Siblings- February 2015

Always wanting to be just like his sister…we enjoyed the performance. 

7/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2015.
As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

More traditional portraits this week- although had plenty of traditional Reed pictures- I love my little sleepy head- and don't have nearly enough of those images. Caught myself watching him sleep yesterday like I did when they were babies- somewhere along the way I stopped doing it (or at least doing it as often). Happened right around the time when I started looking forward to their naps:) Temperatures here have plummeted, so staying inside for the weekend, and trying to make the best of it.

6/52

Cold winter days- spent either catching some precious rays outside or playing silly games inside- like hide-and-seek-bet you can't find Reed!

Siena-at Lake McBride among our favorite scout made 'castles'

Reed-he is invisible!

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2015.
As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

5/52

My goofy kids- all week was spent inside- we've had one cold after another and we are so over it all! At least they were in good spirits (some of the time).

As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com
A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2015. 

4/52 Rocking in the Free World

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2015.
As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

Even though the weather had improved enough for us to start spending more time outside, between various colds and the adults starting work again after a month of frolicking, most of our days have been spent inside. So impromptu concerts are no surprise. The fact that everyone is strumming their own tune and often singing their own thing rarely stops this bunch:)

Siblings -- January 2015

As I lamented in one of my last 2014 posts, it is easier to get images of these two together then apart. That and a love of all things photo-projecty made this Siblings photo project an obvious choice to add this year.

rock paper scissors

they are both big cuddles…so it helps they have each other

reed loves touching faces

3/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.
As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

Not really a single portrait, but a single moment; a single memory.

Siena- after weeks of biting cold, getting to go outside - no words can describe! But jumps might.

Reed- what you get when you ask a 2 year old to pose:) (although he saw this quad-image and was able to recreate every face in quick succession- that entertained him for awhile- we might just have a little actor on our hands)

2/52

As the temperatures have plummeted to -20s and Shea has finally returned (albeit with a whole day delay because of the snow storms) days have gone on slowly and without much intention. We have also all gotten a rather unimpressive cold, so we mostly cuddle, run around the house, pretend to do some housework, read, watch bad movies and repeat. It is actually quite disorienting even though it is fun. We have another week before school starts, which I hope will have a semblance of a rhythm. It is hard to have a rhythm when you are stuck in the house. 

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2015.

As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

1/52

Every once in awhile I think I am getting tired of the weekly portraits, but then I look back at how much the kids have changed over each year and I am once again excited. It is not just their size that changes, or their faces, which often seem to change from week to week, its also what excites them and occupies them that changes, and I love trying to capture that. One thing that doesn't seem to change is how often I have to take images of them together- these two are quite the pair!

Over the last few days and for a few more I am solo parenting- and while it is actually crazy hard (the awesome hubby for example wakes up with the kids every single day- so that alone is a feat!), it is also nice to spend that much time with the kids- there is that familiar feeling of accomplishment at having…well...survived the day. I also love that doing this parenting thing alone forces me to be focused and present here with the kids- one of the things I hope to do better in 2015. Anyway, here are my monkeys this first week of 2015 (total science fiction if you ask me) in their quite regular winter spot: sitting on the windowsills. Looking back over the weekly portraits from the last few years I noticed that that too is another thing that hasn't changed- they both seem to seek out the light and yearn for the outdoors in the winter, spending hours each day looking out the window or playing some game or another while sitting on their perch.

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2015.
Once again joining in with Jodi and the 52 project over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

52/52

And here we are - at the very last image for this year. Thinking about what had made this year special- the very first thing that came to mind is seeing the relationship between my little ones emerge and grow and turn into something to behold. Last year at this time Reed was barely year and a half- and Siena was more like a mom to him. Over the last year these two had become so close- spending almost all of their days together. Their newest games involve playing mom or dad to one another- and they alternate playing the parent and the baby- usually this involves an inordinate number of falling asleep and waking up. They also love building forts, pretty much anywhere and at any time. In fact (as I had mentioned) we had given them a gift this holiday season with the hope of moving their fort making somewhere other than on top of us:) They also love building forts in the woods on our walks. They love crazy stuff like running in circles and pretty much any pretend play that involves something 'cary, whether it be a mo-mo (monster) or a guy playing guitar (skeleton that scared them this halloween playing guitar in a haunted house- I know, right?) or just your ordinary 'cary stuff (today it was a bird that was going to carry Reed away, drop him in the lake - we were walking next to a lake- and "Reed be all gone"). Each one of these games gets played at least a few times a day! What helps is the amazing patience that Siena has for her toddler brother and the overwhelming affection he shows her (well he really shows it to anyone who'll take it, but she is often the one closest to him when cuddling mood strikes- which is every 5 to 10 minutes:) So it is only fitting that these two (from last two days) end my year.

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.
As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

And then there was Christmas...

It was a small affair for us, but still great fun. From the spectacular (if I may say so) butternut squash soup with smoked paprika roasted chickpeas and kale crema, to freshly made vegan cinnamon buns (wonderful recipe here), and a tofurky feast.

No snow- instead the sun was bright and warm, prompting a trip to the park with the new pushcart kids got from us. Reed seemed certain that the cart was for him rather than his babies.

In the spirit of not buying too much I also extended a playmat I made them a year ago, adding a few features like a path and a vegetable garden.

Holiday Gifts

Holidays are meant to be a time to slow down and notice the world and people around us, and I truly dislike to what extent it becomes about shopping and busy malls and honking horns. I know all of those might carry a charm to them, but I truly believe that is only because they are so close in time to other, more meaningful experiences (like being with one’s family). This is why we try every year (albeit not terribly successfully) to not buy many things for the kids and instead to give them experiences or build or make something for them and each other. Last year we had built the kids a play stand. 

This year we had made over our guest room into a playroom- the guest room is right off the living room and so it is a perfect location for kids to play. Up until recently this was our homeschool room, but we had for a number of reasons found ourselves doing most of our homeschooling at the kitchen table and so it was high time to change that room around. The kids loved it- we had not done much- added some pillows, moved things around, got some little warm carpets. We had only added a little workshop for Reed (which was his one bought present- Siena got a comic book making kit) and I had sewn a little set of curtains for the playstand so that they could do a puppet theater. This coincided perfectly with the fact that our next door neighbor (who is a play therapist) bought the kids a bunch of amazing puppets! The kids loved it and so do we- I have been reading my new books on their soft bed and kids have been spending so much more time in that room, instead of demolishing the living room, so truly it was a present for us all- wink!