Vacations are awesome.

Photos from a trip I never blogged about: 

For spring break 2011 the Strings went to Philadelphia, much like we did the year before. We stayed in the same fabulous hotel room (with the gigantic jacuzzi bath, perfect for entertaining chilled children after a long day of walking in the rain), at the cozy, historic inn in the Jewelry District. The kids loved the dining areas, which have continental breakfast in the morning and warm cookies after 3 p.m. The back dining room also had a floor-to-ceiling library with an eclectic collection of books. Dash pulled encyclopedias while Rosie perused the art books, and both of them generally acted like goofballs.

One fortuitous difference between this trip and the last one was that Kelly, Mike, Liam and Thea just happened to be in Philly at the same time we were! I had caught a tweet of Kelly's the afternoon that we were headed there; they had gone to New Jersey on a day trip, but decided to take a spur-of-the-moment side trip and had no idea we would be there too. How often does that sort of coincidence happen?

We met up for breakfast the next morning at Reading Market, and the Strings and the O's headed straight from there to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [Kelly, if you have any pics of your family from that trip, send them my way and I'll add them in!] Featured works from the museum: Duchamp's Fountain and The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. Rosie and Dash are on the far side of the room in The Bride's photo, near the window, and if you look closely, you can see Liam's reflection in the glass, lower right.

Dash with Marcel Duchamp's Fountain

Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even

We split up from our friends after the museum to see different sights, but had such a fun time as a group, much more so than if we had gone solo. All the kids love goofing around with each other so much. We visited the Franklin Institute again—Rosie and Dash were clamoring to climb through the giant heart once more, Rosie wanted to visit the Mutter Museum (Dash thought it was too scary last time, so he and I went to a yarn shop instead), and Monkeyrotica wanted to try the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen, a historic Jewish deli in Queen Village. We also spent some time poking around an old-school second-hand book store, complete with an in-store cat. One of the highlights of the trip for me was sneaking away from the fam to the 12th Street Gym for the best step aerobics class EVAR! Not kidding. DC doesn't do it like that anymore.

We ended up at our favorite restaurant from last time, Jones, where Rosie and Dash split the fried chicken and waffles dinner (waffles for Rosie, chicken for Dash), and Monkey and I enjoyed some delicious cocktails with our comfort food.

Photobombing at Jones

Rosie and Dash are already asking to go back! I know there are many other wonderful, educational vacation spots out there, but Philly is just far enough away to feel slightly exotic and just close enough for a day trip. There are still plenty of spots there that we haven't seen yet, so until the kids insist they've had too much of Philly, it's an awesome destination for us.

Blogging for the sake of blogging

Why I Blog: For the Photos.
I love my family's photos. I love that they are patient, sitting and waiting on the hard-drive until I come by to browse and discover them. I just saw the ones below for the first time while going through archived photos last night and adore every little slice of life recorded in them, from back in March of this year. I didn't photograph them, Monkeyrotica or Rosie did, so I'm really seeing them fresh. I'm not even sure where we were or what we were doing back in March. It doesn't matter. They're mine and they're full of love.

Why I Blog: For Friends and Future Me.
The reason I started blogging in the first place was because of changes that were happening so fast in my life. I was pregnant and internalizing, not communicating well with family and friends about changes. This venue was perfect to get a dialog going with important people in my life, near and far. Years later, I am amazed and grateful to the former me, who thought to document my hopes, thoughts, dreams, good and bad. Looking back and re-reading posts from when my kids were infants, re-experiencing the joy of first steps, or reliving the horror of a missing child, makes me more whole, more me. These things are so easy to forget in a busy life. My kids are just-shy-of-nine years old and six-and-a-half now, and full of personality. Now that they've been a part of my life for so long, their every moves and things they say are no longer quirky novelties. They are known to me, adored and sweet.

Why I Blog: For People I'll Find along the Way. 

The community I found while blogging was also an added bonus to the writing. I found friends that I've now known for years who live in Oregon, Alabama, Canada, Ohio, whom I've never met. I read their blogs, they read mine; for a while, anyway. A couple of years ago, everyone moved over to Facebook or Google Reader and we commented over there. But now, since Facebook sucks and Reader is gone (SOB! so sad, I hate the people who took it away :-(!!!), we need to come back to the blog as a community. Let's move our conversation back over here.

Why I Blog: I Need Challenges.

I'm looking forward to NaBloPoMo 2001! I just fell out of the blogging habit when there were so many other social venue options. Twitter/Facebook/Google+/Diaspora/Reader/Buzz? Where to connect? Who is there? How can I get in touch with my favorite people best? Bob knows I can't do them all. It's mind-boggling and my head hurts just thinking about thinking about it. Bring on the blog!

So, I'm committed, for a month. I've got my make-up on, let's do this!

More posts in one month than in the previous eleven...

At the Udvar-Hazy IMAX theater, waiting for the Fighter Jets movie.

A tweet by Mary Lynn inspired this post:

"Part of me is considering doing #nablopomo this year just because I think it'd be hilarious to do more posts in 1 month than in previous 11."

I'm thinking of going through all of the awesome but unused and neglected photos that I didn't blog about for the past year and hit them all in one month. My excuse for everything, including not blogging regularly or even looking at photos that I've taken after pulling a camera from my face, is that I've got two kids in public school, with homework every night, I work full-time, and I dance, craft and socialize with friends. When do I have time to do all that AND document it? I don't. Or do I?

I might fail Nablopomo, again. But, I'm going to give it a try, again. If I do it, you get 30 posts from me, in one month, more than I've posted in the past eleven.

Rosie poses below the Enola Gay, displayed at the Udvar-Hazy museum.

Now, I just need to figure out how to get on the new blogroll system.

Rosie's Fairy Garden

A friend of mine who also has a young daughter suggested this fairy garden project as after seeing a post about it over here. We have corresponded about how her Katie and my Rosie love little things, like Littlest Pet Shop pets, Pixie Hollow, and other pretty, tiny things, so when she saw this project, she immediately thought of us. Just as expected, Rosie immediately wanted to make one, so she and I went to our wonderful local variety store to purchase a cheap plastic pot and a ceramic fairy figurine. We used craft/floral filler (reindeer moss?) that was around the house from an earlier project, rather than real dirt, to give a garden-like appearance. To finish the look she wanted, Rosie found a collection of tiny shells from our last beach trip, and voilà, a garden for a fairy!

She plans to add flowers later, but this was quite a success considering how impromptu our craft time was and how much she really wanted to finish her garden. She managed her time well enough, considering that she had five (5) homework assignments that she needed to complete before she could start it. Third grade homework, especially the terseness of the "dumbed-down" instructions, is already kicking all our butts. 

More of the weird and random...

A few years ago, I blogged about how some of my friends are connected to each other in bizarre, coincidental ways. I had a similar experience last night that made my head spin. I've written about how I met my husband, Monkeyrotica, through a personals ad, but not about why I was looking at personals ads in the first place. That's a tale that I was reminded of last night while I found myself face-to-face with the wife of my ex-boyfriend. Here's that story, from the very beginning.

I first met Andy when I was home for the summer after my freshman year of college. I was in a new place, didn't know anyone, so I was hanging out with my sister and her high school pals. He was nearby with a group of friends not in their clique; I have no memory of why we started talking, but we did and exchanged phone numbers. We had similar taste in music and in movies, but that's as far as it went. He was crazy for antique cars, performed in karate competitions, and talked up his experiences as the star of his HS distance cycling team. He was charming, charismatic, and came from new money; his father had built a local empire and his son got the spoils. There were certain personality issues that made it a summer romance and not a long-term one, in my mind: he was extremely anti-social, for one thing. He discouraged hanging out with his friends (bunch of "jerks") and had no interest in meeting the few I had—didn't want to "share me" on our dates. He never introduced me to his parents (we entered through his "wing" of his house without disturbing anyone) and when he came to take me on a date, he would honk from the driveway rather than make small talk with mine. This drove my parents to dislike him intensely.

Anyway, when I left for college after break I'd forget about him while busy with academics; when I returned for the summer he would start phoning again. I'd ignore his calls for a while, but once the boredom set in, I'd call back and we'd start up again. After I graduated from college and came home to stay, he was elated at first. He excitedly talked about having more time with me and started planning for a relationship. I played along for a little while, but really knew it was going nowhere—we had too little in common. My dad started taking an interest, negatively, and I found pages of personals ads left on the dining table after I came home from dates, with red circles drawn on good prospects. After a "disagreement" between Andy and me, I picked up the personals and seriously considered them. I chose Monkeyrotica's ad—not one that my dad had circled. I listened to the message on his phone box (pre-Internet in 1992) phoned and left my own.

Back to today: twenty years later, Monkey and I are about to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary and have two lovely children. Yesterday, I was out with Dash, the adorable six-year-old, at his karate practice. There was one other mom also watching her son and between poking on our iPhones, we started chatting. Her son was one of the two Jacks—the light-haired one, not the dark-haired one—an eight-year-old with a yellow belt. We'd smile at each other when one of our kids screwed up and got yelled at by the sensei. I learned Jack was an only child, but was born in the same year/month as Rosie, my gorgeous and talented older child. She lived nearby and had been in the DC area for a while, but was from Connecticut (where my family is originally from).

Our sons were paired up to spar together and I heard the sensei call out Jack's last name. Same as Andy's. I hadn't thought of him in forever, but my brain made the connection anyway. I asked, "Is there an Andrew in your family?"

"My husband," she answered. I followed up with questions about his family in case there was more than one person with that name in town, got affirmatives to all. I must have been noticeably freaking out, because she asked me, "Are you having a 'moment'?" I looked at her more closely, noticing her brown hair, brown eyes and that she was the same height and complexion as me.

I can't keep my mouth shut sometimes. I told her I used to date her husband. I asked when they first met and found that it was about 6 months after Andy and I broke up. She was my rebound? They married five years later, in the same month and year that Monkey and I were married.

Okay, so for those who are keeping track of coincidences here:
1. we both met our spouses within 6 months of breaking it off.
2. we were married the same month and year.
3. our oldest children were born the same month and year.
4. she is the same height, and has the same complexion, hair and eye color as me.
5. she and I are both originally from Connecticut, but settled in the DC area after living in other cities.

Inevitably, Andy and I are bound to cross paths at the karate studio. Perhaps we have already and I had no clue, without any context. I'm not looking forward to it, to tell the truth. I have no idea what I'd say as we didn't split on friendly terms. I needed to document this story, though—coincidences are very intriguing to me. Is there a reason that our paths are crossing again after all this time?

Happy post-first-day-of-school haircut Dash!

Pre-first-day-of-school haircut

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.

Overbooked, Overscheduled, Oh!

Dash's karate kick!

Months ago, back at the beginning of the school year, I made a personal decision. Now that I had two kids in public school, which comes complete with the shorter days that make a working parent's nerves twang, I had to make a concession. Either my kids would come home from school and watch TV until 6:30 when I arrived, then quickly shovel dinner in and finish homework before they dropped; OR, I would shorten my hours so that I could be home when they got home. I shortened my hours.

When I first envisioned the extra two whole hours balancing away in my work-life scenario, they seemed like golden, glittering minutes, full of promise. I could choose after-school activities for the kids. I could go to the gym. I could get all those to-do lists of home-chores done. We could gambol in the yard, go for hikes, schedule playdates! So, you smart people, you already know the reality, don't you?

What really happened at first is that when I got home earlier, the chores started immediately, dinner happened much sooner, and then TV and homework and collapsing. No gamboling, no walks, no hazy crisp fall afterschool playdates. Perhaps what was wrong here was a lack of structure, I thought. I started to schedule activities.

Rosie and Dash were already taking tap and ballet classes on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively. Last summer, we added Saturday karate for Dash, while Rosie did Japanese calligraphy. They were also taking afterschool soccer on half-day Mondays, but that ended at 2pm and Grandma S picked them up (thanks, mom!!). Of course, I have my modern dance class too, on Thursdays. This winter, we added art classes for both Rosie and me on Saturdays and Mondays; soccer had ended, Rosie dropped calligraphy and I took a break from dance just for home-life balance with the art class. For Dash, we added a language class on Wednesdays, Spanish, and for Rosie we added Junior Jazzercise on Thursdays, which just ended. The Winter-term art classes just ended, as well. Have you lost track yet?

Here's how things look at the moment:

• Monday: nothing
• Tuesday: nothing
• Wednesday: Spanish, tap 
• Thursday: modern dance
• Friday: nothing
• Saturday: karate, tap
• Sunday: nothing

Only three days booked? My brain fired: must schedule MORE!!! What did I do? I signed the kids up for Gunston Soccer Club, a local competitive league. I sure had my rose-colored glasses on, because I thought that since some close friends who have kids (the same ages and genders as mine) were also registered, that all I had to do was request that we have the same teams for our kids and it would happen! I imagined carpooling and sideline flask-sipping with adult friends while our kids frolicked happily around the soccer fields.

Reality hit when I got their coach assignments and details about the league.  A gut-punch to the stomach: neither child was on our friends' team rosters. Carpooling? Out the window. I only recognized one parent's email address from either list. But the freak-out really happened when I saw the scheduling... Thursday practices for Rosie starting at 5:30 (with an optional Tuesday clinic), and game day Saturdays; Friday practices for Dash (at a different location) at 5:30, game day Saturdays—each child would have two games back-to-back, with times scheduled by luck of the draw. With two kids, you could potentially be at the soccer field for most of Saturday, worst case scenario.

What was I thinking? Dash already had two Saturday activities! And while Rosie likes soccer well enough, she wanted to continue with art or Jr. Jazzercise, which are scheduled on Saturday and Thursday, overlapping. This is a very popular soccer club! How do all the other parents do it?

In tears, I emailed Dash's coach and told him that I wished to withdraw Dash, sight unseen. He was very nice about it, even trying to offer scenarios for me to keep Dash in the club. I stuck to my message and said no, again and again. He finally got it and took Dash off the roster. Instead, I put Dash back into the Monday afterschool soccer, where there were no conflicts. Rosie will stay with Gunston for now—I'm curious to see how the club works and whether it's manageable for future seasons.


A quick recap of schedule to be (four days scheduled):


Monday: Dash, soccer
Tuesday: nothing
Wednesday: Dash, Spanish; Rosie, tap
Thursday: Rosie, soccer club practice; me, dance
Friday: nothing
Saturday: Rosie, soccer club games (starting 4/9); Dash, karate & ballet
Sunday: nothing

I've still got ideas bouncing around in my head. I want Dash to try the track team and Rosie to get back in art. I'm not sure this soccer thing is going to work, but if she likes it, that's what counts (I know Dash loves it). I'm here to give my kids opportunities to try different things and see what they're good at, learn to use their bodies and minds, practice and develop. I'm helping them become well-rounded little people.

But, y'know, I still need to be able to schedule a haircut for myself now and then. 

While the Fox Eats his Dinner, the Siren Tempts the Kraken

Rosie and I are both taking classes at The Art League for the first time this semester (okay, the second time for me, but the first for both of us). My silkscreen instructor told us a few classes ago that there would be a student show open to all current Art League students; we could each enter one piece, no charge. Heck, I thought, why not enter? It would be a mild ego boost for me and a big feather in Rosie's cap. Decision made, I filled out the forms and we each picked one piece from our class portfolios.

Rosie chose an oil pastel drawing she made of a reclining fox, ready to eat his dinner. We have at least one family of wild foxes in our neighborhood and Fantastic Mr. Fox is a favorite movie, so she is familiar with her vulpine subject.

Mine was the second design I made for the term, a five-edition print of a kraken and a siren, completed in three passes with four ink colors. The design was transferred to the screen using a photo-emulsion technique that I'll need to experiment with more at home. The underwater scene is composed from antique renderings of a giant squid, Edmund Dulac's 1911 illustration of the mermaid from Hans Christian Anderson's A Little Mermaid (a favorite book illustration from my youth), and my own drawings of fish and coral/sea plants.

Monkeyrotica and I made plans to meet BFFs Kelly and Mike at the Art League gallery to see the student show along with all the kids after having a wonderful lunch at Atlantis. So consistently tasty, is Atlantis! After we arrived at the Torpedo Factory Art Center and while I was waiting on everyone to finish taking potty breaks, I got a call from the gallery (just one floor below us). My Kraken piece had sold!! I was elated! Luckily for us, the buyer had agreed to let the gallery keep the piece until the show closed and we could still visit it. Monkeyrotica wanted to take a photo of me with my artwork and the kids insisted that they be a part of this moment:

I had gifted an edition of The Kraken to Kelly, who told me later "You should have seen Thea's (pictured far right) face when she realized that the piece hanging in the gallery was also hanging in our house. So impressed in her own 7-year-old-way." 


This whole experience has left me wondering why I never followed this route professionally or even as a hobby. The last time I entered a gallery show was in my senior year of college, too many years ago to count. Okay, honestly, I've never thought I could make a living as a fine artist, and I'm still not sure I have the marketing stamina to make a go of not working for the man. Having artwork in a gallery—and selling it too—has been a great experience!

P.S. The "We will miss the bees" t-shirt I'm wearing was created by Tina Seamonster. 

Picky eaters and creeping outside comfort zones

In our household, Rosie continues to limit her food choices the most. The only two meats she'll eat are white-meat chicken (no skin) and bacon. While she eats several vegetables, for some reason lately she's been eliminating fruits (won't eat bananas and says the canteloupe doesn't taste right—could be an out-of-season thing)? If we let her make the decisions, she would be eating starches all day, every day; her favorites are cereal, pasta, rice, chips, and breads. Thankfully, she will eat several kinds of easy-to-pack nuts and beans. I'm still struggling to assemble lunches for her that she will finish.

I'm counting this as a small victory: the two foods she's added to her favorites list in the past month are sugar snap peas and yaki-nori. While the nori has been reserved as a dinner-only treat, the pea pods are very easy to pack into her lunches. A newly beloved toy purchase (courtesy Monkeyrotica) may have been an inspiration behind the fascination with peapods:

Dash, on the other hand, has developed a taste for daifuku mochi, and wants to eat the tasty Japanese treats with every meal. I'm *not* NOT encouraging this at all, but those darned things are pretty hard to locate in this area. There aren't any Japanese groceries nearby and the ethnically Asian (mostly Korean-run) markets that we do have appear to have biases against Japanese goods and don't carry them. Monkeyrotica and Grandma Ikiko have found the treats in the outskirts of Prince George's County somewhere, and bless them. 

Overall, we are still at parenting-fail mode in terms of cooking one main course at dinner that everyone will eat. It seems to work for some families, but it's not happening here. Dinner last night was delicious lamb-burgers for Monkeyrotica and me, breakfast sausages for Dash, and chicken breast for Rosie. Everyone ate the broccoli, carrots, and french fries, so that was a winner, right?

Tell me about the food struggles you have with your kids in the comments!