blue period

we are smack dab in the middle of a metamorphosis over here. it seems that every single thing in our lives is changing right now. layers upon layers of change.

i'll post more when i catch my breath....

friends

ian and i have stumbled through early parenthood as all of us do. we pat ourselves on the back for some of our parenting techniques and we cuss (usually quietly) at others. one of the things that we've done that i LOVE: we've given each of our children a very "special friend". koruna's special friend is drake. rooster slept with us until she was 4 months old. when we moved her to her own bed, drake slept with her. the cool thing about drake was that drake ONLY slept with her - he never left the bed. so koruna WANTED to take a nap - she WANTED to get in bed so she could be with drake. brilliant, right? runa is almost 3 years old now and their relationship is as strong as ever.

it turns out drake is more special than even ian and i knew. rooster recently told us that drake is: 1. a girl 2. chinese 3. is not currently living at her house in china. she now lives in an apartment over on congress. 4. has 5 of EVERYTHING that runa does not have. 5! 5. gets to do EVERYTHING that koruna does not get to do.

she's quite a gal, that drake. we love 'er.

now marvel has louie.

we chose louie for his obvious personality and his many chewable, suckable parts. mars also has brother love, a puffin given to us by michael norris, our tattoo artist and friend.  mars is already totally attached to both.

i think these friends sorta helped my children learn to love. ya know, like friends do.

(we have 2 backup drakes, 1 backup louie and zero backup brother loves.)

rainin' babies

music has influenced my life greatly GREATLY, but my relationship with music has changed since i've had children.  up until a few months ago, all koruna would let us sing was "i've got peace like a river".  it's still the only one she lets us sing to her at night, but at least now during the day we can sing "deep in the heart of texas" or "she'll be comin' round the mountain" or "happy birthday" over and over to every stuffed animal in the house.

i dig the music that koruna reintroduces us to.  i dig how many times a day i burst into song.  i dig the sound of my voice mixed with hers.  life with children is musical, no doubt, but i find it difficult to make room for the music i love - the music that i know nourishes and informs and alters me.  as the noise in my daily life increases, i often choose to sit in silence when i get the chance instead of turning on some tunes.  but i want that to change.

tonight, runa and i were running screaming laughing in the front yard when she said, "there's babies rainin' down on us!  there's babies rainin' down on us!"  i stopped running and asked her to repeat it again.

i had to take her and hug her and try to sing her one of my favorite formative songs - it's not an easy one to sing.

What I'm thinkin' is so delicate If I breathe, you know, I'm gonna lose it......

http://youtu.be/Fzy0FfCUkjA

i was just a girl when i first loved that song.  and the sound of it still makes my heart feel like it's gonna explode.  i hope music does the same thing for koruna and marvel.

holi holi holi

i'd love to throw some colored powder on some folks today.  see everyone drenched in rain and color....

room illuminated

marvel's room is still evolving. because it's one of the coldest rooms in the house and i still haven't gotten around to buying or making curtains, we've fastened up a suzani and a quilt to barricade the windows. the light pouring in through the fabrics looks like stained glass - it sometimes takes my breath away. i love nursing marvel there in that quiet glow, watching him fall asleep, letting my mind wander. those moments are the the calmest moments of my day.

that illuminated time and space feels sacred.