A Week in the Life: The Lemay Edition

Whew!! I look at that last post, written from the edge of vacationland, looking down the road into the forseen, extreme, non-vacationland, and I can conjure up those same emotions all over again. But with the summer distancing herself from us more and more with each passing chilly morning, I am rising from ashes of espresso grounds, and appearing to you now, through a puff of powdered sugar smoke.

In the last few weeks I dove headfirst into a new job at Starbucks, made several cakes for weddings and birthdays and anniversaries, began a part-time tutoring job, and continued the unending and mostly amazing saga that is motherhood.

I apologize, again, for how I have been dragging my feet through blogland. I stop by daily to read the blogs I love, but leave without writing anything of my own, usually however it is because I am leaping across the room to stop a certain toddler from tossing a dvd as if it were a frisbee, (or insert your own toddlerish mischief here), etc...

However, I have been inspired by a fellow blogger (http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/09/weekend-creat-3.html) to do a little project this week that will hopefully get the blog up and running again. Starting tomorrow I will be documenting a week in our life, Monday to Sunday. So much is happening everyday. Elias is talking and playing and being HILARIOUS, (and eating WHOLE apples, and playing swords with sticks, and diving head first down steep hills at state parks....eeeek! I'll show you the aftermath), and it really needs to be documented. Who will do it, if I don't get up off my crazed, lazed arse?

So as they say, "ready, steady,....GO!"

(Oh, and here are some of the promised pictures from the absolutely wonderful August, Invasion of the Inlaws...Okay so I cannot figure out how to get the pictures to come to the bottom of the post. So there they are, up there....E saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa. It was so sad. He cried. For a long time...E and Grandma Bev looking at the polar bears at the zoo, the giraffes, and E wearing Grandpa Bob's shoes. He also started calling Grandpa Bob 'Pop-pop' while they were here. Tremendously cute.)

The Moody Blues....and not the band.

It's Monday, and it shows. Despite this absolutely un-August-y, completely lovely fall-ish weather we're having, and despite the fact that my most favorite summer sound ever, that perfectly high-pitched chirp that the crickets make late in the season, is filling the air with sweet music, and even despite the rare and wonderful lavendar scented bath I got to take while Eli napped, I have a sinking feeling.

You see, last week my in-laws were here from Canada. And I am crazy for them. Ever since my husband and I dated, they have welcomed me into their lives like an adopted child. It's not often that I laugh so hard, as I do when we are all together. And now with Eli here, everything seems to have so much more meaning, and the memories created are so sweet.

So, we had a wonderful week, which I will tell you all about in detail soon, but for now I will just say that the reality of life as usual has set in. Partly, because I have to head back to work tonight, as well as bake a giant wedding cake that I am a little nervous about. But also partly because whenever I get the privilege of spending quality time with my family who live so far away, I am forced to remember that when the vacation ends, we will not see them again for months. And with Eli growing and becoming more aware of people and his relationship to them, it's so much harder to say goodbye. Now it's not just me and Grandma Bev who cry upon departure, it's me and Grandma Bev, AND Eli. It's heart-wrenching to say the least.

There are far worse things than a bummer of a Monday, and our blessings far outweigh any disappointments in this life. And like so many times before, the sinking feeling will pass, and everything will be, of course, fine. But I thought I would post a happy picture to brighten my Monday, and yours. oxox

This is kind of unEli related, but I was wondering if I could get some feedback on this scarf I am making.....Thank you kindly.

ox

Tropical Storm Eli

Not quite hurricane strength, yet I would say some fairly powerful Eli force winds were blowing in our home this morning. I don't know what gets into him. He ate the same cereal and raisins breakfast that he requests every morning. He has started to say, (which is something more like a raspy, yet absolutely adorable, morning shout,) "o's!" and "rainins!" upon waking, paired with his sign for milk so that he is sure to cover all his breakfast bases.

Many mornings he just walks down the hall and promptly begins pushing trucks and making that noise that boys seem to just inherently have nestled into their brains and vocal chords from birth. From the very miniature matchbox trucks to the very un-miniature tonka truck he will drive them on any and every surface, for hours, if I will let him, only stopping for meals and the occasional glance at Handy Manny.

But not today. Today he awoke with a mission to accomplish: to undo. Laundry in a basket awaiting folding from a procrastinating mama,...became a ground covering of wrinkled fabric, fit, he thought, for a dance floor, or a platform for jumping and spinning. Books, sitting innocently on the bookshelf, waiting patiently to be chosen for quiet, colorful, educational reading time,...are suddenly in a pile on the floor, and not, unfortunately, from a ravenous reading party. Blocks, meant for building and sorting,...well, you get the picture.

And as quickly as I can tidy up, he is darting from his time-out rug, (or naughty spot, as I like to say with my silly english accent voice,...wait, maybe that's why he doesn't take it seriously...) to make the next mess. And the absolute best part is that he puts himself back in time-out after each mini rebellion, because he knows. I don't know any tropical storms that are that smart.

Awake Baby

Okay, so he woke up about two seconds after that last post, but I have to say his waking was equally as delightful as his sleeping.

Swimming Baby All Day Equals Sleeping Baby All Night

It is nearly 8:30 am and e is still sleeping. And my coffee has brewed, and I have poured myself a mug of it with the exact amounts of cream and sugar that are ideal to my taste buds. And I am sitting on my couch, the news is on, (oh, I hope i'm not jinxing this,) the computer is working, and aside from the giant pile of clean laundry that needs folded, I am actually, literally, squealing with delight. (If you know my son, you know that since the womb he has been getting up at around 5:30 or 6 am.) But I think this is what happens the morning after you take a toddler to a swimming pool for the first time. If woman could give birth to fish, I would say that I had one.
ox

Picking Cherries and Chasing Babies

In case any of you were wondering the best way to distract a one year-old while you climb a very tall ladder that is propped up on, I don't know, let's say, a few twigs, so that you can pick some beautiful cherries for a pending pie that you will hopefully sell (or secretly equally as hopefully not sell, so you can eat it) at the farmer's market this weekend,...well, you strip him naked and place him in a variable garden of eden, equipped with fresh fruits, soft green grass, a baby pool, and of course, trucks. Essentially, taking the baby back to his earliest ancestral roots, minus the baby pool and trucks. It was amazing. Like a giant organic play pen, of sorts. Now, this is not to say that at some point the baby didn't take notice of the extremely tall and exceptionally dangerous ladder, and try to climb it whilst his wobbly mama calmly and repeatedly begged him, from the ladder's tipity top, to get down.

However, this is precisely why we mama's must travel in packs. (My good friend Becky and I are lucky enough to have had our sons, our first borns, only 2 months apart. And this is a story for another blog day, but I will quickly interject that I was in the delivery room with Becky while I was nearly 8 mos. pregnant. I am still unsure if it more prepared me or completely scared the living daylights out of me. (Okay what on earth are my living daylights?!?! I have no idea where that saying came from...(can you put parenthesis inside parenthesis?)) A family type buddy system. We were two mamas and two one year-olds, which made us an unstoppable cherry picking, baby chasing force. One mama picking, while one chases, and then trade. Hilarious fun.

And this was all thanks to Becky's parents and their beautiful yard and completely lovely cherry tree. However, I will say, that it seems the cherries desire to be elusive, (if a cherry could indeed be desirous) hanging in delicious, picture perfect bunches, just out of our reach in almost every direction. You see, cherries like the sun, as do most growing, unpicked fruits I am told, and the sun apparently likes to shine from high in the sky. Thusly, the reddest, most delightfully plump cherries can be found in the highest recesses of the tree's limbs. Ideal for the cherries, not for the pickers. But somehow, and without breaking a single ladder climbing bone, we triumphed. It was a beautiful day, and we managed to get enough cherries for a few pies and some adorable "tartlets" (what becky called her insanely cute mini tarts), which did indeed sell at the farmer's market just two days later.