January, February, March

What a wild three months, full of moving preparation, colds, our first ever camping trip as a family of four, cute baby goats and stormy toddler moods.

Some things I’d like to remember:

Lying under the stars in our sleeping bags, and Linden staring up at the red speck of Mars, far up above him, and wistfully asking if anyone had ever gone to Mars. When Jordan told him that only robots had been there so far, Linden sighed and said, “I’m going to be the first one.” (We’re very much hoping he’s wrong–but we won’t tell him that).
Eating possibly the most delicious meal I’ve had all year in the woods under the branches of a giant oak–barley and mushroom risotto and a stir fry that Jordan whipped up with veggies from the farm we were camping on
Hollis sitting up for the first time!
Followed shortly by his first attempts to crawl, the cutest of which is a funky “inchworm” move that he does across the bed, where he jams his face into the mattress, hikes his butt into the air, and then propels himself forward
The way Linden says “Yep suh!” when he’s adamantly agreeing with you
How, after crying for three hours the other morning because of a stomachache, he leaned his head against my shoulder and said, “Mommy, thank you so much. I was so sad, but you helped me feel better.”
Driving to visit a friend, and him not being able to come up with a word that he was looking for. After repeating the beginning of the sentence a few times, he said, “My mouth is broken! It won’t say the words in my head!” Since then, there have been a few times that he’s let me know his “mouth is broken” again.
Watching him play with the baby goat, Fancy Pants (or Pantsy, as Linden calls him)–stay tuned for the cutest pictures in the whole entire world
All the adorable sibling interactions: the way Hollis watches Linden in the car through the entire drive, smiling when he smiles, and his little brow crumpling when Linden cries; Linden running in to check on Hollis when he’s just woken up from a nap, and turning off the white noise for him; Linden asking to hold Hollis and saying “I want him!!!” when we try to take him back; them making each other laugh by making faces at each other; Linden’s utter delighted when Hollis chews on him
Linden’s new habit of “procrasticleaning” where he frantically cleans his room each night before bed
How Minerva likes to drape herself over both me and Hollis as I nurse him before bed each night

Some things I’d like to forget (but probably should remember anyway)

Staying up until 2 a.m. building websites
Staying up until midnight cleaning our house to get it prepped for sale
Linden coughing so hard that he puked (thanks, asthma/allergies/daycare illnesses)
All the stormy emotions that accompany moving for Linden: excitement about living with Baba (my dad) and being close to Jordan’s family (namely, his cousin Auden, his friend Mara, and Auden’s pool); sadness about leaving behind his best friend, Libby, and grandma Deedee; sadness and fear about saying goodbye to our house
The creeping realization for the adults in our family that we’re about to seriously uproot our lives–saying goodbye to the community we’ve built here for the last four years, saying goodbye to the house that holds so many sweet memories for us, saying goodbye to our favorite haunts in the area
Waking up in the middle of the night several nights a week to Linden sobbing over nightmares, which mostly revolve around wolves going “WOOOOOOO” and monsters under the bed. We went out and bought a lantern for him to keep under his bed to keep the monsters at bay, but he insisted on keeping it on 24/7, and so we’ve had to replace the batteries twice already. Apparently we should’ve gotten a rechargeable one.