Portrait of the Songwriter as a (VERY) Young Woman

It appears that the hubs and I have indeed produced a little songstress. How do we know? She constantly sings made-up songs throughout the day. She has even "written" a few that she repeats. One of my favorites is when she goes to grab her tiny guitar that we got in Mexico a few years ago and she strums open strings and sings "When I was in the meadow, I heard a strange sound . . ." then she usually gives a few different animal sounds. I can't remember if I already wrote on here about another favorite that I am only allowed to sing on Fridays. The chorus goes "I love you! in a very sweet vo-o-o-oice." And the verse contains my favorite line of hers ever "I want you to go away like a rocketship." Lately most of her songs start "When I was a little girl" or "When I was young." Homegirl has a real sense of history at three-and-a-half years.

Today she told me she wants me to help her write all her songs down. Then she wants to buy lots of little guitars. Then she wants to give copies of her songs and the guitars to "all the little kids" so they can learn "how to make songs." She is the greatest.

Nightswimming

We went camping on Friday and much of it was awful. Mostly the getting there and getting started. I wanted us to get there earlier than the husband so we had time to chill and it was a less stressful experience. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. So yeah I asked the universe for what followed. What I thought would be a 1 1/2 hr drive was a 3 1/2 hr drive. Just me and one crying toddler and one demanding three-year-old. Then I had to set up the tent and the fire by myself whilst keeping the children from jumping in the VERY nearby lake. And then cook dinner by myself whilst the toddler mostly cried some more. BUT, but, but . . . after the husband got there and we started to eat dinner and I decided to finally give in to the little toddler's cries and go swimming with him already (even though it was past his bedtime at this point), things got better.

I sank into the brown lake and washed all the disgusting sweat off me with the almost-as-disgusting silty, gasoliney (boats) water. Oh, it felt good. I swam around with the kiddos and all their giggling in the dusk. Spinning in the near-dark and me and the littlest taking turns zerberting each other. And finally, finally there was some calm.

And that is why we go camping with the lunatics we call our children.

I was too exhausted to take pics most of the trip, but here's some semi-recent pictures since I've had too many pictureless posts lately.

Our kids are frequently wet and dirty.

 

 

And to show that we all exist, here is the whole family in St. George, UT: