On most mornings, J is awake at around 7am. I've usually already left for work by 7, or I'll be eating my breakfast when she wakes up. On weekends, however, I'm usually still in bed. If we're in bed, she usually runs to the office and opens the door for Pete, and then runs into our bedroom and stands next to my side of the bed until I pull her into bed with me. She curls up next to me with her head on my pillow. She doesn't go back to sleep, but she lays there quietly for a few minutes. She has a habit of rubbing ears when she's sleepy. Sometimes she rubs her own ears, and sometimes she'll rub mine. She'll scratch at my beard, and look at my face while I continue to drift in and out of sleep. It's very pleasant and peaceful. Eventually she'll get bored of it and will start whispering, "Water, water?" or "Hungry? Hungry?"
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Once we've gotten up and eaten breakfast we'll go out for a walk with Pete. Currently we rent a house on a farm that has 85 acres of land, most of it wooded. There's a great walking trail up the hill that forms a nice loop. J walks it with me, occasionally stopping to point out flower, berries, or asking me to "Sit, sit!" We'll sit on the ground and toss rocks into the woods, or listen for birds (we often see turkey).
She loves to eat food that she finds outside in the garden. When we're playing outside, she usually has a handful of green peas (in the spring), basil or oregano (in the summer) or kale (in the winter) that she's munching on. If you put the same leaves on her plate inside, she would quickly reject the idea. But outside, it's different, she'll eat entire mouthfuls while she's kicking around her ball.
It's amazing that we've lived in this house nearly as long as we lived in NYC. I feel like our time here has been so short in comparison. I'm not really sure why that is. This morning when she was holding my thumb with her little hand (bigger than it once was, but still little) I just kept thinking about how quickly all this passes. She'll only be a baby and a toddler for a very short time. I want to soak up every moment of it, leaving no moment unappreciated.
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