love, friday

• Love the butterfly house at the Minnesota Zoo. Love that Jackson is still talking about the butterflies and sat perfectly still in our garden a few days ago in the hopes that a beautiful butterfly would choose his shoulder to land on from the purple coneflower it was sitting on. It did. (Alas, with no camera present. But it was an endearing moment!)
• Love my kids. Love that Jackson still seems to love Amelia. So far, so good.
• Love that Jackson's creativity is going through the roof lately with his ideas to "go camping" in the big box (complete with a flashlight for reading books) and his tunnels he's built for his train tracks all on his own. Love the spark in his eyes when he tells us about his creations. He even made a killer whale out of black Duplos. Love it!
• Love this beautiful hand-knit sweater made for Amelia by my dear friend, Constructobot. She is an incredibly creative knitter who often casts on without regard for patterns and just makes things. This sweater is truly unique and one-of-a-kind and I can't wait for Amelia to be able to wear it! (Wait, yes I can. I don't want to wish away her babyhood...her brother already grew up too fast!) Love these beautiful flowers that arrived from Dan's company and clients to celebrate Amelia's birth too. Very sweet gestures and fun to have around the house.
• Love sleep. Not that we're getting a lot of it lately, but I just thought I'd mention that I do, in fact, love it.

• Love being so lucky as to have Dan home for the first two weeks of Amelia's life. Of course, I have to admit that I'm not terribly excited about mid-next week when he goes back to work, but I do love the family time we've had together lately. Our dynamics are all different now, but still wonderfully fulfilling and amazing. I hope that Jackson doesn't crash from missing Daddy too much next week (having your Dad around 24/7 when you're a small boy is pretty darned awesome) but I think we'll be able to manage.

• Love lazy summer afternoons with the ceiling fan going, the sound of cicadas ringing through the air, full bellies from yummy lunches and two sleeping children (for now, anyway). Time for a nap for Mom & Dad too.

love, friday