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My Dad passed away when I was 17.  My life is fractured into “life with my Dad” and “life without my Dad.”  Last year marked the beginning of the part of my life where I have lived longer without him in it than with him.  My memories and even my pictures of my too-short time with him feel like they have been frozen in time.  So I am breaking with my 365 today to post this picture of us from about 1986-ish.

We’re gonna catch a big one!  What a beautiful day.  We’re not scared.   The words from this book were being repeated over and over as J and R set out on a bear hunt in the backyard.  That is, until they cornered the bear in the “narrow gloomy cave” and pretty much beat the darn thing to death with their vacuum cleaners.

Kids are weird.  J and R both hate ice cream.  I’m not sure why R hates it (b/c he can’t tell us yet) but J says it is “too cold.”  This, however, does not stop either of them from chowing down on ice pops.  Go figure.

J had the most wonderful first year of pre-school.  We couldn’t have asked for a better school and a better set of teachers for him.  We watched him learn and grow so incredibly much through the year.  The first day we dropped him off he had tears in his eyes as his teacher got him out of the car and looked at us for reassurance that everything was going to be OK.  The last day, he excitedly jumped out of the car with not much more than a smile and a “bye Mama!” as he walked confidently and independently into his school.  Through the year he has come home from class talking all about the art projects he has created, the colors he got to paint with, the toys he played with, the songs he sang with Mrs R and Ms Carol, as well as the treats he baked with Mrs K and the awesome red shoes he got to wear.  As his mom, the experience was the first time (and clearly will not be the last time) that I really truly saw that he is his own person, independent of me and whatever my expectations are for him, I have to let them go and let him cultivate his own interests and discover his own path.

(So I am guessing Dada will be thrilled that I have learned that I cannot push lacrosse on any of our kids and instead need to allow them to do whatever interests them… even if it is karate and baseball.  Yuck. ;))

And because I can’t pick just one, here are a few of the many faces of J.

Ever since J got rain boots for his birthday he has been wearing them every chance he gets if the weather is somewhat rainy.  Even if it’s just a drizzle.  So today, when the sun came out after some fierce thunderstorms, I knew it would be a perfect opportunity for him to really break those bad boys in.  And as for R, there was no doubt in my mind this kid would love jumping in the huge and deep puddles that form on a nearby street after seeing him play in tinest little puddles that are created in the divets of our patio stones every time it rains.

R may not have many words, but he sure does have opinions!  After watching J put on his shoes, R wriggled out of my lap and pushed me away when I tried to help him with his shoes.  “Nyo.”  It would be annoying if it wasn’t for the cutest little voice saying it with the little bit of ‘tude that an almost 2 year old could muster.

Of course he does.  Cause no walk would be complete without Mike and a stick pony whose ears make neighing and galloping sounds when you press them.