a bowl of cherries

and what, may i ask, are you using your old baby carrier for?

“mama, did you know that if you put two odd numbers together, you get an even number?”

“wow, yeah i did know that, but where did you learn that?”

“i just was thinking about it and figured it out.”

forty-seven seconds later, i asked him to align his ankle and foot, the way i’ve showed him countless times: total obliviousness. i finally walked over and manually adjusted his right foot, so it wasn’t hooking out away from him in the position he was sitting in. i explained, “it’s better for your feet, your ankles, your knees, and your hips to sit this way.”

“oh. are there a lot of vitamins in it?”

life is…

hm, maybe i do harp on and on about certain foods (cherries!) that contain  lots and lots of vitamins? i have been feeding him a constant diet of fruit hoping the bleepety-bleep summer cold he has had for a week will go away. that, and playing him hard and running him around as much as possible in as much fresh air as possible. (lots of vitamins in fresh air, don’t you think?)

incidentally, quinn likes the newest saying i’ve bestowed on him (you know, like “don’t borrow trouble“). he just seems mystified by the fact that a phrase such could have a meaning so unrelated to the words involved in saying it. “life is a bowl of cherries?!” he’s probably thinking it has something to do with life being comprised entirely of these oft-mentioned building blocks known as vitamins, and that cherries contain enough of them to support the biosphere. i explain, “it means everything is so much fun!”

he doesn’t disagree with that statement about life. at least my vitamin rants haven’t crushed his spirit and paralyzed him with fear of rickets and scurvy.

last year marked my first and last marathon 70 pound cherry pitting session using a chopstick. it’s nice having a mother-in-law-ish person (mother-out-law?)  living within walking distance, because we can share such needful modern conveniences as a cherry pitter. an added plus is that the mechanics of the simple machine are fascinating to this child, and he offers to pit cherries roughly every 20 minutes throughout the day so he can once again study each part and tilt his head at another angle to watch the mechanism at work.

after the above quotes about odd numbers and ankles took place, we played monopoly (he is getting good at putting 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s, and 100s together to achieve various amounts for buying properties. collecting $45 from the bank was no biggie. he quickly gathered $17 when he really needed $18 one time, but then when i stopped him, he noticed the mistake. it’s amazing how a little motivation (that it’s a game!) pushes kids from ones to tens to hundreds places. he is, for whatever reason, especially motivated to receive change, always wanting to ensure that he overpays the bank,  necessitating subtraction. oh, okay, i guess you can do that, honey.

thus proving my unschooled child can stand in line and doesn’t need to go to school for it

if you asked the three of us what the highlight of the weekend was, rich would probably say, “reading the sunday paper,” but i think quinn and i would agree that it was attending our friend’s wedding reception, though for two different reasons. him: bouncy house. me: what isn’t awesome about seeing a good friend glowing all day long in a beautiful gown? watching children bounce themselves into oblivion, sweating out the toxic dye from the red velvet cake they’ve just devoured? legitimizing my preference to hang out behind the lens of the camera on the edges of everything and not have to make excuses for why i am not very outgoing?

i got to take pictures at a wedding. it was so much fun, i might have to do it again sometime. a little thought that crossed my mind of “maybe i’ll toss in my camera” turned out to be providence in action, as the hired photographer had to leave early and the bride arrived late. i was glad to have something more to give than my low budget homemade hippie wedding gift of a mix cd. don’t get me wrong, i put lots of good energy and meaningful songs into that present, and since i’ve always been low budget, it has been my traditional gift to wedding havers for some time.

red velvet; vitamin content? zero. contribution to life being a bowl of cherries? considerable.

i stepped out from behind the lens long enough for the bride to take this photo. it was a nice day to get a picture of us, as it marked our year and a half anniversary. we spent the past week having our respective children taking turns being home, reflecting on what nice children they are, and discussing how not to take each other for granted. which, i think comes down to a blend of humor, not taking ourselves too seriously, and a good solid division of labor, spiced with a strong work ethic on both our parts, and being equally reliable for the things we do for each other. in short, i can make no sense of it, because it seems the more we depend on each other, the more we don’t take those things for which we depend on each other for granted. all i know is, it’s working for me.

to the washer of my car, changer of my oil, oil filter and air filter, remover of the petrified mouse nest from air filter case of said car, cutter/chopper/stacker of wood and bringer of fire that keeps me warm all fall-winter-spring, vacuum cleaner operator, tire changer, best-popcorn-ever maker, power washer wielder, irrigation engineer, motion sensor light installer, music putter-on-er, movie chooser, stairs builder, lawnmower pusher, cheerer upper, encourager, blog reader, lover, recipient of my very most heartfelt cd compilations, listener, provider of hugs, partner:

i will gladly be the maker of your egg sandwich, packer of your lunch, maker of your coffee, scratcher of your back, keeper of your garden, baker of your chocolate chip cookies, bed maker (my mom’s jaw dropped upon reading this i don’t doubt), audience/seamstress/usher of your plays, your biggest fan, cooker of your dinner, scooper of your ice cream, picker of your fruit, canner of your pears, sewer of your carhartts, holder of your hand, hanger of your pictures, cheerer upper, lover, encourager, writer of embarrassingly mushy blog posts, curtain putter upper, provider of hugs, listener, partner… from here on out.