Last Beach Pics: Graham and Grandpop

My dad and my youngest, playing a friendly round of... hmm. What's that game called, anyway?

Graham's preparatory stance--check out that crouch!

"Maybe I'll just pass on the net thingy."

Showing how it's done...

"Uh... well, how about this way?"

Hey! At least the ball's finally seeing some air!

Ari and Matthew at the Beach

Matthew has spent much of his life being outnumbered by girls, namely Mommy, Meg, Esme, and whatever female friends they happen to have about. I think that's why it slays me every year to see him and his cousin Ari enjoying each other so much at the beach. And I mean, they spend every. single. moment together, awake or asleep. And they rarely even bicker!

Ohhhhh, you precious boys, you. How I hope that you will always be good friends.

The Gap

Would ya look at this? Esme, who is just barely five years old, says to me last Friday morning at the table, "Mommy, I can't eat this any more; my toof hurts too much." She's said this at two meals now, so I start paying attention. After a moment of examination, I say, "Esme Rose, you have a loose tooth! A very loose tooth!" I'm rather shocked, since Meg didn't lose any teeth until she turned seven, and Matthew, who is now seven himself, doesn't look likely to lose his first for some time yet.

But apparently Esme is on a different time table! Yesterday she pops up in front of me and says, "Mommy, I weally want you to pull out my toof wight now." So I do, with just a couple of light tugs! Bye-bye, baby tooth!

(I have to note that Matthew handled this extremely well. I know he is disappointed that his little sister beat him to this milestone, especially as his first adult tooth has already grown in behind his baby teeth rather than under them [a lovely little trait I passed down to my offspring]. But he's been a valiant little trooper, and very supportive of Es. Way to go, Bug! God is helping you so much!)

Duck

Methinks it is time to resume normal posting, at least insofar as that's possible right now.

The week after Dad died, Dave and the kids and I went straight to North Carolina to enjoy the beach with my parents and sisters. It was a little paradise of buffer between the haze of losing Dad and the inevitable merge back into real life.

We had the most gorgeous weather imaginable. It was in the 70's or low 80's almost every day, and the ocean was incredibly gentle for at least the first half of our stay. The swimmers among us were in the water every day except for one. God was very kind to us in this.

Our little camera broke in September, and I was not in much of a picture-taking mood whilst in Duck. Mostly we focused on soaking in the sun, surf, and love of our family. But Dave did warily allow me to borrow his phone and take a few pictures one morning, after I pinky swore not to drop it in the sand or the water. Of course, I managed to get my finger in most of the shots, so they're all funkily cropped now, but they're much better than nothing.

The kids were enormously content whenever I dug them a "pool" or "bath tub." They would spend endless energy to improve and maintain it until a proper wave came along to fill it up, and then--ahhh, happy splashing.

And my favorite shot, of Mom and Judah: