Out of Order

Tonight after dinner Turo wanted to play. I told him I could play once I cleaned up. He proceeded to position himself in the middle of the kitchen door with his arm blocking my way and state "the kitchen is out of order."

This kid cracks me up.

Two years

Tonight the three of us watched the video Jose made of our journey to each other. Turo, as always, was full of questions. "Where are you?" "What is that?" "Is that Africa?" "What am I saying?" There is one photo, where I'm standing at the window of our guesthouse and Turo asks "What are you waiting for?"

"I was waiting for you."

After a few more photos go by, Turo remarks, "Mama was so excited to see me."

"Yes, I was and so was Papi."

Then, while looking at Jose and me, our son declares, "Baby Turo was so excited to see you too."

A day in Photos: Copycat Edition, Morning

Inspired, yet again, by several of my favorite blogger gals, I spent today recording our life with my iPhone. And because I'm lazy and my iPhone only lets me send a handful of photos to blogger at a time, our day will appear in several posts.

7ish - A little technology time for Turo while Mama tries to pry open her eyes. Every night I make promises to turn in early, and each night I find myself on the other side of midnight.

8 ish - Papi returns from the gym with coffee.

Breakfast

9 & 10: Forgot to take photos

10:45 - Turo emerges from dance class.

12ish - After grocery shopping, Turo & Sandy head to Mexico, Turo's destination of choice lately.

Day in Photos: Afternoon

12:30ish - Pre-lunch meltdown

1:30ish - Time to Play

2ish - Decide I need to tackle the disaster that is my basement. Put away some stuff. There is a larger path to the washing machine now (the after photo didn't look much different).

3:30ish - Chocolate Milk, Iced Chai and Play-Doh

Day in Photos: Late Afternoon/Early Evening

4:30: Sid the Science Kid (how do his parents afford to send him to that preschool? It must cost a fortune with only four kids in a class)

4:35 - Time to clean the bathrooms

5:30 - Fun outside

6:30 - A little love for Mama

Day in Photos: Night

6:40 - Dinner

7:00 - Blue Chair Time - this is the special spot where we read

7:30 - Turo fell asleep while we read about the moon landing.

9:00- Went to "work." I teach on-line for a small university in Colorado, so I checked-in on my students and posted next week's assignments.

11:30 - I actually haven't done this yet, but I know I'll be watching a little Jon Stewart before I turn out the lights.

A bedtime story by Turo

"Once upon a time there was an astronaut. His name was Buturo. He was not a little boy. In fact, he was a big boy. He went to space. He slept in the space shuttle. There was no gravity. The end."

Why my neighbors wish we could have fences/my attempts at organic lawncare

Last summer I decided to be "green" with my yard maintenance. No more chemicals. A reel mower. Organic fertilizer. Well, the results haven't been so fantastic. Our yard is the cul-de-sac eye-sore. Dandelions pop up daily (and I'm out there each day with my little weed tool pulling them up). The grass is pretty thin. The weeds are greener than the grass. I'm attempting to revive things with a re-seeding plan. Hopefully in a few months I can post a picture of a happy, healthy, organic lawn.

Here is view from the other morning. Can you tell which one is ours?

Cartoon Confession

Last spring we went on a family weekend to Chicago. We stayed in a hotel. Turo woke up early. We discovered PBS kids. Up until this point Turo had watched a little Tsehai Loves Learning and some youtube videos of the marching band and Sesame Street. We could have told him that this was something special for hotels and continued on with our non-tv ways.

But we didn't. We realized we could buy ourselves a few extra minutes of rest in the morning with the magic of Curious George. Or check e-mail thanks to Sid the Science Kid. And with the demise of the nap and the arrival of fall, cartoons could help break up a very long day. The lovely folks at PBS had created a tool that allowed me to clean the bathroom without "help" or take a shower in peace.

Then there is the tv guilt. It seems like this badge of honor to keep one's kids away from television. Yet, I find many ways to rationalize media time. It's PBS. There are no commercials. It's educational. The family in Dinosaur Train even has "adopted" across species. It was winter. I need to mop. I want to have an uninterrupted conversation with a friend who spent a year in Palestine and Israel. Plus, Turo might actually be learning a thing or two. One day use the term migration to describe how his Auntie Jess would visit us from California. Another day he was wrapped in a blanket and called it his chrysalis. Those are terms he totally learned from The Cat in the Hat. Now that we can be outside more maybe my reliance on TV will decrease, but then again a quiet hour is appealing no matter the weather.

Family Yoga

During our Wait, I found solace in yoga. I could try to be present, to let go, to be in my body. After the addition of Turo to our lives and our move back to Michigan, I haven't really found a new teacher/studio like the one I frequented in Dallas. Some days at the gym I'll use my yoga app, but other than that my practice has waned.

However, I signed the three of us up for family yoga at the Y. Today was our second class. Turo participates about 25% of the time and the rest of the class he watches, does his own thing and asks questions. (And yes, we're totally that family taking pictures at yoga.)

This afternoon while we were lying in Savasana, I peeked over at him to make sure he was still on his mat. And I thought how different this pose was today compared with two years ago. How I had to work so hard to try to let go of my expectations about motherhood, referrals, travel and the wait. How I strove to be with my breath. Today as we lay side by side, Turo's hand in mine, I smiled at my sweet boy through tear filled eyes. Sometimes it still amazes me that I'm really his mother.

Mother's Day

"I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart." - e.e. cummings