BOYS AND FLOWERS

Lately we've been thrilled to have two little boys in the house, partly because its a big draw. Babies tend to lure people to our house that we really want to see, but have been too lazy to go visit on our own accord. Both of these guys are really unique. Where Luca's bedtime ritual is to brush his teeth, read a story and say a prayer, James preferes to eat himself into oblivion and throw up. (The doctors say he's gaining *Plenty* of weight so not to worry). It really is a lot of work, though. Sometimes we have days when I ask myself whether we were just duped by all those people who said having children would be a great blessing. Luca has a neat trick where he moves in on James like he's going to love him and give him a hug. He gives him the sweetest hug which we, as parents, like to see. By the time we realize what's going on, Luca is squeezing the head with all the strength his 3yearold T-rex arms can muster. James does not approve (see sequence below). In fact its incredible that a baby can learn to be wary at such a young age. Luca has spent a fair amount of time on our stair landing timeout zone for this stunt. But for every ten hours where we feel like we've been duped, we have five minutes of sheer wonder at the beautiful boys that they are (like when they're asleep - see below). Which brings me to my next clumsy attempt at overt metaphor: I've been gardening lately (for the past year) trying to get flowers to grow in our front yard. It has been an ongoing saga of struggle. Struggle to get the soil conditions right. Struggle to keep away deer and rabbits. Struggle to haul 500 lbs of fertilizer and soil and mulch in the back of a compact car. Anyway, my year of effort is resulting in one week of sheer beauty. here's a picture of some Iris's - we've got about 100 of these little ladies. Actually, we'll have more than one week because I relented to outside advice to plant a variety of plants that would bloom at different times. (for the record, having a garden where every plant was of the same species in uniform rows would also have been satisfying) So check back as the season progresses - I plan to post too many pictures of my flowers on this blog as if they were my children.