Moonshine Junkyard

it's gone by too fast! i am glad halloween is almost here, and then darin's birthday, and mine, and thanksgiving, and then the holiday season, and then baby! but doesn't that just mean that my head will be spinning more and more through the next two months? i mean, today it dawned on me that there is really just one more turn of the astrological wheel, half of one season left, before we have a new newborn in this household. it will be my last winter solstice with one daughter. i will know capricornicus in a whole new way. i will meet january with mysterious new energies and capabilities and dreamlike days that only a brand new mother knows.  so for now i am savoring time. october has got to be one of my favorite months. i could stand for a bit more rain but at least this year we had some cooler days and very cool nights. in fact the aspens went into full color early this year, and my tree out front that i mentioned before...completely bald now! the ground is covered in...

i love this picture for so many reasons, not the least of which is the dog stationed between my legs. sunday jorden and becky hosted their annual pumpkin carving party potluck. (look at all those links! how the years fly!) they have the perfect yard for it and it is the loveliest gathering of kids, pumpkins, snacks, and stories. their backyard was BORN for october, with vines and leaves and old stone walls and fireplaces and stairways. it feels like it's out of a charming ghost story. lucy pretending to have a pumpkin ale :) she loves pumpkins (buh-buhs!) and bats (eeee! eee! eeee!) and scarecrows these days. as the evening unwinds, we head inside for a little feast and more baby wrangling. Can't wait to see what this gathering's like next year! if i don't see you before thursday, happy halloween everyone! i know a little someone around here is going to be off her rocker excited at all the costumes and fun. she has discove...

I recently brought home Desmond Morris' gorgeous book Amazing Baby  from work and i've been enjoying learning from a biological/zoological perspective about the development, anatomy and growth that occurs in a baby's first two years.  It's so crazy what their brains are up to! They work like sponges, soaking up every bit of information, finding uses for this information, putting it all together. "In the brain of a newborn there are about 2,500 synapses attached to each of the ten billion neurons.  In the brain of the two-year-old infant, this number rises to 15,000 synapses per neuron, more than we find in the brain of an adult human." This exuberant peak of  neural stimulation lasts until about middle childhood (age 4-8) and has been set in motion largely due to mental stimulation occurring in the first year of life. Most of all I am excited and encouraged to read about how the opportunities and environment of those first couple years reall...