Life in the Slow Lane

Today was one of those glorious fall days, even if it was pretty brisk. The sun shone through the trees in all the right crannies, between the remaining leaves making laser beams of light fall into our yard.

Marta and I spent the morning traipsing around downtown, doing whatever she wanted to do (namely run on wet grass and fall constantly). When we climbed down from the gazebo (which my kids believe is their personal rocket ship to song and dance stardom) she stood back from it and said, "Mama, that's so beautiful."

We picked Berit up from school and for the first time checked books out from the school's library -- Blueberries For Sal, People, I Love You the Purplest and My Little Ducklings. When Berit spies us at pick-up time, she bounds forward and gives me a hug, then showers love onto Marta, as if she hasn't seen her in years and can't stop kissing her. Marta always, always looks at her and lazily says, "Hi Bewwit," with suspicious eyes. Still, sweet.

Marta has also taken to calling Berit "B-B-Lo," which is something B used to call herself and now we use it from time to time. Berit has a dozen nicknames, and Marta has added her favorite with "Berry." It's so cute to see them being friendly finally, after nearly two years of Marta's existence.

This afternoon was a great example of their friendship, and I ran in the house to grab the video camera to document their tumbles in the huge pile of leaves I raked, to be very quintessentially fall-ish. Berit pushed Marta on the tire swing (Marta is infinitely bored by this) and I pulled out a thick wooden slide whistle and monkey-shaped shaker I had planned to put in their Christmas stockings and we played parade.

Berit is completely obsessed with a Barbie movie I picked up at a secondhand store in Caledonia after the run on Saturday, and now we have to play the storyline all day long, weaving it into grocery shopping and making peanut butter balls.

Halloween is right around the corner, and since our girls don't yet realize that they can find costumes at a store, they're going as princesses with costumes from our dress-up bin. We had a fun halloween party last year for the kids and their friends, and people keep asking if we're planning another one. We would love to; I would love to plan one, but we are in a black hole of waiting on this offer we're supposed to be getting on the house, and a halloween party would be tough to pull off with any moving that might be going on. We've secured a rental, it seems, right on Walloon Lake, and we've gotten started planning our house that we think we're going to build. Of course, whenever we plan something elaborate like this, the plans fall through completely and we're left wondering what we were thinking in the first place. At the very least, finding another place to live when we've still got our house feels like a major jinx.

I was working on a closing line for this wandering tale when Trevor began talking about inane things to indicate that it was his turn on the computer, and my vibe is shot. But I think you get the idea -- fall. House. Girls. Good.