Bird Suit

I found this cute children's book called, "When I am Big" and the little boy insists that when he is big he will wear a bath robe and a bird suit every day instead of pants and a sweater.  Joren really likes the book and thinks a bird suit would be pretty great.  I had to laugh today when he came upstairs in star wars pajama bottoms, a war painted bare chest, earmuffs in the shapes of cats with whiskers and a very long rope tied around his waist as a belt trailing down the stairs.  To him it was perfectly normal; cool even.  When I ask Joren to do things he says, "not right now" or "no thanks".  He has this way of getting away with doing bad things that other kids could never pull off because he acts like it is so normal and like he was so compelled to do something in a totally non-malicious way that he could just not stop himself.  I still can't quite figure out why it is so easy to forgive him so quickly.  He has started a new habit of saying "sorry mom" like the minute I walk in the room because there is typically something immediate that he needs to be sorry for and he's just covering his bases.  He cracks me up! The kid just HAS to break the rules and his ears don't work, or he is very very good at ignoring me, of course, non-maliciously.  His big thing right now is taking cups and bowls of water everywhere in the house.  He still uses all the toilet paper and then I'll realize he did not even wipe! What was he doing with all that paper?! Again!!?!  He says the oddest things and yet he is starting to make more and more sense now that he is growing up so darn fast.  He's starting preschool.  I can't believe it.  Last night he had a nighmare that I was attacked by a flying robot spider.  He woke up screaming in terror: "my muver!!" and crying.  I held him and rocked him and he told me how scary it was over an over again.  We went downstairs and watched a show while we snuggled in the middle of the night.

Since I mentioned school, now is a good time for me to tell the ridiculous story about how I let my parents book me a ticket to come to Utah and MISS my son's first day of kindergarten!  I cried last night as I paid an exorbitant fee to change the ticket so that I will be here to see him get on the bus in the morning.  I mean, he won't even BE HERE for the day.  He will be at school, but I could not let Paul send him off without me to his first day of school.  He keeps telling me how nervous he is, but I think I am more nervous than he is.  I know he will love it and I have been saying for weeks how I can't wait until school starts so Eirik will be entertained by someone else, but now that it is 18 days away I am sad.  I do love having him home and I don't know what it is like to have him gone for 8 hours a day but I know I am going to miss him!  Joren will miss him too.  Joren calls himself Eirik's minion.  He follows Eirik everywhere and never lets him boss him around, but always entertains Eirik's ideas.  Our summer has been very special.  I love our home.  These will be really sweet memories.  The summer of three little boys.  I feel NATSUKASHI- a state of feeling nostalgic, a fond sadness for the passing of seasons or time.  I know we will only be here for 1 year and 9 more months and I want to treasure every day.  Today we had 2 very special gifts in the yard.  We have a new resident frog in our pond who sits on the rocks and watches us every day as we play on our new play structure.  And, I have a blooming volunteer sunflower in my garden.  Since I planted about 18 at two different times and tried everything I could to keep the animals out and they were still all eaten I feel  like it is a special gift that some random seed from who knows where made it into my yard and made it past the animals and got far enough to bloom.  It is beautiful and for some reason makes me feel alive and well and deeply connected.  I used to say that I think I helped design sunflowers in heaven.  That's silly, but they are my favorite and a blooming sunflower is truly a special sight.  I loved the fields and fields of sunflowers I sped past on the TGV when I was 16.  They were on the first love letter I received.  I loved the sunflowers my mom planted in our front yard in Aurora.  (Did she do that for me?)  And I loved that Paul brought sunflowers when Teig was born.  Today Eirik told me that after we move in two years, Dad, and the boys were going to make a special surprise for me.  They are going to plant lots of sunflowers in our yard for me.  Isn't that sweet!  He is so special how he thinks of the best gifts.  I am working on a painting that a woman in England ordered. It's a commission.  This morning Eirik prayed that I would become and even better painter "even though that is impossible since I am already the best painter in the world."  And tonight he prayed that I would make the lady in England happy with the castle painting I am doing for her.  I can't believe that a 5 year old would even think of that.  He is really pretty special.  
Teig can climb all the way up our slides and slide down them with no help.  He seems way to young to be able to do that!  He is growing up so fast.   He's getting some attitude too, and he's not very happy that we are starting to drink just from bottles, but it has to happen sometime.  He's a big explorer. He loves to get dirty and wet and always finds Jorens cups of water wherever Joren has left them and spills them on himself.  Hey, my floors are cleaner.  :)  

I canned tomato soup this week.  A lady at the store crossed me with a Catholic cross and said "bless you for canning tomatoes."  At 12.99 a bushel, how can you not!?  I love having tomatoes everywhere and chopping vegies for hours.  There isn't much I love more than that.  

This week we put on a "Speed Friendship" Relief Society mid week visiting teaching meeting.  We sat across from each other and got to talk for 2 minutes until the bell rings and then one side of the table moves down.  Then we each exchanged a small gift that tells something about yourself.  I brought 3 kinds of basil and some lemon thyme from my garden.  I told how it has been such a blessing to watch the symphony of this garden unfold this growing season.  As soon as one type of flower is dying another bursts into life and every week there is a new surprise opening.  I said that the more time I spend gardening the more I learn about our Heavenly Father.  Any creature that we take into our stewardship, including plants allows us to experience a bit of the love God has for us.  Sometimes I feel like the plants are asking, "am I fulfilling the measure of my creation?  Am I bringing you joy?"  It is a miracle that anything grows at all, and a great miracle that things are growing in bounty in my yard.  I feel so blessed.  After we exchanged gifts, we had some sisters share visiting teaching experiences and then I bore my testimony.  I had several sisters volunteer to take on more names of inactive sisters and several sisters committed to do their visiting teaching who have never done it before.  It was a wonderful night and the spirit was very strong.    It was a great success!