SPRING
It has been a week of the most amazing, gorgeous, sunshiny weather here and Brendan and I both agree that we feel like we're waking up from a season of fog. I don't know why this winter affected us more than other winters, but it was a tough one and we're glad it has passed. Yesterday I opened all of the windows to let in the fresh air (and some errant bugs) and delighted in the curtains billowing from the breeze. Welcome, spring!
HARRY
Harrison has enjoyed dining on the deck for lunch twice this week and he points at the windows and grunts enthusiastically to the outside. Sometimes he resorts to pounding on the doors...when we do take him out he says "wow" repeatedly and with awe at the trees, birds, airplanes, windchimes, and anything else he deems 'wow-worthy'. He is changing so quickly these days....Brendan looked at me with sad eyes earlier this week and said "They grow up too fast." Indeed, they do. Harrison has started to talk a little bit...he says: get you, all done, quack quack, cluck cluck, roar, arf arf (he's very good at animal sounds), and yesterday I heard a chorus of ma and daddy. So now I'm Ma. Ma is for teenaged girls who are rolling their eyes as they walk away, as in "Ma, you're so lame". It is the predecessor of M-oooooo-m or Mother, said with similar rolled eyes and perhaps a pouty lip, designed to annoy said parent until she either gives in to whatever the teen has requested, or sends the whiner to her room. Sometimes it is still 'Omma', which I like. Mom would be ok. Mommy would be ok for awhile. I'm just not sure about "Ma". Harry is also grasping the concept of opposites. If you say 'up down up down' he will squat and stand in line with yours words. He likes to practice 'open shut' with the cupboard doors while I'm attempting to cook dinner, and he enjoys 'in out' with his stacking cups in the bath. And I don't know how but he gets Brendan's jokes, even when neither one of us is laughing Harry lets loose a belly laugh and sometimes claps. Oh Boy(s).
THE END OF AN ERA
It seems the Sullivan Cape Cod House is under contract, and will no longer be 'ours' by May. We're really very sad about this...we remember great times at the Cape House:
...when we took our friend T there in the off season and explored the entire Cape without the drag of too many tourists and spent hours watching the sun change the shadows on the sand dunes...when we met Jim and Becky there for a weekend and played poker, then tried to highlight my hair with a kit from CVS that resulted in my looking like a cross between a skunk and a zebra, which took the better part of six months to correct...when almost all of the Sullivans met on the Fourth of July one year and Becky and I bobbed on the giant, gentle waves beyond the breaking surf for an entire afternoon of weightless bouyancy, thinking we could float that way forever if the sun and water stayed warm enough...when we played croquet in the backyard with Casey and Brian (they were small enough then to really enjoy our company, before the teen years tainted us as uncool in their eyes), the sound of their laughter and the chatter of our great big family filling the late afternoon...listening to Tim, Claire, Billy, and Marcia regale us with stories of growing up near Boston, laughing with each other as though they were teenagers and young adults again...my first visit to the Cape House when I was Brendan's girlfriend of just one year and I slept in one of the twin beds of the pink room and woke to find his cousin, Sara, soundly asleep in the other, feeling completely at ease and knowing that I wanted to be a part of his family forever...and most recently last June when we spent the two days before my Sullivan Baby Shower lying on the beach listening to the sounds of children playing amplified by the water, yet far away, and dreaming of our son in Korea as we held hands.
This weekend we're taking a spontaneous trip to the Cape House, where we'll look at the ecclectic assortmant of furniture and decor one last time, where we'll take a picture of our baby on the front steps, or maybe the back patio, so he won't be the only one of his cousins who never spent a holiday there. We'll visit Craigville Beach and go for a walk, and we might seek out the perfect cup of clam chowder at the Docksider or another favorite restaurant. We will sadly look around the house and pick out a momento or two to remind us of the fun we had there, once upon a time. We know that the house is just a place filled with replaceable things. What makes me sad is that the greater Sullivan Family (Tatros, Hosmers, Fanuccis, and more) is letting go of what was once a common meeting ground, a place to join together, one of the threads that kept us connected. I know that families grow and change, and sometimes depart...I just wish that some things could have stayed the same forever. I hate goodbyes...
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