I stopped rocking Augie to sleep the day after I got home with Manny. He felt huge in my arms. He was ready. A month ago we started rocking again. Instead of bedtime routines, lights out and all to sleep, we've been staying all together-- rocking, back patting, and telling stories. They are all so much bigger now.
In the past, this might have felt like a never ending cycle we were perpetuating (at best) or an exhausting and maddening ritual (at worst). It's a cycle that will pass quickly. And if it doesn't? Then we give Sam the memory of all of us together in one room while he falls asleep and we give the little boys the only thing I have left after a good day of living.
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Sam is reading like a boy possessed. I told Paul that Sam's ability to rip through chapter books at an alarming rate might be the only outward identifier of his genetic relationship to me. That, and his propensity for sleepwalking and peeing in strange places. But he'll grow out of that one (AS DID I). First grade is a mixed bag. His wrap up of the day usually rests entirely on what happened at lunch.
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The Jayhawks are back at it. I listened to Tomorrow the Green Grass for the first time when I was 20 and it changed the way I felt about all kinds of music. Did anyone go to one of the shows in Chicago in January? Feel free to tell me they were awful and not awesome at all.
The March list is looking good. The taxes have been filed (that is a bold faced brag) and we have a little trip planned. We had friends stay this weekend and it was a lot of fun. I bought daffodils the other day and the ones in our yard are nearly up and open.
I'm putting in the peas this weekend.

