Marriage is funny. Jason and I are extremely compatible, but I am often astounded by how different we are.  Generally speaking, I am more permissive with the boys than Jason is, and I’m specifically thinking of the fact that I tend to let them make more messes or to let them try things that will make a mess. Today, though, as Jason was painting the dining room, I was surprised to hear him offer a paintbrush to our eight-year-old friend who was over and then even more surprised when he said yes to Simon’s request for a “brush like Rev’s.” I don’t think I ever would have let a two-year-old come near that kind of paint. But, as it turns out, I’m so glad Jason did.

Yes, he made a bit of a mess—he splattered some paint on the baseboards and “ruined” a four-dollar Target shirt. Big deal. He had so much fun, and he was so, so, so proud of himself. His (constant) running commentary went something like this: “I big. I have strong muscles. I painting a snowman. I have a big brush. I painting hard. I helping. I big. I painting a snowman. I paint ovah there. My muscles are big. I painting so hard.” It was precious. And now we have a dining room that has a bit of extra drippage behind the piano and maybe on the baseboards, which in my mind makes it pretty much perfect.

River and Simon’s friendship is delightful to me. It has not been without its ups and downs, but I’m loving how these two are figuring it out and really, genuinely like each other (and it doesn’t hurt that I like his mama an awful lot too). Sometimes they fight (they are two and three, after all), but more often these days they work together. The incident with this straw made me laugh until I had tears in my eyes.

And these two are a whole lot of fun (and probably trouble) waiting to happen too.

My cousin’s daughter (my first cousin once removed?) is having a baby. We celebrated by smelling baby food and measuring her belly. (And then there were gifts and cake and much happy milling and chatting.)

We spent a wonderful morning with good friends in Ashland. There was coffee. There were muffins. There was conversation I would have loved to continue all day long. And boys. Lots of marvelous boys, including sweet little Augustin, whom we met for the very first time.

Evie is the youngest daughter of my dear friend Kasey. She loves to play with her trucks and trains while wearing her tutu. I can’t even look directly at this child, lest I be blinded by pure cuteness itself.

Last week we drove out to Colorado to visit the Sittlers for a few days that went all too quickly. These are a handful of my favorite photos from the trip. You can see more here.

Shelli is my oldest friend (in the sense that we’ve been friends the longest, not that she’s aged). We’ve been friends for twenty-five years, and she’s got at least five years on anyone else (well, except Neil; we all grew up together). Often when we get together I just get overwhelmed—in the best way possible—that yesterday we were twelve years old, thinking it was cool to call into Sweet 98, somewhat seriously wanting the Altar Boys to play at our weddings, and making up pretend conversations that our future husbands would have, and that today here we are holding each other’s kids.

These two were often at odds—it’s pretty hard to share when you’re two. But when they played together, oh my. The cuteness paralyzed me. Ezra absolutely melts my heart with his sweetness. And his affirmative grunts—well, you probably just have to hear it, but he’s hilarious.

Simon’s near-constant companion for the week was this little red guitar. He has recently taken up air guitar as well.

Asher is a delightfully energetic kid. I adore his funny, random ways. And he can run like a cheetah; it’s really something to see.

One of the things I did on our vacation was read my camera’s manual. I like how this picture turned out—and especially because I made the silhouettes on purpose.

It’s hard to describe why Neil is so cool and funny. He just is.

Because are you kidding me? Look at this guy!

My sister, Rhonda (aka Aunt Fun or Aunt Da), came to spend some time with us, and we spent this morning (her birthday—Happy Birthday, Da!) at Roca Berry Farm.

We did pretty well with the 1-to-1 adult-to-child ratio, although I think 1.5:1 might have been even better. To think I considered trying 1:2. Insane.

We did a little picking.

And a little eating.

And, oh my, they were good. Seriously. I don’t think I’ll be able to do storebought strawberries for a good long while. Plus, we got about eight pounds for $8. Pretty great.

And then my dear mom, who was passing through town today and stopped to take us out for Rhonda’s birthday, said, “Would you like me to clean your strawberries for you?”  Yes, please!

She totally saved the berries because I know I wouldn’t have gotten to them until at least tomorrow, and they really did need to be attended to today. Oh how I love my mom.

So we ate a few, shared a few, froze a few, and measured out a few to be used for pie and a few more to make homemade fruit rollups. And now, sadly, they are all gone (or at least accounted for and will soon be gone).

More pics here.

You should know that Rebecca’s blog, View from the Prairie Box (and her professional portfolio coming soon), is worth checking out anytime. I just can’t get enough of the last couple of days, though, because she’s been featuring photos of my kiddo (I haven’t commented on her posts, but I look at them obsessively and am giddy and amazed that he’s MINE, MINE, MINE!). As you can see for yourself, Rebecca did such a great job capturing the squeeziness that is Ian (as well as a few heartbreakers of Simon and Ian together). I have way too many favorites to pick just a few. Anyway, check out the pics . . . and here are a couple more (I could go on and on):

Rebecca continues to inspire me (in more ways than I could ever say, but for the present post I’m specifically referring to photography). After dinner tonight we spent a good while (not long enough) playing with camera settings (and hoo boy do I have a lot to learn!). Part of my problem is that I don’t even know what I don’t know. But as we talked about aperture and light metering and white balance, I started to get really excited. So I think I might be on the verge of a genuine kick (imagine that 133 days into my photo project and almost 2 years into having a really nice camera that I know NOTHING about).