not to rub it in, but….

it’s been just beautiful these past few days…warm sunshine and afternoon breezes. air that smells new and fresh…like a michigan spring. and the constant sound of lawn mowers and happy little birds. just this blessed culmination evocative of nothing but goodness. it’s drinkable, really.
so, we’ve set out to enjoy it as much as possible with morning walks where she points at everything and i answer her uh? uh? uh? ‘s with as many enthusiastic responses as i think her little brain can handle. with afternoon picnic-snacks on a blanket sprawled out on our side lawn. with welcoming our mornings by sliding all the glass doors in the house open to invite the goodness in…and, although we might have to slip on a sweatshirt or slipper up our feet for those first sips of coffee, it’s worth it…to greet the morning as everyone should be so lucky. with fresh, sweet february air.

i love living in florida in february. i love the thick woodsy barbecue smoke that curls its way around the neighborhood in the afternoons. the barefoot kids that land in our driveway on the weekends for a riotous game of manhunt. the backyard bonfires we’ve been enjoying and the way brett gets all excited about the bonfire possibly mastering the level of “coolness” needed to get all the neighborhood kids to choose our house for the saturday night hangout. he called me last weekend while i was out and all little-boyishly said…”i think we’re gunna have a lot of kids. get three bags of marshmallows and a ton of hot dogs.” and as the embers heated up and more lawn chairs were added to the ever-growing fire perimeter, i saw him get happier and happier. we did it. we’re cool enough.

…and then watching lainey get completely soaked with attention from all the boys’ friends…just sittin’ there in her brother’s lap, enjoying the marshmallows they all eagerly made her…and her smile. as happy as i was, i couldn’t help but be more happy for brett because i knew he had to be beaming.

i love the fact that, after bemoaning the fact that our neighborhood is so blessed with a slew of little boys, i wasn’t sure lainey would ever find a little girl to play with…a new family moves in four houses down from us just weeks ago. and, on our walk to introduce ourselves, we see four kids playing in the driveway. and, as we get closer and closer, we notice a blond head about lainey’s height. and closer…we notice curly pigtails. and, upon introduction to this sweet family, we learn she is only a month older than lainey. and i love that two nights ago, we all stood in our driveway with a cooler of beer, a box of sidewalk chalk, and a trail of wagons and trikes and talked for two hours while our kids played in the moonlight. that’s outside. in february.

i love afternoon hose fun and the sound her little painted toes make when they squelch and squerch in the puddly mud.

i love getting dinner started and then escaping with her to practice some trike-riding in the driveway in the afternoon light.

oh, and i really, really love these pictures we took today.

i love little bare shoulders and thin cotton straps. in february.

i love…sunshine and sea breezes. warm pavement on bare feet when i run to get the mail. vivid blue skies. saying ‘yes’ everytime she points to go outside. trikes and bikes that don’t hibernate to hanging garage pegs for half the year. going coatless. polishing my toenails because it does matter and people will see them.

i love february florida.

and i love…her.

…but you kinda already knew that, no?

…enjoying the sunshiney things. ~k

thankful heart today.
thankful for afternoons where i forget what time it is and instead find myself lost in her world of play.

we mama’ed a little brood of babydolls today, and i marveled as she instinctively and lovingly cared for them…as if she’s been doin’ this for years. i swear she’s been here before.

she gently pats them and rocks them…hums little songs as she tediously folds the corners of the blanket around their little bodies–the very same blanket, in fact, i tediously folded around her own little body just a year or so ago.

she sways them ‘to sleep’ and hushes me if i get too loud. she totes them around in the crook of her arm and flawlessly performs tasks with her free hand like a true multi-tasking mama. she feeds them, spoon by spoon in the little wooden high chair and changes their diapers, slowly and surely, even stopping to ‘shake’ a little powder.

she is a good, good mama. she is gentle and kind…quiet and caring. and i can’t help but swell just a bit that maybe…just maybe…she learned how to love these babies by watching how we love her. and it sets the bar even higher knowing we are teaching her to love.

oh, how i love babydolls.

…and to my own babydoll:

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart…
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart).
~e.e. cummings

a nice creative day with my beautiful friends…

joe & stephanie’s sweet baby skye rose…

and david, kelly and the lovely lily grace…

whenever there’s a lull in booked clients, i steal them. because i can’t not take pictures…that and i love my friends and their babies very much.