fourteen

This girl couldn't wait to be born. She emerged with her arms extended, poopin' and yellin', looking like a wrinkled mini-super hero. Fourteen years later she is still HERE soaking up life, inhabiting her slice of the world with humor and passion.  There is no pigeon-holing her teenagedness; she is goofy, sweet, compassionate, curious, opinionated, creative, dreamy, capable, and completely obsessed with apocalyptic sci-fi, succulents and hair.  

 If I did not know this girl, I would wish I did. She is a loyal friend and a sweet companion.

This year has been about sci-fi books (The Hunger Games, The Divergent Series, The Lunar Chronicles, The Maze Runner) and dance and learning to move in a growing body.  She rediscovered a gift for music, learning to play the fiddle, picking up old-time music by ear.  She would love to sit and watch her favorite movies with you over and over and over, which really shouldn't surprise me since that's how she's absorbed new beloveds since day one, and what better way to connect than over your third watching of Portlandia? Or Zombieland? Or Divergent?

meeting our new friend, Piper

She is spending the weeks around her birthday delving into new things, participating in two theater arts camps - masks and stage combat - with confidence and courage.  It turns out I've been saying a lot of the same things about you for years, my daughter, because you have been So You for so long. The way you know yourself is one of the many things I admire about you.

 Happy turning of the Sun, dear one!  I love you so much!

through the biomes

There's been a lot of plant love around here lately.  Ani's been picking out plants for the porch and our small garden, and Eliza has become obsessed with succulents. Obsessed. So when our friends  Molly and Noah suggested a trip to the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, we jumped on it.  We'd never been there before, but had been talking recently about how much we missed being members of the botanical gardens in Richmond. Both girls have really fond memories of the paths and the pond and the magical journeys we used to have there. 

Franklin Park did not disappoint! The various indoor gardens are arranged in a circle, so you travel from biome to biome - through desert, rain forest, and Himalayan mountains, to the succulent and orchid gardens, the bonsai garden, the Pacific water gardens and the Palm house.

They were setting up an exhibit inspired by origami, by sculptor Kevin Box and collaborating artists, so every now and then we'd come upon an origami sculpture, made of metal.

Eliza in the desert

There is also an abundance of glass sculptures by the inimitable Dale Chihuly. 

So much to photograph! So many photographers!

We barely looked at the grounds, we spent so much time wandering the main house, but there were community gardens and French-inspired gardens and a bee garden...

So many colors and shapes, patterns, and textures.  We could have stayed so much longer - and used the sketchbooks we carted around - but we'll have to go back to soak it all in. We were pretty tuckered by the time we left, saving juuuuust enough energy for Jeni's ice cream on the way home. Lovely.

mormor

Dan asked me why my mom was coming during one of our craziest weeks of the spring - Ani's birthday, rehearsal and concert week for the women's choir I sing with, and the first week of an intense rehearsal schedule of the inaugural show for the theater company for which Dan is the founding artistic director.  I looked at him, like, "duh. THAT's why." 

love love love

She is here to be in the thick of it, to absorb enough chaos to make up a smidgen for the distance we usually have in our lives.

We packed it in: games, reading, walks, nail-painting, strawberry picking, cooking, eating, talking, crying, more eating...Our time together is punctuated with, "Oh, have you read this book? Put it on your list!"

We had a potluck for Ani's birthday, and our friend M. came over for dinner another night, and mom just rolls with it, fitting in well in the circle of friends.  She might have also taken care of dinner - in and out - several nights as well as making the dish-fairy appear every day.

Thank you, Mormsie, for coming to be with us in our busy busy-ness, and for making it feel both special and normal all at the same time. We love you...

Eliza is pretending to be a sullen teen.

(why isn't there just a heart symbol on the keyboard? heart. heart. heart.)