My kids, my life and my thoughts, but mostly my kids!

I'm defecting to WordPress

2007-12-08T20:01:00.000-05:00

I'm starting up a new blog over on Wordpress.com. My new blog is http://poppasthoughts.wordpress.com/

I'll keep this up for a while, but new posts and pictures will be on the new blog.

First real snow!

2007-12-02T12:38:00.000-05:00

We had a dusting of snow that didn't stick around for long a couple of weeks ago. We have freezing rain and sleet forecast for later today, but we did get to play outside a bit. Last year SillyBilly did some sledding with the sled that Grandpa gave him, but this year Napoleona got in on the fun.
This is on the little hill just outside our front door. Thankfully, the gravel path serves as a natural braking mechanism so they don't sled right into the brook. SillyBilly and I talked about how he could roll out of the sled if it looked like he was going into the brook.

Mama and Papa traded slightly silly looks while watching to make sure the gravel braking wasn't just theoretical.

Silly Billy at Enchantment Camp

2007-10-27T20:43:00.001-04:00

I've got to give SillyBilly equal time...
Here's a picture of him at Fairy Una's Enchantment Camp.

Thanks for the printer, scanner, copier, Grandma Mimi!

2007-10-27T20:30:00.001-04:00

While we were visiting, Grandma Mimi gave us a printer, scanner, copier that she had laying around unused. It works fine! This picture is from Napoleona's summer adventure at Fairy Una's Camp Enchantment

Recent Events and Other Silly Stuff

2007-10-25T11:55:00.001-04:00

Because certain grandparents (you know who you are!) have repeatedly asked for new pictures ("I checked the blog yesterday, but...") and Blogger has fixed their image upload problems, I now present the following:

SillyBilly and Napoleona modeling their new stuff: space sweater, pumpkin dress, and pink shoes from Nana, gnomie hats crocheted by me!

Wild things wearing new pajamas!

Watering the flowers with Great-grandpa Fred.

Hugs from Mimi and Grandpa Paul!

The kids, Grammy, and Grampa Fred show off their catch.

And the kids help Grammy clean their fish, soon to be fried and eaten! Yum!

I have this annoying habit...

2007-08-19T19:50:00.000-04:00

Whenever Mama tries to take my picture, I make a silly face. I'm pretty good at it, and lately my strategy has been to make it as subtle as possible, because Mama gives up pretty quickly if I'm too obvious. This one, though, is all Mama's doing. I wasn't even trying!

Napoleona has a certain style

2007-08-19T19:44:00.000-04:00

SillyBilly definitely has a style as well, but I think that Napoleona gets all of the pieces of her ensemble together in this, "I'm ready for Enchantment Camp!" outfit. (and you don't really get the full effect of the outfit without seeing the back...)

I've been slacking...

2007-08-19T19:40:00.001-04:00

Here is a picture of Napoleona and her new hair cut. She's very proud of it, and the fact that she got her hair cut at a grownup place.

SillyBilly flying a kite...

2007-05-29T17:55:00.000-04:00

...in SillyBilly's words:

"I bought it at the hobby shop. I loved flying it at the beach and at the park. If you come over and visit in New York we can go fly it at Mary Daly field. So pack up your luggage and fly to New York to Mary Daly field and we'll meet you. Please come!"

I figured that five years old was a good time to start blogging.

Napoleona and SillyBilly love to climb!

2007-05-27T14:45:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture from a beach we visited near Port Hueneme and Point Mugu. The kids didn't want to play in the surf, but climbing on the rocks and playing in the sand was great fun. We saw pelicans, porpoises, sea lions and little shrimpy things.

Playing with the iSight camera

2007-05-12T09:03:00.000-04:00

Sillybilly's first bike!

2007-04-15T15:52:00.000-04:00

Spring actually seemed to be here, at least for a day or two. I had been thinking that it was high time for Sillybilly to have a bike.It was definitely time! He loved it.
I did look for a bike for Napoleona, and put her on one in the store. She looked up at me and asked me if she could have a ball instead.

Visit to the Met

2007-04-12T14:11:00.000-04:00

Sillybilly and I went to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art last month. It actually began as a shopping trip into Manahattan, but he really seemed interested in going to the museum so we went. When we got back home, Sillybilly decided, quite on his own to draw pictures of what he saw. I'll post some of what he drew.

He's had this somewhat morbid fascination with mummies for a while. He seems to be scared of them, but then sometimes talks about nothing but mummies. He wanted to see every mummy that the Met had.There were also a couple of sculptures that he drew. The first was Perseus with the head of Medusa. (Who needs TV for graphic violence?)
We didn't actually see the Van Gogh's. I told Sillybilly that we should buy postcards for Mama and Napoleona and he picked out three different Van Gogh paintings. He drew this from the postcard.

All in all, it was a pretty successful trip. I think next time, we'll bring crayons and paper and he can draw what he sees at the museum.

Ask and ye shall receive...

2007-04-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

My dad thought it would be a great idea if he could get an email everytime I posted something new. It turned out to be pretty easy. I just had to follow the example of my good friend Papa Bradstein and copy and paste a bit of code from the good folks at Feedburner. Now if I could only write as well, or at least as often as Papa Bradstein. Or Anthromama. Or anybody really.

Of course, I could just take more pictures...

Isn't Napoleona cute in her flowery easter dress?

The Easter egg hunt

2007-04-08T16:33:00.000-04:00

Grammy and Grandpa came to visit for easter, so we had to have the obligatory easter egg hunt. Perhaps next year we'll make them a bit harder to find. It only took them a couple of minutes to find them!

Early spring backyard fun

2007-04-02T16:00:00.000-04:00

Hey Grandpa Al, thanks for the hat!

Going fishin' off the back step.

Up to no good by the brook.

Hey Nana, thanks for the dinosaur sweater!

That gravel sure needed raking.

Where's the farm?

A Christmas Eve hike to the top of Rattlesnake Mountain

2006-12-24T14:34:00.000-05:00

We didn't see a single rattlesnake. We did, however, see half a dozen dogs, a decent amount of mud and a great view of Squam Lake. Here's some pictures of the intrepid mountain climbers and the view. Sorry, no pictures of the dogs or the mud.

A beautiful Christmas tree

2006-12-24T14:22:00.000-05:00

and the elves that made it happen.

...and here I am napping the whole time. What can I say? The sawing tired me out.

One boy's dream realized...

2006-12-24T14:06:00.000-05:00

Well, almost. He really wanted to chop down the christmas tree, but I guess that sawing it down was close enough. Using tools, destroying something, being outside on a farm, a trifecta of little boy, (and girl,) goodness.

If you teach a boy to fish...

2006-12-08T23:18:00.000-05:00

Duncan recently got back from an adventure! He went to visit his great-grandfather Fred in Georgia. One of the fun things he did was learn how to fish.

Grammy says that he was casting pretty well by the end of the trip. He didn't actually catch any fish, but he did get some nibbles. Grammy caught a fish, so at least we get the classic "I caught a fish!" picture.

Very very late Hallowe'en pictures

2006-11-21T16:21:00.000-05:00

Thank you Grandpa Al for taking this picture just as we were preparing to go on our Lantern Walk! The kids were not going to wait for me to find the camera.

Duncan is wearing his spiffy firefighter costume, courtesy Nana Norma. Rebecca specifically requested a dragon costume, and was extremely fierce. (Don't tell her, but it was really an alligator costume!) The sticks they are holding had paper lanterns on the end, that we made along with Grammy Bridget. All you need is small balloons, diluted white glue, and tissue paper for an awesome tealight lantern.

Big D's Birthday

2006-09-26T19:49:00.000-04:00

Somehow, it was Duncan's birthday on Sunday. I'm not sure exactly how this occurred, but Duncan is now 4 years old. All I know is, he never completed those permission forms in triplicate.

Sunday morning, Papa went out and got celebratory bagels and lox, with birthday candles:

Then Duncan opened his presents. The hands-down favorite was the firefighter Hallowe'en costume from Nana:

Then we all piled into the car, drove down to Manhattan, and took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty! Duncan and Rebecca both love to stand on stumps, rocks, what have you, and shout out "Statue of Liberty!!"

Duncan appears to be pondering the responsibilities of citizenship.

Then after dinner, we had a yummy cake, with more candles.

Duncan's self portrait

2006-09-23T21:16:00.000-04:00

Duncan drew this the other day as a present for our neigbhor. It is a self-portrait of him picking a flower.

A thank you note to Pleroma Farms

2006-09-07T22:10:00.000-04:00

Duncan has been drawing up a storm lately. We've given him an art box of his very own, with markers, crayons, tissue paper, glue sticks, scissors and tape. He'll spend hours at the dining room table creating amazing works of art. Recently, we asked him to draw a picture that we could send to Farmer Lups at Pleroma Farm, from where we get good raw milk and eggs. So he did! He drew a picture of a cow and a chicken, on the green grass, under the sun and a clear blue sky.

Bedtime 8/21

2006-08-21T20:56:00.000-04:00

For me, the hardest part about telling a bedtime story is getting started. Sometimes it is easy, and the basic idea pops into my head without much effort. But most of the time, I sit there for a couple of minutes with two very impatient toddlers, searching for the right place to start. Tonight it was harder than usual, probably because I had set the expectation for myself that I was going to write it down and post it in this blog! While I was wrestling with that, the little boy piped up with, “I want a story about a witch and a goblin!” So I ran with it.

Once upon a time, a witch lived in a little house deep in the dark forest. Now this wasn’t a mean witch like you hear about in some stories. This witch was a grandmother who knew special things about the plants and animals of the forest, and knew how to help people who were sick. The other people didn’t understand how she knew these things so they had to call her a witch. The witch didn’t mind, because she knew that the other people just didn’t understand. She was happy living alone in the forest, and collecting herbs and sometimes knowing enough to help people who came to her.

One day, a goblin happened upon the witch’s house while she was out in the forest gathering berries. The goblin was traveling from the north to the south, trying to find as much mischief as he could along the way. He stopped at the edge of the forest and said, “Aha! Now here is a fine opportunity for some mischief!” He went right into the witches house and grabbed all of the herbs that the witch had painstakingly prepared and spread them all around the witches house and ground them into the dust under his dirty feet. He then hid in the forest and waited for the witch to come home.

The witch returned home and at once knew that something was wrong. “Oh dear!” she said, “Something is amiss with my house! I wonder what has been going on?” She went into her house and saw that all of the herbs were missing. “Oh dearie me! Someone has come into my house and taken all of my herbs. That’s too bad. I hope that no one will need any help before I have a chance to gather the herbs again!” The witch busily set to the task of replenishing her stock.

This did not please the goblin. He had been hoping that the witch would be sad or angry, so he could laugh at her. He went off in a huff, looking for more mischief. Later that day, he came upon a hornet’s nest hanging from a tree. “Aha!” he exclaimed, “This hornet’s nest will look very fine in the witch’s bed!” He grabbed the hornet’s nest and made off towards the witches house. The hornets got very upset and tried to sting the goblin, but he had such thick skin, he hardly even noticed, which got the hornets even more upset. The goblin went right into the witch’s bedroom and put the hornet’s nest under her blanket. He then retreated to the edge of the forest to watch the fun.

The witch returned and knew at once that something was amiss. She saw a couple of angry hornets outside her house and asked them what was the matter. They calmed down and told her about the goblin and his trick. She asked these hornets to go back to the nest and explain the other hornets that she was going to come in and take the nest back to where it belonged. When the witch went into her bedroom and picked up the nest, most of the hornets understood and were very calm. There was one who hadn’t understood and he was so angry still that he stung the witch. The other hornets quickly explained to him that the witch was trying to help and he calmed down and apologized. The witch understood that the hornet that stung her was only trying to protect his nest and she didn’t get angry even though the sting had hurt quite a bit. The witch picked up the nest and much to the chagrin of the goblin, carried it back into the forest and put it back into a tree.

On the way back to her house the witch thought about the goblin. She thought, “I know a particular herb that will make the goblin sad and want to see his mother. If I can only think of a way to get him to drink it, he’ll probably run home!” When she got back to her house, she made a tea out of the herb and poured into a big, tall glass. She then took it outside and said loudly, “What a delicious tea I have made for myself! I think that I will go find some berries and mushrooms and come back and have a yummy snack and drink my tea!” With that, she set the tea down on her front porch and walked off into the forest.

The goblin wasted no time. “Aha!” he exclaimed, “Won’t she be disappointed to come back and find that someone has drunk her tea!” He leaped up and drank the tea in one gulp. All of a sudden, he was overcome by sadness and remembered that he hadn’t seen his mother in what seemed like forever. He ran back up the path, headed north to goblin land.

When the witch returned, she saw that the glass was empty and smelled suspiciously like goblin. She smiled and sat down to eat her mushroom and berry snack.

Summer fun

2006-08-21T14:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we took the kids for an impromptu trip to Dairy Queen. Next time, no soft serve for drippy girl.

The Dread Pirate Duncan searching for treasure, and Fairy Princess Rebecca Rose, probably looking for more ice cream!

Tonight's Bedtime Story

2006-08-20T22:38:00.000-04:00

I've finished my first summer intensive for my master's program at the Barfield School at Sunbridge College, and one of my pieces of homework is to write a paper about imagination. Specifically, "Describe an imaginative event that you have either experienced yourself or seen described." Oh yeah, and be able to tie in what William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Owen Barfield and Rudolf Steiner have to say about imagination as a cognitive faculty. So I've decided that I'm going to write about how I tell bedtime stories to my kids. Sometimes I retell what I can remember of fairytales, sometimes I wimp out and don't tell a story at all, and sometimes I come up with decent stories and now you get to read them!

Once upon a time there was a little boy and a little girl and they had a magic pot. They loved this magic pot very much. On the bottom of the pot was written a magic word. When they would read the magic word, and say it aloud, they could wish for any food or drink and it would appear in the pot. Not only would whatever they wished for appear, but it was always the best food or drink they could imagine. As the boy and the girl grew older, they sometimes argued about what kind of food or drink to wish for and these arguments grew more frequent and heated. They noticed that when they argued about what food to wish for, the pot took a bit longer to work, and the food or drink wasn’t quite as good.

One day, after a particularly bad argument, the pot stopped working. The little boy and little girl were very sad and brought the pot to their friend the elf who lived in the forest. The elf was very knowledgeable regarding magical things.

The elf brought the magic pot into his workshop, set it down on his workbench and looked it over very closely. He turned it over and read the magic word. He peered into the inside of the pot and very carefully cleaned it with a soft cloth.

“Hmm…” the elf said, and he wrote in his notebook. “Have you two been arguing about what to wish for?”

The little boy and the little girl looked at each other sadly and said, “Yes, we have.”

“Well,” the elf said, “I think that may be the problem. You see, the pot works best when you wish out of loving thoughts of your favorite food or drink. If you’re arguing about what to wish for, your thoughts about your favorite food or drink aren’t very loving. In fact, one of you doesn’t even want to have what you’re wishing for. The poor pot gets confused! I think that you’ve been arguing too much and the pot is just worn out from all of the confusion.”

The little boy and little girl were very sad, for they knew that this was exactly what had happened. “Can we help the pot feel better?” asked the little girl.

“What is your most loving thought?” asked the elf. The little girl looked at her brother and thought of all the times he helped her, all of the fun that they had playing together and how much she loved him. “ I love my brother!” she said.

“What is your most loving thought?” the elf asked the little boy. The boy thought immediately of his mother, who was always there to hug him and kiss him when he was sad. She also worked very hard to take care of the little boy and make sure that he always had a clean, safe house to come home to. “I love my mother!” said the little boy.

“Ahh…” said the elf, “These are both very good, strong loving thoughts. You two hold those loving thoughts, and I’ll say the pot’s magic word, but we won’t wish for anything! I think that will help the pot!”

So the little girl thought of how much she loved her brother, and the little boy thought of how much he loved his mother and the elf picked up the pot, read the magic word and then spoke it aloud. He turned the pot over and the little boy and the little girl were amazed to see a faint glow coming from inside the pot! The glow grew stronger, until it was as bright as a candle. The glow grew even stronger, until it was as bright as a fire in the fireplace. The glow grew even stronger, until it was as bright as the full moon. The glow grew even stronger until it was brighter than the noon day sun, but only for a moment, and then it stopped. When the little boy and the little girl looked at the pot now, they both thought that it looked like it was brand new!

“Is the pot better now?” the little boy asked.

“I think so.” the elf replied, “I’m quite thirsty. Should we ask the pot for some water?” The little boy and the little girl nodded quickly as they were quite thirsty as well.

The little boy picked up the pot, turned it over, read the magic word and then said it aloud. He was very happy to see that when he turned over the pot, it was full of water! And what water it was! No one has ever tasted more refreshing water and probably no one ever will.

California vacation pictures

2006-08-11T21:45:00.000-04:00

Pt. Mugu, my favorite So. Cal. beach. Never anyone there, wildlife, beautiful mountains, plenty of sand, shells and rocks to climb. This is a little bit of nowhere along the otherwise fairly built up stretch of PCH between Oxnard and Malibu.

Note the cool sand castle complete with turrets, seaweed, sticks and shells. Pretty good considering our tools at hand: apparently nobody sells sand toys in late July, so I bought plastic tumblers and margarita glasses!

I think Duncan looks thoughtful because he's trying to see if the sea lion was still swimming out there. Or maybe he's wondering why he's wearing such an enormous hat.

Duncan sitting at the school desk in Nana's backyard. I remember sitting at this desk when I was little. Duncan is currently obsessed with "writing," which means making little tiny chicken scratches on paper with a pen. Imitation at its finest.

Rebecca hamming it up at Oakbrook park. This is a very nice park with big and little kid sized playground equipment, plus sand for digging.

2006-07-16T20:37:00.000-04:00

Aw shucks, mama!

Finally something new

2006-07-08T21:32:00.000-04:00

It's been a really long time since we updated this blog. Now we are pretty much settled in our new house and have a decent internet connection, so we are up and running!

Duncan and Rebecca playing their homemade flutes. Papa bought them some copper pipe and fittings so they can make shapes. I tell them to make flutes so Duncan doesn't make too many weapons.

They do sometimes get along! Rebecca often hangs out on Duncan's big boy bed. Next month Duncan and Papa will be building a toddler-sized bunk bed...no more crib.

Rebecca in a little tent in the yard. Her hair is getting really light in the summer sun.

Duncan looking thoughtful...probably thinking, "What should I do next, chase the cat under the couch, dump out all my toys, or pitch a fit because we can't go outside and play RIGHT NOW!?"

Bad picture of the boy... but look at that castle!

2006-05-29T21:09:00.000-04:00

I think we need to get him some more blocks!

Pony Boy, with a heart of gold

2006-05-27T20:09:00.000-04:00

To go with the Pony Boy picture, this unedited conversation from last night:

Duncan: I want a gun, Mama.
Mama: Why, sweetie?
Duncan: So I can go hunting!
Mama: Why do you want to do that?
Duncan: Because I want to help people who don't have food. And I can be a doctor and help people who are sick, and if people have a fire in their house I can help with that.
Mama: So you're going to be a hunter, a doctor, and a fireman?
Duncan: Yes, Mama. I've been being mean all the time, but my heart tells me I should be nice.

Pony! Pony! Pony!

2006-05-27T20:02:00.000-04:00

Today we went to the Music Festival fundraiser for the Green Meadow Waldorf School. We went on a guided walk through a forest fairy village, ate ice cream, threw frisbees, and yes, the kids rode ponies. And it was only 80 degrees with 50% humidity, yum!

The kids doing yoga

2006-05-25T21:11:00.000-04:00

Duncan started trying to stand on his head when he was less than 2 years old after he saw our friend Willis do it. He just kept at it, and we would joke with him that it looked like he was doing yoga. So now, every once in a while, usually during one of those incredibly frenetic running about the house times, they'll start yelling, "Let's do yoga!" Does anyone want to tell me what posture they're doing?

I've been... uh... tagged?

2006-05-22T22:33:00.001-04:00

I feel like the nerdy guy standing by the punch bowl at the junior high dance...

My good friend Papa Bradstein has "tagged" me. I guess I need to try and answer these questions and try to be witty. I'll see what I can do... (Answers are in no particular order.)

Four jobs you have had in your life:

Creature Maker
Piano Mover
Local Tech Geek (man with one eye in the land of the blind kind of thing...)
Registrar

Four movies you would watch over and over:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
When Harry Met Sally (something I caught from my wife, kind of like a cold...)
I'd be reaching too far to come up with any more...

Four places you have lived:

Waterville Valley, NH
Irvine, CA (If you can call going to college there living there.)
Sacramento, CA (Somehow ended up living there for longer than I've lived anywhere.)
Chestnut Ridge, NY (The latest stop...)

Four TV shows you love to watch (I gave TV up for lent about 5 years ago, but Netflix has been great!):

Firefly
Six Feet Under
Sex in the City
Mad About You

Six places you have been on vacation:

San Francisco
Waterville Valley, NH
OK, this is too depressing. "Vacations" haven't really been something I've done much of. Blech.

Four websites I visit daily:

Slashdot
Lifehacker
Make Magazine's Blog
Yahoo's Most Popular (Kind of like looking at the tabloids in the grocery store checkout line...)

Four people I am tagging that I think might respond...?

Greg Becker
Matt Steele
Mark Paoletti
Robin Williams (Not that I think he might actually respond, but I'll always feel stupid for not saying hello to him when I saw him one day on the Sony pictures lot...)

Four things I always carry with me:

keys
wallet
watch
a desire to be a better papa

So... how'd I do?

2006-05-10T20:15:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago we went upstate to Pleroma Farm where we get raw milk and eggs...please note the overalls and wellies! Rebecca thought it was pretty cool to meet the cows and chickens who give us our food.

2006-05-07T20:42:00.000-04:00

A toy dinosaur and a stick, what more does a boy need?
Please note the awesome dinosaur jacket sewn by Grammy Bridget. He has been wearing it for the last two days almost continuously.

2006-05-07T20:18:00.000-04:00

Rebecca is two! My grandparents brought these clothes from Sweden to me when I was a girl, and they fit Rebecca perfectly for her birthday.

More royalty pictures

2006-03-29T21:10:00.000-05:00

Presenting Sir Duncan!

More royalty pictures

2006-03-29T21:08:00.000-05:00

What a cute little princess!

2006-03-29T21:06:00.000-05:00

The nobility! Duncan loves his tools.

2006-03-29T21:02:00.000-05:00

They do love each other!

fun with snowflakes

2005-12-12T21:55:00.000-05:00

We've had a lot of this lately! We had our first big snowstorm last week. The kids loved it! Duncan was talking to his Nana, and said something about his "big, beautiful, orange snowshovel." He can play outside for hours, with nothing but his snowshovel, moving snow from here to there.

Rebecca likes playing in the snow too, but she can't keep her mittens on, and then gets upset when her hands get cold.

I found this fun website:
Make a Flake at http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/
It lets you cut out virtual snowflakes!
It is kind of addicting... but in the holiday spirit!

Picture of the week 10/6/05

2005-10-06T17:12:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this picture should have been posted a little closer to Duncan's birthday. We did have a good day! We had cake with the twins from next door, Alex and Hayden, Zakir from upstairs and Ara, a co-workers daughter.

Picture of the Week - 9/13

2005-09-13T20:27:00.000-04:00

Here's a good picture of Rebecca that my Dad took at a recent family reunion in Vermont. She's got a great smile!

Rebecca is starting to show a bit of "naughtiness." We'll ask her to come to us, and she'll stop, look at us, giggle and say, "Uh-uh," and walk the other way cackling the whole time. It's kind of cute now, but I think we're in big trouble...

Picture of the Week - 9/6

2005-09-05T22:02:00.000-04:00

Even little girls like big, yellow dump trucks!

2005-09-05T15:44:00.000-04:00

Duncan can be a really goofy little boy! I wonder where he gets that from...

New home in New York

2005-08-27T22:20:00.000-04:00

It's been many weeks since we last posted, but they have been busy weeks. We are finally settling into our new New York home. There is so much to say about the last two months, perhaps I should just describe things.

Moving was very stressful for everyone. During the truck-packing process, Chris got the flu. He basically muscled his way through the days and collapsed at night. Thanks to our friends, in particular Serena, Elizabeth, Martin, and Chris W., we got the moving truck packed, the house cleaned, and the kids, cats, and catatonic parents on the plane! Traveling went well considering the logistics of it all. Nobody slept much, one of the cats tried to escape from under the seat on the plane, and we arrived at our new house without car or possessions, but somehow it worked.

We waited about 10 days for our stuff, and another week for our car, but it all arrived more or less intact. Sleeping on air mattresses wasn't fun after a few days, and Duncan in particular seemed to miss his bed. Our neighbors were kind enough to loan us their car on occasion so we could get essentials.

Luckily our apartment has a great yard and backs up into the forest, so we can spend lots of time outdoors with the kids, because the place is SMALL. Probably no more than 700 square feet. The building is basically a big cube, with 6 apartments and a basement. We are on the same level as the basement and north-facing, so we have to learn to work with dampness and possible flooding. It is very green here and we see trees out of every window. The yard has nice flowers (though almost gone already) and we discovered spearmint and lemon balm outside our door so Duncan can help make tea. Many many more insects than in Sac, which has been a delight for him also.

50 feet from our door and we are in the forest and our house is invisible (though I've been told in winter the vista will extend quite a bit). Down the slope of the forest path we meet Pine Brook, already a favorite place for the kids. A bit farther down the brook and we find the pond, chlorinated for swimming and with a nice sand beach. It has been a dry and hot summer apparently, though we are enjoying what to us former Sacramentans is a very temperate climate so far. Only a few days where I thought it was too humid. Of course, our big challenge will be learning about winter here.

Chris walks to work and comes home for lunch every day. Across the street from work is the Pfeiffer Center garden where we can pick vegetables to buy, and literally next door to our house is the natural foods co-op. So we are doing very little driving, mostly on weekends to run errands. We seem to take daily walks, especially because Duncan demands to do so. He revels in throwing sticks and rocks off of the forest paths, and he and Rebecca love digging and wading in the brook.

A neighbor has a bunny, Silverfoot, in a hutch in the yard and there is a rotund and friendly cat, Otto, who used to live in our apartment. Our cats are now indoor cats as they are getting rather elderly. Both survived traveling quite well though they were visibly relieved when the bed and baby gates arrived, restoring the sanctuary of our room.

Neighbors include TWO sets of twins and a five year old boy. Duncan has many new friends to play with, and the two year old twins next door are very enamored of Rebecca. (She sometimes screams in advance when she sees them coming, as they are often a little rough in their loving hugs.)

Funny things about New York:
People aren't rude so much as they expect you to know where you are going and how things work without being told. I have seen several shops with no posted hours of business, and I could not find the children's section of the local library without asking for help.

You can't get there from here. There are no straight routes to anywhere. Also, almost every road is known both by a name and a route number, so there are some amazingly large conglomerations of street signs at junctions. Toll roads. No turning right on red lights. Thruways. Parkways. What is a California transplant to do??

Moving? Moving! Oh My!

2005-06-10T18:23:00.000-04:00

Everything is moving right along. Plane tickets have been bought, the moving van has been reserved. Now it's under a month to go.....12:30 am July 7 we will be flying to New York. I can't really believe it. It's especially unreal because I've never been to New York and we have no idea what our new apartment looks like. So we are literally flying blind into the future. But, I have confidence it will be good and all will work out. Just as the financial side has worked out with generous help from parents and friends, and fortuitous timing of other income.

We've had a few sad moments lately. We had to withdraw our membership in the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, which gave us a needed $200 but now we aren't members any more! And I realized two good friends won't be around on July 4th weekend to wish us goodbye. I know no-one in New York so that will be hard at first....we have so many good friends here. Some of which have been known to tear up randomly lately!

The kids are doing OK with all the chaos of moving, though Rebecca has a little virus that has given her a fever and a rash this week. I think Duncan has been more of a punk lately just because everything is out of order. This is a kid who within minutes will notice a single new object in the room, no matter how small or where it is. We have been trying hard to leave other parts of life like meal and sleep schedules as normal as possible.

Chris and I watched a thought-provoking DVD last night, "We Don't Live Here Anymore," with Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern, and Naomi Watts. A harsh look at adultery and family/relationship dynamics. It was nourishing to have a real, adult conversation afterwards. I think the next library book I check out will be the stories by Andre Dubus that the film was based upon.

Update on the littluns

2005-05-28T19:29:00.000-04:00

Duncan, as you can see, still enjoys being upside-down. Now his thing is to ask "Where?" and "What's that?" We haven't gotten to "Why?" yet, but I'm trying to get prepared! He is also big on singing with us, which is incredibly sweet. He knows the words (pretty well) to "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "Old MacDonald" and some of the words to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". Duncan also can recite a few nursery rhymes and finger plays.

Rebecca is enjoying standing up and letting go to stand free for a few seconds. She almost seems to be daring herself to do it. She likes to crawl to me when I'm sitting on the floor, panting with excitement, and then pull up on my shirt front. Also fun is walking while holding our hands from an arm-length away; that gets her tremendously excited.

So far, Rebecca has not had any illnesses, not even a cold. Just the sniffles once. Duncan seems to get a fever every few months but it only lasts one night! He is just working through these things as they come, I guess. He tolerates fevers really well, just gets lethargic and sleeps through them mostly.

2005-05-27T14:38:00.000-04:00

A crazy boy! Taken on 5/23

Chaos and Order

2005-05-18T01:35:00.000-04:00

"In our homes, we very often face chaos. The mere fact that we have countless ways and means in which we can structure our daily lives, puts us face to face with chaos. We have the opportunity of purposefully re-establishing order and structure where formlessness and haphazardness have taken over. When I clean, I do not simply want to remove dirt. I consciously try to create space for something new. Removing dust and dirt results in a void. This void I put at the disposal of helping spiritual beings who are linked to the place I am cleaning, that something new and positive may come about."

-Linda Thomas, "Chaos in Everyday Life - About Cleaning and Caring", Gateways (WECAN Newsletter), Fall/Winter 2003.

A long quote, but this sums up what I am trying to work with at this time in my life. Clearing, cleaning, and caring for our space. A huge task that is looked down upon, generally, by our society.

The Home as a Sacred Temple??

2005-05-09T23:13:00.000-04:00

Manfred Schmidt-Brabant said:
"Only when the homemaker sees herself as a new type of priestess can life in the household be understood as a sacrament and so become a seed for the new Mystery culture."
The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker

Well, I am having a hard time being a priestess today. Finding another round of cat pee, this time on my balls of yarn (!!!) , has left me very frustrated. Evidently the cat is now feeling too old to jump over the child safety gates to get to the litter box. Trying to clean that up, while the 1 year old systematically takes ALL the toys off the shelf that we had just put away, and the 2 1/2 year old whines about something or anything, did not make me feel very much like a priestess. This house is not a sacred space right now!

Luckily I can reflect on the good things that happened today. Duncan didn't willfully hurt Rebecca once. Dinner was yummy and healthy. We had a big thunderstorm all afternoon and Duncan thought it was very funny that the thunder came from the clumsy giants in the sky dropping their water cups, which also caused the rain. I was able to provide loving care for my family and house despite my frustrations (maybe there is a little of the sacred in that after all).

Picture of the Week

2005-05-05T19:07:00.000-04:00

What a beautiful girl!

I am now officially a blogger...

2005-05-05T18:40:00.000-04:00

Well, I have to wonder if anyone will choose to read our thoughts and look at our pictures, etc.....I guess it's very self-conscious-making, posting things for anyone to see.

The big deal for the week is Rebecca's birthday tomorrow. One year old, it's unbelievable. She is cruising along the furniture, making incredible huge messes of toys in the living room, and very clearly saying "DUNCAN!!" and "cat", two of the major interesting things she sees every day. Of course, "Mama" only comes out if something is needed! I know, I know, we are still too connected for her to think of me as something separate and interesting, but you should see her light up when someone, say Papa or Grandpa, comes in the room. Rebecca is also pushing out tooth #5 and loves to shove entire crusts of bread into her mouth as if she's a starving orphan.

Duncan is very loving lately. He demands to give everyone goodbye hugs and kisses. I was wearing a new skirt the other day and when he saw it for the first time he said totally spontaneously "Mama, you have a beautiful skirt!" Grammy is sure we are in for a lot of trouble with this smarty pants boy. Duncan is also very clear on the appropriate activities for our new home in New York: throwing snowballs, watching thunderstorms, and catching lightning bugs in a jar. It's so little boy it hurts.

Moving farther into the modern life...

2005-04-22T19:51:00.000-04:00

I just signed up for Google's Adsense on this blog. It will be interesting to see what kinds of ads they push my way, and whether or not I make any money! Maybe I'll post a book review and see if I can get Amazon ads.

2005-04-22T19:35:00.000-04:00

4/21/05 - Rebecca likes being in the grass!

2005-04-22T19:28:00.000-04:00

3/13/05

2005-04-22T19:27:00.000-04:00

3/11 - Happy siblings!

2005-04-22T19:26:00.000-04:00

Kristine and Rebecca at Easter

What do I want to say?

2005-04-14T17:52:00.000-04:00

As you might be able to guess, this is my first blog entry. I'm sure that it is going to be very boring. I might get better. I might not.