on the eve of three

tomorrow owen will be turning three, and it already seems like i need the slideshow retrospective, a looking back to when my little boy was a little baby boy. but really he's been "bigger already" for quite some time and has of late started categorizing activities in which he's "not big enough yet" (like wearing bandaids) and those which he's "bigger" for (riding his trike). here's one of my favorite "big boy" shots from last week--when he decided it was definitely cool to wear shades.

and then last week he was both my baby and my big boy (which really isn't that what he'll be to me always always?) when he put on his nemo swim diaper, his purple crocs, and his blue and red crab bucket hat and watered i. & k.'s garden.

but lately i've felt plagued with that journaling flu of sorts--the one that keeps you from writing because it seems you can't possibly catch all those moments or give meaning to the ones that are most important. i've been reading joan didion's slouching towards bethlehem and found an essay that i'd photocopied back when i taught english 1a to college freshman and reread it in the larger context of writing and not writing. the collection as a whole is amazing--but i love that she discounts wholly what she calls "diarying" because of course we run into that anxiety of "catching up" and missing events. she talks about how writing, and now it seems all so relevant to blogging, is really personal--her notebook is filled with random lists and snippets from overheard conversations that are meant as personal reminders, not of the events themselves--but on who she was at that point in time. i guess i disocvered somewhere around owen's third week that i wasn't the kind of mother that kept a baby book but have been intensely interested in owen's life as part of a notebook--one that is inextricable from my own (owen would say, of course "my oWen") and of course one that is far more interesting than any kind of diary that i would ever keep. mostly i can't believe how incredibly beautiful this notebook is--and colorful, and hilarious. if i were taking videos today, of course, i would have recorded owen's spontanteous dance medley (inspired both from a previous episode of c&l when lola is trying to find a dance style she can do and our attempt at a.m. yoga this morning mixed with his own creative spin) in which he did a very rigorous "exercise dance" and then a "ladybug dance" and then took requests from me & m. for everything from snake dancing to train dancing. . .

on a more banal diary note, tonight i made the spinach with ricotta and penne
from martha's everyday food with tj's wholewheat w/ flax penne and in a fix tossed in their nut medley (pepitas, slivered almonds, pine nuts). it was quite tasty and utilized my favorite one-pot technique by tossing in greens to the boiling water just before draining. the key is toasting the nuts, but it was a satsifying, simple meal. although owen is quite the gormund he's not quite into the leafy greens (yet) so i steamed some frozen broccoli quickly and then did my neighbor's kiddy mac & cheese trick--melted one lite laughing cow triangle, cooled with milk and then poured. all the boys were satisfied. mmm.

also in the diary: been packing for norway; trying to finish my diss. chapter before takeoff; addicted to starbucks new pike's place blend and tj's chocolate ice cream bonbons.

fyi: the countdown off to the right is for our departure from SEA to CPH--we'll actually leave the OC the saturday previous and road trip it up to p-town (with dog and tot) then spend a few days in copenhagen before settling into our norwegian home in aalesund.

but mostly, good night sweet two year old. looking forward to what three will bring . . .