March 31st, 9:53 pm

10 - one of the downsides to not being schedule people is that my kid is still awake at 10 o'clock at night. sigh.

March 30th, 8:53 PM

9 - it's not so much that I treasure the laptop (though I do, it's one of the most thoughtful gifts my husband has ever given me), but I do love hearing The Bird say (in his wee birdy voice): "Mom, I watcha movee on yo 'putoh?"...and the fact that it provides the music for our dance parties anywhere in the house. I do treasure that.

March 29th, 8:00 pm

8 - I never thought I'd have boys. I always thought I'd be a mother to the girliest girls ever and have no idea how to navigate dresses and makeup and whathaveyou. But I have boys, the eldest of which is turning out to be the boyiest boy ever. He loves cars and army men and dinosaurs and robots. He loves getting filthy and turning everything into guns, and building things, expanding outward, destroying and creating at will and at random. All things I have found that boys and men have a particular penchant for. Make no mistake, my boys boy will run and tangle his legs with mine and burrow his messy curly head under my chin and ask for snuggles, smelling of grass and salt and that funny tang that is so special to little boys...he cuddles me close because he is still a very little boy. I hold those moments close because he will get longer and leaner, he will get deeper and broader and one day he won't fit on my lap any more. Neither of them will.

March 28th, 7:30 am

7 - chalk up another point to "every kid is different". The Bird hated the swing/rocker/anything not our arms. Tiny Z can be convinced that the rocker is awesome.

March 25th, 3:00 pm

6 - It takes my breath away what a big boy he is. As though I blinked and he grew impossibly long legs, and a mop of golden brown curls. He is beginning to lose all traces of the round softness that marks a baby. He won't even let me call him the myriad nicknames I have coined for him over the last 4 years...even "little bird" only gets a response every now and then.

March 24th, 8:00 am

5 - Tiny Z's eyes have stayed blue long past the time his brother's changed to chocolate. They are often open, taking everything in. "He's so alert!" people exclaim, "He's such a pretty baby!" they often add. I can't disagree, he's perfect, beautiful and lives up to his nickname we use around here: EZ.

March 23rd, 5:00 pm

4 - We got this from some random drive through joint. The Bird puts it on the face of every guest. I adore his vivaciousness, his glee for simple silly things. He is every day of almost 4, brilliant and excited, full of drama and life, exhausting and beautiful. He is living my wish for my children: that they inhabit their lives to the fullest, sucking the marrow out of life.

March 22nd, 11:45 AM

3 - We are looking for a new place to live. I am loathing the thought of packing up these beloved monstrosities.

March 21st, 2:00 pm

2 - The Bird pronounces it "cramma". He will wander around the house for over an hour just taking pictures of his little life. It is fascinating to scroll through them later, to see our home at his eye level. He thinks it's marvelous to take pictures of his mama and daddy when they are least expecting it. This becomes less adorable when the flash is on and I am napping.

March 18th, 9:30 pm

1 - Riding home on the train from a concert. HandsomeLuke is in Argentina for almost 2 weeks and we are coming up on his homecoming. I am breathless with excitement at seeing him, we have not been apart this long since long before we were married, at the same time I feel marvelously competent. Tiny Z is sound asleep in the sling, The Bird is entranced by the lights outside. He keeps cracking up when the mechanized voice says "Apache Boulevard", I am not sure why this is hilarious but it makes the other passengers laugh with him.

We begin this way...

"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."
(Luke 2:19)

I have often marveled at this passages perfect, poetic description of what it is to be a mother. And so here are mine. All these things that make up the contents of my little heart...