the end of July

 Kyle's days are long right now. He's up early and in late. I've been helping him more and more with harvesting vegetables.  I even tested harvesting this week with Sage around, but it's a bit hard to pick beans and cucumbers with a curious almost  two year old wandering all over the place. Because of this I tend to help out during her naps. She usually will rest for about two hours, so this gives me time to get dirty and sweaty and knock some items of the To Do List.

The work is hard- especially right now in the heat. But, damn, it makes my body feel so good. Today as I picked away, I listened to my music, watched as my sunscreen lathered arms turned a deeper golden brown and thought about how grateful I was for the farmers hat I somehow acquired a few years back.

Our daughter discovered the sky this past week. She acknowledges its presence every time we go outside together, and wants so badly to hold the moon and clouds. I tell her that her middle name means moon and she looks at me with bright eyes full of love and appreciation. I think she's starting to understand the connection.

She's also been busy pushing around her little eggplant and her little cucumber in her stroller. Kyle gave these miniature vegetables to her as a gift from the garden. He told her they were small like her- so now she treats them, along with the rocks she has collected from the driveway, like her baby dolls. They are her precious gems, and she is such a good mamma to them.

Her overall enchantment with the world right now is pretty inspiring and entertaining to watch. The birds and butterflies!...the ants and dandelions!... the rocks and trees!....the clouds and airplanes!- all bring so much excitement to her little being!  My body fills up with joy when I hear her make dramatic noises like...Ahhh!...or...Wooahh! when we are outside. I know now to get  ready to answer questions after these noises come out of her mouth. "What is that?" and then "Why?" are asked pretty frequently, sometimes, honestly, a little too frequently.

But her enchantment with everything really has made me stop and recognize the beauty in these objects again, too. Thank you, baby girl, for that. I'm so pleased that I'm able to witness this time in her life- I'm soaking it up and breathing these memories into my body with the utmost intention because I know these early moments of understanding and learning are fleeting, they pass by so quickly, and this world won't always be so astonishing to her.