digging around

 

 

 

 

 

Late September and the livin' is easy.  I must have written this a thousand times but it bears repeating:  We live in a stunningly beautiful place and we should be ashamed if we don't make the most of it.  And we do.  Or try to anyway.  So here we are on a Sunday digging holes in the sand and riding the waves.  There is something relentlessly fun about sand castles.  I don't think I'll ever grow out of the joy of thoughtlessly sculpting walls and battlements and moats.  And now I have help.  Schuyler loved washing the seaweed in the buckets and then decorating the keep yard with "grass".  Charlie, of course, enjoyed knocking it down.  But everyone loved when the tide rushed into the moat and filled it up for just a few seconds before seeping away again.  Schuyler is also no chicken.  She went right into the ocean with her mama despite waves which quite frankly bordered on unsafe.  This is good.  This is a good life.

once upon a time...

 

 

 

These are the days I hope you will remember.  These are the days I hope all of us will remember.  The days of childhood when magic still ruled.  Not a magic that made the real world change but a magic that allowed us to believe that donning a ball gown made in China and a fireman outfit purchased from a toy could allow the real world and its rules to drop away and superimpose palaces and fire stations in its place - that thin veneer of imagination supported only by the childhood mind's determination to make it so.  When I'm at work and I allow the banal tasks of the job and the pressure of deadlines to eat away at me, I hold on to the memories of you guys sitting at the table snacking in your costumes and I let the make believe pressures of work fade and reveal a world of play and fun and magic.  This is what you teach me.

checking up on charlie

 

 

37.5"
35lbs

3 years ago today...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So for five months, my office had been the home for an entire world.  A world of Thomas The Tank Engine.  We had been on the lookout for a train set and finally found a great second hand one on the classifieds website.  So we bought it.  Unfortunately, it was almost a half a year until the kid's birthday so the home of the train set and the large painted plywood board with the lakes and roads on it was my office.  Which was nice.  It meant that every time I got down about the mundane parts of my job, I could look over and know the excitement and joy that awaited our little guy.

Happy Birthday, Charles!  We can't believe you're three already!  Although, it seems like you've been two forever which has been lovely because it has really felt like we've been able to enjoy the year of you being two for a long time and we are very aware that these times sweep by quicker than anyone would like.  You and Schuyler are still one of the greatest joys of our life.  You are a rambunctious kid.  You climb everything.  You charm people with your smile and say hello to almost every stranger you meet.   You throw things, empty shelves of books onto the floor, you LOVE kicking a ball around, and anything that involves running.  Pretty much anytime we ask you what you would like, you answer "CHOCOLATE!"  Recently, you've taken to giving lots of hugs and kisses which is adorable - especially when you wake us up with a big Charlie hug and a kiss on the cheek.  I can't think of a better way to way up (which is good because you are often up at 6am which is just a little bit early for your poor mum and dad).  You are going through the typical three year old stuff of crying and screaming because you aren't quite sure what's going on and how to communicate it.  You can be terribly contrary e.g. "I want to EAT!"  "OK.  Let's eat!"  "I DON"T WANT TO EAT!"  But that's all normal, so don't worry too much about it.
You are loving school and you are unusually good about concentrating on the work you are doing both at home and school.  You're a little timid at the new school with all the new friends but you're no wallflower either.
We can't wait to see the person you become and love watching you as you bloom!
We love you, Charlie, and we will always be there for you - no matter what!

when mummy was schuyler's age

Mummy and Auntie Julie

 

Uncle Chris and Uncle Justin

Leaving

Sometimes kids get really deep, really quickly.  Here's a discussion Charlie and Schuyler had at the breakfast table when we were talking about Mama going away to Vermont for work:

Charlie:  "When you guys are away I cry."

Sky:  "We're never going away, Charlie. Unless we die."

Charlie:  "Die?"

Sky:  "Everyone you know will die someday, Charlie."

Charlie:  "Everyone?"

Sky:  "Yup.  They bury your bones and celebrate."

mummy is at work in vermont

 

 

 

 

goodbye bahamas

Quiet time.

One of my favourite pictures from this trip.

Hugo and Schuyler lead the pack.

 

Schuyler and her living doll.

All good things must come to an end and we had to give hugs that would last long after we left and say goodbye to our family and head back to the little island that is currently home.  It was a really wonderful time and, for me, one of those mental snapshots that i'll carry around in the permanent album in my head.  It was just wonderful to get the cousins together and they clearly loved hanging out together.  Let's do it again soon.

loving the cousins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every morning for the four days we were there, we would all meet at the restaurant's never ending brunch to eat together.  It was like a Bermudian version of thanksgiving - a spontaneous miniature family reunion which restored the glue to the gaps created by distance and time.  It just felt like love.   I'm so grateful to everyone who made it happen.

family fun

Kim and Wardy Baby strike a pose.

 

 

Perhaps the best pillow fort ever constructed.

 

Schuyler was pretty taken with her little tiny girl cousin!

 

Charlie and the Eagle Rays (his future band name)
I don't know who had a better time on this trip:  The kids or their Dad.  It was just plain fun.  Just hanging out in a hotel room with all the cousins was a blast.  I got to catch up with Will and Lou and reestablish the everydayness that dims when you life literally have a world away and the kids got some quality cousin time.  They don't have any cousins in Bermuda anymore.  And even when Mitchell and Walker were in Bermuda, they were a different kind of fun - more like playing with an Uncle because they were at such a later stage in their lives - so this was non-stop fun for them.  Schuyler was very taken with her cousins - especially having a younger one on which to bestow her slightly overwhelming affection and having a boy cousin her own age was icing on this familial cake!