Friday night:
Me: How's the pizza?
Christopher: You nailed it, Mama.
Me: Awesome. Thanks.
Hilarious article about The Default Parent. Yes, we all try to do our best and be super-involved, but the idea of a default parent is just 100% truth.
Mike and I watched a few documentaries last weekend. Chasing Ice and Art and Craft. We'd definitely recommend Chasing Ice, but then again, we're pretty convinced that global warming is a Real Thing. :) It was visually stunning.
Softball, swimming, soccer, bookclub, family brunches, play dates, park dates, wine nights, seedlings, house projects, biking weather... life is nice around here right now.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Spring and other things. But mostly Spring.
Because Spring is worth shouting about. Spring is dance-party worthy. Spring warrants popsicles and First Birthday Berry Birthday Cakes and just-a-jacket-not-a-snowsuit kind of outerwear.
Spring is The Thing.
- Evelyn is One. Um, hello? How did that happen? The calendar tells me that it was just a year ago that on one very dark and stormy morning, she came sliding into the world and snuggled right into the warmth of our family. She is our proverbial cherry on top. She screeches when we're too slow delivering whatever she might like, she tries to make a run for it at bedtime (though she's still a crawler), she scrunches her nose when she giggles, and she babbles at length once she feels she's gotten to know you. I made her a little dress for her first birthday party and was so pleased with how it turned out! Never short on sibling assistance, her biggest brother helped her blow out the single candle atop her chocolate layer cake frosted with vanilla buttercream and decorated with mounds of blackberries and raspberries. She rather enjoyed every last crumb of it, too, thankyouverymuch. She is spoiled rotten with kisses and attention and hand-me-downs and love. In my next lifetime, I think I'd like to be the third child. It seems to be a pretty sweet spot.
- Easter was fun! We had our annual Cinnamon Roll indulgences and egg hunts (and then did a reverse hunt in which Christopher and Colin re-hid all the eggs and demanded the adults go find them...). The weather was dry enough for walks to the park and library. Then it got rainy. Really rainy. Darn Spring. But today it is dry and green. Nevermind that the wind blew part of the fence down last night. Oh, Spring.
- The afternoon playground scene is Back On. It's so easy to fall back in love with our city and our neighborhood and our lifestyle when the weather lets us go back outdoors. We've become friends with several families in the surrounding blocks thanks to our preschool being 3 blocks away and our daily treks to the park. Just down the block is the epicenter for all 4pm "chance" encounters since that's where the park entrance is located. There are between 5-8 little boys that regularly carouse up and down the block on their bikes/scooters/trikes, chalking (tagging, really) names and rainbows and hopscotch and drawing various flying contraptions all over the sidewalk. They run in a pack like a litter of puppies ranging in age from 2.5 years to 5.5 years. There are also two darling baby girls who crawl and squeal to each other in delight as their brothers zip by every few minutes. Helmets askew, blowing bubbles, requesting snacks and one-more-pretzel-please, racing down the street to wave and shout at the yellow ice cream truck as he taunts them with that obnoxious song blaring to all the sugar-crazy children and all the eye-rolling "I-don't-have-any-money" moms. We sit in the sun chatting about kids and schools and lives before kids and lives after kids while we're interrupted every 5 seconds by our lives WITH kids, somebody offers to brew a quick pot of coffee to get us through the last push of the day, the kids are scooting until the last sliver of sun is behind the house/garage/tree and then we start glancing at our phones (because no one wears a watch anymore!)... 5 'o clock. Where are the bubbles/sweatshirts/water bottle/babies??? Time to round them up and head home to get dinner ready.
It reminds me of summers from my own childhood. I feel so totally and completely privileged to be having this same experience a second time in my life, but now as a parent rather than a kid. Make no mistake: Mike and I work hard for this. To that end, I hope my kids remember these long days of light when they rode bikes at the park with their neighborhood friends until their moms made them come inside for dinner just before the dads got home. I don't think I'll want this forever for myself (these little kids get bigger and move on!), but for now, it is unbelievably wonderful. I am thankful.
Spring is The Thing.
- Evelyn is One. Um, hello? How did that happen? The calendar tells me that it was just a year ago that on one very dark and stormy morning, she came sliding into the world and snuggled right into the warmth of our family. She is our proverbial cherry on top. She screeches when we're too slow delivering whatever she might like, she tries to make a run for it at bedtime (though she's still a crawler), she scrunches her nose when she giggles, and she babbles at length once she feels she's gotten to know you. I made her a little dress for her first birthday party and was so pleased with how it turned out! Never short on sibling assistance, her biggest brother helped her blow out the single candle atop her chocolate layer cake frosted with vanilla buttercream and decorated with mounds of blackberries and raspberries. She rather enjoyed every last crumb of it, too, thankyouverymuch. She is spoiled rotten with kisses and attention and hand-me-downs and love. In my next lifetime, I think I'd like to be the third child. It seems to be a pretty sweet spot.
- Easter was fun! We had our annual Cinnamon Roll indulgences and egg hunts (and then did a reverse hunt in which Christopher and Colin re-hid all the eggs and demanded the adults go find them...). The weather was dry enough for walks to the park and library. Then it got rainy. Really rainy. Darn Spring. But today it is dry and green. Nevermind that the wind blew part of the fence down last night. Oh, Spring.
- The afternoon playground scene is Back On. It's so easy to fall back in love with our city and our neighborhood and our lifestyle when the weather lets us go back outdoors. We've become friends with several families in the surrounding blocks thanks to our preschool being 3 blocks away and our daily treks to the park. Just down the block is the epicenter for all 4pm "chance" encounters since that's where the park entrance is located. There are between 5-8 little boys that regularly carouse up and down the block on their bikes/scooters/trikes, chalking (tagging, really) names and rainbows and hopscotch and drawing various flying contraptions all over the sidewalk. They run in a pack like a litter of puppies ranging in age from 2.5 years to 5.5 years. There are also two darling baby girls who crawl and squeal to each other in delight as their brothers zip by every few minutes. Helmets askew, blowing bubbles, requesting snacks and one-more-pretzel-please, racing down the street to wave and shout at the yellow ice cream truck as he taunts them with that obnoxious song blaring to all the sugar-crazy children and all the eye-rolling "I-don't-have-any-money" moms. We sit in the sun chatting about kids and schools and lives before kids and lives after kids while we're interrupted every 5 seconds by our lives WITH kids, somebody offers to brew a quick pot of coffee to get us through the last push of the day, the kids are scooting until the last sliver of sun is behind the house/garage/tree and then we start glancing at our phones (because no one wears a watch anymore!)... 5 'o clock. Where are the bubbles/sweatshirts/water bottle/babies??? Time to round them up and head home to get dinner ready.
It reminds me of summers from my own childhood. I feel so totally and completely privileged to be having this same experience a second time in my life, but now as a parent rather than a kid. Make no mistake: Mike and I work hard for this. To that end, I hope my kids remember these long days of light when they rode bikes at the park with their neighborhood friends until their moms made them come inside for dinner just before the dads got home. I don't think I'll want this forever for myself (these little kids get bigger and move on!), but for now, it is unbelievably wonderful. I am thankful.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Still here.
I started a post last Sunday - almost a week ago now. We had a very sub-par beginning of the week health-wise, so I'm just glad that it's Friday.
Right now the boys are singing to themselves while they have some rest time in anticipation of tonight's preschool fundraiser. Evelyn is napping to fortify her little self for a big night out. It's a pasta dinner. With the teachers there. And a magic show. And dessert. Does it get any better? I don't think so. They've already made some artwork to present to their teachers when they see them tonight out of sheer love and happiness to be back doing what they're supposed to be doing: playing at preschool.
This weekend I want to scrub the car, scrub the house, and start looking towards spring. Maybe we'll plant some seedlings and set them in the front window to sprout.
* * * * * * *
Here's that post which was abandoned last Sunday:
There are snowdrops that seem to have sprung overnight (really - they weren't there three days ago, which is crazy-amazing), and little daffodil greens are standing at attention, poking up out of goopy, gloppy mudslicks all over the neighborhood. Today the temperature is supposed to get up to 70. What?! It's madness.
Yesterday morning Mike spotted the first red robin of spring. March 15. Right on time.
I sang a church job and lined up a few more Sundays. I felt terribly out of shape and give myself a 6/10 for my technical portion of the presentation, but I tried to be all heart and deliver 10/10 for musicality. Later in the day I went for a run and, once again, felt a bit out of shape. It's true that we just have to start somewhere.
We've sporadically enjoyed the park and reconnecting with our neighborhood friends, but the weather can't be counted on just yet. Maybe by the end of the month.
Right now the boys are singing to themselves while they have some rest time in anticipation of tonight's preschool fundraiser. Evelyn is napping to fortify her little self for a big night out. It's a pasta dinner. With the teachers there. And a magic show. And dessert. Does it get any better? I don't think so. They've already made some artwork to present to their teachers when they see them tonight out of sheer love and happiness to be back doing what they're supposed to be doing: playing at preschool.
This weekend I want to scrub the car, scrub the house, and start looking towards spring. Maybe we'll plant some seedlings and set them in the front window to sprout.
* * * * * * *
Here's that post which was abandoned last Sunday:
There are snowdrops that seem to have sprung overnight (really - they weren't there three days ago, which is crazy-amazing), and little daffodil greens are standing at attention, poking up out of goopy, gloppy mudslicks all over the neighborhood. Today the temperature is supposed to get up to 70. What?! It's madness.
Yesterday morning Mike spotted the first red robin of spring. March 15. Right on time.
I sang a church job and lined up a few more Sundays. I felt terribly out of shape and give myself a 6/10 for my technical portion of the presentation, but I tried to be all heart and deliver 10/10 for musicality. Later in the day I went for a run and, once again, felt a bit out of shape. It's true that we just have to start somewhere.
We've sporadically enjoyed the park and reconnecting with our neighborhood friends, but the weather can't be counted on just yet. Maybe by the end of the month.
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