Here they grow

Mother's Day is approaching, and I feel like my children are whirls of color and motion, growing up too fast. When I can catch them and still them, I look into my children's faces, wondering what they will look like as adults.

Will the youngest still have my late mother's nose? Will his hair stay that color or darken? Will he always have a thoughtful brow?

Will the oldest still have hair so thick? Will his eyes still crinkle at the edges? Will his facial expressions still be those of a

wag
noun
A person whose words or actions provoke or are intended to provoke amusement or laughter.
"wag." Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. Answers.com 13 May. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/wag

I want to capture them here, now, at this age, in this moment, and suspend time forever. Mother's Day is approaching again, and my heart is so full it aches.

Vanity Plate

I'm driving behind a pickup truck with a sign reading Crime Scene Cleaners. There was a firm in DC that did that, specializing in cleaning up from suicides and murders. Awful to think of, but really, who wants to clean up the bad thing that happened to a loved one? I didn't realize there was a huge market here, though.

When we stop at a red light, I see that the owner of Crime Scene Cleaners has opted for a vanity license plate, reading DOA CLNR.

DOA
abbreviation
Dead On Arrival
"DOA." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. Answers.com 10 May. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/doa

Pardon the pun, but the first thing that went through my head was "I get it. No need for overkill." My second thought was "I've never had a vanity plate." I do notice them, though.

St. Jude Memorial March

The Chicago Police Department pays tribute to those officers who have died in the line of duty with the annual St. Jude Memorial March. As my boyfriend is one of Chicago's finest men in blue (both literally and figuratively), I went to the parade today; it's only my second year attending, but I'll go every year, whether or not my boyfriend is a Chicago police officer. I'll admit, there is a part of me that finds this event more than a little titillating, as I am not immune to the appeal of thousands of men marching down the street in uniform (far from it). But as I stood there with butterflies in my stomach over the chance to see my handsome boyfriend in his uniform (or at all for that matter), I am reminded of the families in attendance that would love to see their sons or daughters in uniform just one last time as well. With the bagpipes (a requisite element of any parade in Chicago where even one Irishman will be in attendance- even if bagpipes are, in fact, Scottish) and the officers lining the parade route holding pictures of fallen compatriots, I was reminded that police officers are heroes, even if there are a few that taint the image of police officers along the way, and that I could lose my favorite one at any time. All in all, it's quite a solemn occasion.

sol·emn (sŏl'əm)
adj.
Deeply earnest, serious, and sober.

Dictionary defintion of solemn
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyrigth 2004, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Rain, rain, stay awhile

It's raining here today. On Sundays when I wake up to rain, I just want to bake muffins or a sweet bread, and stay in my pajamas all day. I want to linger over the fat Sunday paper. I want to have a fire. I want to sit up in bed and read, with children napping next to me, cuddled under a

duvet
noun
A soft quilt usually filled with the down of the eider.
"duvet." WordNet 1.7.1. Princeton University, 2001. Answers.com 07 May. 2006. http://www.answers.com/topic/duvet