<3 this week
Baby is four months old today, and his outfit is over 30 years old
Found something new today
: Toes
Blustery Day - October 3rd
Keep coming back to watch this over and over.
Seated
you are barely taller than my briefcase.
Someday you will know the till,
the thrill, the chase,
the soil underneath fingernails,
the heart as it keeps pace.
Today you wear what I wish I wore more:
a soft brow and a quiet face.
The time you fit in the bathroom sink and your father's hands
Our little pumpkins
Wesley & Walter. One of the best things about growing up and having kids is getting to have fun with other people who are growing up and having kids.
9/26/18
Sometimes you almost can’t see a difference from life now and life before. But the window betrays that his piano pieces are now duets.
Your every edge, from the bottom to the top of the tiptops of you, luminates golden to me.
My dad turns 60.
In the strange process of selecting a person
to symbolize the past, present or future,
there are two things to consider:
who has more?
And who is in each?
Wesley is in your past and mine,
but has more future than us both.
Your age is in his future and mine,
but you have more history than us both.
Are you Future or Past?
There is a symmetry to the question:
you are the base or the peak of the pyramid,
depending on the flip.
You are First of us three,
or you are Last.
You are the Still
before my Steady,
his Spry.
Among our Crawl, Walk, Run,
you are the Fast.
There is symmetry to the equation:
zero to thirty to sixty.
Three equidistant generations
of men, perhaps some meaning
in the math.
But whatever the Future,
whatever the Past,
I’m grateful in the Present
that you’re here,
in wisdom, conversation,
feeling and thought.
I’m gonna get you…
Guess Who
One of my favorite people was born today
Two things that Anna encouraged in me as a kid and adult:
1. A love of photos.
From the time I met her as a kid, she had boxes of them. I would watch her do little photo shoots of sisters and other projects and she would always share the bounty after she got them developed. She had a natural and charming love for the sentimental which I can see had a huge impact on me.
2. A love of giggling.
She can’t get enough of silly things and she’s always been that way. She made me laugh and she made me funny. And if every 10 year old girl was granted an older female influence that made her feel that way… It would just be so much better.
These two loves are so dear to me, which gets at some part of why she is so dear to me.
Happy Birthday, Anna
(✎S 📷S)
Six Years
This little girl turned six today. It was once the keen desire to have pictures of her little face that moved me to learn more about how to take a good photo. So, it’s quite magical whenever I take a photo that I love that she is in. I look at it and treasure the way a person can inspire so much without saying a word. You inspire me, Abigail, just by being you. You always will.
(✎S 📷S)
So often now when we are holding him, he holds our hand at the same time. If he sees it in front of his face, he grabs for it and pulls it to his own face or chest. I love that he now can do one small thing beyond crying, that one gesture, to express a desire.
(✎S 📷S)
9-20-18
“The key
is swallowed by the ordinary.”
I have always disregarded the day-to-day
as if it held no over-arch.
I have always discarded the mundane
like it had no narrative significance.
And I have always known
I was wrong.
He fell asleep on my chest for the dozenth time.
You walked behind me - you always peruse a little more slowly than I do.
It was the beginning of Fall,
the air was freshly chilled.
Yesterday was nothing special,
a rose garden,
September sun.
Except that if every day from now
were like this one,
it would have all been worth it.
(✎E 📷S)
A Poem for the Morning
I had a whole year
they told me
to decide whether I wanted
to spend every following year
with you.
Go through every season,
till you excise any reason
for breaking us off,
they said.
I had no similar option
with our son:
9 months of wonder,
then lightning, then thunder -
we all fell down.
Whereas you created the mold for yourself
in my heart;
he is supposed to conform to the mold
awaiting him
in my heart.
He must navigate the street around the corner,
the one where we saw him coming.
I didn’t see you coming.
These are two very different
but equal ways of loving.
(✎E 📷S)