Colin, Evelyn and I played the piano for a while last night. The three of us snugly fit on the piano bench side-by-side and we are each delegated a section of the piano for freestyle jamming. Colin is usually The Designator of Things when it's the three of us. Oldest child present, and all...
He'd shout out a composition name and then we'd all have a go (together) at the piano in the style which seemed to suit the title. While the playing was certainly memorable (read: loud and raucous), the titles were really the best.
We started off with Thunderstorm and then moved on to The Rabbit Fell Into the Ocean and Was Gobbled By A Whaleshark.
We ended with My Uncle Has Been Eaten By A Badger. Hmm. Foreboding, to say the least.
I haven't warned my brother, yet. Maybe I should?!
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Saturday, September 3, 2016
14+ years too early
This afternoon Evelyn and I were sitting in the sun on the back deck. I'd just given in to painting her toenails... and then her fingernails. (Colin got a full set in purple, too!) Then she stood up and stretched and said, "Mama? I want you to buy me a car. A car that I can drive."
I certainly expect each one of my kids to make this demand while they're still under our roof - it's one of the many demand/requests that every kid makes of their parent at some point. But, at exactly 2 years and 5 months old, this was waaaaaay earlier than I'd expected!
Happy End of Summer, readers. We're here and busy and very well. If you're checking in - thanks! If I've lost all 4 of my readers due to my 5 months of silence, then that's okay, too.
I certainly expect each one of my kids to make this demand while they're still under our roof - it's one of the many demand/requests that every kid makes of their parent at some point. But, at exactly 2 years and 5 months old, this was waaaaaay earlier than I'd expected!
Happy End of Summer, readers. We're here and busy and very well. If you're checking in - thanks! If I've lost all 4 of my readers due to my 5 months of silence, then that's okay, too.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
It's here!
April 16th - mark it! It's the first day that it's warm enough to sit in the sunroom with bare feet up on the couch. We've played basketball and softball catch at the park and had swim class. I had a nice chat with my neighbor over our fences... it's been months since we've done that. And we're barbecuing with friends tonight. I'm hoping to have some seedlings planted by the end of the weekend and tomorrow is the first day for softball and soccer. Hurray for Spring!
Monday, April 4, 2016
springing
After a week in California, where we frolicked in the sand and sun, played at the park, "without jackets, Mama!" and spent much-savored time with family and friends... we are back. And as I write this, it's snowing. Yesterday we stayed at the park with neighborhood friends until 7pm in 72 degree weather. The day before that it snowed.
This is true Springtime in Chicago. And, I'm looking for the humor in Mother Nature's show. I assume She knows best because I have daffodils trying their best to appear upbeat and sproingy even while they're blown about by tiny snowflakes and 40 mph wind gusts. Back to school this morning with a spring (intended) in our step... we were early to all drop offs and everyone was excited to go their separate ways. My path led directly back home to clean up the messes left by 3 young children after a few unstructured days of play at home between birthday celebrations, laundry, and tax season. Adulthood can be very overrated at times.
Celebrations! Yesterday Evelyn turned Two. Our springtime baby girl. She's solidly a toddler now and holds the place of Most Beloved Little Sister/Baby Girl. She had barely come downstairs yesterday morning when she was bombarded with kisses and frantically hand drawn birthday cards and a specially selected present from her older brothers, who were half-dressed themselves. The birthday excitement of a 4.5 and 6.5 year old was infectious enough for all of us. Evelyn is definitely into birthdays now! We had a few friends over, a few presents, a little birthday brunch and chocolate cake (her request!) with raspberry buttercream frosting. She's still a berry lover.
Evelyn is quick and quiet, a bit surly when she wakes early from a nap, surprisingly eloquent, loves her Mama and Daddy and adores her brothers. Sometimes she addresses them as one entity which is the sweetest thing, "I need help opening this Brothers!" And one or both of them rush to her aid. Lucky little lady.
I've just visited the old Flickr page and see that my last update of photos was last year at Evelyn's 1st birthday! I have catching up to do. They're all changing so much, so fast. Assume that I'm just trying to keep up and internalize as much of it as I can if this space or the photo page falls silent for a long time. It's good right now. Happy Spring!
This is true Springtime in Chicago. And, I'm looking for the humor in Mother Nature's show. I assume She knows best because I have daffodils trying their best to appear upbeat and sproingy even while they're blown about by tiny snowflakes and 40 mph wind gusts. Back to school this morning with a spring (intended) in our step... we were early to all drop offs and everyone was excited to go their separate ways. My path led directly back home to clean up the messes left by 3 young children after a few unstructured days of play at home between birthday celebrations, laundry, and tax season. Adulthood can be very overrated at times.
Celebrations! Yesterday Evelyn turned Two. Our springtime baby girl. She's solidly a toddler now and holds the place of Most Beloved Little Sister/Baby Girl. She had barely come downstairs yesterday morning when she was bombarded with kisses and frantically hand drawn birthday cards and a specially selected present from her older brothers, who were half-dressed themselves. The birthday excitement of a 4.5 and 6.5 year old was infectious enough for all of us. Evelyn is definitely into birthdays now! We had a few friends over, a few presents, a little birthday brunch and chocolate cake (her request!) with raspberry buttercream frosting. She's still a berry lover.
Evelyn is quick and quiet, a bit surly when she wakes early from a nap, surprisingly eloquent, loves her Mama and Daddy and adores her brothers. Sometimes she addresses them as one entity which is the sweetest thing, "I need help opening this Brothers!" And one or both of them rush to her aid. Lucky little lady.
I've just visited the old Flickr page and see that my last update of photos was last year at Evelyn's 1st birthday! I have catching up to do. They're all changing so much, so fast. Assume that I'm just trying to keep up and internalize as much of it as I can if this space or the photo page falls silent for a long time. It's good right now. Happy Spring!
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
How we roll
Mike skipped town (but, really!) on Monday morning even though it was a looooong weekend for the kids (they were off on Friday, as well as Monday!).
"Why the long weekend in the dead of winter?" must have been what 50% of Evanstonians were thinking. The other 50% were wise and had flown themselves south to Florida where they basked in the sun and posted obnoxious Facebook pictures of sun and sand. Drat.
So, when Sunday night rolled around and we'd exhausted the usual avenues for winter entertainment (swimming, open gym time at the YMCA, a treat at Tag's, a full morning-plus at the awesome Field Museum downtown), I dug deep and knew that with a plan in hand, I'd get through Monday and it might even be fun. What?! Oh, yes.
We melted crayon shards into some of the coolest multi-colored crayon discs you've ever seen, we shoveled the sidewalks and the exterior of the house (thank you snow? thank you corner lot? hmmm.), we worked on counting coins and made duct tape wallets. We visited the library for fresh books and took the eldest to basketball and tried (kind of) to use the potty with some regularity(ish). We read lots of books - Henry & Ribsy chapters are long! - and colored Peppa Pig coloring pages. They had cozy baths and books and warm beds. And I... was exhausted!
"Why the long weekend in the dead of winter?" must have been what 50% of Evanstonians were thinking. The other 50% were wise and had flown themselves south to Florida where they basked in the sun and posted obnoxious Facebook pictures of sun and sand. Drat.
So, when Sunday night rolled around and we'd exhausted the usual avenues for winter entertainment (swimming, open gym time at the YMCA, a treat at Tag's, a full morning-plus at the awesome Field Museum downtown), I dug deep and knew that with a plan in hand, I'd get through Monday and it might even be fun. What?! Oh, yes.
We melted crayon shards into some of the coolest multi-colored crayon discs you've ever seen, we shoveled the sidewalks and the exterior of the house (thank you snow? thank you corner lot? hmmm.), we worked on counting coins and made duct tape wallets. We visited the library for fresh books and took the eldest to basketball and tried (kind of) to use the potty with some regularity(ish). We read lots of books - Henry & Ribsy chapters are long! - and colored Peppa Pig coloring pages. They had cozy baths and books and warm beds. And I... was exhausted!
Friday, January 29, 2016
Five on Friday
1) It's going to be in the 40s this weekend. Break out the lightweight coats! Prepare for the mud.
2) Books on CD are some of the greatest inventions ever. Now I need to look into read-alongs that can be uploaded to an iPad for plane/car travel. Please, oh please, let there be a free site for this kind of thing.
3) Girls' weekends are fun. But, it takes me a lot longer to recover from 36 hours of debauchery at age 37 than it did at age 27.
4) Dinner is feeling stale. It's too early in the season for this!
5) The above is going to be remedied by having dinner out tonight. That gives me an extra 24 hours to think up something interesting for tomorrow night. Wish me luck.
2) Books on CD are some of the greatest inventions ever. Now I need to look into read-alongs that can be uploaded to an iPad for plane/car travel. Please, oh please, let there be a free site for this kind of thing.
3) Girls' weekends are fun. But, it takes me a lot longer to recover from 36 hours of debauchery at age 37 than it did at age 27.
4) Dinner is feeling stale. It's too early in the season for this!
5) The above is going to be remedied by having dinner out tonight. That gives me an extra 24 hours to think up something interesting for tomorrow night. Wish me luck.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
January 5th
Evelyn calls rubber duckies "rubbie duckies". It's so darn cute. And instead of neck she says, "neck-oh" which I believe is some mashup of "neck" and "necklace." She definitely appreciates accessories. And she loves the samples and stickers at Trader Joe's. She's a loyal customer.
Colin is so very Four. In the span of one day, he flies LEGO Star Wars ships, giggles and guffaws through Peppa Pig, stomps around in defiance of anything he deems Not To His Liking, transforms into a black cat and licks people ("Colin, please stop licking people. We only pretend."), makes beautiful artwork, gives 5 thousand kisses and hugs, and tells me I'm the Best Mama Ever. He is busy.
Christopher is missing so many teeth I'm afraid I'll have to start feeding him a strict diet of scrambled eggs, smoothies, yogurt and ice cream. He'd probably be on board with that. He plays basketball and participates in Lego Club and likes to skid all over the ice after school while I try not to watch lest I witness him cracking his head open. He still likes me to give him a hug and kiss before he goes into school in the mornings and will come up to me looking for a snuggle when he's feeling happy and content. He barely fits on my lap anymore, though. Short Mom + Long-Legged Boy = A Precarious Snuggle.
Mike is happily teaching his favorite class (singular class! last quarter he taught 2 and was properly buried for several months) and has time to get back to his lab and the stack of lingering manuscripts that never disappear from the corner of his virtual desktop. He's all about Date Nights in 2016. I'm good with that! We're doing a Wednesday night outing tomorrow. Nothing fancy... just dinner while our favorite babysitter home from college puts those silly boys to bed. Worth every penny.
Me? Believe it or not, I'm doing some singing in order to fund my next creative pursuit: Photography. (All those years when I took other jobs to pay for singing... now I'm taking singing jobs to pay for my interest in photography. Go figure.) I have a new lens from Christmas to play around with and have raided the library for stacks of books on digital portrait photography. Kids, babies, families, couples, singles, artists, professionals... I want faces of all kinds in front of my camera! My 2016 Intention is to further refine my understanding of my DSLR and become more proficient with Adobe Lightroom so that I'm not limited to Photoshop.
Winter means lots of ideas in the back pocket for when Cabin Fever hits. It means hot chocolate and scouring the internet for fun coloring pages. It means the weather shield on the stroller. It might mean a snow day (fun!) or a polar vortex (less fun). Winter means colds (bummer), but hopefully not the flu (triple yuck). It means soup smells from the kitchen and don't forget your coat/hat/mittens/neck warmer/snowpants/boots. It means everything takes 15 minutes longer. And, please, give yourself time to pee before we get ready and go.
Colin is so very Four. In the span of one day, he flies LEGO Star Wars ships, giggles and guffaws through Peppa Pig, stomps around in defiance of anything he deems Not To His Liking, transforms into a black cat and licks people ("Colin, please stop licking people. We only pretend."), makes beautiful artwork, gives 5 thousand kisses and hugs, and tells me I'm the Best Mama Ever. He is busy.
Christopher is missing so many teeth I'm afraid I'll have to start feeding him a strict diet of scrambled eggs, smoothies, yogurt and ice cream. He'd probably be on board with that. He plays basketball and participates in Lego Club and likes to skid all over the ice after school while I try not to watch lest I witness him cracking his head open. He still likes me to give him a hug and kiss before he goes into school in the mornings and will come up to me looking for a snuggle when he's feeling happy and content. He barely fits on my lap anymore, though. Short Mom + Long-Legged Boy = A Precarious Snuggle.
Mike is happily teaching his favorite class (singular class! last quarter he taught 2 and was properly buried for several months) and has time to get back to his lab and the stack of lingering manuscripts that never disappear from the corner of his virtual desktop. He's all about Date Nights in 2016. I'm good with that! We're doing a Wednesday night outing tomorrow. Nothing fancy... just dinner while our favorite babysitter home from college puts those silly boys to bed. Worth every penny.
Me? Believe it or not, I'm doing some singing in order to fund my next creative pursuit: Photography. (All those years when I took other jobs to pay for singing... now I'm taking singing jobs to pay for my interest in photography. Go figure.) I have a new lens from Christmas to play around with and have raided the library for stacks of books on digital portrait photography. Kids, babies, families, couples, singles, artists, professionals... I want faces of all kinds in front of my camera! My 2016 Intention is to further refine my understanding of my DSLR and become more proficient with Adobe Lightroom so that I'm not limited to Photoshop.
Winter means lots of ideas in the back pocket for when Cabin Fever hits. It means hot chocolate and scouring the internet for fun coloring pages. It means the weather shield on the stroller. It might mean a snow day (fun!) or a polar vortex (less fun). Winter means colds (bummer), but hopefully not the flu (triple yuck). It means soup smells from the kitchen and don't forget your coat/hat/mittens/neck warmer/snowpants/boots. It means everything takes 15 minutes longer. And, please, give yourself time to pee before we get ready and go.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Theaster Gates quote
Taken from the Chicago Tribune Trib magazine this morning:
"I want to help the people who create the rubric for education understand that math without art is an imbalanced education, engineering without culture makes an ill-fit child and science without wonder is not possible. I want us to value art and culture again."
Oh, yes.
"I want to help the people who create the rubric for education understand that math without art is an imbalanced education, engineering without culture makes an ill-fit child and science without wonder is not possible. I want us to value art and culture again."
Oh, yes.
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