Since my last post, 3 months ago, we have

1. celebrated a birthday

2. started a new elementary school

3. moved to a new home

(oddly enough I do not have any pictures of our home)

4. added 2 new therapies to our already busy therapy schedule

and…

I’ve had a lot more photography work during the summer months. So much so, I am no longer bringing my camera with me EVERYWHERE I go.  I am always surprised at the amount of time it takes me to cypher through images. It has become apparent to me that I need a better workflow. I feel as though I need to wrap up the year, dump all images on an external hard drive and start anew.

I am happy to begin the process of sliding comfortably into our ‘new’ lives, whatever that means. It takes on a new meaning every day. All this ‘start a new’ talk is so strange. There are so many things I am nostalgic about…our old neighbors and friends, the memories and familiarity of our surroundings and of course family. In so many ways its difficult to start over. I use to move once every three years or so. It becomes increasingly difficult when you begin adding children to the mix. But after a five-year home finding hiatus, we are homeowners once again. This new start is exciting and the good news in case our neighborhood wants to make a different move, there are 4 homes right on our block that are being built as we speak…so Jess and George, Dan and Debbie, Steve and Margaret as well as Alicia and her family just sell everything and come over to our hood!

I hope this homeowner honeymoon (I want to decorate every inch of my new abode) period will settle down soon. Just for one night, I would like to curl up on the couch and watch tv. I am un-naturally productive…so when 10 pm hits, my head hits the pillow and there is no sign of life until 6 am the following morning. I don’t know if I have ever been this busy in my life. Of course I am creating busy-ness for myself. I’m craving that feeling of calmness I get once I have settled into a permanent schedule. I feel like most of my time is spent scheduling and rescheduling appointments. One day soon it will settle down…and then I will crave the spontaneous chaos to break the monotony of that permanent schedule.

Oh cycles.

Our sweet turtle turned 2 this summer. She’s getting so big. Before we know it, she will be walking, talking and bossing everyone around. She already does the latter.

I am really trying to hold onto her a little longer, a little tighter and give her kisses, smell her sweet breath as much as I can right now. She isn’t this little bundle anymore.

She’s this now…

I randomly catch myself watching her and the way she interacts with her world. She really reminds me of Abby when she was that age. We used to call Abby our little “assessor”. She would just watch children play on the play equipment until she gained the confidence to join in. I see Cecilia doing this all the time. She is an observer. If I were to give a general assessment about everyone in our family (except for Phoebe) I would say that we are all observers…and then do-ers. Phoebe is fearless and jumps right in.

I wish the above picture was a better one, but once she starts running I have learned to just get out of her way. So I had my finger on my trigger while I am skipping out of the way.

And on a random note, there is a whole new batch of music out there that makes me want to smile and raise my freak flag!! I hope the new neighbors don’t mind!