rockinbabies

May 30, 2012

So... This is happening.

Ah the old "put-a-baby-in-a-hat-and-make-'em-look-cute" trick"...

I could honestly post more and more of these photos all night...shamelessy. They are that adorable and I can't stop mooning over them. And since it is my blog...her we go with a few more....

 

Woof. Absolutely delicious. Just can't get enough. Okay, maybe just a few more...you pulled my arm!!

Ah. That was awesome.

May 27, 2012

Working in the studio tonight on vocals for the last three songs on the record. So close...

Everybody wants to kiss that baby...

 

Libraries

    Man, I feel like one of the best "journal entries" to track my kids' brains right now is their library book list. Yesterday I was returning  a way-overdue crate of books including the books on these topics: Toads, turtles, alligators, clowns, inventors, songbirds, dinosaurs, the moon, Pluto, Jupiter, and pumpkins. I had to laugh.

And so today when I announced that we would be headed to the downtown branch after lunch the two older boys decided it was time to compose a list of exactly what topics they needed to find new books about. Jude (above): Blue Jays, Triceratops, Jungles, Tufted Titmouses, Aliosaurus, Blue Whales, and a title: "Everybody Poops". Nice

    Ambrose had some repeats but added in Velocaraptor and the American Goldfinch. Awesome.

    You think I am a dork? Look at Jude who dressed up for the occasion and bragged the whole way down about how he even brushed his teeth.

    And because it ended up just being the three of us we headed out to a French Cafe for desserts and then back home with a still sleeping Lazarus and a tramppoline under the trees to read through our new booty. A good day indeed.

WATER FIGHT!!!!

Today we declared this our new summer 4 o clock tradition. Every day. Oh yeah.

A Brief History of our new Life with Birds, in two parts.

PART I:

Jude has developed a minor fascination/ obsession with birds. Real live ones. He is a self-proclaimed ornothologist and spends a good part of every day pouring over different birding books, reading facts aloud to me, and attempting to identify bird calls. At some point it was decided that he had two favorites: The Blue Jay, and The American Goldfinch.  Of course, as is the pattern around here, Ambrose joined in whole-heartedly with the bird enthusiasm. He immediately claimed the American Cardinal and the Tufted Titmouse. As an end of year gift each boy recieved a stuffed version of their favorite from The Audobon Society complete with the accurate bird call. And so the adoration continued.

    All of this is very cool and something that I can really take no credit for. The bird fascination began with a lucky (and I think accidental) book choice a few months back at the library. And somehow (call it the fates shining on me) the oh-so annoying game Angry Birds made a metamorphasis into actual "birding". Praise God on that one. It is a miracle. I know it.

    But the real help in all of this has been the boys lovely Aunt Margaret. A professional and instinctual scientist, Margaret has taken every oportunity to encourage their interests and has known the exact dork-route to take to get them deeper in. Last week she bought them this book which might just rank up there as one of the neatest things I have ever seen. She had the book as a child, remembers loving it, and now shares her affection with my own little dudes.  And so it grows.

PART II:

And so we have started the summer out with a handful of bird hunts. Today the boys walked a good mile through the woods identifying bird calls and claiming to recognize a handful of birds.

Binoculars and swords were of equal necessity, obviously.

And then, lo and behold, Uncle Keegan and Aunt Margaret decided to up the ante and go ahead and buy some chickens. Yup. And here is where I personally thank them for having dogs and chickens so,well,..I don't have too. But that is another story.

Anyways, on our way home from the bird hunt we got the call that the chickens might enjoy some visitors and so we headed over. Keegan, Jude, and Ambrose set out with graham crackers and grapes (?) attempting to lure the hens out of their coop.

Lazarus stayed interested for about a minute and then realized that the action was definitely on the other side of the coop.

I imagine his little mind going something like this:

"Hey...wait a minute...what in the heck is going on in there?"

"woah."

"hey guys,..have you seen this over here?!"

"Oh my goodness! It's chickens! Three whole, fatty chickens!"

"no. way."

"hey little buddies. fancy meeting you here.."

"those guys have NO idea what they are doing over there. Amatuers."

     The boys went on to name the chickens: Mary Margarika, Angelica, and Poo Ped. And there you go.

Morning Play

    I was just about to tuck into bed and saw these photos from three years ago when we were making our last album. Look at how small Jude is! Not only am I bewildered by how quickly time passes but I am kind of enamoured to see these old photos of us in the same process of record-making that we are in recently. It looks similar. And it looks so different. I am grateful for all of that.

     Last night we turned on our Ipod and shuffled through what would be a tentaive sequence for all of the songs on our new record. Did you hear that? We have all of the songs for a new record! Rejoice! Jump up and down! Squeel your socks off!! Because it is nothing short of a miracle. And not only do we have enough songs for this record, we have enough songs for the next record... I know! Bannanas! We are beside ourselves. And not a little bit stunned.

    Anyways, as we listened to our sequence and tried to fish in the air for those last, much-needed lyrics I realized that we had been dancing for a good ten minutes to our new record. And Skip was too. Dancing with our eyes closed and our hips shaking. Wow. Embarrassing stuff. But good signs. Very good signs.    

     And so we are in a bit of a MARVEL-ous state these days. And part of that marvelling (especially as I look at these pictures) is seeing just how complicated, detailed, and fabulous God has been in His construction of our life so far. Just in the events in this particular room pictured above with Jude and Ambrose at 4 and 2. This room was our studio where we recorded 4 e.p.s and later wrote half of the ideas for this new record, it was the guest room that housed Keegs, Logy, and Kali and Paul when they each moved to town, this past year it was our school room where Jude plowed right on through the 1st grade, I learned the miraculous ropes and mountains of what it means to teach (hats off to you all!),and Ambrose basically taught himself to read, and at the same time it was also our nursery where both older boys crawled into a crib, overwhelemed by love and enthusiasm, to welcome our third Matheny babe to the party. Incredible.

 

Anyways, all of this mumbling past my bedtime is to say what might just be obvious anyways: that time is flying and we are holding our best to the tales of It's cape. And it is a good ride so far. A wild and happy and fruitful ride that has been crowded with Life. And that is something to marvel at.

last few days of crazy

We are wrapping up the last few days of school around here which means Field days, Parties, and the usual craziness. Perks of the week so far indclude a new habit of afternoon watercoloring, the arrival of my Mother's Day gift of a Blendtec (and the simultaneous gift of Ambrose drinking "Hulk Smoothies" with delight--that is cups and cups of spinache people. Seriously),and the general mayhem of watching a bunch of kids drag their teacher's around on sleds and throw water balloons at each other. Ah. good things.