2.5 Weeks Ago

 A little over two weeks ago, Dave ran in the Peterborough half-marathon.  While he ran for an hour and 39 minutes, we went to MacDonald's.  I am not sure which parent is more admirable.

 The remains of eight Happy Meals is embarrassing.  (Eight, because six is not enough for hungry boys.)  There must be a better way to package fast food.

 I chose MacDonald's because I needed a locale where I could easily kill time.  The Play Place seemed like the best option.  By the way, the salad is mine, not Hannah's and certainly not Sarah's.  Both chowed down on chicken fingers and fries.

 Joseph and Sarah (sitting on her sister's lap in the second-to-last photo) displaying a similar exuberance for life.

 Blurry Benjamin involved in an intense game of tag with other kids found within the Play Place.  I love how kids who meet in the Play Place never bother with names, "Hey, you!  You in the orange hoodie!"

 Jacob catching up and checking behind him for It.

 Sarah's personality in full bloom.

 The weather might look forbidding, but it was actually the best day in two months.  The temperatures rose to just below freezing and 13 miles didn't need to be run in -19 plus a windchill.  I bought all the kids a Tim Horton's hot chocolate that they could drink while waiting for Dave to cross the line.  I think that my real motive is a slight addiction to rolling up rims.  I really do wait with baited breath as each rim is rolled up.  Jacob has calculated the odds of winning based on one in five cups bearing a prize and the number of people in our family.  I think we've been duped.

 The funny thing is that we have won only twice.  Both times Ben is the last to finish his beverage and the only one to reveal something other than "Please Play Again".  Despite the hot chocolates, Sarah and Isaac still managed to find the re-hydration table and score two Gatorades.  The temps were so low that the Gatorade was actually slushy.  (Take that, Texas!)

 While Dave cleaned up, the rest of us waited in the lobby of the YMCA where the kids ogled the swimmers.

 How strange to be wearing a bathing suit and then to look up and see two children, one in a winter coat, looking plaintively through the glass at your bare legs and arms.

One selfie to prove that I made it through with flying colours.

Oldest and Youngest

 Once upon a time that big boy there drove me crazy.  He arrived as one half of a set of twins and he was by far the more adventuresome of the two.  As a neophyte mother, still trying to carve out some semblance of peace and quiet, his determination to jump in every puddle, eat (literally) every book in the house and paint walls with banned substances, I often saw him as nothing but a challenge.  I could see his potential, his gentleness and kindness, but my level of frustration left me blind more often than not.  How times have changed.

 And how he blazed the trail for some similar personalities that would arrive after him.

 Please, if you are overwhelmed by your boy so filled with pluck and fire and general-boy-badness, know that this one grew into such a nice young man.  All those qualities of tremendous kindness and intelligence that we could see even as a baby have blossomed into elements of a truly delightful personality.  I don't think that he would have been a natural with babies and young children if he had not been placed at the head of a pack of them.  The fact that being the oldest of such a group has fostered these abilities in him gladdens my heart.

 It helps that he is also very physically strong.  He is five inches shorter than me and the day that he towers over me is becoming easier to imagine.  Often I see him out of the corner of my eye and think that Dave has come into the room.

 His physical strength is especially helpful when those perched on his shoulders try to kiss him.

 And those books that he once chewed to pieces?  He devours them in a much more figurative sense, now that he can actually read.

Jacob has become a son that I can truly rely on.  (He tells me that getting a job in Florida is on his bucket list so that I can spend my winters down South!)  Even more so, he has developed into a wonderful conversationalist and is chock-full of interesting facts and stories gleaned from his copious reading.  What a delight it is to raise him and watch him grow into a young man.

Back soon with photos

There are so many posts in the works, but the photos are on the phone and the phone is on Dave.
So.
Read this.  I wish that I had written it, especially the part about not losing one's self to motherhood, but getting over one's self.