three

Most people I know have, or are planning to have one or at the most, two kids. It's probably the smart thing to do. Fewer bedrooms needed, fewer bikes to buy, fewer college tuitions to pay for. Not to mention more sleep and greater family mobility. In this uncertain world and unstable economy it's certainly a leap of faith to have a big family. I always wanted three. Maybe I'm greedy. Maybe it's because I love each of my own siblings and the varied ways they came into my life - whole, half, step, adopted... I have a unique relationship with each one, and would not trade even one of  them for a bigger bedroom or fewer college loan payments. I hope my three feel the same someday. 

It is sweet to watch my boys care for Lucy. At the park they'll climb the trees and practice their karate moves on each other for a minute, but soon they'll come find us on the baby slide or the swingset. They carry her around, help her sift sand through her tiny hands, and push her on the swing. And Lucy loves her brothers. Her face lights up when they walk in the room, and she follows them around the house like a puppy. 

I'm sure there will be days when she annoys the hell out of them - I'm thinking four, ten and twelve might be a hard year. My boys are constantly driving each other crazy - in fact I just had to stop writing this to intervene in a yelling match about a gameboy. But I hope it will be worth it for them in the end. I'm hoping that they'll be able to lean on each other when things are hard. That they'll come home for holidays and make toasts at each others' weddings, and that their kids will be friends too. Siblings force you to learn, sometimes the hard way, about accountability and trust, and I believe that having each other will make their lives fuller. I hope their shared history will bind them together and they will always know that they have each other to count on when the chips are down.

35

I was in Woodstock, Illinois on Joel's birthday. Before I left the house at 5:15 am I taped our traditional birthday banner to the kitchen wall, which the boys and I had made the previous afternoon. That was about all I could muster. I called him when I was in line for my rental car at O'Hare airport and he told me a sweet story about getting out of the shower and seeing Liam and Milo in our bed. They had gotten Lucy out of her crib so she was there too, and they had made him breakfast - scrambled eggs and toast. 

When he got to work  his co-workers had decorated his desk, and later in the evening my sweet sister babysat so he could attend Brew 'n Stew, the bi-monthly beer brewing (and beer drinking) man gathering. So I guess he managed to survive without me.

When I got home I made him a carrot cake, like I have every year for the past 13 years.

And we had a family party on our patio.

And Lucy, a girl after her dad's heart, found a beer can to play with.

Happy birthday Joel!

yardwork

We spent most of this hot day in the yard. It was the first day of the year to climb up into the 80s and we're all a little sunburned now. 

little mamas

Lucy is a hit among the little girls in our lives. She has many little mamas. The boys and their friends love her too, but the girls we know have more stamina for holding her on their laps... (Emma)

Following her around the playground... (Meredith)

Letting her climb on them... (Jun - with help from her mom)

And just hanging out on the couch... (Jun)

When I was pregnant, one of the boys' friends, Walker, said to me: "I am going to be so busy loving your baby when it's born." She certainly is loved, and she has gotten used to being carted round in small arms.

sweet boys

The other day I came home from a long day in Salem to this on my desk:

It was the work of my two sweet boys, who robbed the neighbors' hedge for flowers for me. (I guess their father figured Rod and Betty would support the cause.)

And while we're at it - here's a picture of my new office! It was a bit longer in the making than we'd anticipated, but worth every day working at Perugino and every speck of sawdust in the garage. In fact, I am sitting at that very desk at this very moment, taking refuge from the three rowdy (but sweet, see above) boys playing Wii in the livingroom, wishing for sunshine...

86

My grandma celebrated her 86th birthday on May Day. I spent the day feeling very fortunate to have her in my life. 

With the exception of college (she went to the UO in the 1940s) and a few years when my grandfather was in the Navy, my grandma had lived in Bend all her life. She raised my mom there and managed the Chamber of Commerce for 20-odd years. There is still a building just off Wall Street with Magill Drug etched into the window glass, left over from the years her father owned a pharmacy there. Four years ago she left behind her friends, her church, and the familiar streets of her hometown to come to Eugene so she could be close to Rohanna and me. She now lives just around the corner. She gets to be here for family dinners, birthday celebrations and school plays. My boys visit her after school, and she held Lucy just hours after she was born. And for my sisters and me, she is a connection to our mom, the missing link in the four generations separating my daughter and my grandmother. 

Roh and Lucy and I took her to Marche for a birthday lunch. 

And Rohanna hosted a may pole party in her backyard. It rained, but that did not stop us from making a knotty mess of the ribbons.

And our friend Audrey helped her blow out her candles.

9 months

Lucy, you've now been in the world as long as you were in the belly. 

Nine months old now, we're glad you're here. You're fun to have around.