally 'freak of nature' weather. I'm not overly bummed by the shut down this thing is causing though because, selfishly, it means my best friend gets to hang out here all day with us. (I'm talking about my husband.) Ask me again in a few days after we've dwindled through our beer and wine stash and are fed up with entertaining our guys (who by the way are hilarious and spirited and, well, they're pretty loud) and I may be whistling (likely grumping) a different tune. But for now we are in the honeymoon phase of Winter Storm life and luckily, we got out and did a little Saturday exploring yesterday.

picking the perfect rock, there were many a rocks kerplunked

***

In other happenings

I heard a little voice say, "owww," yesterday afternoon and looked over to find Loukas strangling himself with my purse. Obviously, he wasn't legit strangling because he could talk, but it looked like he had bent forward with the three foot strap of my leather messenger bag around his neck and maybe spun the purse around and around until the strap tightened around this neck. He was trying to free himself and became entangled and was all kinds of confused. What the heck, kids?! This was not a true emergency or anything, but I couldn't help but dwell on the what ifs.

Truth be told, I'm a bit of an over... um, how do you say? Aware? Parent.

In the 90s, I was glutton for the punishment of that medical re-dramatization show "Rescue 9-11" hosted by William Shatner. I probably shouldn't have watched it, and my Mom probably only let me because I probably begged her to let me. Now, every time my kids are under my feet while starting a load of laundry I think of the little girl who nearly drown in her parents' washing machine after falling in headfirst. I'm a little embarrassed that I referenced a case from the show at a baby bookworm gathering at our public library when Loukas was baby- about twenty years after seeing the episode. A Mom telling me she liked to give her child a toothbrush to walk around with and chew on for teething got an ear full about that one time on 9-11 when the toddler fell while running with his tooth brush, lodging the thing in his soft palate. Don't even get me started on the leaving the kids in the car thing. Death due to overheating in vehicles is the number one reason why my kids have not been in the car with many people other than my husband and me. I'll probably never see my kids off without reminding their care taker to not leave them in a hot car. I'll laugh a little and point my air guns and wink and it'll seem like a joke, but- no. Seriously.

Life comes down to seconds and inches. Seconds and inches can be huge.

It has taken 4 years of (s)mothering and lot of shot nerves to come to a point where I can begin to try to navigate the idea of possibly probably trying to ease up on the what ifs. I'll let you know how that goes.

The funny thing is that I've had two babies at home, and rarely take my kids to see a physician. I don't consider myself a total spaz- I'm not one to gasp and rush-to and cry along with my children when they fall or injure themselves. They shouldn't have to be responsible for my emotions in their moments of need. Sure, I've panicked- I've felt my blood pressure rise and stomach drop and have had those moments where your ears feel full, deafened by the sound of your pounding heart while you tremble and you are still while you hold your child but mind is racing trying assess what to do next. I usually keep it together and consider myself a pretty even-keeled person despite the catalog of random dramatic freak medical emergencies from 1990s t.v. episodes that my brain has decided to hang on to despite not being about to recall details from last week. The Mind is a strange place.

Yesterday afternoon's purse strapping ultimately provided an excellent segue to approach the topic of wrapping things around one's neck. I was glad I was standing right there, at the same time I'm astonished at how these things happen so quickly and how nutty parenting feels at times. I'm finding myself relating to ole Harold Weir of Freaks and Geeks, "You know what happened to him?" "He Died," schtick.

In Summation: Jeez.
***