Still, the principal contributing factor to my inability to write has been motion. As in, two girls in perpetual motion. When I'm home (i.e., not at work, and not traveling for business), four-year-old Alex and now-one-year-old Ella-Anne seem to be in constant motion, which means that sitting down, let alone sitting down to write at any length, is not in the cards. I've been a Sunday subscriber to the New York Times for years, but I can't recall the last time I actually read that paper in any detail. Sometimes, the blue bag goes directly into the recycling bin without the paper ever having been removed.
Of course, I'm "just" The Daddy. The Mommy has this issue on a daily basis, in spades. So don't mistake these comments for complaints. No, far from it. I am the luckiest man in the world. And that's not just how I consider myself today, but every day.
Virtually anyone who reads this blog (is there anyone left?) is probably also a follower of ours on Facebook, which is where you can find, via status updates, the daily Haiku of our lives. There are also a bunch of pictures there, but I'll replicate a few below.
Here's what has been going on with The Girls. Alex started her third year of preschool at the Lake Anne Nursery Kindergarten the day after Labor Day; she also went to summer book camp at L.A.N.K. this summer -- that was a fun experience for me, because she went every morning, and so I got to take her to school camp every morning, usually with the convertible top down. We'd talk about the day to come, occasionally talked about her fears ("I'm not going to have any fun today," she would occasionally proclaim), and bonded more as father and daughter. She knows I'm a pushover; she's my buddy and pal, but occasionally I have to remind her that I am The Daddy. Such as yesterday, when she wanted to do an art project at 8 a.m. and I needed to get some rather in-depth comments on a brief out to my colleagues in new York; after three sweet "Pleeeeeeeases," and my third "no," she stood in the center of my home office, her lower jaw started to quiver, and she broke out in tears. So much for getting that brief out in a timely fashion.
Ella-Anne, a/k/a Her Serene Highness, continues to be just about the most agreeable person in the world. Right now, she's taking her first few steps -- she can stand up by herself for a minute or more, and she will take four or five steps on her own before plopping back down onto her butt (or, occasionally, face-planting). She's also talking quite a bit. Much of it is jibberish, but we definitely detect "Mama," "Daddy," "La-la" (which we're pretty sure is "Alex"), and "Maga" (Magda, our all-star babysitter and the key to keeping Jane off the roof).
I'm going to try to write more frequently again -- it's good for my sanity to make words fit together, and believe me, my sanity has been challenged more than once over the past few weeks. But for now I'll wrap up with the latest professional photos of the ladies, and some from Alex's first day of school.
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