The Livin' is Gettin' Easier

Despite having eaten and then vomited up a lovely Japanese birthday dinner on Monday, I am beginning to feel better. The nausea is really much better, and what is more, I’m actually cooking again. Today I went to the farmer’s market and bought fresh eggs, sausages, feta, and a huge variety of vegetables and berries. Since I got home I have made steamed chard with poached eggs, zucchini chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, and roasted beet and feta salad. Tonight will be grilled sausages and zucchini.

We close on our house on the 29th and move on July 10th. I’ll post pictures at some point, but since we haven’t actually closed yet, I think I will wait. I had a dream that my brother Peter visited and said, “Well, it isn’t very nice. It is too small and the light just isn’t very good.” I just kept saying, “But the yard! The yard!” Honestly, this is the least strange of my nightly adventures in dreamland. This pregnancy has been all about the vomiting and the strange and abundant dreams. I’m hoping now we are shifting into the all about exercising and eating well phase.

The boys are home from school and we have successfully transitioned into a summertime routine. I have made a new chore chart involving more housework and reading/writing/math practice for Luke and Henry. It takes about one hour each morning for them to complete their jobs, and they seem to finally be adjusting to the horror of having to work for a whole hour each day. A whole hour of work before they can play for the next 11 hours! I am a mean, mean mom. Besides treating them like my personal servants, I have been taking them swimming and to parks and to make candles at the local candle shop. This is a hard life we lead.

Summer Morning

It is 7 in the morning and my boys are out on the dewy grass, playing happily by themselves. Not screaming or hitting one another or wrestling. They started out with foot races at 6:30, and have moved on to some game show type game, where Luke quizzes Henry about animals out of his Monster Animals book. This is the book that made him cry at age three (when my mom gave it to him without reading it first—thanks Mom!) but that is now his favorite, favorite book of all time. Who wouldn’t love a book about dung beetles, black widows, and lampreys? You don’t know about lampreys? I didn’t either, until we got the book.

What a sweet morning, lampreys and all. You know, I have found that as my boys fight more these days, they also become better friends. Henry used to do whatever Luke told him to do, and that isn’t really a friendship. But now, Henry has most definitely come into his own, and while the resulting fighting is never fun, Luke and Henry are becoming true companions and friends.

I don’t know if it is the pregnancy hormones—okay, let’s be honest, they are running rampant around here, just ask Craig who had to incredulously witness my sobbing at a country song (yuck!) about how children grow up so fast—but I have been loving Luke and Henry so much these days. On Saturday I was feeling pretty nauseous and had just woken up from a nap and was heading off to the grocery when Luke gave me a big hug and Henry blew me a kiss and said, “I love you mom!” I don’t think Craig coached them. It is moments like this that make me feel really peaceful about having another child.

And it is only one, by the way. We had an ultrasound a couple of weeks ago, and there is one little bean in there (well, I think more like a plum or lime by now) and he or she was kicking away. Now if the little plum would stop making mama feel sick all the time, all would be well.