It was summer

Summer is their skin flushed from the furnace in the sky. 
One night Zander and I took Cora and Sam hiking.  Her whole body was glowing from the heat of her tiny muscles and the heat of the air.  Her blue eyes were electric and her hair a dancing flame on top of her head.  She stunned me.  Then, she opened her mouth to talk about smashing lizards with rocks or just to say randomly "poop".  In those moments Zander and I point our fingers at each other and say "She's your daughter!" 

Gunther has fun too.

Thursday night, the air was still and sticky.  It was a mad rush, with forced resolve to be calm though, as we packed up old Trusty to head out of town.  The kid's were pumped to be going up to Grandma's cabin.  To fall asleep under the blur of orange highway lamps, to wake in the green blackness of Junipine.  We crawl 10 yards down the street and the grinding of the brakes stalls our quick get away.  "Well, hopefully, its just a rock" sighs Zander.
We pull back into the drive.  The kids squirm in their car seats while Zander quickly works to assess the problem. 
"It just went from bad to worse" announced Zander.
"okay, kids, I've got bad news.... We'll have to go to Junipine tomorrow."
Wah wah wah, yah dah yah dah, they got it out of their system and then passed out in their beds reassured that mom and dad would take care of it. 
Now, Mom did nothing but eat a box of cheezits and then cry herself to sleep because her toothbrush and toothpaste were a jenga piece wedged in a stack of suitcases in the back of the suburban.
Zander, however has the skillz to pay the billz yo.  He woke up at 6:30am under a slated sky that broke over his head in an outpouring of rain and lightning.  The wet weather did not deter his rescue mission.  Soon, he safely whisked his family away.

“Then if a child comes to you, if he laughs, if he has golden hair, if he doesn’t answer your questions, you’ll know who he is."  The Little Prince.

Tut Tut Looks Like Rain

  She's my little storm cloud that followed me around this beautiful sunny day.  She was almost a constant dribble of cries and complaints.  I was soaked and tired from her mini tempest.  Once we were back at the shelter of the cabin, I plugged that pie hole with one of her grotesque poppies and plopped her in bed for a nap.    She woke up with a silver lining.  Thankfully.

Sammy Dow is ONE

I guess Gunther doesn't do it for him.  So, he feeds the bathroom bowl like its his own little pet.  Apparently, it gets cranky if Sam doesn't include anything electronic in its diet....  Thank you Verizon associate for all your help, you did what you could.

I'll be the first to admit, though, I am so stupid in love with him, that all that gross stuff he does gets categorized in my mind as "soooo cute" and "don't ya just wanna squeeze him" or "don't be such a pansy Zander, its just poop smeared all over the walls and floor"  for example.  We try to teach him to be gentle to the dog and Cora's hair.  Yet, I find myself, smothering him with kisses on his chins while coaxing his clenched fist to release the screaming sister.  Oh the child development specialists would have a hay day with me.  I'm the classic "What not to do". 
Despite the clumps of yellow curls found from time to time in his sticky palms, Cora too, is smitten.  And, despite his knack for tearing down all that is built up, Ender is quite taken with him.  Its not just mama that favors him, we all do.  We're in this together.  He's the adoring baby brother. 

He loves himself a good song to dance to.  He's often seen toddling around with drum sticks playing diddies on the wall, my knee cap, the dogs face, and quite often, daddy's drums.    I'd love it if the children became a musical trio.  Ender on the piano and following the falsetto's of MJ and JT, Cora playing angry guitar riffs and Sam keeping them all in tandem with the drums.  On one condition, their band wouldn't even make it to the garage, it would just fit nicely in the comfort of our living room. Safe and perfect.