Sam's Second Birthday

On Saturday, we had a little birthday party (super chill playdate with cake) to celebrate the Wee Lamb's 2nd Birthday.  He was really shy about the singing and candles but has since been obsessed with finding and blowing out any candles he can spot in a book (Birthday Monsters provides many opportunities) and walks around singing "Hoppy Birfday To You" in the most unmelodic but adorable way.

On the REAL birthday, we stole Donovan away for celebratory frozen yogurt, followed by playing at the Dartmouth College arts building/giant outdoor spider sculpture, and a trip to the Howe library.  When Sam wasn't dumping self serve toppings on the floor, he was LOVING his froyo.

Auntie Cynthia Comes to Visit

Great Auntie Cynthia came up to New Hampshire for a little visit 

with the Epstein Holiday clan on Match Day.

Sam greatly enjoyed the books, stuffed animals and illicit climbing on tables, cheered on 

by his adoring crowd of grandmother, grandaunt and mama, at the Concord Public Library.

And Cynthia enjoyed a brief chat with shy Ethan and always in motion Sam after Match Day.

The Luge

We built a sweet sledding course in the neighborhood when Debbie and Maeve were in town.  Ethan was hesitant to drive to the big (and awesome) sledding hill, and not sledding was unacceptable to me, so we had to improvise.  Usually this hill sends you flying into the woods but the many feet of snow on the ground kept us safe.

Matchy Matchy Match Day

We celebrated our Dartmouth Family Medicine pride with matching T shirts!

Lovely Sam

 

 Photos by the one and only Marcy Hogan.

Scarcity

I live in pretty much perpetual motion.  I am constantly running through the "to do" list in my mind, calculating what I can get done in the next minutes, hours, days.  Some of this is survival for a mother of two and med student.  Shit needs to get done!  And some of this is just a reflection of what I enjoy: a clean home, adventures, outside time, physical activity.  But I think there is a touch of discontent there.  I feel like I am wasting precious time if I am not ticking through my list.  I find it nearly impossible to just sit down and enjoy quiet time chilling with my kids or husband.

I've read a couple of articles recently that have inspired me to reflect on this feverish busyness, and more so, the sense that sometimes overwhelms me that everything is scare.

The Busy Trap
Parenting with Abundance
The Sliver

I notice myself thinking that there just is not enough time to do what needs to be done, that we must be thrifty and not let the bathwater run too long and we must clean our plates and save everything because WHO KNOWS WHEN THE FLOOD MIGHT COME!  Really, this is a crazy way to live, and to parent.  So I am trying to pay more attention to how this vision of scarcity influences me.  I'm also trying little interventions to foster more a sense of abundance and embracing the quiet moment I am in, without rushing off to get something else done: forcing myself to just sit and play trains with Sam or watch Ethan as he plays his videos games; holding my tongue when the words "wasting time" start to bubble up, especially as we get ready to go in the mornings (late as usual); closing the computer screen to just sit on the couch for a while with Jeremy in the evenings.

In fact, I'm going to try that last one right now...