have a carrot: 2011 in photoreview: may

may was basically a waiting game. we were waiting for daddy to come home.

we did normal things, like deciding that the fireman's pole was still too much for us,

and that the swing was still our thing.

we tried lifting trees out of the ground. for us, this still qualifies as normal.

we hugged our brother and made awkward attempts at smiling for the camera. again, still pretty normal.

but it still felt like the days were crawling by, and we were getting nowhere slow.

but then, the day came. we tried to get noah excited. i don't think it worked. he'd give us a pacifying look and then go back to playing with aunty's iphone.

caleb on the other hand was very excited and bounding with energy. we took them to a park to try to wear him down a bit. i don't honestly know if he managed a nap that day or if we even tried. my guess would be if we'd tried it wouldn't have been very successful. plus, it's hard to wear a kid out who is always more interested in showing you the pinecones than running around.

then, the hardest part of the waiting. the last minute waiting. when it's almost time but not time yet. caleb went through excitement and frustration and sadness and joy and near-tears impatience. it was like every emotion he'd had while seb was gone was erupting in these final moments before it was all over. we were looking for a glimmer in the sky, a plane that was carrying precious cargo. we kept peering into the horizon, trying to find it.

and then, we saw it. he was all over the place. there was no way i was going to get a clear shot.

as we watched the plane taxi, we were able to settle down. a little bit.

i posted this before, but i'm pretty sure the expression alone allows me to post it again.

we had made some special cookies for the occasion. caleb was really into a

cookie cutter/sprinkles phase and was great help.

we had a few exciting days readjusting to having an extra warm body in the house,

and then settled back into boring old life as usual.

we got our first haircut. remember the yogurt he plastered in his hair a couple months ago? that happened almost every day and was getting seriously old. momma decided the trauma of getting our hair cut was better than having it washed every day. (it turned out not that traumatic, we just distracted him with youtube cat videos. he never even knew it happened.)