more than enough strawberries

Odin and Paloma both ended up with fevers last Wednesday so our work week was cut short and we stayed home to rest for a few days. We ventured out on Friday to visit Uncle Zach and have some lunch at the airport. Odin prefers french fries and airplanes to cinnamon bun french toast, to my surprise.

Saturday was magnificent. Odin and I visited friends at the farmer's market and enjoyed some delicious treats from Fare Isle (you should really check out her beautiful blog) and watched a couple friends play some live music. We came home for a nap and then hurried off to Bartlett's Farm to pick some fresh strawberries. For 5$ you get a little bin and you can fill it up as much as possible. We bought two and picked up our friend Lili to help. Odin had the best time sitting in between rows of strawberry plants and devouring the delicious organic sweets. They were probably some of the most beautiful and tastiest strawberries I've ever had and they make me so excited for our strawberries from our own garden. Luckily Zak was able to get off of work early enough to join us and we ended up with more strawberries than I would have imagined.

With summer comes the flower-crown-making. I'd only made one before today and Lili hadn't made one at all so we made some beautiful daisy chains with added Lavender and Catnip for some more color. The only thing better than making flower crowns is making flower crowns with friends and sharing them with even more friends. Visiting Zach we made some pasta and drank a beer while Odin threw an orange around the house yelling after it, "Ball!!!" (he thinks that if you can throw it, it's a ball.)

To add to the excitement of our day we visited another friend, Justine. She was having a beautiful dinner with a small group of people and Odin thoroughly enjoyed having so many adults to befriend.

Probably my favorite Saturday of 2013 so far.

The Sling Diaries Love + Adventure, Vol. III: Love

For Sakura Bloom, Zak has done a guest entry for Father's Day.

How these tiny hands can wield the double-edged sword of love so masterfully is beyond me, driving the blade right through me every time I see him and twisting it every time he smiles. As natural and princely as Arthur himself pulling the sword from the stone is my child waving a stick and giggling.  As you have probably noticed we like to spend a lot of time in our weed patch, painting ourselves with the flesh of the earth and watching the myriad of micro-cosoms around us fractal out in infinite birth and destruction, the spiders web is desolation to the fly writhing in it, but is also home to morning dew trapped worlds, reflected endlessly, and bejeweling each strand's nefarious intents. These insect sized soap operas are our television and we watch them unravel as we fill our ears with birdsong and beespeech to keep the world of man from chiming in like that uncle at the family picnic that everyone tries to ignore.  We measure our days against the plants around us as they grow fatter, sassier, ever upward towards the center, towards their smiling god and we return the favor, marking the passing of time with our ever darkening skin and our pole bean child's similar ascent.  Odin picks up the world with every sense that he possesses and truly experiences every aspect of it with the keen unbiased observation we have all removed from our tool belts, labeled as outdated, and replaced with this new streamline tool called 'fact'.  This baby is beyond laws, whether they be physical, natural, or institutional.  He reminds me that the world shimmers and shakes its odds and ends all over the place and isn't just held up by a set of laser leveled 90 degree angles.   He holds the heavens above me on his narrow shoulders, and when I am lost in some dark corner of myself, I will always be able to navigate my way home again by following the stars glowing in his eyes.

Zak is wearing Sakura Bloom's Simple Silk Sling in Fig.
You can find our previous Sling Diaries here.

summer's first breath

As summer quickly approaches, it's exciting to watch Odin watch in awe. He quietly feels the wind on his face and listens to the earth. He catches a shadow on the ground and quickly looks to the sky, pointing at birds and airplanes as they pass, letting us know we should look up too. His favorite word "ball" is repeated throughout the day and it's so precious. In addition to Mama and Dada, he is learning so quickly. We ask him "where's Caligula, Odin?" and his eyes scan the room until he spots our cat, he smiles and points. It's so much fun to watch him grow into such a beautiful child. His soul his gentle and sweet and I hope he stays that way. Whenever he's with anyone else (adult or child) he crawls into their lap to hug them tightly around the neck. He stops stares into their eyes and flashes them the biggest smile before hugging them once more and then jumping back into mama's arms. 

June so soon

2013 is flying by more quickly any other year, it seems. I'm trying to find quiet moments throughout the day to do some sort of meditative activity in an attempt to slow down time, which I'm aware is impossible. I've seen these beautiful mandalas on Instagram and many of them are made from plants. They're all so beautiful and I've been completely enraptured. It was surprising to me that #playingwithpetals was so calming. After a long day of playing with the babies, Odin played outside with his aunt while I made a little mandala at his table inside. It reminded me to give myself moments to catch up, moments to breathe. This year's been so busy (but in a very good way), I'm afraid I'll miss out on all the beauty. Odin is loving having a playmate throughout the day and having another child to interact with is teaching him so much. He's growing so smart and developing quite the little personality so quickly, it's nice to still have moments where he just wants to cuddle. Moments where he'd rather nap on my chest than curled up on his own. I cherish these moments more now than I did when he was much newer, I never realized time could be so fleeting. I know as time passes, the distance between these moments will grow larger. I also know that Odin will forever be my little boy.