It's true, the weather I've been grumbling about for the past seven months has finally changed. Just a short window to enjoy before the sweltering humidity sets in! Make sure you enjoy my upbeat attitude while it lasts.
I also have some sort of guilt complex after writing wordy posts that propels me to appease your starving eyes with photos. Being that I have little else to amuse me in life at this point, those photos will most likely include my children.
We have been enjoying the days full of sunshine and warm air, the longer hours of daylight, the sights of new growth and glorious color, and all the activities that these gifts bring. Like bike riding, and beach combing, anything with a ball (finally not bouncing off my cupboards and walls and doors and lamps) and anything that involves friends. One of the favorites lately is "going to Africa to explore" which has meant a lot of map drawing and passport making.
I welcome all these activities with pale arms wide open, ready for sunlight and more freckles. I have my first bit of shoulder burn today to prove my gratefulness. All this outside love and running around has also left me a bit more tired than usual at the end of the day. I've been slumping with my cooking and writing and knitting of late. I think all those days of fog and cloud cover made me go a little soft, kind of like those first days of running around barefoot as a kid in the summer. After a week or so you toughen up and can run around for hours on end with abandon. I'm hoping that happens to me with sleep. Maybe soon I won't need so much and will be able to run around endlessly after chubby legs and flying baseballs and tipped over bikes without needing to fall into bed right after dinner.
In other news, I've come up with some nicknames for these little ones that I always seem to call "little ones" or "eldest" or "busy one" and am getting a little tired of doing so. I like the idea of a nickname when you write about them so much. They kind of just happened naturally, so I'll introduce you to them and we'll see how it goes.
First, our little girly girl, who is not so girly girlish, but is so sweet and cute even while she is busy and ready to take on anything her brothers can. My friend told me I am a "classic" kind of girl with my stories... probably because I like to read the classics like "To Kill a Mockingbird," she said. I've always loved that book and love main character's name, Scout. She's a tomboy through and through and it just seems to fit our little tumbler. I've called her this on and off for awhile... so here she is, Scout.
I think the next one has always been obvious. He has had these sweet curly-q's from day one and they are a weight he must bear (he thinks). He wets them down and tries to straighten them out, he asks for haircuts and beams with joy when it's all shorn and pathetic looking. But regardless if he keeps them or likes them or loses them or not, he'll always be my Curls.
The other day I took the eldest out for icecream, just me and those sweet blue eyes that are so inquisitive, so full of ponderings and questions and thoughts hysterically beyond what I would think most five years olds would want to think about. He happily sat and talked with me and then asked me to quit taking pictures of him.
The love he has for all things sports runs so deep I cannot understand where it came from. We have to explain to people that we really don't push it on him, and don't care if he ever does anything sports related with his life. I mean, we moved to China for crying out loud. We clearly don't have his career in athletics as our number one goal in life. But, love them he does and so I started calling him Skills, which of course, he loves...so much so that he corrects me if I call him his given name, which I have to remind him is my prerogative as the one who bore him through my birth canal.
Finally, I leave you with my new pair of summer shoes. In all my getting out and about, and in all the walking that living in a city in China requires of you, I take my summer shoes very seriously. The years of Old Navy flip flops came to a vicious halt after moving here almost three years ago; I had to invest in a sturdy pair of Birks which I have not regretted one single second. I literally have worn them everyday, from here to Mongolia and back. So, it was time to find some understudies who could take the load off those faithful friends and I am very pleased to announce that these little darlings are doing quite well. They are extremely comfortable, breathable (I had my doubts at first but they improved), durable, and of course- cute! Not available in China for purchase however so thankyou mom for sending them along in that last package!
It is so wonderful to finally be outside again. Hope you are enjoying the gift of changing seasons!
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