Captured

I took this kids to the library on the way home from work/school/camp yesterday. Tuesdays are the only day it's open late enough for us to visit and I needed new books while I wait for my highly anticipated Endless Knight (#2 in new Kresley Cole trilogy) and Allegiant (#3 in Divergent trilogy) to come out in October. I'm also trying to read my books in the old-fashioned non-back-lit form because they force me to actually go to sleep when JP turns out the light instead of my usual rolling over in his cuddle, flipping my iPhone kindle app screen to the less abrasive black background with white text, and continuing to read until 2 a.m. while my eyes dry out and turn red. The paperback book solution came to me the other night when I was re-reading an old book I'd plucked off my shelves (the first in the J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts In Death series), and when I inevitably got too into it to put it down, despite having read it half a dozen times and knowing the ending, I waited for JP to turn off the light, snuggled in, and reached for the book, only to be genuinely surprised when I couldn't see it 8 inches in front of my face. It turns out, real books don't glow in the dark. Resigned, I set it down, missing the nightstand in the pitch blackness that surrounded me, and instantly fell asleep instead, something I'm sure my body, mind, and poor tired eyes were all thankful for.

So I'm trying to read more non glowing books. I checked out 8 yesterday and just finished the first tonight. I enjoyed a lovely evening yesterday, stretched out reading on the couch with JP working at his desk nearby. We never turned on the TV, I never opened my laptop, and my phone remained in my purse all night (where I found it, battery dead in the morning). It was quite nice. I'm saving the other books for my upcoming travels (two trips to DC in the next two weeks), though it'll be weird to have to go back to hiding the covers of my ridiculously titled romance novels. Oh Kindle, I do love your anonymity.

We had a nice simple weekend. While JP coached the kids and I went to Michael's and picked out two bird houses and some paints to add a custom decorative feature to the baby's room. The kids were SO proud and excited to paint them and put them on display on her shelves.

 

We did a lot of swimming- Claire has become quite the fish, jumping into the water and swimming to the wall by herself, and Landon is completely at home in the water. Both kids took two hour naps both days, and on Sunday JP and I got to take one too (I imagine Tex was sleeping as well- I love Sundays). Also on Sunday, we visited "daddy's pool" to use the diving board before the pool opened up to members. It's nice to get some side benefits from sleeping with the pool director.

JP immediately dared Landon to go off the condemned high-dive, which I was not that excited about. He'd just gone off a regular board for the first time, and the high dive didn't even have a board- it had been removed years ago when it rendered the pool uninsurable, so he had to jump over CONCRETE to make it to the 12' deep water not directly below him. But he did it, and then he did it about 8 more times.

 

JP, of course, had to take it up a notch or three.

 

Claire jumped off the regular board, something I didn't get on camera because she insisted that I be the one in the water to catch her. Treading water for 45 minutes while catching and pushing my child toward the wall was a lot more tiring than I expected. I also swam exactly one lap in the Olympic sized pool before declaring it a day and sleeping for 2 hours with everyone else when we got home.

The kids keep saying things I want to write down, but I forget (or I lose an evening to a good book), so forgive the inelegant dump of several quotes and moments below.

In the car to get a frozen yogurt treat on Saturday night:
Landon: Mommy, I kind of wanted the baby to be a boy.
Me: Yeah, a boy would be fun, but now you'll have two sisters to play with and help and protect!
-- pause, with significant look at Claire --
Landon: Oh man, that's gonna be hard.

~ ~ ~

Claire, at least 100 times a day, said with varying levels of exuberance and wistfulness, but always with sweetness and absolute sincerity: Mommy, I just love you so much.

~ ~ ~

At dinner tonight when I passed my drink to JP:
Claire: Why did you give that to daddy?
Me: Because we like to share things.
Landon, with a sigh and maybe a small eye roll: Because you're in love.

~ ~ ~

Every day at camp pick-up, Landon has a present for Claire. A little drawing he made, a treasure created by a friend or camp counsel (yesterday, a duct-tape bow), and every day Claire asks him about his day. Yesterday's convo on the walk across the 110 degree parking lot is hard to capture because you have to hear the adult-sounding phrases combined with Claire's 3-year-old voice and the image of them holding hands while they walk because Claire requested it, went like this:

Claire: Yandon, did you have fun on your field trip?!
Landon: Yep.
Claire: Oh good, what did do?
Landon: We went on a ride and saw PLANETS! (he was at a planetarium)
Claire: Oh that sounds so nice Yandon!

~ ~ ~

And finally, Claire, 110 times a day, with some variation of: "Mommy, when is our baby going to come out?"

~ ~ ~

96 days.

 

Not that I'm counting.