Portrait of sixth cousins! (I'm a geneology nerd)

Our family had dinner with some distant cousins last night. I originally discovered these cousins while I was doing some serious geneology research on Monkeyrotica's family a few years ago and we've kept in touch through email, blogging, and Facebook. When they scheduled a vacation in DC, Dees (Monkey's cousin) emailed me to let me know. I was so happy to hear from them and schedule a meet up!

Rosie and Ann are only two months apart in age and became fast friends. Don't they look like first cousins and not sixth cousins, once removed? I introduced the idea of "pen pals" (very foreign concept) and am encouraging Rosie to write to her cousin. I lurved writing pen pals when I was her age and might still have some of their letters. They were often fast friends I made while I was on vacation with my family, too.

I'm looking forward to a Chicago vacation in the near future with my family so the cousins can meet up again!

Dave & Busters

It's Brian's birthday, and we're celebrating by virtually exploding lots of electronics!

Rosie and Me on the St. Charles Streetcar

We took a ride on the streetcar from the French quarter to a wonderful consignment store called "On the Other Hand" in the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans. I remember the lovely and elegant proprietor, Kay Danné, from my last visit over eight years ago. I was three months pregnant with Rosie and was shopping for comfortable clothes. At the time, Kay had offered me advice on my pregnancy that I remembered took to heart.

Kay expressed delight that she was able to meet my daughter who was "just a twinkle" when we last met. I bought a purse, gloves, and shirt for Rosie and a few dresses, skirts, a shirt, a suit, and shoes for me. With Kay's amazing discounts, the total was still under $100.

After a week's vacation together

Sleeping in the same hotel bed, attached at the hip, and they are still happy as can be!

Outside Antoine's Restaurant in New Orleans

We had dinner tonight at Antoine's in the French Quarter. The kids looked so adorable, dressed so fancy! The dinner was lovely--we arrived early and had an entire room to ourselves. Our waitstaff was incredibly professional, so polite and following our every cue. The food was delicious!

Nothing's as vain as a peacock

There was this peacock wandering at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans and it let me get really close with my camera. It even looked like it was posing for me! I turned to Monkeyrotica and said, "wouldn't it be cool if it displayed its feathers?"

Just then, like it understood me, it did just that! So gorgeous!

On the road

We packed lots of activity books for the kids to complete in the car--mazes, brainteasers, school workbooks--hoping they'll stay entertained. This is the first all-day roadtrip we've taken them on! I'm sure they'll get bored, or giddy, or maybe even fight. This is a test of our collective patience.

The New Orleans guide book we're using is from our very first trip to NOLA, in 1994. We brought it more for nostalgic purposes than utility; it has all our handwritten notes, highlighting, and crossouts from prior trips. I know a great deal has changed in New Orleans over the years, especially after hurricane Katrina, but many of the old institutions, historic flagship restaurants of the French Quarter, are still running. We have another, more recent guidebook as well, but the 1994 one is a clear favorite.

I've been asked a few times, what is there to do with kids in New Orleans? Isn't it enough for them to experience a little history, see a different way people live, ride streetcars, visit aboveground graveyards, spooky shops and museums? Must all things children experience for entertainment be Disneyfied and cater to them alone? I think they will have fun on this trip, but not necessarily in ways that we expect. I'll keep you all updated.

The most adorable game of soccer, evar!

Rosie's been playing soccer this season (see a previous post) with a local soccer club. When they were issued red jerseys, their coach asked them to choose a name based on the color. They picked "Bloodsuckers!" Um... well, that lasted about a day until the coach thought better of it and insisted they vote again.  The "Red Dragons" have played two games every Saturday, against two different teams in the club. A few weeks ago, she played another team in the club that her BFF Ava was on, as well as several of her 2nd-grade classmates. Mary Fowler, a professional sports photographer*, was there taking fantastic images of the girls in action. Below are just a few of many that featured Rosie (click on the images to see a larger size).

Ashley, Rosie, Ava (all three girls have been in ballet and tap class together since they were 4)

Janna, Savannah, Rosie (all in 2nd-grade class together)

When Savannah (on the opposing team) saw that Rosie was playing on their field, an amazing thing happened. She started cheering, "Let's Go, Rosie, Let's GO!"

 

  

 

Is Rosie waving at me? Her grandma maybe?

Nope, she's waving at her friend Elizabeth, on the opposing team.

It looks like Rosie's about to score here, but Ava defended her goal admirably.

In fact, after the goalie tossed the ball back into play (and Rosie ducked!), I saw Rosie go over to her friend to shake her hand, as if to say, "Great job, sweetie!" instead of following the ball with her teammates, that is. !

Rosie, Emily, and Ruth celebrating a goal.

Emily scored a goal during the game, but I'm pretty sure the overall score was a tie. They all had a great time and played very well against each other, with little or no competitiveness. I love that about recreational leagues.

*Mary Fowler mentioned to me that her fabulous photos are for sale at her smugmug site. She has a "Special Offers" category, wherein if you choose several sports images, she can print them all together, arranged as a collage, on one 11" x 17" sheet for one fixed fee.

Dash Is Six Today!!!

Happy sixth birthday, Dash!!

Things you love right now: robots, Science!, running, mazes, jumping, making up amazing stories, daifuku mochi, sausages, ice cream sandwiches, watching movies, dressing up as a superhero or a ninja, all of your silly-named stuffed animals (especially Flippy, Puffy-shubby, Totoro, Coochie-duck, *Happy-duck, and Squirmy), anything Lego, Wii games, Star Wars, Bakugan, frisbee, books, waking me up first thing in the morning and asking for TV and breakfast, kisses, hugs, and "family love" (group hug with lots of kisses).

*Happy-duck, a 2nd-birthday gift from Kellygo, long-beloved by Dash!

You're the sweetest little guy, happy to spread your affection to everyone while humming a tune (in fact, you're always humming or keeping some kind of dialog going, so it's super easy to find you!). One of your favorite games to play with Rosie is one where you make lots of baby-noises (hoo-hoo, coo-coo, hee-hee) and she plays your mommy—super cute. You still like to root for the evil guy in movies, like the Sith Lords, so we'll be keeping an eye on that.

In this past year, you left pre-K, started and finished Kindergarten, took after-school soccer, Spanish language classes, practiced karate, continued ballet lessons, and participated in the dance studio recital for the second year. You've expressed to us that you like running and jumping the best, so we'll be sure to sign you up for the track club during the next school year.

For now, you've got the entire summer ahead of you! You're looking forward to your summer camp, our family vacation, and many trips to the pool. You'll be starting First Grade before we know it.

I love you, little man!!

Last day of school!!!

Hello Summer!

Pre-recital portrait

In "The Wild Kingdom" performance, Dash is a cardinal and Rosie is a frog. (I'm a zebra.)

End of Year Party

Goals for the summer: biking and swimming

School will be out for my kids in just one week and we are putting them in full-time summer day camp. Additionally, we are cancelling all extra activities (with their associated fees) that the kids have been involved in throughout the year, such as soccer, karate, Junior Jazzercise, Spanish language, art studio*, calligraphy, ballet, and tap.

Rosie's new bike, bought via Craigslist. A side note: the seller (picked for proximity only) KNEW me! I had met her and kids at a work party. How random is that?

 

What I would like to do for the kids this summer is two-fold: teach them to swim and ride bikes. I've been so busy shuttling them to activities and focusing on signing them up for stuff that actually getting out there and teaching them these skills has gone by the wayside.

Part of the block, I think, is that each of these skills is not something that they can do on a Tuesday and pick up the next Tuesday (which is typically how I schedule things). They need to practice for a little while every day for a week or two. I just watched a YouTube video that gave some great tips on how to prepare your child for bicycling, and it made so much sense! TAKE THE PEDALS OFF. Get your kid to practice pushing with their feet, balancing, and stopping (the new bike has a hand brake) all before the pedals get in the way. The video wasn't embeddable, but check it out here.

Rosie actually told me that she wanted to learn to ride a bike and to swim this summer, which is great! She really hadn't expressed much interest before. I think I can train them to ride bikes myself, but the swimming? Not so sure. I'll probably need to get private lessons or something, despite my training as a YMCA aquatics instructor 25 years ago. They are stubborn little creatures that refuse to put their heads in the water.

* Rosie told me that she will be very disappointed if she's not in an art class this summer...

Nymphs and other unnecessary things I know way too much about...

This weekend, in the midst of struggling to juggle so many activities I had a few brief moments of clarity, wherein I am a savant. They were very brief.

Friday night, I saw X-Men: First Class at a local theater with my friend Staci who dearly needed a break from reality. I had such a blast watching the film, connecting with the prequel history of the X-Men franchise characters, as well as actors that I'd loved in other movies. Our evening wound down with a walk through Old Town and a mint julep-fueled movie discussion at The Majestic. The weather was gorgeous and the soft, cool summer breezes made me wish I could stay out all night.

Saturday was Rosie's last soccer game of the season, the earliest in the day—so at the very least, we got it out of the way first thing! Got changed out of soccer gear, and rushed Rosie over to Staci's to play with her BFF MEO and a whole mess of second-grade-classroom-raised chicks (see photo!) that Staci was keeping for the weekend. I barely remember lunch and getting Dash to ballet, but I'm so glad my brain clicked on enough to recall that I needed to buy Rosie new tights for her recital costume while I was at the studio. I had forgotten the third activity of the day: Dance Studio Photo Day. I remembered it about two hours before our first photo session, which gave me enough time to shower, put myself and Rosie in stage make-up, do her ballet bun, dig up the kids' costumes and mine out of various bags, closets and car trunks, and warn Dash over and over that he was wearing white pants, do not jump, kneel, or brush up against anything. All photos were done by 6:45. Whew. I had enough down-time left over to commune with my new guilty pleasure addiction: Netflix's five seasons of Ghost Whisperer.

Sunday, I fit in an aerobics workout, and we all went to the pool for a delicious picnic lunch. Highlights of the pool: the West Potomac Crew was having a party there, and many of the high school students were swinging on swings and playing on the playground equipment (intended for the 5 to 12 age set). *Snicker.* Rosie and Dash socialized with a couple of pool friends.

When was I a savant? My brief moments of non-floundering parental glory were when Rosie asked me what a Nymph was. I was able to educate her on my semi-exhaustive knowledge of dryads, oreiads, hamadryads, naiads, and their respective residences and anti-social habits. Also, while I was talking with a friend about seeing X-Men, I dazzled her with my ridiculous knowledge of the actors in the movie, all their previous roles in other movies, and the backgrounds of the various X-Men characters and how they relate to each other. Actually, strike savant. I think I can solidly be labeled a GEEK.

Portrait of Nylonthread

An executive at my office was coming in to have her portrait taken, so my boss was setting up the photo shoot and needed a model to test his lighting. He sent me this image, out of all the test shots, because he liked it and thought I'd appreciate the image. I played around with levels and curves because the original was very dark and red-toned, but didn't try to clone out anything or smooth wrinkles.

So, that's me, with minimal make-up, photographed with professional equipment and lighting, by a guy with some training.

Mother's Day gifts

This impatiens plant was worse for wear after spending the weekend in my little guy's backpack, but shortly after the Sunday morning delivery, I repotted it, watered it, and put it in the sun.
Dash didn't want to spoil my Mother's Day surprise by delivering it early!

My second Mother's Day gift was this lovely painting, with Dash's little hand outlined, holding gorgeously colorful flowers! I also got a card from Rosie.

One more thing, does anyone remember this post? Well Dash does. We camped out in the backyard in August of 2008, almost three years ago. So, what makes the cut when he draws a picture of dear mommy? Him and me in sleeping bags, in a tent. I think his caption was meant to read: "I love my Mom because she slept with me in a tent." Honestly, he's been a bit nutty about sleeping bags lately! He was weeping and cranky on the way to school last week and the only way I was able to distract him was to talk about how if you have two sleeping bags, you can zip them together to make a HUGE sleeping bag and the considering the possibilities got him out of his funk. Cutie.

First Soccer Club Practice!

Rosie attended her first practice with the soccer club! She's been participating in an after-school soccer program for a few years now, but I have had no indication that they actually play games; it's more about gaining skill with the ball and agility as a player.

Her first two practices were rained out (and the temps were in the 40s—brrrr!), so in desperation, the coach scheduled an extra practice this past Sunday. They had beautiful weather and the girls had such a fun time.

One part Rosie didn't like so much: in their scrimmage, there was an odd number of girls, so the coach asked her to be a "floater," meaning she was on the team of whomever held the ball. Practically, this meant the other girls didn't know which team she was on and nobody passed the ball to her. That's a tough position to play, but someone has to do it!

The next practice is tonight and her first game will be this Saturday. Cross your fingers for good weather!

The Egg Hunt

I knew my darling readers are thirsting for more art, so quench yourselves on this lovely pen and ink drawing, composed by Rosie, titled "The Egg Hunt."


If you are having trouble with the penmanship or the narrative, I believe this is her characters' dialog:

Rosie: Hey, mom I found one!

Mom: Dear, there's some more up there. (pointing to impossible-to-reach-spot)

Rosie: Okay.

The Easter bunny, pictured amazingly close to our dear protagonist, is very nicely drawn, don't you think?

Portrait of the Artist

Rosie portrayed Georgia O'Keeffe at
her 2nd grade "living wax museum"
(complete with blue sticker "buttons" to
activate their speeches) on Friday. 
Based on facts from an O'Keeffe
biography, I coached her to say,
"I burnt my early works because they
were derivative," and "I wear all black
so the critics will take me seriously."
She was excellent! Looking very
serious in this photo... She painted her
O'Keeffe-esque prop all on her own.

Dash lost his first tooth!

It was at the dentist, because it's been wiggling for weeks & not coming out on its own. The permanent tooth behind it wasn't doing its job, coming in without moving the baby tooth first.