Ekahi...'Elua...Ekolu...1...2...3

We count a lot, this little boy and I.  Well, mostly me. But we do it a lot. We count in both English and Hawaiian.  We count items around the house, items in books, birds that we see outside.  Numbers seem to be all around us so naturally this project really took to me.  This was a project from the book Growing up Sew Liberated and it has been on my to create list ever since I saw it.  I love the list of games that Meg includes in the book as well.  Right now we are only pointing to each number and I am saying them to Liam.  In a little while the number line will be lowered and Liam and I will play games with it.  This project really pushed me out of my creative comfort zone.  There was painting and glue work involved along with the sewing and embroidery... oh my.  But now that this project is up and being used, I am very very pleased with the final product.  The stick that I used to glue the clothespins to is actually a piece of bamboo that we had cut from the garden to knock down spider webs.  I thought it was pretty cool that it was the perfect length to hold our numbers one through ten. Liam is growing up so fast.  Did you know that he added "hi" to his list of words.  He went around to his cousins last night and said, "hi".  In his sweetly high baby voice.  More and more sounds are starting to take shape into words.  "Daddy" is becoming so much clearer. "Wa" for water and a little finger pointing gets him a drink.  Language.  Such a beautiful thing.  Sometimes I lay awake and wonder about the conversations that we will have.  What he will like.  It is such an amazing thing - this sharing of your life with this entirely new and developing person.  It is so wonderful to be able to witness him experience things for the first time.  To experience favorite things like books, and food, and sand, and games that he loves repeatedly.  Parenthood, I am learning is so deeply steeped in hope.  What we hope for our children. What we create whether it be object or experience for our children so that those hopes can be realized.  Being a mother is such an amazing blessing.  My days are filled with so much love.  Of the enduring kind. Of the patient kind.  But mostly of the amazed kind.

Blessings everyone.