With Brio

Dear Zephyr,

You are officially two-and-a-half, so it feels like a good time for a little reflection… or at least a little photo journey!

I wrote something at the 18-month mark along the lines of “we’ve turned a corner and things are finally getting easier” and I’m so thankful to say that that’s honestly continued for the last year… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, toddlers are just way more my cup of tea than babies.

Incessant questions? Ice cream for breakfast? Mid-day dance parties? Having fun jumping in muddy puddles? Who are we describing, me or you little man? 😉

Part of it is how much fun it is to DO things together now. You love to be part of the action, regardless of if it’s baking with grandma or helping Poppa in the workshop or vacuuming with daddy or “helping” mommy on the computer.

You actually don’t complain much, for a two-year old at least. You and I navigated 15 hours and three flights to get back to Georgia without a single tear. (This is in stark contrast to our solo “mommy and Zephyr” flight when you were 4-months old and we both cried pretty much the entire way).

You’re a very outgoing little man, asking the girls at the pool what their names are, shouting “thank you!!!” to the postman, and making friends with any kiddos you encounter.

You had your first official daycare experience when we sent your Daddy back to Brio II early and you navigated it like a champ (crying when I came to pick you up — little bugger — and asking when you could go back on weekends!).

You tell me frequently that you “love making messes!” (usually when I remind you that we need to try to not make too big of a mess), that dinosaurs are your favorite animal (“all of them!”) and that you’re “not scared of them” because “I’m brave”.

You gave your Poppa a bit of a heart-attack in the pool when you proudly announced, “I pooped, Poppa!”… only to then flash a cheeky grin and clarify, “it’s just a joke”.

Since we are in the middle of a pandemic, it’s probably worth mentioning that you and I have matching jellyfish masks and you happily wear yours any time we’re around other people. You do wonder (out loud) why some people don’t wear masks in public, but we’ll leave that for a later discussion…

I love you little Zephyr – thank you for making the last year especially such a delight!

I read something once about the good stuff being in the messy middle of the story. That the middle is where the learning, the struggles, the juicy bits really come to life.

Gotta say, living through the messy middle ain’t that much fun though 🙂

We’ve gone full-tilt into this deck repair / deck painting / headliner (ha!) project, and it feels a little like a groundhog day of sanding, fairing, sanding, painting, sanding, dodging thunderstorms, painting, dodging toddlers… etc

(Including redoing all of the little hatches on the cabintop… doesn’t seem too bad until you realize how multiplying every step by SIX really adds up fast!)

Squeezing in bits of time for fun (Hunting Island – the amazing state park that’s nearby – has opened again, so that’s been great), for toddler-wrangling and life stuff is a constant challenge, but one we continue to try to pursue…

We have managed to establish a mostly-daily family walk each morning, before the humidity is a total wet blanket and before the first meetings of the day drag us apart.

And we’re just continuing to imagine the myriad of ways this year might turn out.

Never mind turning our attention to what exactly it is we’re hoping to do with this lovely Brio II boat, other than quarantine and drill test holes in her deck core 🙂 (The knowledgeable amongst you can now offer, “more projects, of course!”)

A blank canvas is a beautiful thing, if just a little overwhelming.