The end of August

I love August. I love that I was born in this month, I love where it falls in the calendar, I even just love looking at the word August. Drew and I even toyed with August as a possible baby name when we were in the business of coming up with baby names. Unlike the other summer months, August is always whispering that September is near, and reminding us to take advantage of the lingering light, the warm mornings and any nearby bodies of water. In that way, it feels like a month of celebration, and the word that comes to mind is something along the lines of abandon, but that could just be me.

Drew has celebrated the coming end of summer by competing in a triathlon (his first) and doing quite well.  This past weekend we went to a nearby nature area where Drew completed a 3/4 mile swim, a 11.5 mile mountain bike ride, and a 4 mile trail run.  Unfortunately, he took a pretty big spill about 5 miles into the bike ride, but he was able to brush himself off and finish 8th in his age group.  We cheered him on, and gave him lots of ibuprofen when we got home!

For my part, I’ve celebrated a birthday this month, and have been basking in all of the love that I’ve been feeling lately.  I am so thankful for our community of friends and family, and this year especially, it warmed me to the core to be able to mark another year passing with such wonderful people.  Thank you, to all of you, for the happiness that you bring into my life.

Asher is spending his time checking everything out.  My mantra of late as I’m locking cabinets, cleaning up explosive mess after explosive mess, tucking exploring hands and fingers away, and reminding this little boy that we are gentle when we touch everything in sight is, I celebrate this child’s curiosity.  And mostly, I really do.  There are moments when he’s attempting to crawl off the changing table in a position that you mostly see at a Russian circus, when I think, c’mon kid! but mostly we’re trying to roll with the curious punches and let him find out what this world is all about.  He’s crawling off his belly and up on all fours now some of the time, and pulling up at every chance that he gets.  He’s nominally interested in walking (no first birthday steps here!) but mostly prefers to get down on his belly to shoot at mach 12 across the floor towards his next challenge.  He’s seriously into dancing, shaking his little torso and head at everything from the All Things Considered theme to David Bowie.  Just whistling or humming will get him to dance, and of course we all fall to pieces whenever he does.  Drew and I make an effort to do a little dancing every week, even if it’s just in the kitchen, so it’s doing our hearts good to have the young sir join in.  Asher has also taken to patting Drew’s arm and emphatically saying, Baba!  Baba!  Then he’ll pat my arm and enthusiastically call…Baba!  Baba!  We look at this as being pretty ingenious….why bother with giving us different names, when the one is working so well?