End of Summer

The nights are changing.
After sleeping with our windows open all summer long, letting the sweet ocean air blow in and all around our sleeping selves, it is now time to close them up tight for the nights. I would leave them open until December, I am such a clean air freak, but something tells me it might be better for the little ones to close off the briskness to the brand new lungs in our midst. I suppose.
My oldest is growing by leaps and bounds. This week she lost two more of her baby teeth. The tooth fairy comes bearing gifts, of course, but she has almost worn out her welcome. The little one can hardly remember what she brings, and what is the gift of another well meaning elf.  Her gappy tooth smile is beginning to look like a jack'o'lantern, with all the missing spaces and jagged edges. It's beautiful on such a little face to see the adultness slowly creeping in. I stop myself from crying watching her babyness really round the corner into the woman she will someday become. The big girl she is already.
Takes my breath away. Reminds me to enjoy each day, because they never last.

The littlest one is now crawling across the floor, with such rush and flurry, that "child proofing" is beyond me. There isn't anything in our house that even borders on safe. The wires, the electrical outlets, the tools, the cupboards under the counter in the kitchen. The bathroom.
I spent two days this past week reorganizing our entire house, mostly to cater to the needs of the two small people living with us. Toys are centerally located now, all in one spot and excess clutter and unneededs packed away in boxes for the some day, one day when we have our own space.  My sweetheart came home one day this week to our newly designed apartment and said "Wow, it looks like a house in here!"  
As opposed to what, I wonder? Our lives thus far, in a barn, shed, dorm room...? Chicken coop?

A new season marks us in the forth year here. We moved to this small town in the fall that the little one was two, and now she is six and a half.  Hard to believe so much time has flown by. I sat in the living room (which now truly looks like a living room!!) last night, amidst the toys, books and wooden train tracks now loved by two little girls and was simply amazed by the realness of our lives here. We've been living here through many seasons- and not just the changing seasons on this earth. Pregnancy, birth, life with a very small baby, a big girl growing up and learning the changes that come along with beginning school and some hard lessons at life.  We've been through a lot here, and I am grateful for the stability of this space.
The house we live in right now has been many things in it's long life, and has seen many seasons itself.
It has served us well, and I am thankful.

Here's to another season, another year beginning.