Slow Weekend

A moment of ridiculous, uncharacteristic, domestic calm. All were content (you do notice there are only three children here--Harry was taking a long nap). And if that wasn't enough? We were listening to the soundtrack of "The Sound of Music." Yes, "Raindrops on roses" was strumming in the background. The moment was almost nauseating it was so darn idyllic.

And you know that 2.3 seconds after I took this picture, Lucy had the gall to grab the pen that Ellie wanted and Leo inadvertently (he claims) knocked Ellie's coloring book onto the floor which elicited fury and venom from Ellie.

Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.
***

Erin had to work this weekend, which nobody liked, but it was nice to be forced to slow down. Normally, Saturday mornings are a blur of shuttling to Leo's speech therapy, then swimming, then there's rushing home for a play date or a birthday party and somewhere in there Erin or I tag team (taking at least a kid or two) for ye old weekly grocery trip (these kids just keep eating and drinking!).

Not this weekend.

Harry (who did eventually wake up from that nap) is our little climber.

Oh, Saturday dawned early as it always does (5:30 a.m. to be exact). As I stumbled toward the babies' room, inwardly groaning at the Why Do They Always Get Up Earliest On The Weekends Phenomena, I paused for a moment to make sure I was hearing what I thought I was.

Yes, Harry was screaming as though being stabbed (he goes from zero to sixty upon waking). But there was something else. A tiny voice:

"Herry, Herry...Herry!"


Our babysitter has claimed that Lucy is saying names, specifically Harry ("Herry") and Ellie ("Ella") but I had yet to hear it for myself, until Saturday morning, bright and early. And I must say, that little voice, saying her older-by-a-minute-big-brother's name? Took a wee bit of the sting out of 5:30.

That afternoon, when Erin came home from work, she took Leo grocery shopping and Ellie and I set off to the park with the babies.

Lucy wore her "new to her" shoes (hand-me-downs from a friend) to the park. She was a little unsure of them at first but after a few minutes in the swing, she was squirming and whining to move on.

I thought for sure that once I let Lucy out, Harry would follow suit, begging to be freed from his swing shackle (As you can imagine, normally what one does? The other wants to do too). I'm as energetic as I can be but following two sixteen month olds with predalictions for going in opposite directions around a playground is next to impossible. It's the hardest thing about this stage--I want to let them be free to explore but also, you know, safe. I tell myself that the things they miss out on by there being two of them are more than made up in other ways. 


But the funniest thing happened. Harry was content to swing. For a long time. Forty-five minutes, maybe? He watched the clouds. He pointed at the trees, at the leaves fluttering to the ground.

Ellie befriended a group of girls that included two sisters, ages four and eight, the same age spread between Ellie and Lucy--the way they played together made me absolutely misty. In a few years? Our girls are going to be tearing up that playground. While I shadowed Lucy (who was inexplicably drawn to the muddiest section of the playground, naturally), I kept one eye on Harry. Whenever his little swing started to slow, I would call to Ellie to "Give Harry a little push," and she (or one of her little friends, who always sweetly asked permission first) would oblige.

Ellie, parrot that she is, overheard Erin and me talking about how "solid" Harry is (it's so funny because he and Lucy are within a few ounces of each other but something about the way Harry's weight is distributed make him feel like a little muscular tank--or, a meatball). And so Ellie has taken to calling him her "Little Meatball."

"Harry is just my little meatball," she told her new little friends at the park, as she pushed him gently on the swing. Harry's little finger pointed up at the milky clouds and off in the distance, the charcoal colored sky.

"Hi Meatball," Ellie said. "Hi..."