He awes me.

   We're still at "the commune", and we're getting to the point where everyone is pretty much over everything about each other. We still love each other but it gets hard when there's one bathroom for: 5 or 6 adults, 2 fully potty trained child and one newly potty training child.
   Not to mention we're all used to parenting our own ways and our own kids and now we're collectively watching 3 kids (the infant doesn't count, she's *singing* AWEsome) with 3 different parenting techniques until a couple weeks ago.
   To say day-to-day life is taxing, might be an understatement.
   But we're still all here, kids are all breathing and we've got one helluva built-in support system.
"you take the good, you take the bad....the facts of life"

   Yesterday, Nixon and I had a short "Mommy & Me" date. Just the 2 of us, partly because Mac wouldn't want to do what I had planned, but mostly because we used to have days like that all the time in Okinawa and it seemed like a good time to start doing those again.
   We got in the car, intending to go to one place, but wound up at a State Park instead. I paid the very reasonable parking fee and we just drove around the park until we saw an area that peaked our interest. We stopped at the marina, as it turned out.
   We walked across a wooden bridge and headed into some forest area. I was loving it! I forgot how calming I've always found trees and being surrounded by them to be.
    We spent about an hour just walking while I snapped some pictures before going back towards the bridge and the car. As we got to the car, Nixon saw a jet ski for the first time.
He got all excited and exclaimed "Look mommy a water motorcycle!"
I was puzzled at first, then saw what he saw and said, "Yep, I guess that's as good a description as any.", because really unless he'd called it a motorcycle boat, he couldn't have described what he was seeing any more perfect.
   Of course, I'm his mother, so I might be biased.

   Nixon's also obsessed with shapes. He loves pointing them out where ever we go. Now that we're back in the states with larger vehicles, he's in the middle of the backseat, as he should've always been but the Japanese car was only a 4-seater, so no middle seat. He is so happy now, seeing everything I see, even though he's sitting behind me.

This conversation we had, in the car, during a lengthy 2-way stop sign stop:  
Nixon: Look mom, a red octogon
me: Well it's red but that's a hexagon but good call.
Nixon: s-t-o-p....mommy?
me: yes, baby.
Nixon: Why are there letters on the red *he pauses and thinks for a second before continuing* hexagon?
me: Nixon, did you just read the letters off that sign???
Nixon: uh-huh (I glance in the mirror and see a GIANT smile on my son's face!)
me: Well, s-t-o-p spells "Stop" and that means I have to stop the car. Just like at a red light.
Nixon: 'cause red means stop?
me: Exactly because red means stop! Awesome job.
me: Nixon, would you like to learn how to put more letters together and make more words?
Nixon: okay, but not now.
me: Oh?
Nixon: now we're going to walk together.

Oh, he does know how to melt my heart!

Nixon, crossing the bridge

tranquility thy name is whispered in the trees

Nixon's newest, and greatest to-date, smile of achievement