when you're a kid.

Life is magical when you are a kid. I'm not sure when or why that magic wears off, when we start taking life for granted. I do know that being around my children makes life vibrantly colorful. Kids get excited about things that long ago lost our interest- acorn piles, white ponies, odd shaped rocks, pieces of printer paper formed into telescopes.  We keep a pile outside our door of sticks, plucked off the ground, that Liam has gotten attached to and couldn't bear to abandon. Sticks that yes, look like trash. This morning Liam went around the house announcing with an excited smile, "Can you believe it, it's the last day of September!!" as if he was waking us up for Christmas morning.  Today will be no different than any other day, but to my kids it will be exciting. 

 D.C. has class. It's exciting to live in a city with endless amounts of culture. This week we took our kids to The Phillips Collection, a stately mansion that long ago was turned into the first U.S. modern art museum.  It houses impressive works from Picasso, Renoir, O' Keffe, Degas, Van Gogh, and a walk-in room made entirely from bees wax. The kids, surprisingly, enjoyed the experience.  Liam picked this monster-like creature as his favorite and also stated he's pretty sure, given the same paints, he could produce a better monster painting himself.

  

getting out

I have reluctantly been turned into a homebody.  I didn't want for it to happen but 3 kids and finite resources have seemed to dictate that I stay home doing something relatively boring most Friday and Saturday nights. 

But this weekend we partied 2 nights in a row. The first night we went to a posh D.C. party with  Brady's co-workers in Dupont Circle.  The second night we went to a 60s themed mock-tail birthday party (I was lame and didn't find a 60s costume.) 

It felt good to get out.

 I love to bask in the sugary sweetness of this angelic child. She makes me feel loved and awards me with a sense of achievement. It feels good to have someone in my life that is so easy to please.  Her needs are simple, easily fulfilled.  The absence of independence and my meager sleep seems to be a great trade, a steal.

 

 These children of mine are both endlessly entertaining and utterly exhausting.