It's spring! Time to get dirty.

Has anyone else been able to enjoy beautiful weather this week? I think we've been to the park every day so far, and several times last week, too. We work it in between other meetings and responsibilities, which means we've appeared in public with sand in our hair and mud on our pants more than once. There was a time when I felt compelled to 'have it together' whenever I went out. I was determined not to show weakness, like people would think me incapable of caring for my child if we looked deranged or mismatched.

Somewhere along the way I stopped caring about that, and now I more or less let Trooper pick his own clothes, and I usually don't worry too much about the state of those clothes as long as they fit and the dirt doesn't look like yesterday's. In another year I might not even care about that.

I do still concern myself with Trooper's hair, but not for the same reasons. I used to worry--please take this the right way--but I used to worry that black women would judge me if his hair looked nappy. I wasn't really thinking about what white women would think. Anyway, I didn't want people to think I couldn't handle his hair, so I was picky about it. Now I'm pretty confident that his hair is awesome. I want it to look good because I'm proud of it, not because of what people might think. (I've actually had quite a few strangers encourage me to set up shop doing hair. Alas, I have no aspirations to dreadlock stardom at this time, but who knows what I might try if and when this writing addiction lets up.)

So yesterday Trooper was crying because he didn't have any clean jeans left, (any moms out there NOT behind on laundry?) and he had to wear sweats. I'm just glad he finally seems to understand it isn't normal to wear a shirt and tie with gym pants. That's one thing we haven't argued about lately. Now days he thinks Spiderman tees are almost as cool as button-ups and neckties, so life is a bit easier in that department.

I don't know if any other parents have had this experience, but three days ago we were cheering because Trooper used his first completely spontaneous and intentionally chosen preposition. He said, "Blow it up, for me?" as he handed me a balloon. Then of course he had to go around the house dancing as he chanted it, and of course I had to blow up the balloon.

I've added a few videos this week, and will probably add more, all of which were taken at parks. One is of a cool roller-slide at a park about an hour north of us, one is a cute snippet of Trooper trying to get his dad to hurry, and the other is of a Great Blue Heron at the bottom of the Silver Lake Dam.

Next week I'll be participating in a Blog Hop, which basically just means you'll have the opportunity to read answers to some writerly questions and check out a couple other blogs if you want, but I promise to post some things for those who aren't interested in 'behind the scenes' in novel creation. For those who ARE interested, please feel free to ask questions any time and I'll do my best to answer them.

Thanks so much for reading!