Passover & Easter

Dyed eggs from the farmers' market!

 It has been hard to attend to this blog lately. A lot of good stuff going on. It's spring break now and a lot of me wants to jump in the car to go on a camping/beach adventure, and part of me just wants to sleep for daaays.

Here's a blast from the not-distant past. We had a lovely Passover, Good Friday, and Easter. A lot of teaching, learning, and general loving vibes throughout that week. We all enjoyed experiencing bits of the season with the influence of people who grew up with different traditions. Stefin led us in a seder on Wednesday, Ray led a footwashing and reading of the Passion on Friday, and we all cooked and ate together on Sunday.

Aeli was especially excited about the pagan parts of the week.

 The pineapple plant housed not only an orange egg- but also, this guy:

 He especially appreciated the chocolate.

These are from the seeds of the sunflowers we planted for our wedding (this month last year)!

More spring snapshots soon.

What do seeds grow?

When Nicole asked Aeli this morning if he knew what seeds grew, he said,

"Yes! Garden!"

Two.

Ohmygosh the tantrums.

Right in the morning. When I've just barely exited my morning hypnagogia (Dictionary.com word of the day holler!), and what I'm dreaming of is coffee, making breakfast with my sweet son, and maybe even being able to sit down and read or write for a few quiet minutes. But that has been a far-fetched reality lately it seems, as all of the following have a 50-50 chance of throwing Aeli into a serious fit:
 -Saying no
 -Changing his diaper
 -Running out of eggs/bananas/graham crackers

So this morning, it's "NO DIAPER! NO CHANGE DIPE! WHYYYYY???!! NO NO NOOOOOOO!!!!!!" and rolling over and kicking on the changing table. And me losing my motherly warmth and issuing time-out through clenched teeth. I still had to get the diaper on though, so wrestling ensued.

He does apologize, and usually comes back around. I don't know if it's molars or just the developmental difficulty of being two ("I recognize I am an individual. So why can't I have everything I want?"), but I will not allow it to permeate the year.

That said, I'm exhausted by it and sometimes feel like I just.can't.deal.with.it.any.more.

Thank god Nicole and Erin are around to step in. This is what Nicole said to me when I thanked her and apologized for leaving her with him screaming on the floor as I went to go shower:
-"It's cool, we'll just hang out here and have a tantrum."

Zen.

Fifteen minutes later he is playing in front of me with a tiger mask:
"Aeli so scary?!"
(Takes off mask)
"Aeli no scary anymore."
(Puts on mask)
"Aeli so scary!"
(Takes of mask)
"Ow 'bout now? Aeli no scary more!"

I absolutely love, and am mystified by, this creature.

Avant-Garde Early Years?

Sometimes, during all the Daufilmey shenanigans we host here around the compound, I wonder if Aeli will roll his eyes, or worse, complain to his therapist, about all the strange hubbub. But I hope that he'll consider the unique context of his early years special, like this kid does. His parents run an unusual art gallery out of  their garage in suburban Illinois.

I hope we can keep this trend of non-normalcy going as Aeli grows. It would certainly be beneficial to us all.

"Aeli made that!"

When watching this video, Aeli grabs at the screen and says, "Aeli made that. Aeli have that more? More gingerbread? Have it?"

Also, we haven't taken down our (living, potted) tree yet. I'm not very motivated to. Why not keep a large plant in your living room? Especially if it's decorated with a lot of homemade or nostalgic knick-knacks? And things that are shiny!

I may have to give in to the passage of time, in order to make room for Mardi Gras. The season is upon us, and plans are in the works for some giantish creations. So maybe we'll move to tree out to assemble our elephantesque Jenga game.

We'll see.