Radio Set Launch

All Things Horsey

2011-10-12T08:19:00.013-04:00

We live in a rural area. We are close enough to Manhattan that we always imagine ourselves taking advantage of city, but far enough away that we rarely do. Beyond the city itself, it can be hard around here to find some of the activities that we miss from our life in Cambridge. Grace would love to take swimming lessons, and John wishes that there were more opportunities for soccer. We find things to do, sure, but nothing that has really engaged the kids, nothing that they really look forward to each week, or that takes advantage of the area we live in. Nothing, that is, until we happened upon horseback riding at a charming and idyllic farm just down the road. And suddenly we are up to our necks in a world of all-things-horse.

The program is an amazing one, run by an extremely impressive 86 year old woman who has the kids doing anything and just about everything you can imagine on horseback. We feel so lucky that the kids get to experience such a complete program, where they spend hours each weekend with the horses, bringing them in from the pasture, grooming them, feeding them hay, tacking them up and riding them (not just arriving for a half hour lesson where the horses are already saddled up and ready to go). The older children teach the younger ones by example, and the older kids (I'm talking 10 and 11 year olds here) seem to spend their entire weekends just hanging out at the farm. John and Grace completely love it. And Grace gets to ride a miniature horse, which is pretty darn cute. John rides a pony named Honey.

We entered the program around Memorial Day, joining the group for a camp-out at a local barn...with all of the horses. For two nights the kids slept in a hayloft over the stables. For three days they petted, fed, rode and just generally loved the horses. When the kids weren't riding they all tended to congregate in one of the rings pretending "horse show" and being the horses themselves, galloping and jumping. Or they were down in the creek, looking for crayfish. Yup, I was pretty charmed.

Will got a chance to ride during the parent's evening ride:

The kids all hang out in the back of the pickup truck:

Hanging out by the horses:

Down by the creek:

Getting ready to ride to the pond to go swimming with the horses:

On the way to the pond:

Yup, bareback in a bathing suit:

Minnie, Mighty and Noodle:

Since our inaugural Memorial Weekend, the immersion in horsey life has continued. We took a break over the summer, but since starting back up in September, the kids have done the following (in addition to lessons on the weekend):

1. Been the token cute factor on the mini horses at a drill team demonstration at the Grange Fair (they had to dress up, which always gives John a deep sense of satisfaction, and they got to go on fair rides and to check out all of the other animals at the fair. They watched a pie eating contest, and John participated in both a bubble gum-blowing competition, and a balloon-blowing contest. AND they got to muck out the stalls when the fair was over!!! (See videos below):

2. Competed in the Lead Line class at the Peekskill Rotary Show. They won blue ribbons (although much to their chagrin so did everyone else). Once again, they needed to dress up, and they were pretty psyched about it (for me it was a total nightmare gathering up everything for the ridiculous costumes that they needed). Will and I kind of drifted through the event in an open-mouthed fog, kind of in denial that our lives somehow suddenly involve things like horse shows. But the kids had fun.

Cleaning the tack after the show:

3. A five mile trail ride to Graymoor (home of the Franciscan sisters and friars of the Atonement) for their blessing of the animals. OK, this was definitely my favorite activity of the season. First off, the day was gorgeous. After a seriously rainy August and September, we finally had a brisk, sunny autumn day, and I was very happy to spend it outdoors. Grace, who is finally able to ride without being led, rode the entire way herself on Minnie's back, as I walked along coaxing the somewhat lazy miniature horse through the difficult patches with a bag of carrots. John rode his pony (Bit 'o' Honey) far ahead of us, in the company of the older kids, and he had the joyous pleasure of experiencing his first jump when Honey spontaneously jumped a log in the woods. The girls (and in case anyone was wondering, it is ALL girls - John is the only boy) around him all congratulated him on keeping his seat, and he was THRILLED. And who could blame him?

4. Horse and carriage day at Boscobel. Boscobel is a lovely estate down the road, and I had been looking forward to this event. I imagined showing up just in time for the event, reclining in the cool October sun, and enjoying watching the kids with the horses. I didn't think that John and Grace would actually have anything to do with the event. Turns out I was wrong. The kids and I needed to show up at the farm at 9 am to help get everything ready. We then found out that the kids would actually be riding, and had to rush home to scrounge up some clean-ish riding clothes for them. We headed over to Boscobel at around noon, expecting to be gone by 2pm. Instead we spent the entire afternoon in the baking sun, sitting around and waiting for something to happen. Eventually the kids rode the minis around the lawn a few times in a procession, and then we needed to wait once again for the whole event to be over so that we could help pack everything up. I was hot and bored. Will was hot and bored. John was hot and bored. Grace, however, got into the car when it was all over and sighed with happiness, saying "That was so much fun." Does that make all of my irritable boredom worth it?

Grace leads Minnie Mouse down a path:

Grace hangs out with Minnie:

So much waiting around...and either Will is a giant or that horse is really, really small:

Hobby is a very, very good horse!

The kids love the horses, and according to Grace, the horses love her too. So much.
This horse thing is a monster. And it has swallowed us whole.

Bedtime for Bonkers and Noodle

2011-03-14T20:56:00.005-04:00

Alex, Paul and Benjamin are sleeping over tonight. This intel came from Will, who put the two littlest monsters to bed tonight:

Benjamin (interrupting a bedtime story at the point when its two
squirrel-protagonists fall in love and marry): Uh, when I em a man I
wiwl hafta get married and maybe I wiwl marry Grace because ... she is my best friend.

Grace (satisfied and thoughtful): Yes, maybe he will fall in love with me.

Benjamin: Yeh! When I em a man I wiwl ask Father Christmas for
magic and maybe he wiwl shoot magic into me and then I will say I'm
gonna get married! And 'cuz he shooted magic into me I can make a house wifout having tuh build it! And then I wiwl be next-door neighbors to Mummy.

Will: You know, you don't NEED magic to do those things. Magic would make it all easier, but you don't need it. Do you think your Dad
needed magic to do all those things?

Benjamin (nodding his head with certainty): Yep.

Red Rock Canyon

2011-03-03T21:49:00.009-05:00

Waking up to see what we had missed in the dark (or just had a very vague idea of) was fun. Our campsite was super-cool, and the kids were thrilled. We tried out our new stove (which is also awesome - so much more pleasant to use than the backpacking stoves I am used to), and had a really nice time just hanging out at the campsite. The kids scrambled over the rocks around the campsite, exploring absolutely everything.

Our amazing campsite:

The kids scramble on the rocks above the campsite:

After breakfast we went on a walk around the area. It was really fun, and everything seemed incredibly novel. There were lots of Joshua trees around, which are straight out of a Dr. Seuss picture book, and appear to be designed specifically to delight young children. We hung out in a little grove for a while, having a snack and doing a bit of drawing.

In the Joshua trees:

Grace writes in her travel Journal:

A Joshua "tree":

The explorers:

The kids warn Will about the dangers of cacti:

The glorious volvo (pictured from the side that still opens):

When we got back to the campsite we packed up and discovered that Will had somehow drained the car battery ("car dead yights") and we were a wee bit stranded. I left him with the kids and headed off down the camp road to the ranger station, hoping to find someone there to help. It was hot. Very hot. The sun was very, very strong. It was dry. I was thirsty. So thirsty. But yay! there were two rangers working when I arrived at the station. I related my tale of woe and they exchanged a meaningful look. Then one of them told me that they really weren't supposed to give anyone's car a jump. Silence. Blink. Silence. Blink. And then one of them told the other that he would "cover for him" if he helped me out - as though he were going off with me to buy drugs or something. The ranger dude told me that he would meet me back at the campsite. Long - hot - walk - back. So thirsty.

Sure enough though, he did get us sorted out, and we were soon on our way. Apparently without their kindness we would have been in a very tight spot. The ranger station has no phone or cell service, and the nearest phone is six miles away. Which would have made for a VERY long hot walk.

We piled into the car and took off for Death Valley. The scenery was pretty cool, and enroute Will was delighted to discover some High School Musical camp chairs on clearance at a gas station for just $7.99 (apparently the absolute maximum he was willing to pay for a camp chair, having earlier rejected the $8 barrier-breaking offerings at Walmart, Target, and REI). Is it possible for something to be so wildly ugly that it is actually cool?

We managed (even with the delay of the dead battery) to get to our campsite just before dark. We set up the tents in the falling light, and ate our veggie dogs and s'mores in the dark, with the kids practically nodding off in their fantastically hideous camp chairs. Ahhh, camping road trip with kids.

On the Road

2011-03-02T20:08:00.000-05:00

We hung out with Lara in the morning and then took off for San Jose to get stocked up before heading out on our camping trip. We needed food and to buy some random supplies and a Sherpak Go car carrier to hold the masses of equipment that we have gathered for the trip. We ended up spending ages at REI (I don't know why I thought it might be possible to make a quick trip with Will to REI), and ages in Whole Foods (I don't know why I thought that I would be able to get out of there quickly either. We have been encouraging the kids to notice the things that are the same here and the thing that are different. An observation by Grace: Whole Foods looks the same here....but they have vegan donuts!

We finally hit the road at 5 o'clock. Unfortunately, it was raining and since we planned to camp, we needed to book it into the dry desert. We briefly considered staying at a hotel for the night, but the kids begged us to camp, so we pushed on, and pulled into our campsite at midnight, with the kids conked out in the back of the car. We quickly set up our tent and then got the kids up to move inside. John took one groggy step out of the car, looked around and said "Awesome." Indeed it was.

Landed

2011-03-01T21:30:00.008-05:00

Lara has very generously offered to loan us her car for our trip. A boon for us (although the much beloved volvo is sadly a bit ghetto these days after an untimely meeting with another automobile, rendering the rear left door unopenable and resulting in a worrying grinding noise when going over bumps. Plus... the breaks squeal alarmingly, the tires are bald, the sun roof doesn't work, the a/c is broken, and using the car requires buying a carrier to go on top to hold our camping stuff. But still). Renting a car big enough to hold everything we need for our camping trip would require a $600 mini van rental. The fact that the car is technically a salvage vehicle doesn't bother me at all. Nuh-unh. Free ghetto volvo or $600 pristine mini van with air-conditioning and ample space. Free volvo.

One of the stipulations of the loan, however, is that Lara needs to use her car tomorrow for a doctor's appointment, and next Wednesday she needs to present it at the dmv to sort out its post-accident status in some mysterious way. Fortunately our plans are all too new to be written in stone, and we decided to spend the day in San Francisco while we wait for our stuff to arrive from Amazon.

While driving into the city we whipped out our guidebook, and decided that we would head to a point where we could hop onto one of the ever so famous San Francisco cable cars with the kids. We ended up parking under city hall, and did the following:
1. Ate falafels and sweet potato fries from a great food cart in front of city hall;
2. Used the very high-tech public bathroom buildings (a hit with the kids);
3. Hopped on the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf;
4. Sampled some sourdough;
5. Used the cool art deco bathrooms above the Boudin Bakery;
6. Took a boat tour around Alcatraz;
7. Found the bathrooms again;
8. Wandered through a spy supplies shop (BIG hit with John);
9. Took a street car back to the parking garage; and
10. Cruised through the massive public library (to find the bathrooms of course).

The day was fun. The kids had a blast. San Francisco was lovely, and I think we saw every public restroom in the city. John very much wishes that the San Francisco library was his hometown branch. He looked up at the building and said "Wait, you mean this whole huge building is one library? Wow, they must have every book I could ever want to read!" Nothing like a bit of travel to make one's own life look dinky.

The falafel truck:

Grace chomping on her falafel with the weird sycamore trees around here in the background:

On the cable car:

The kids (on the cable car):

Alcatraz:

Living for the Moment

2011-02-28T21:21:00.000-05:00

Life threw us a lemon (no work for Will) and we have made lemonade by seizing the opportunity of some family vacation time (and hanging on for dear life).

Friday afternoon: Will finds out he won't get word about work for two more weeks.
Saturday afternoon: We book tickets for San Francisco.
Sunday afternoon: We dig out all of our camping gear, order what we don't have via Amazon prime (shipping to Auntie Ah's apartment in San Francisco), and pack frantically.
Monday afternoon: We get on a plane to Cal-i-forn-i-a!!

Yup, we are super-proud of ourselves for being so spontaneous. Let's hope we haven't forgotten anything too important.

Our new family Saga

2010-11-11T14:58:00.011-05:00

Grace (with hopeful, baleful eyes): I really want a dog. Why can't we have a dog?

John: Yeah, why can't we have a dog. Tell us why! Tell us why we can't have a dog. We'd pay for a lot of it. We'd do a lot of it. I don't understand what the problem is.
Me: You know what the problem is. We have talked about this before.
John: OK, what's the problem?
Me: We go away too much to have a dog. What would we do with a dog when we went away?
John: Lizzy and Aaron could take it.
Me: Well, I don't know that they would, but let's just say they weren't around. What would we do with it then?
John: Suzi and Matty could take care of it.
Me: Suzi and Matty are moving to Oregon in a few weeks.
John (after a pause): Do we really have no other friends?
Me: Uh, yeah, not really - around here anyway.
Grace: It wouldn't be a problem for John Michael and Cosima.
Me: Do you mean that they could take the dog?
Grace: Yes.
Me: Grace, they live in Canada. That is a little too far away.
John: Well, I am sure that we could figure it out.

John: Why else can't we have a dog?
Me: They stink.
John: So?
Me: And they get hair everywhere.
John: So?

Me: A puppy would chew up all of the things that you guys leave lying around the floor. Toys, shoes, you name it.
Both kids: We would clean everything up.
Me: All the time. You would keep the floor completely clean?
Both kids: YES.
Me: Yeah, right. I don't believe you for a minute.

Me: Dogs also cost a lot.
John: How much?
Me (googling): Between $700 and $3,000 per year.
John: We can pay for a lot of that. You could give us a sheet of paper every year that says how much we need to give so that we can have a dog.
John: How much would a dog cost to buy?
Me: About $1,500
John: Hmmmm.
John: That's the kind of thing my $50 in the bank is for.

Grace, meanwhile is emptying out her piggy bank to show me how much money she is willing to contribute (apparently all that she has).

John: Grace, that is nowhere near enough money to get a dog!
Grace: Is that enough?
Grace (starting to weep): I really want a dog.....
Grace (after a couple of minutes): Mummy, could you see how much my money is?
Grace (after a few more minute): Could we PLEASE get a dog. PLEASE? Please please please.
John: Ohhhhwwwwwwwwnh
Grace: Please please please, just ever.

John (a few minutes later): I wish we had a dog.
Grace: Me too. I wish, wish, wish.
Grace: I wish, I wish, I wish we could have a dog.
Me: Grace, why do you want a dog?
Grace: Because.
John (grumpily): I think she needs a real answer Grace.
Grace: Because I like dogs very, very, very much. And it is fun to take care of them.
Me: How do you know it is fun? You have never taken care of a dog.
Grace: Well, I do feed John Michael and Cosima's dogs.
John: And you do take them for walks.
Grace: Yes.
Me: Grace what is it that you like so much about dogs?
Grace: Everything.
Me: Big dogs or small dogs?
Grace: Bowf, but small dogs are better.
Me: Why?
Grace: Because they're cuter!
Me: Yeah, but big dogs have better personalities.
John: Yeah, but little dogs are still cute.
Grace: Wewl, big dogs can shake more fur down.
John: Yeah, but it sounds fun cleaning up dog fur.
Grace: Wewl, they clean up under the table for you...
John: Yeah, we wouldn't have to use the swiffer so much.
Me: You would have to use the swiffer MORE to clean up all the dog hair.
John: Yeah, but the hard job of cleaning up under the table would be done.
Grace: Yeah, and we could take pictures of our dog and send them to people...
John: Grace! You don't know that we are going to get a dog!

Me: John, what do you think is better, a big dog or a small dog?
John: Small dog!
Me: Why?
John: I like small dogs, they're cute, they don't put as much fur down on the ground, and I just like 'em more.
Me: John, what do you think it would be so fun to do with a dog?
John: It would be fun taking care of it. It would be fun throwing balls for it. It would be fun taking it on walks. It would be fun petting it.
Grace: And we'll have to get a dog gate.
John (sharply, but secretly hopeful): Grace! We're not getting dog.
Grace (hopefully): I don't think that we're getting a dog.
John (grumpily): But I still don't understand why we can't get a dog. You still haven't answered this question properly.
Grace (happily): And I like dogs so much so much so much.

Me: Grace, do you know that Daddy - and I - don't really like small dogs much?
Grace (happily): We'll get a big dog then.
John: Grace, we're NOT getting a dog.
Grace: IF we get a dog.

Grace (ten minutes later, almost to herself): I really want a dog. That's all I want. More than a cookie even. More than anyfing. I just want a dog. A dog.
Grace (to me): Just PLEASE!
Grace (giving me kisses on the top of my head: Just please, please, please can we have a dog. Just PLEEEEAAAAASSE! Please! Please! PLEASE!

Me: Why a dog? Why not a cat or a hampster or a gerbil or a fish?
John: We can't get a cat, 'cause you're allergic to cat skin. Because a dog is what we like most of all - but we're OK with most of those things.
Grace: I will get any pet. But what I want best is a cat, but you're allergic to cats, so a dog!
Me: Whhaaaatttt? A cat?
John: We like any pet. We like any pet. It's just we like dogs best.
Me: Grace, I've never seen you interested in cats.
Grace: I am. I just never see them. I look at cats all the time....and they look back at me.....aaaanddd.....then they go away. I like fish, I like a gerbil, I like a hamster....The one problem with hamsters is their wheels squeak.

John: And we could take our pets on the airplane with us.
John: Like those dogs we saw on our way to Arizona.
Me: That was very unusual. People don't usually take their pets on airplanes with them - only usually when they are moving. And the pets normally have to go in the baggage hold. Can you imagine how scary that is for them?
John: Very scary.
Grace: Well we could just not go anywhere.
Me: Guys, we WANT to be able to travel with you.
John: What about Bear?
Me: Our next door neighbor?
John: Yes. We could leave our pets with them.
Me: We hardly know them...And if they wanted pets they would have them.
Grace: Well, all animals have heart attacks.
Me: Whaaat?
Grace: ALL animals have heart attacks.
Me: And think about the poor dog, and how it would feel to be left for a week. Think about how upset Cosima's dogs get when she leaves for a few hours. Can you imagine how upset they would be if she left for a WEEK?
John: Other animals might not need their owner, to not bite and things.
Grace: Mmmmnnnhhhh! I just want ONE pet! Ooooohhhwwnnnhhhh!

Me: I am willing to listen to what you say. I am willing to consider it. But that doesn't mean that I am going to agree. I think that there are a lot of good reasons to not have a pet.
John: Like what?
Grace (angrily): Like blah, blah, blah.

Me: Look, it is a really big responsibility. You are taking total responsibility for the life of another being. When you get a puppy it is cute and exciting and new and everything about it seems like fun. But as time goes on, the novelty wears off and -
Grace: You have a dog!
Me: Yes, you have a dog. And it isn't as exciting anymore -
John: It's MORE fun.
Me: But you still have to do all the same work. The dog needs to be fed, and walked every day, no matter how cold or rainy. When the dog gets sick it is your job to take care of it. If the vet says the dog needs a very expensive surgery you just need to find a way to pay for it. It needs to be bathed and brushed. And all of that for like 14 years. It never stops. And you can't just say you are tired of it. And when the dog gets old and starts to die, you need to nurse it until it dies. And that can be quite horrible. And where are you going to be John in 14 years when the dog is old and dying?
John: I dunno, in high school?
Me: No, you will be in college. Just as the dog is getting old and really hard to care for you will be off in college, leaving me to deal with it.
John: Yeah, well Grace will be around.
Me: And dogs smell.
Grace: So what.
Me: They smell like poop.
Grace: So what.
Me: It's gross. And you have to clean up poop after the dog.
John: We'll do that. That is a big part of taking care of a dog. We will totally do that. All the time.
Me: And they cost a lot of money.
John: We will pay for a lot of it.
Me: As much as a contribution from you would be valuable and important, it is still only a small amount of what Daddy and I would need to spend.
John: I'd pay a lot. I have a lot of money.
Grace: So do I.
Me: A puppy would ruin all of your stuff. You guys leave everything lying around all the time and I need to shout at you to ever get you to clean it up.
John: We would keep our room clean.
Grace: Yeah.
Me: Well I can see that you are thinking a lot about this, but I think that it is very easy to say that you will clean up and keep things tidy, but a lot harder to actually do it. And when you have a dog not only will you need to keep things clean, but you will need to care for the dog as well. I would really need you to show me now that you can keep your stuff tidied.
John: But I just want you to BELIEVE me!! Why won't you just BELIEVE me?!
Me: I believe that you believe that you will do those things. But from my experience it is a lot harder to stick to something like that. If you can show me that you are responsible enough to keep your stuff clean every day, then Daddy and I will consider getting you a dog.
John (with angry tears): But I will! Why won't you just believe me? You are not even saying that you WILL get us a dog, just that you will CONSIDER it!!!
Me: That's right. That is the cost of my consideration. If you want me to consider getting you a dog, then you have to show me that you are able to be responsible by happily and consistently keeping your stuff clean.
John: But I WILL keep it clean!
Me: Then you should be happy to show me that by doing it now. It is a habit, and you may as well develop it now. Because if we had a dog then you couldn't stop anyway. You would have to still find time to keep things clean, on top of all the other things you would need to do for the dog.
John (absolutely furious): Aaaarrrrgghhhh!!!! I would do it! But I don't want to do it NOW!!!

John (angrily noticing what I am doing): Grace, she is writing a blog post about this. And I don't want her to. I don't like it.
Grace: Me neiver.
Me: Well guys, it is clear to me that this is important to you, and I want you to know that I am taking you seriously. So I think that we should share this conversation with the people who are important to us. Perhaps they will contribute to the conversation, helping you to understand why I think it is a bad idea to get a dog...and perhaps they will advocate on your behalf.
John: Yeah, OK.

As you can see, the kids have been in love with my brother's dogs for years.

Oh Noodle

2010-10-14T16:30:00.003-04:00

A conversation between Grace and Benjamin while they are playing air hockey:

Grace (wearing fairy wings): We can play air hockey but I won't be very good with you. Because you know I am really good at this game. (Pausing) Is it really nice to see my fairy wings all the time while we play?
Benjamin: Yeh.
Grace: Wow, this is really a fast-paced game!
Benjamin: Yeh.
Grace: Did you know what paced means?
Benjamin: Yeh.
Grace: Did you know what paced means? What does it mean?
Benjamin: Yeh. People.
Grace: People? No, it means glue! Paced means glue! So it's funny, right? A glue game! A fast glue game! Don't you think that's funny Benjamin?
Benjamin: Yeh.
Grace: Wow! You are so good at this game!
Benjamin: Yeh. So good.
Grace: I really like this game.
Benjamin: Yeh. Me too.
Grace (being goofy with the puck): I'm trying to make you laugh!
Benjamin: Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Grace: You're so good at this. I actually don't want to play this.
Benjamin: Yeah, me nefer.

Uh Oh

2010-10-12T00:21:00.002-04:00

John (to his dad): Hey, wait a minute. If I grew inside Mummy's tummy, why do I have your DNA?

Times Are Changing

2010-10-09T09:06:00.003-04:00

In case any of you missed the subtle change evident with my last post, things have changed a little around here. We have lost Bobo Bean, and gained Clark Kent, Daily News Reporter. Sigh.

Mr. Kent will soon be beginning his own blog, chronicling the books that he has read. The blog address will be http://rocketreadingbyjohn.blogspot.com

Dum dum da dum

2010-10-07T11:26:00.003-04:00

Our good friend Mark got married this past weekend to the lovely Leigh Anne.
John and Grace were THRILLED to be ring bearer and flower girl. They took their duties very seriously, and had a lot of fun.

Yup, it's true. I was so completely mesmerized by flower girl Grace that I forgot to move my video camera. I will admit that there was a time when I myself wanted to be a flower girl so badly that I could hardly breathe (it never happened for me). Ahhh, to live vicariously....

70 years ago...

2010-06-21T15:26:00.000-04:00

...my Grandparents tied the knot. Makes my own eleven look a bit flimsy.

Something to aspire to. Congratulations to them!

Happy Anniversary Will...

2010-06-20T15:24:00.001-04:00

Eleven years ago today:

...And Happy Father's Day Dad!

Settling In/ Going Home

2010-06-19T22:04:00.002-04:00

My jet lag has finally worn off (of course it is the last day of our trip). This morning I woke up feeling human again. The kids slept in and I got to spend a few blissful hours alone. When everyone finally got up we made our way over to Macy's European Coffee House, which had vegan waffles (always a favorite with the kids) and all kinds of vegan baked goods that we stocked up on for our trip home.

After breakfast the kids had a long swim in the pool, then we gathered our stuff up and headed off for Phoenix. On our way we planned to stop for a late lunch at Beaver Creek, and then see the petroglyphs at V Bar B Ranch and the cliff dwellings at Montezuma's Well - all attractions down the same long dirt road.

Beaver Creek was a lovely little swimming hole. Our picnic was very pleasant (minus the gnats), and the kids had a bit of a swim. John watched the locals jump off the rocks into the water with anxious longing, but never quite managed to force himself to jump in.

Sadly, we were not able to corral the kids in time to get them to V Bar V Ranch before it closed at 3 o'clock. Missing it by minutes, the ranger turned us away at the gate. I had really wanted to see the petroglyphs, but the heat was blistering again, and after traveling down the road a few miles in the air conditioned car, no one was really willing to get out and make the trek on foot to see Montezuma's well, so we just passed it by and hit the open road toward Phoenix.

Once at our hotel in Phoenix the kids very sensibly went swimming again. John is now constantly diving for quarters, getting more and more competent underwater, and Grace made a sudden breakthrough with her swimming today. Witness the Gracie stroke:

John, however, has just been incredibly naughty lately, and has been demonstrating the poor judgment of, well, a naughty seven year old:

Here he is demonstrating how far he can swim underwater without coming up for air (the sound somehow got messed up so you are treated to musical accompaniment):

For dinner we drove to a south Indian vegetarian restaurant, which was quite good. Grace (predictably) ate more at that meal than any other, assiduously shoving spoonfuls of food in her mouth at a steady pace, and finishing her dosa in the car on the way back to the hotel. Tomorrow we leave on a 7am flight back to JFK.

Wapatki and the Sunset Crater

2010-06-18T23:55:00.001-04:00

Junior Ranger badges take a lot of time to complete. When it is hot, baking hot, they take even longer. When the sun is glaring and it is baking hot and even the breeze (which was more like a steady gale) is hot, Junior Ranger projects seem a lot less fun.

Although we had all agreed that we were going to leave early this morning to get out to see Wapatki (the ruins of a Sinaguan pueblo) and Sunset Volcano Crater, somehow we didn't quite get on the road until 10am. I, for one, was ready from about 7am - so it was not my fault that we were caught filling out paper booklets in the blistering heat. Not. My. Fault. And I will have to admit that I was more than a little grumpy about it.

Our first stop was at the visitor center at Sunset Crater. The kids picked up their ranger booklets, and we spent more than an hour working on them at the visitor center - which contained an amazingly well put together little museum. The junior ranger booklets are also very well designed, and require the kids to really delve into the exhibits there, and to think about what they are looking at. They looked at seismographs, charted the locations of current volcanic eruptions, discovered why most volcanoes occur along the earth's plate lines (and why the Arizona volcanoes aren't), and listened to the recordings of all the different local Indian tribes' story explanations of why the volcano erupted (bringing home the concept that the earth shook and then exploded into liquid fire one day, and these people had no ready explanation for it - talk about bizarre!).

Of course I had known in advance that we were going to see a volcano, but I guess that I was actually completely unprepared for seeing a volcano. I am not sure what I was expecting, but the monument was a lot more impressive than I thought it would be.

Grace, with her new Indian necklace:

Lava flow, with Sunset Crater in the background:

Sunset Crater (the youngest volcano in the area):

The ahah (as in "Ah ah, that hurts my bare feet") lava:

The San Francisco peaks (these erupted about 2 million years ago):

We left Sunset Crater hours after we thought we would, and cracked open the emergency nut reserves on our way to see the Wupatki ruins, which are a few miles away from the volcano, along the same road. Somehow we took a wrong turn though, and ended up at Wukoki - the site of another ruins - but much less visited. Although I was super cranky and Mum was hot and hungry (a dangerous combination), the kids insisted on running over to check it out. Good for them I say, because it was one of the coolest things that we saw on the trip. Standing alone amidst amazing topography, this ancient pueblo is majestic and mysterious. Who the heck would have settled in this area? Did they think that the whole world was as unforgivably barren, dry and shadeless? Granted, anything else is a long walk away, but still! Who were the first people there, and WHY were they there?

The ruins:

Half-size doorways:

The landscape:

We did finally make it to Wupatki, but I will have to say that we were just going through the motions at that point. At least I was. Remarkably, the kids were still driven by ranger badge collection lust, and they managed to do the bare minimum required to get their badges for this monument. This involved spending ages in the air-conditioned museum attached to the ruins (filling out their paperwork), and then hoofing around the ruins in the scorching heat for the barest minimum of time. Of course they were neat, but frankly, I was far beyond my cultural saturation threshold by that point, and the junior ranger books were redundant after the others that they had done. I mean, how many times can you get excited about the fact that the ancient puebloans ate corn and beans? Annnyyywaaayy, this is what the old pueblo looked like:

Pueblo and kiva (ceremonial building):

Kids in the kiva:

Not a cliff dwelling, but these people still took advantage of the rocks in the landscape:

When we finally got back to the hotel the kids had a swim while I took deep breaths in the hotel room. We went out for pizza to this great hole in the wall called New Jersey Pizza. The pizza was fantastic, and they do vegan pizzas as well. After dinner we headed over to the Lowell Observatory, home of Pluto's discovery. We looked through what I thought were two large telescopes, and saw the moon (craters!) and Saturn, which was neat, but in all honesty kind of hard to distinguish mentally from a picture on a postage stamp. Then we stood on line for an hour and a half to look through what turned out to be a MASSIVE telescope (it took up an entire building), to look at the M5 globular star cluster in deep space. We looked through a lens and saw something 26,000 light years away, but they could have glued a picture to a TV screen and I would have been none the wiser. Still, I must admit that it is a pretty cool even as a concept that we saw something that far away. Astronomers as explorers, hunh.

The M5 looked like this:

Radio Set Launch

2010-06-18T20:42:00.003-04:00

John (looking at the computer screen): Why are there so many Radio Set Launches?

Me: What do you mean?

John: There are so many Radio Set Launches.

Me: We have one blog called Radio Set Launch, with lots of posts.

John: Oh. Why is it called Radio Set Launch?

Me: Because you named it that. I asked you what we should call the blog and you said "Radio Set Launch."

John: Heh, heh, heh. Radio Set Launch. Heh heh. Radio Set Launch. Radio. Set. Launch. You should call it something else now.

Everyone's a critic.

A Grand Day Out

2010-06-18T19:20:00.003-04:00

It's hard to take in the Grand Canyon. The last time I was there it struck me as seeming more of a painted backdrop (to some heavy duty tourist establishments) than anything else - at least until Liz and I hiked down to the bottom and back. Making the trip with my mum and the kids seemed like it might be a waste of time. It takes a couple of hours to get there from Flagstaff, and we figured that the kids might just look over the edge and be done with the whole thing. Turns out that is how most people handle the Grand Canyon. But the really fantastic Junior Rangers program saved us from that pathetic fate.

A bit ridiculously, it took us about an hour and a half after arriving to get around to making the 5 minute walk to look out over the edge of the canyon. Instead, we checked out the visitor's center, inspected the bathrooms, and had a picnic (which, as always, involved a lot of sitting around waiting for Grace to finish her food). We had decided to only visit the Desert View lookout area (and bypass Grand Canyon Village entirely). This part of the canyon is FAR less busy, and entirely without omnimax theatres. There is, however, a neat watchtower (a replica of a prehistoric Indian tower) there which offers great views of the canyon and was fun for the kids to climb.

The Grand Canyon:

The watchtower:

Inside the watchtower:

John had really wanted to hike down into the canyon a bit, but all of the trails from this part of the rim are not maintained and the ranger at the top advised us not to use them as they are in rough shape and not entirely safe. After some prodding though, she did recommend to us an unmarked trail that left from near the watchtower, and wound along the edge of the rim to an outcropping of rock that was an incredibly lovely short walk. And in the heat of the day a lovely short walk was perfect. What was truly amazing to me was that the moment we left the watchtower we didn't see another soul until we returned to the land of vending machines and picnic tables. I really don't understand how anyone can drive for hours to get there, look out over the edge and then get right back into their RVs and drive away.

The outcropping we hiked to ("X" marks the end of our walk):

Flowers on the edge of the canyon's rim:

The trees here grow all twisty:

The kids both sat on their own for a while (as part of their Junior Ranger program) and recorded the things that they heard and saw. They drew pictures and answered questions about the people, animals and plants in the canyon. Then we packed up and drove a couple of miles over to the Tusayan ruins and museum to attend a guided ranger tour (a requirement of the Junior Ranger program). This is a tiny but great little museum, and the ranger who led our tour of the ancient puebloan ruins (which ended up basically being a private tour for John and Grace) was fantastic. I think we all learned things. When the tour was over she quizzed the kids about the things that they had learned and went through their books with them. When all was said and done she swore them in as Junior Rangers, and gave them their badges and a certificate. The kids ate it up like candy, although I noticed that Grace stopped repeating the ranger during her oath when the ranger finished up park business and attempted to extract a promise that Grace would brush her teeth every day and do everything that I ask her to. In the end the ranger asked John if she could cut the page of his quiet observations out of his book to put on display in the vistor's center. We are all very proud.

Sketching the view under Nana's shade umbrella:

Sitting alone, listening to the sounds of the Grand Canyon:

Ranger to Junior Ranger:

The swearing in ceremony:

On our tour:
Ranger: Have you been to any of the other national monuments in this area?
Me: We were at Palatki yesterday.
John: Montezuma's Castle.
Grace: Rock Slide!
Ranger (very amused): Yeah, that place is awesome.

On the way back to Flagstaff through dusty reservation land we stopped at a cluster of roadside stalls to pick up a souvenier of our trip. I had imagined buying the kids each some beautiful little heirloom piece of something native...maybe silver, maybe turquoise, but definitely lovely and special. John however took one look at the decorative arrows for sale and could hardly breathe. He pretended to look at other things but kept moaning desperately that there was nothing that he wanted, nothing that he could have (in a lame effort to discourage him from the arrows I had suggested that it might be hard to fly back with an arrow in our bags). Grace, on the other hand, was overcome with sudden necklace lust and wanted almost everything that she saw - the more inauthentically gaudy and the more dangly bits the better. There were hundreds of necklaces, and she could hardly put one down before finding another that I just had to see, because it was soooo nice. She ended up with purple beaded number that seriously floats her boat. And I am now $35 poorer. Oh well.

We drove home amazed at what a great day it had been. The kids were good, the weather was pleasant, the view was spectacular, the tour was interesting, the Junior Ranger program had given a lot of focus to the trip, and none of it had made us feel like we were snagged in some awful tourist trap (OK, maybe the Indian souveniers were a bit much - but at least we bought them from actual Indians). Expectations exceeded - how refreshing!

On the drive out of the park:
Me: OK kids, I know that you would really like a souvenier from our trip. I am going to stop at one of the places where we can buy Native American crafts so that we can look at what they have.

Grace: Oh, we are going to have to find one of their houses? Like the others?

Me: Grace, the Native Americans today don't live in cliff dwellings or pueblos anymore. They don't build their houses from rocks and mud they live-

John: In broken down trailers.

Sad, but true.

Sightseeing

2010-06-16T21:39:00.002-04:00

Today we had our act together. We were all dressed, packed up, and over at breakfast when they started serving food at 8 am. As soon as we could get Grace to choke down her last few bites, we were off, speeding towards ancient ruins like they were gonna get up and run away.

The ancient native people who lived in this area have been dubbed the Sinagua (as in sin agua/without water) - a term, they say, which actually has little to do with how much water is in the area (unless you are just willing to go with the fact that this is the freakin' desert and it is damn dry around here). The Palatki ruins of the Sinagua people were touted by our guidebook as being cliff dwellings that we would actually be able to walk into (unlike at Montezuma's Castle), and this appealed greatly to us all. The short walk up to the ruins was beautiful and shady, and the ruins themselves are stupendously situated on the side of a gorgeous cliff, but we were only able to enter a single, uninspiring room. The kids didn't seem mind, and spent a long, quiet time in there while an old ranger chatted Mum and me up on the other side of the red rock wall. The ranger let us know that these ruins were actively lived in from 1300 - 1100 AD, and are particularly valuable because they haven't been excavated and the treasures contained within are still under the surface of the collapsed roofs (which are now the floor that we walked on). The same very dusty floor which I eventually found my two kids actively excavating, scooping up piles and piles of loose dirt, making mounds and then sifting them down like cake flour all over each other. Ugh.

The Palatki (Hopi word for "Red House") ruins:

Awesome ranger dude:

Sophisticates:

Sophisticates playing in the ancient dirt:

Dirty sophisticates:

Mum, chillin' in the shade:

After checking out the cliff dwellings, we hiked down the side of the cliff and then up another to the site of some pictographs on the walls of a nearby rock ledge. Again, the site was dramatic and very awesome. The rangers at these two sites are volunteers, and both impressively knowledgeable and admirably committed to the preservation of these monuments. Among the treasures at this site is a solar calendar, which corresponds to the peaks directly across from it, and to the sun's shadows on the winter and summer solstices and equinox. Super neato. Tacked onto the cliff is the makeshift dwelling of some local guy who had lived in a nearby town but went a little crazy with grief after his wife died. Apparently he came here, built himself a little cliff dwelling, planted a lot of fruit trees, and eventually built himself the house that the rangers live in now.

On the way to the pictographs:

John, by the pictographs:

In the ex-home of an old, grief-stricken white guy:

Animals and ladder pictographs:

Solar calendar:

The ranger's solar calendar photograph and peaks beyond:

The landscape:

Hot and dirty but having fun:

After we had absorbed our fill of ancient culture for the day we zoomed back into Sedona for another lovely lunch at D'Lish. Too early for check into our rooms at our next hotel (in Sedona), we decided to just let the kids play in the pool for a while. Some things go together. Peanut butter and jelly, peace and love, kids and pools.

Grace, making me crazy (apparently she likes the pool, no matter what):

John, diving for a quarter:

Although the kids do have a great time in the pool, I definitely worry about Grace. Although she loves, loves, loves the water, she is not yet a competent swimmer. In fact, you could say that she is not a swimmer. Sad, but true. And yet she will grab a kick board and head out into the middle of the pool faster than you can say Jack Robinson. Faster than you can consider if it is really prudent. So today I made a bit of a stink about how she needs to practice her swimming (sans kick board). I even bribed her with a cookie. She refused. She resisted. She cried. Loudly. She dug in her heels. Having mother-type tricks up my sleeve, I won. But since I had her best interests at heart, so did she:

Unfortunately, after about an hour in the pool we discovered that the rooms at this new hotel were completely saturated with so many chemicals from fabric softeners and cleaning products that Mum couldn't breathe in them. Being the flexible, travel-savvy women that we are, we (Mum) quickly made arrangements to stay an extra night in Flagstaff (our next destination), and we awkwardly dragged the kids out of the pool to head north.

On our way to Flagstaff we stopped at the much-anticipated Slide Rock State Park, which boasts and 80-foot natural red rock water slide. Yup, it was as amazing as it sounds, and really astonishingly pretty to boot.

John, terrified, but braving a section of the water slide:

A pretty busy, busy pretty day.

Arizona Is HOT

2010-06-15T20:21:00.001-04:00

Really, really hot. I am not sure now if I uphold my assertion that dry heat is pleasant. Hot is hot. And there is something really powerful about the sun here. I kind of get the feeling that it would seriously kick my ass given half a chance. Shade seems entirely critical, and there is not nearly enough of it around here.

Waking up this morning was hard - especially for John. Although he is usually the first one up at home, my mum, Grace and I were dressed and ready for the day long before John was even awake. So I waited for John to wake up and my mum took Grace over to the poolside dining area for breakfast.

Unfortunately, John woke up in the foulest of tempers. Completely dismayed that the day had begun without him (and mostly likely concerned that Grace was having fun in his absence), he threw on his clothes and we dashed over to the dining area. Breakfast was fantastic. Prepared for vegetarians, the hotel served us a lavish breakfast of strawberries, apple muffins, juice, and breakfast burritos with tofu and black beans. It was delicious and hearty.

All fueled up, we hopped in the car, and headed out to Montezuma's Castle - the first stop on a full day's sightseeing itinerary. It was hot. It was incredibly, unmercifully hot. John (still phenomenally grumpy) was at his very, very worst, and it was miserably hot. Blistering. Despite the glaring heat and flaring tempers the kids did manage to complete the much-anticipated Junior Ranger booklets that the national parks provide at a lot of their locations. As painful as it was to have to stand in the sun while the kids located specific flora and fauna, and speculated about the cliff dwellings and their ancient inhabitants, the kids did get something out of it (a plastic badge). They were thrilled. But still very grumpy.

Montezuma's Castle (Ancient people's cliff dwelling - misnamed a castle, and mistakenly associated with Montezuma):

Grumpy, grumpy, John:

Working in the heat towards their Junior Ranger badges:

Interview with the ranger:

Official Junior Rangers!:

We ditched the rest of our plans for the day. Too. Damn. Hot. Instead we headed into Sedona for lunch at a great veggie restaurant called D'Lish, and then to New Frontiers health food store for dinner fixin's and then back to the hotel for a splash in the pool.

Not particularly endearing, but this is mood my lovelies were in:

The heat had dissipated by around 6:30pm, and after dinner we appeased John's incessant requests to go exploring, and headed pretty much across the street from the hotel to Bell Rock, which is a very cool rock formation (and, apparently, vortex location). The walk we had was awesome, although a bit too short for John's taste, and I am sure that he would say that it didn't involve nearly enough scampering over dangerous rock ledges. Three meals, a swim in the pool and the hike had at least dissipated his foul mood, and he was able to maintain an only mildly-obnoxious-seven-year-old-tenor for the remainder of the evening.

Bell Rock:

Vortex?

John's hind quarters got unfortunately close to a beaver tail cactus:

Out on the hike around Bell Rock:

Me to John (surreptitiously): Come on John, we need to keep moving to get back to the hotel before dark...because one member of our party is slooowwwww.

John (sagely): OK, I get that.

Grace (with hopeful surprise): Oh, there's a party here?

Grace (with authority): Nana, In Arizona they only have strip moons.

Later:
John: Grace calls those moons strip moons.
Grace: It would be even funnier if they called it a crust of a moon.

Phoenix

2010-06-14T20:30:00.000-04:00

John is thrilled. We have rented a cherry red Dodge Charger that he thinks is smokin' hot. My mum thinks it is the least chemically saturated of all the cars on the lot, and I am just glad that she has forgiven me for both forgetting to bring Jack (our trusty GPS) and being so spacey as to head off from the hotel to the rental car place without my driver's license.

The kids had a nice swim in the hotel pool this morning while my mum and I marveled that:
a) it was 90 degrees by 8:30 in the morning, and
b) 90 degrees here is SO much more pleasant than 90 degrees in humid NY.

After a lengthy breakfast (basically sitting for ages in the hotel restaurant asking Grace to please eat), the swim, and then the car rental, we headed off to the Heard Museum. By the time we got there everyone was of course hungry, so we had a very nice lunch at the cafe and then headed inside to check it out. The museum seems great, although we didn't do much more than scratch the surface. We went straight to the children's galleries, where the kids basically ricocheyed from one exhibit to the next doing activities and crafts without paying even the tiniest bit of attention to any of the information on display. They made a paper burden basket, but have no idea what that is or what it was used for. They made a flower, and a doll, but why? Eventually they just started grabbing craft project supplies to do in the hotel room later, barely even looking at what they were taking. Ah well. I am going to blame it on jet lag rather than cultural insensitivity. Only the corn grinding exhibit truly engaged them (probably because the ancient rocks were too large and heavy to pocket for later). They both (Nana too!) got to try their hand at the work. Quite difficult, they tell me.

From Phoenix we headed north to the Sedona area. We made it to our hotel (Adobe Graham Village) in Oak Creek in the early evening. We had dinner in our room and then headed to the very lovely pool for a quick swim, trying (unsuccessfully) to get John's beans out.

Jetsetting

2010-06-13T23:20:00.000-04:00

School's out and we are off! This year's whirlwind summer starts up with a trip to Arizona with my mum. The kids have been excited for weeks, and after a couple of days of frantic packing, we left for the airport with what we thought was tons of time to spare - enough to get a pre-flight bite to eat with Will at Veggie Castle (which is very conveniently around the corner from JFK). But apparently no amount of forward planning can circumvent my fate of always needing to rush for a plane, because we had about an extra hour of traffic and made it to the airport by the skin of our teeth. But all went pretty smoothly after that - we sailed through security, met mum by our gate, grabbed a bagel, and boarded. And then of course we sat on the jetway for 2 hours. Because that is what happens when I travel with the kids. We rush and then I wait in a confined space with kids who are overtired because it is long past their bedtime. In case you are wondering, John gets totally manic when he is exhausted and tends to literally bounce off the walls, and Grace gets grumpy. It's awesome.

When we finally arrived at around 1:30am (4:30am EST), my mum's bag hadn't. She stood in line for a while, got her little toiletries kit from the airline, and we fell into a cab to the hotel. Bed is calling....

She is almost unrecognizable

2010-05-25T16:33:00.002-04:00

she is so big:

My Little Andy Goldsworthys

2010-05-25T16:30:00.003-04:00

All was quiet. A little too quiet. So I wandered out into the patio to see what the kids were up to....

Two Princesses and a Real "Prince"

2010-02-18T21:48:00.007-05:00

Once upon a time there was a princess named Grace. Princess Gracie had a best friend. Believe it or not, her friend was a princess too! Their castles were only a few blocks apart and they got to see each other lots and lots. They even went to school together. Life was grand. But one day princess Gracie needed to move to another castle, and another school. Everything was different and the princess missed her friend dearly.
But one marvelous day princess Grace had a visit from her beloved friend! They had tea, put babies to bed, changed their clothes (several times), served food to customers at the local diner, and giggled furiously throughout. It was a good, good time:

As you can see, Grace's brother is Prince Charming himself, and was not at all jealous of the girls' good time:

Oh Noodle, nothing is ever quite perfect, is it?

Get Ready to Shout "GENIUS" Auntie AH!

2010-02-18T21:23:00.004-05:00

Although I have somehow managed to avoid being particularly helpful at any of the schools the kids have attended thus far, a few weeks ago Grace's teacher cornered me and twisted my arm into coming in regularly to listen to the kids read. I have done this a few times now, and although I do absolutely hate giving up the time, I have actually enjoyed having a bit of a window into Gracie's world.

Listening to the kids in the classroom read is both excruciating and delightful (in the way that only young children can be), and Grace's own new reading prowess is viewable in all it's glory below (The story is "The Tin Man," which is a strange wee tale about Tim, a pig, and a tin man. And just keep mind that "luh" = "the"):

John, of course, is also doing phenomenally well with his reading. He is reading here from "The Loathsome Dragon.":

And here Grace is somewhat confused about gender:

Oh my babies...they are getting so big, aren't they?

Hiking with Will

2010-02-05T20:26:00.002-05:00

If you have ever been hiking with Will then you are likely acquainted with the concept of a headlamp. I am pretty sure that Will has only ever experienced and entire hike in full daylight a handful of times in his whole life - and a couple of weeks ago he introduced the kids to the uncertain joys of a walk through the woods in the compete dark:

Gracie Moments

2010-02-05T20:10:00.003-05:00

Grace just sometimes says the darndest things...

At the doctors office the other day:

Doctor (testing Grace for I don't know quite what): Grace, what do you do when you are cold?
Grace: Put on a sweater.
Doctor: Great. What do you do when you are hungry?
Grace: Tell Mummy.
Doctor (suppressing a smile): OK, what do you do when you are tired?
Grace: Tell Mummy.

And tonight after dinner:
Will: That sparkly fairy that Mummy put on your wardrobe is really nice Gracie.
Grace (sighing): Yeah...it's so nice that I always get stuck on it.
Will: What do you mean?
Grace: I get stuck looking at it and I just don't get dressed.

T'was The Night Before Christmas...

2009-12-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

After reading The Night Before Christmas to Grace...

Grace: Did a scientist write that?

Me: No....(?)

Grace: Who wrote it then?

Me: A poet.

Grace: What is a poet?

Me: A person who writes poems.

Grace: But is a poet also a scientist?

Me: No, a poet is person who writes poems. A scientist is a person who studies science.

Grace (dissatisfied): But can a poet also do science?... 'Cause a scientist knows the most about anything.

Me: Oh, well a scientist knows the most about science. But a poet knows the most about poems.

Grace (relaxing, and thinking it through): Ohhh, OK, so his belly IS full of jelly then.

Pooh Bear Does Ballet

2009-12-23T22:15:00.003-05:00

This is footage from Grace's ballet "recital" in November...

My kids are cute.

2009-09-19T08:53:00.003-04:00

We have just moved (a week ago) and are all sleeping together in the single room we have upstairs like puppies. It is Saturday morning, and the kids (after jumping on us for 45 minutes) have gone downstairs to make breakfast. For us. We are giggling, listening to them bustle around in the kitchen. Occasionally they sprint up the stairs, asking questions like "where is the butter" or needing some mysteriously un-breakfast-like implement (a pen?)...Oooooh, I have just been called down!....

C'est manifique, n'est pas?

Traveling, and The Power of Denial

2009-08-06T12:13:00.004-04:00

Air travel is novel when you are a kid. I remember that feeling - the excitement of a plane taking off, watching movies on board, glimpses of the cockpit, the peanuts.
John: My favorite part of an airplane is when you can take off your seat belt!!

Yeah, I guess.....I'm not sure what my favorite part of being on an airplane is. Seat belts probably don't figure though. But I will say that it is very nice to see the whole experience afresh - like when the kids stared at the stewardess with rapt attention as she went over the safety skit at the beginning of the flight, and then delightedly whipped out the fliers from the seat backs in front of them, pouring over each and every diagram with great interest.

I, however, apparently made the mistake of thinking that this would be a good time to close my eyes and try desperately to squeeze two minutes of sleep into my day. About two seconds into my nap I heard loud shouts of "Hey!" coming from the seat behind me. Not my problem, right? Unh unh. On second three I was tapped on the shoulder and informed that someone had just stolen some woman's purse. Second four I reached down and returned the purse. On second five I calmly, but tiredly explained that my son had just been trying to locate the flotation device below his seat. A short, but rather exciting start to the day.

When we got off the airplane we high tailed it to the bathrooms in the airport before making our connecting flight. John wanted to change out of his pjs, although Will had somehow managed to convince him (he is suddenly very self conscious about such things) that if he put his favorite but two sizes too small hoodie on no one would be able to tell that he was wearing his pajamas. Robot pajamas. Long johns. Diaper. Nah. Definitely inconspicuous.

The family bathroom was free, so I took the kids in to change. John was unable to control his urge to manically fiddle with the lock for the door, and so after asking him to quit it about ten times I focused on just getting Grace dressed. My concentrated efforts had Grace dressed and hair brushed while John was still struggling to take his clothes off. He was leaning against the door, yanking his underwear over one foot when all of a sudden the door opened to reveal a toddler and his dad and well, the entire busy airport corridor. John went tumbling out into the crowded hall (ass over teacups, as my grandmother would have said). Then he scrambled up into the bathroom again and shurt the door frantically saying "That man didn't see me naked. That man didn't see my penis." Uh no? Not just that man I guess. More like that man and fifty other people. But who's counting.

And then we got onto our next flight, full of strangers and acquaintances alike:

Grace (managing to speak above the din of the airplane's engine): Mommy?

Me: Yes?

Grace (even louder): It smells like farts in here!

Me: Nah, it just smells like an airplane.

Grace (definitively, and practically screaming): No. It smells like farts. Definitely like farts.

But we are here now. And I am so glad.

When She Is Good She Is Very Very Good, But When She is Bad....

2009-07-21T20:41:00.002-04:00

Me (as we are walking up the path to our house): Hey John, I notice that the light is on in the basement. Could you please run down the stairs when we get inside and turn it off?

John: (silence)

Grace: I want to turn it off!

John: (silence)

Me: OK, Grace, you can do it.

John: No, I want to do it.

Grace: NO! I'm gonna do it!

Me (bracing myself against the inanity of it all): You guys can both turn it off together.

As soon as the door to the house opens both of the kids practically kill themselves and each other rushing down the stairs to the light switch.

John: OK Grace, let's both do it together. I'll hold one side (of the light switch) and you hold the other.

Grace: NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Grace carried on like this until she was finally dragged by Will from the common hallway of our building so that the neighbors would no longer have to listen to her screaming. When she got inside she saw that John was naked and getting into the bath. Her tears abruptly stopped and she asked calmly "Oh, can I have a baf too?"

My Schedule Next Easter Just Got A Bit Tighter...

2009-07-18T19:29:00.008-04:00

John (running into my room with a mouthful of three-month-old Easter chocolate): Hey Mummy! These Easter eggs taste like m&ms! The Easter Bunny knows that I like m&ms and so he gave me Easter eggs that taste like m&ms!
Me: How do you know that the Easter Bunny is a boy? I am pretty sure the Easter Bunny is a girl.
John: Uhhhhh, I don't know. She knows that I like m&ms. Maybe I could send a note to the Easter Bunny asking if she is a boy or a girl. Maybe I could send the Easter Bunny a note.
Me: How would you get a note to the Easter Bunny?
John: Well maybe I could call the Easter Bunny.
Me: Good luck with that - I am pretty sure that the number is unlisted.
John: OK, well maybe I can just send a note.
Will: Maybe when you lose a tooth you can leave a note with the tooth fairy. It is possible that the tooth fairy knows the Easter Bunny and could pass the note along.
Me: Yeah, but how would you hear the answer back from the Easter Bunny?
John: Oh, well that's easy! She could just leave me a note on Easter when she leaves me my basket.
Me: Hmmmm, the Easter Bunny is pretty busy. I really don't think she would have time to leave a note.
Will (beginning to smile): Oh, come on, the Easter Bunny is magic. She has time to leave a note!
John: Yeah, she could carve it on one of my Easter Eggs!
Me (sputtering): She definitely wouldn't have time to do that!
Will (gleeful): She totally could do that! The Easter Bunny is awesome and that is totally the kind of thing that she is into - carving messages onto a chocolate egg is exactly what she will do!

Graces Muses About Ice Cream

2009-07-18T19:29:00.004-04:00

Grace: Mummy, what if ice cream came down from the sky and all the ice cream shops were closed and you couldn't get it frwom the trucks and it was just all over the place and you could just pick it up frwom the grownd and eat it?
Me: What flavor would it be?
Grace (dreamily): Choc-lat.

Sometimes Motherhood is Really Rewarding

2009-07-18T18:59:00.003-04:00

Grace: Mummy, I have a mosquito bite on my leg that is really, really itching me.
Me: Grace, I should click that for you.*
Grace (wide-eyed, and pulling her leg away): No! I don't want you to click it! Don't click it!
Me (surreptitiously slipping the clicker into my hand) : Let's just get you dressed....
I helped her pull her shirt halfway over her head and then left her to struggle on her own with it while I masterfully used the opportunity to quickly click her bite.
Grace: Oh! (pause) Mummy?
Me: Yes?
Grace: I love you for clicking my mosquito bite.
Me: It doesn't itch any more?
Grace: Nope.
Me: And the clicker didn't really hurt, did it?
Grace: It stinged me, but it didn't hurt.
Me: But it wasn't a big deal, right?
Grace: Unh, unh.
Me: You're very brave, my love.

* The "clicker" is a little yellow plastic gadget that delivers a a little shock to the mosquito bite. This hurts slightly for the split second that you are administering the "click," but it really does take the itch away.

Bakugan Brawls And Pokemon Attacks

2009-07-18T15:40:00.008-04:00

Pop culture has just invaded our serene household in the form of Pokemon and Bakugan. Ever since John came home from the playground last week with tears streaming down his dear cheeks because he had been called names and mercilessly excluded from the "Bakugan club," we (I) have been in overdrive trying to play catch up on all of this very opaque and boyish stuff. From the beginning of this parenting thing I have worked to protect John from the worst of licensed character world we live in, but always with the promise to myself that when the time came (I guess the time is when he comes home from the playground crying) I would make it available to him. But goodness, it has been an uphill climb.

Conversations around the wildly over-priced Bakugan game:

Me (to a tearful John): OK, well, how many Bakugan do you think that you need to play with your "friends" out on the playground?
John (calculating in his head): At least seven.
Me (arching an eyebrow - a starter kit of 3 is $15): Seven? Really?
John (hoping for the best and nodding vehemently): Yes. Definitely. And I need a launcher.
Me: John, you don't need a launcher. I know that they are totally optional. And they are $15!
John (losing control a bit): No! I NEED a launcher!
Me: OK, I think that we need to talk about this later.

Turns out that John needed to talk about it pretty much incessantly for the next few days, giving rise to the following conversation:

Me: OK, let's talk about our plans for the day. We need to do some cleaning up, Grace has said that she would like to go out to the playground, and -
John: And we need to talk about Bakugan.
Me: We need to talk about them?
John: Yes. We need to talk about them.
Me: Ooookaayy...Let's fix a maximum amount of time that we are going to spend talking about Bakugan. How much time do you think that we need John?
John: Ummm, I think an hour should do it.
Me: An hour!?! We need to talk about Bakugan for an hour?!
John: Yes. Definitely.
Me: I'm sorry John, that is just too long. I am not willing to talk about Bakugan for an hour.
John: OK, 45 minutes then.
Me (adding it to the schedule): Uhhhh, let's call it 30 minutes. OK, 10 minutes from now we will talk about Bakugan for half an hour.

As it turns out, ebay is my best friend at the moment. And John is thrilled to bid with me on auctions for rather large lots of used Bakugan that are selling for way less than retail. Which works for me. And he has agreed to contribute some of his own money to the project. Which leaves only the management of his eventual but inevitable compulsion to collect. Suggestions?

Hide and Seek

2009-07-11T12:00:00.002-04:00

Way back when I was a kid I remember playing hide and seek with a friend. My dad was searching for us and found us hidden under a bed almost immediately. We were amazed, and begged him to tell us how he found us so quickly. He finally admitted that the secret was that he could hear us breathing. At the time I thought he had special supersonic hearing or something - now I realize that generally kids just pant loudly when excited. But not Grace. She seems to have suddenly mastered the art of hide and seek. She is quiet, patient, folds up into a tiny space, and can hold her breath while hiding.

A few minutes ago, after waiting for ages in a hiding spot for John to locate her, the two of them finally emerged with John shouting "Grace peed her pants! Mummy! Daddy! Grace peed her pants while she was hiding!" (Grace, for the record, is well beyond the ages of "accidents").

Will: Grace, that is HARD CORE!

Grace looked slightly ashamed, but mostly defiant and proud.

Stealing An Idyllic Afternoon

2009-07-10T21:18:00.014-04:00

It has rained almost every day for the past month, which could make for an incredibly sucky summer vacation, but so far we have kept our chins up. The kids have had two weeks of swimming camp at an indoor pool, Will is studying for the bar, and I am alternately glued to my computer with work stuff and frantically trying to pack for our upcoming move. So really we just haven't noticed that much (and truthfully all of our indoor activities would probably be a lot more painful if it weren't so gloomy outside).

But yesterday was suddenly a beautiful day and so we did our best to seize the moment. We grabbed our bathing suits and some food, threw the canoe on the car and headed out to Walden Pond. About two minutes later we discovered that rush hour on a Friday in the summer begins in the middle of the afternoon. It probably didn't help that it was the day before the first weekend of the summer with a good weather forecast. We hung out in the snarl of traffic long enough to realize that our plans weren't going to leave enough time for ample fun before bedtime, so Will reluctantly swung the car over to Arlington's Spy Pond instead.

Now, Will grew up just a few blocks away from Spy Pond, but does not hold the park in very high esteem. Apparently it has been cleaned up a lot since his youth, because in Will's mind it is a scruffy, weedy, polluted sort of place, appropriate only for throwing a few sticks to a dog on days when there is no time to go anywhere nicer. And he had certainly never been out on the water. From my perspective though it is quite lovely, and the kids were just excited to get out in the canoe. Amazingly, we discovered that there is a small island in the middle of the pond, and after our paddle we beached the canoe and went exploring.

The island has a lot of old trees, with mossy, open forest floor. It has a hidden-away, secret fort kind of feeling about it, and although Will still hadn't quite gotten over his sense that everything about Spy Pond is kind of nasty, he finally succumbed to the kids gleeful enthusiasm for the place, and we settled down for our picnic.

Here is the picnic:

John and Will shoot the breeze while exploring:

John and Grace on an expedition (filmed by John):

Our brave, independent little girl has an adventure all on her own and comes back proud:

Will's Birthday

2009-05-11T13:06:00.000-04:00

The children and I have been working very hard to create a video gift for Will for his birthday:

Happy Birthday Will!

Gracie "Reads" The Belly Button Book

2009-03-18T20:40:00.005-04:00

John has something to show everyone...

2009-03-11T19:38:00.003-04:00

This is a paper project that John recently invented:

As is to be expected, he now has an entire fleet.

Cross Country Skiing!

2009-03-08T11:54:00.005-04:00

We have been waiting a long time for the kids to be big enough to ski with us...Amazingly, John is really competent on skis, and Grace, well...she's getting there!

Grace works on balance:

We are off (and my daughter is nicer to me than my husband):

Time Marches On

2009-03-08T11:18:00.004-04:00

I have become, without quite noticing when precisely it happened, the mother of two very competent, very big, little children doing all kinds of big kid stuff. Here is Grace (wearing red on the end), at her gymnastics performance:

I Help Mommy

2009-02-08T11:29:00.000-05:00

One evening a few weeks ago:

Grace: Mummy, why you lyin' over deyar on luh sofa?

Me: I have a bit of a headache honey.

Grace: Oh. You wan me to tuwrn off luh lights for you?

Me: That's nice of you sweetie, but you can't reach the light switch.

Grace (after a bit of silence): I CAN turwn off luh lights. I CAN.

Me (guessing that she might be resourceful with a chair): Oh? How would you turn off the light for me?

Grace: I can just close my eyes!

The Name Game

2008-10-05T11:12:00.000-04:00

It must be hard to sort out all of this name stuff when you are just three (and you started life calling your brother "Bobo" and words are just the mysterious part of books:

This summer:
Papa Dear: What is your middle name Grace?

Grace (proudly): Clara.

Papa Dear: And do you know what John's middle name is?

Grace (confidently): Bobosiah*.

And just today at lunch:
Grace (out of the blue): When I was new I was still named Grace!

John: Yes, Grace is your name AND it's a word.

Grace: Yeah, like "Jamberry".

* Fun fact: John's middle name is Josiah.

My First Wiggly Toof

2008-10-05T08:06:00.009-04:00

John: I have a wiggly toof. My toof is wiggly. I just got it. It's new. This is my first one. This is my first wiggly toof I ever had before.

Me: This morning John called to me from the bathroom in a concerned voice: "Mummy, I have an awkward toof!" Suspecting the reason for the strange feeling in his mouth I went in to him and approached him for inspection. Sure enough, one of his bottom front teeth wiggled a bit when I touched it. When I made my diagnosis he started jumping up and down. Just yesterday he was moaning about how he just "couldn't wait" until he lost a tooth. Funny how things can happen.

John (after five minutes of pondering the possibilities): Oh my gosh mum! When I have a juice box I can put the juice in...the straw in...where I had my wiggly toof!

Boston Harbor Islands

2008-09-24T08:44:00.000-04:00

I think that there is consensus in our family that no summer of ours will now be complete without a trip to the Boston Harbor Islands. Honestly, I think that they are one of the coolest things about living here in Boston.

Last summer we went to Spectacle Island with Liz and the kids for a day, and we camped for a night! on a very sweet little island called Bumpkin.

This year we camped again, this time on Lovells. To get to the island we left on a on the the super-fast ferries from downtown Boston, and then switched to a little inter-island ferry at George's Island. Lovells Island is pretty different from Bumpkin (slightly more of a post-industrial feel, different vegetation) but we loved it just as much. Our campsite was right at the edge of the beach, and we pitched our tent on sand. There is a swimming beach there (unguarded), tons of blackberries everywhere, and lovely walks to take.

On the windy ferry.

Unfortunately, John's camera ran out of battery after the ferry trip, and so I switched to my cell phone. I didn't discover quite how dirty the lens was until I had taken several pictures. This is the campsite.

This is our view from the campsite.

On our walk.

The remains of an old military wall.

Will reads The Trumpet of the Swan to John in a quiet moment.

Squeezing The Last Drops Out Of Summer

2008-09-23T12:15:00.001-04:00

For us this was the summer of shifting spaces - a weekend here and there at home, with work weeks in New York, side trips to Pennsylvania, and longer stretches in New Hampshire and Canada. We have done so many things and been so many places, but I didn't document much of anything until I realised that most of a summer had gone by without note. I picked up my camera maybe twice in June and July, with nothing much to show for it. Life has been completely driven by work and the constant packing and unpacking of bags. Not that it has been unpleasant. We have seen lots of dear friends and family and the kids have had a blast. They got to spend the majority of their summer with their dearest friends Alex and Paul (and of course Benjamin!), and all of the traveling suited them just fine.

On one of our last weekends with the Harders we decided to give Liz and Aaron some time at home alone so they could pack for their trip to England, and we took the four boys and Grace to Bear Mountain park for the day. Of course, I don't have any pictures of the picnic we had at the top of Bear Mountain, or of our walk to pick blueberries, or of our wild fun on the carousel (Alex and Paul conquered their fears of the up-and-down animals and had a blast!), or of our stroll through the zoo. But no matter. I did whip our my camera when we got to the train station in Garrison, where Will had very kindly offered to take a ride two stops north with the kids (solely for their amusement) to where I met them in Beacon after twenty quiet minutes in the car by myself.

Benjamin eyes the stairs with glee while Will is distracted by four other kids on the elevated train platform.

John creates a Benjamin barrier.

The train approaches. The Harder boys have very sensitive ears.

Grace surprises Will with her new fear of the crack between the platform and the train.

Ok, well, it is truly pathetic that we spent the summer with our dearest friends and that is all I've got to prove it (you can click here though to see some of our fun with them from last summer with more never-before-posted pics). But I did finally manage to keep my camera at the ready once we got home from all of our travels and settled down to some serious end-of-summer fun.

I think that the end of the summer is my favorite time of year - when the mugginess of August gives way in it's last few days to the sun-drenched crispness of early September. The light is golden-clear and being outside is just a delight. We took advantage of every last drip of sunshine, really, we did. And this time I have the proof:

Plum Island (we discovered this delightful, quiet spot is only an hour away! and just drove out for a picnic dinner one evening):

Belkin Family Farm (This isn't exactly the cheapest place to get your produce, but they do have a petting zoo, an amazing play area, a burlap maze, and a train that takes you through the orchards):

Peaches!:

Will and Grace under a grape arbor:

Apples (ginger gold):

Waiting for the train:

The petting zoo and playground:

Walden Pond:
Despite having lived in Massachusetts for a total of seven years of my adult life, I had never before been to this historic landmark. We went on Labour Day weekend, so it was pretty crowded, but still, the pond and the stroll around it are quite lovely. We circled the pond, looking for a nice place to get into the water (it was late afternoon, and most of the little swimming holes dotting the path around the pond were in full shade) and ended up back at the main beach area, which is actually very nice. We had a picnic dinner and then the kids jumped in the water at dusk for a swim. Hardcore, those two. (all photos taken with a cell phone):

Plum Island (again):
We headed back to Plum Island on Labour Day to catch the very last rays of the year. I am very excited to realise that we actually live a short drive from a beach! A real beach! and a beautiful one at that (granted, the kids are wearing wetsuits...) I predict that we will spend a lot of time here in 2009.

Pretty sweet set up, non?

The extent of the Labour Day crowd.

The Evening Meal

2008-09-22T09:41:00.001-04:00

Here are some pics of the kids at our evening meal out on our back deck. As you can see, they don't do a whole lot of eating at dinner time...

Our back deck is pretty lush with vegetation these days, and we have all garnered a lot of pleasure from our gardening projects out there, but the activities it affords for the kids are pretty limited to chair jumping and general fighting. Click here to see (never-before posted pics!) what life was like back in Garrison...I do love Cambridge, but there are some things I miss from our old, rural existence (not to mention John's chubby yummy knees!).

What has happened to Gracie?

2008-09-19T08:03:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has seen Grace in the past few weeks has invariably commented on her sudden and rapid growth and development. Overnight, our Gracie Bear has grown up. Who knew that our goofy baby would grow up into this lovely and very big little girl.

April 2005 (three weeks old)

September 2008

Below you can take a photo tour through Grace's short life:

November 2005 (Canada)

December 2005

March 2006

April 2006 (Easter)

July 2006 (Montreal)

September 2006 (raspberry picking)

February 2007

March 2007

May 2007

July 2007 (Pennsylvania)

October 2007 (Halloween)

February 2008 (Spain)

June 2008

I'm still not quite sure how she has suddenly become so big.

The Elusive Pumpkin

2008-09-17T23:52:00.007-04:00

We have planted pumpkins each year since John was two. The first summer the tender new plants were eaten by deer or mice or groundhogs - something. The next two summers we got glorious vines which traveled long distances and held the promise of massive, award-winning spheres - but both years the vines suddenly wilted and died before they set fruit. Vine borers (or in Johnspeak: "the mean, nasty bugs"). This year, having moved from our more rural home in New York state to a second floor apartment in Cambridge, MA, we have continued our quest to produce an actual pumpkin by planting seeds into self-watering containers on our balcony. The plants grew. They flowered and flowered. No fruit. More flowers. No fruit. And then, while we were away for a couple of weeks: powdery mildew. Ugh. This nasty fungus spread also to our cucumbers and our gourds. It was a sad, sad, day when we finally pulled the fruitless plants from their pots to make room for potential (but probably fatally late-planted) autumn crops.

Amazingly though, our landlord showed us a couple of weeks ago that one of our pumpkins from last Halloween must have seeded itself in his compost pit, and a lovely, large pumpkin had grown up from the resulting vine! Hooray! And yet, the excitement over this volunteer pumpkin windfall was erased the other day by yet another sobering lesson on the voraciousness of nature. The kids and I ambled over to check on our to-be-jack 'o' lantern's progress and found that the entire pumkin had sunk, rotten, half into the earth. Bugs. Damn, damn bugs. At this point, I think that John has 'bout near given up on the prospect of growing a pumpkin of his own. And while I hate to admit it, I may have too.

The fate of our pumpkin, gourd (pictured) and cucumber vines.

But pumpkins aside, we have had a wonderful time, the children and I, planting and tending and harvesting other crops this summer. The children have an herb garden on the balcony shared by the ill-fated pumpkin and cucumbers, where they are growing basil, oregano, thyme, sage, parsley and peppermint. John has absolutely delighted in the abundance of his lovely plants, and Grace positively swells with importance every time I ask her if she would please go out and pick me some herbs for the evening meal. Here they are, gathering some ingredients for dinner the other night:

The peppermint.

Trying to salvage one of the last cucumbers.

Down on the patio below our back deck we had also planted up some large self-watering pots. We tried to grow sugar baby watermelons (they didn't get particularly big or tasty), a tomato, and the kids each planted a pot of potatoes. Below we are harvesting Grace's potatoes (we are letting John's grow a while longer):

And this is our first tomato of the year!:

Finally, we planted some cool season crops into the space left by our dear departed vine-y things:

I love my little guys and their little green thumbs.

The Google Monster, Centerville, Nana Darling...'O' Canada!

2008-09-02T14:25:00.024-04:00

John and Grace and I were in Canada visiting my family in late July/early August (Yes, I know that I am posting a little out of order, but better late than never, right?). It was nice to be home, and we saw lots of family and friends (including my dear friend Konrad with his amazing wife Maya and edible daughter Suhaila, and Stevie [aka The Google Monster] who is a most beloved family friend and the dear Auntie Ah equivalent of my own youth).

Below are our vacation pics, and the kids' accompanying commentary:

THE GOOGLE MONSTER (and his swimming pool)

John: Stevie the Google Monster. We know two silly people in Canada. Stevie and John Michael...Why does Daddy go to school?
Me: That's what you want to say about this picture?
John (rolling his eyes at me in his ever-so-grown-up way): It's not what I want to say about the picture...Come on Mummy... We're at Stevie's house and we're sitting on those little chairs back there and they're little enough for me. And we just went swimming in Stevie's swimming pool.
Grace: Teevie was in duh wadah and we was pwaying a game and we got it out of the swimming pool and then John got it and then John said to Mummy can Gwace go in the swimming pool and Mummy said yes and so then I went in and got it and then I frowed it back in.
John (whispering loudly): Grace means Stevie, not TV!

John: Stevie's making a funny face at Grace.
Grace (making a clear effort to be big): STevie's making a funny face at me.

Grace: STevie's making a funny face at me.
Me: What about you Grace?
Grace: I'm making a funny face to him....Mummy doos Teevie have long hair?
Me: No, he has very short hair.
Grace: Oh.

Grace (laughing): He did oranges on his eye and maked a funny face.
Me: Why did you guys call him the Google Monster? For the record, this is because he IS the Google Monster (of my own childhood). I just wanted to see if they knew.
John: I dunno. Cause he's google-y. He put lemons on his eyes and said "Wanna see my funny eyes?"
Grace: And we sayed yes. And he did. And it wuz funny.

THE (HOTEL) SWIMMING POOL
My mum surprised us on this trip by springing for a couple of nights at the Radisson in Toronto, so that we could take in the sights and have some concentrated fun in the city. We had a great view of the CN tower across the street (if you lay on the floor of the room looking up through the window at an awkward angle), but the kids were more interested in what was just a couple of feet from the room.
Me: We have a really great view!
John (earnestly): Yeah, 'cause whenever I want to see a telphone pole all I have to do is just look out the window and there it is!
Nana (sputtering, but convincing): Yes. That is a transformer. Aren't we lucky! I've never seen one so up close!
But perhaps most excitingly, the hotel had a great swimming pool (John's amazing little camera takes pictures under water, as you can see below):

John: I'm about to jump in the swimming pool. It's not true. Type down it's not true. Then it will make sense.

Grace: John is swimming!
John: Swimming. That's me swimming. I'm swimming in the hotowel swimming pool and it's warm when you get in. It's funny! Bye!
Grace: No, lat's not true! It's warm when you SWIM!
John: It's warm when you get in.
Grace: It's warm when you SWIM.

John: Grace is just about to jump in the swimming pool.
Grace (throwing her head back in frustration): Nooooooo! I climbing in frum luh ladd-ah.

John: I'm swimming under water.
Me: No you're not.
John: What do you mean?
Me: Well, you're swimming. But your head's not under water.
John: Just put down that I'm swimming under water. It's me, so I get to choose.

Grace: I going under water.
Me: But your head's not under water, right?
Grace: Yeah, my head's not under water.
Me: Grace, is that swim vest you've got uncomfortable to wear?
Grace: Yeah.
Me: Is it? Does it hurt you?
Grace: Yeah. It hurts me. Mummy, am I touching luh bottom?

Me: What do you want to say about this one Gracie?
John: Her head's-
Me: John!
Grace: My head's under water.
John: Good job Gracie - you can get all the way under water.
Grace (after a reflective pause): Don't say good job to me!

John: Oooh! Hey Mummy took a picture of me under water and I held onto that thing and I'm swimming under water and my hair is ALL the way under water.
Grace: No it's not. Not all lorh hai-yah.
John: Yes it is.
Grace: No it's not.
John: Yes it is. It's invisible.

Me (to the kids who have become distracted by their squabbling): Ok, last picture for now. Who wants to say something about it?
Both kids (screaming): Me! Me! Me! Me!
John: We're both in towels and we're sitting on a chair.
Grace: No! John! I wanted to say somefing.
Me: OK Grace, please say something.
Grace: We're both in towels and we're sitting on luh cha-yah.

CENTERVILLE (on Toronto's Center Island)

Center Island is one of the world's greatest outings for families with young children. The day begins with a ferry ride to a lovely pastoral island just off Toronto's harbour. The island has lots to offer - walks, a children's garden, a petting farm, performances, and most notably, Centerville - the old school amusement park, ingeniously designed to have a charming mixture of rides just for very young children and those that even the youngest can ride but are exciting enough that even I enjoy them. John is an enthusiastic veteran of Centerville (Grace had been there, but didn't remember it), but arrived this year at a poignant moment in his young life - he was still wildly excited about the most babyish rides, and was also deeply thrilled by the ones that left Grace a bit wide-eyed. It made my heart thud just watching him.

Grace: Can I go on one of dows by mysewf?
Me: Yeah, look at you. You're by yourself.
Grace: Yeah. Can I go on one of dows by myself? By myself? Mummy! Can I go on one of dows by mysewf?
Grace: In lat I'm on a-
John: A fire truck.
Grace: ...a fire twuck. An I'm dwiving it by myself.
John: She means that it goes automatically and that it goes on a track and-
Grace: LAT NOT WHAT I SAYING!!! I NOT SAYING LAT JOHN!

John: I'm riding in a truck. Old fashioned one....I think those fire trucks are old fashioned...do you? Do you think they're old fashioned?

John: I'm on the log ride and we're about to go down a giant hill and it kind of tickles my tummy.
Grace: Lats a log. An we're going up a hill and we're about to go down a hill an it's bout to spwash. A big spwash.

John: We're about to go down a giant hill and it kind of tickles my tummy.
Grace: Lat's a log lough. Lat's a log.

Grace: It's a laaawg. It a laaaawwwg.

Grace: I'm eating lunch wif Mummy. And Nana De-yah. And Johnnie.

Grace: We are all done. And I'm having a cookie. An I asked for choc-lat.

Grace: Nana de-yah had a jacket on. An I had a jacket on. An John had a jacket on. And we is in a geese and it goes an it has an on fing lat goes it-
John: She means an on/off thing that makes it go-
Grace: AH! NO! JOH-NNIE! I NOT DONE YET! I TELLING IT!...An it goes it when Nana De-yah tells it where to go. An we hit oluh geeses.
John (the authority): We try not to hit other geeses, but sometimes we do.
Grace: AAAAHHHHH!!!! I WASN'T DONE!!!!
John: There was this kinda steering wheel thing and it doesn't look like a steering wheel in the swan but you can turn with and sometimes Nana Dear tells me where to go because you, uh, don't want to bump into other swans.
Grace (screaming at the top of her lungs): NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I WASN'T FINISHED TELLING IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: Ok Grace, I am ready to hear you finish.
Grace: Ler was a kinda steering wheel lat didn't look like a steering wheel lat looks like a light wheel-
Me: A light wheel?
Grace: A light handle, an you can stop an go it.

John: That's me riding in a boat.

Grace (still sobbing about John's interrupting her): It's a fwoggie. An it hops. Up and down. It stays up for a while an len it goes down.

Me (to a screaming, sobbing Grace): I'm sure that John would like to talk about this one first. Would you like to tell me about it before he can?
Gwace (in full tantrum): Yes. Ley put me on. Noooo! We was...Noooo! you shouldn't wite lat. No Mummy! No! Mummmy...um...STOP JOHN! Put lat (her hair clips) down! Mummy! I ha to tell you. I ha to tell you! I can't he-yah you!
Me (sitting right next to her): You can't hear me? What do you mean?
Grace: I can't he-yah you.
Grace (finally breathing quietly): Ummm, we ah. John's wif Nana De-ayh an I'm wif Mummy an we wanned to an John wanned to do it agen and I wanned to do it agen an we did it agen an Nana De-yah liked to do it sideways an we wen ovah luh rivah.
Me: John - would you like to say anything about this picture?
John: Ummm, no.
Me: Ok Grace, I guess you said everything there was to say about this picture. Good job.
Grace (upset all over again): No I didn't! You go over deyah and you go over deyah an len you go lis way an len you go straight straight straight an len you go arooooouuund an len you cetch Mummy up. Oh! John an Nana De-yah are going straight straight straight!
Grace (looking crossly at John who has her hair clips): You aren't a giwrl John!
John: A goat?
Grace: A giwrl.
John: Yes I am!
Grace (pointing at her box of hair clips): Put lat down John!
John (quietly, morose): Oh, I wish I was a girl.

John: I wanna say it's Grace the Baby riding on the ride.
Me: John!
Grace: We're going up a hill and about to go down a hill.
Me: Was Center Island fun?
John: Yes. No.
Grace: Yes. Yes!
John: Yes. It WAS fun.
Grace. It WAS fun.

If you are desperate for even more photos of Center Island fun, you can check out these from last year (newly posted!).

So there you have it. It was a blast and a half.

The Amazing Week

2008-09-01T21:19:00.011-04:00

After five years of constant contact with my children and without even a single night alone, Will took John and Grace to New Hampshire for an entire, miraculous week. Although I cried for a day at the thought of such a long stretch without being able to chew on Grace's ever-fatter cheeks or get jumped on by John, I ended up having a blissfully relaxing and yet massively productive time. It was almost as if I didn't have kids. I watched movies...I went on bike rides...I organized the house without the unpleasant experience of turning around to see all my work undone behind me.

When the kids left I made everyone promise that they would take loads of pictures so that I would at least know absolutely everything that my precious babies had done while we were separated. Here is John's contribution:

Will, taking the task to heart, produced the following lovely (albeit mysterious) images of an alleged hike:

Hmmm...Pond scum, fungus and Mr. Potato Head. And below you can see the pics from a fun-packed day at Lake Sunipee:

Of course, in among the portraits of plastic toys and still lives, there were these sweet glimpses into the lives of my darling children (and their Auntie Ah, who looks about twelve. And Gwampa Goofbwain.):

And Frank was gracious enough to send me some of his images of the week:

Thanks everyone. I really feel like I was there...when can we do this again?

It's A PJ Pajamarama!

2008-08-12T16:31:00.009-04:00

While we were in Canada last week the kids (my babies!) went to John Michael and Cosima's house for their very first sleep over party. Yes, they have stayed at both Nana/Papa's and Grandma/Grandpa's before, but this seemed different to all of us. John was a wee bit nervous at the idea of being there overnight without me, but in the end his extreme excitement triumphed over his jitters. Besides, Cosima had decked out the house with one fun activity after another: dress-up clothes, stuffed animals, musical instruments, books, art supplies...a woman who clearly knows the way into the hearts of my children! The fact that Cosi is a brilliant children's musician, that the kids love them to death, and that they have some very cute little dogs has got to help too...

John Michael (my somewhat ornery brother), on the other hand, seemed a bit more worried about the overnight than the kids were. Upon our arrival, Grace approached John Michael for a hug. Nothing. Confused as to how there could possibly be a being in this universe who could resist her charms, Grace decided immediately that his heart would be her immediate life goal. She systematically did everything she could to win his affection - from coy smiles to brilliant grins, from outright asking for him to pick her up to climbing up past straight his lap in order to sit directly on his unwelcoming chest and tickle his beard.
John Michael: Is this normal?
Although John Michael was by far the toughest nut that she had ever tried to crack, I suspected that the odds were in her favour. Mum and I left after dinner.

When a smiling John Michael and Cosima dropped the kids off the next afternoon I was incredibly pleased to hear that my darling children had been angels, and laughed to see that Grace had indeed conquered her formidably grumpy uncle. At one point I even caught John Michael begging Grace for a hug.....
John Michael: Come on Grace, come here. I neeeeeeeeeeed a hug. Please?

It's true - sometimes that girl is just cute enough to eat.

As you can see below, highlights of their overnight adventure included art projects, a jam session, a trip to the beach, lots of time with the dogs (Charlie and Parker), as well as visits with their Great Aunt Marianne and Cosi's parents. And pancakes - always a hit.

Grace: Huh, huh, huh. I wus clim-ming up John Mikul.

Grace: Hey, dat's Duh Dawk.
Me: And where were you?
Grace: I was unduh duh bwankets. An dat's John.

Grace: Dat's the jaama party.

John: I was playing that one.

Me: what are you guys doing here
Grace: Goin' wound in a sihcul.
John: We were dancing.
Grace: we wuh doing duh one dat gos beep beep beep goo! goo! goo! Chick-kah!
John: Yeah, chick-ah! Chick-ah!

Grace: I'm doing dat (motioning) an dat (motioning).

Me: You guys had pancakes for breakfast!
Grace: Yeah! An you didn't!

Grace: Dat's me. We wuh making wain sticks.

Grace (laughing): Cosima.......Cosima.......Cosima made a wain stick. But she had to use papuh cups.
Me: And what is John Michael doing?
Grace: He put in his eyes an just wen like dat.
John: He put paper in his eyes.
Grace: Yeah (laughing). An it didn't huwt him.

Grace: Dat unnah little giwril came.
Me: That other little girl?
Grace: Dat, dat 'dult giwril.

Grace: Know what? Know what Mummy? We wuh at duh beach. At duh beach no one was holding Bakhuh an der was ducks deyah and so he wan! An John Mikul said "NO!"

Grace: Dats duh beach, dats a diffrunt kinda beach.

Grace: Dat's Cosimas..........dat's Cosima's........dat's Cosima's.........mum.......An she turned into a witch an I didn't like it.
John: Yeah, she put a wig on that looked like a witch's.
Grace: Yeah.

John: Ohhhhh! Charlie and me! That's my favorite picture.

Thank you John Michael and Cosima. It looks like a wonderful time - I almost wish I had been there.

A Letter of Sorts to Grace's Daddy

2008-08-03T10:28:00.003-04:00

Me: Hey Gracie, do you want to write a letter to Daddy?
Grace: Yes!
Me: What Do you want to say to Daddy?
Grace: I wanna say I love you.
Me: Do you want to say anything else?
Grace: Pweese give it to Daddy,
Me: Give what to Daddy?
Grace: Give luh fing to Daddy.
Me: What thing Gracie?
Grace: The fing that you asked. I want to give for Daddy.
Me: You mean this letter?
Grace: Yeah. Name his lettuh.....(long pause)...Which Daddy?
Me: Which Daddy?
Grace: I don't know which one...The daddy that I live with? The daddy that we know?
Me (laughing): What other daddy is there?
Grace: I don't know which other daddy.
Me: Gracie, you only have one daddy. Your daddy.
Grace: Oh.

Grace's Will

2008-08-02T20:23:00.004-04:00

While out running errands with the kids today, Grace suddenly piped up from the back seat: "When we be home, is Will gonna be theya?"

Me: Will? Do you mean your daddy?

Grace: Yes. I mean my Will. He gonna be theya?

Me: First of all, he's Daddy to you. But no Sweetie, Daddy is in New York. He's working. We'll have lots of time when we get back from Nana and Papa's to be with Daddy in Cambridge.

Grace: But I want him to be theya when we get back to Nana Deyah and Papa Deyah's house. (starting to bawl): I want my Will, I want my Will, I want my Will, I want my Will.......

We all miss you tons Will and wish you were here.

Inside Grace's Head...

2008-08-02T17:33:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I think that the world must make very little sense to Grace. She struggles so hard to be on top of things, to be so sure in every decision, to fully participate in family conversation. And most of the time she manages to convince us very well that she is a totally functional little human being. But occasionally she lets a little something slip that allows us a glimpse into the fuzzy world in which she actually dwells. Here are some tidbits:

John (on an airplane): Grace! Look outside! We are up really high!
Grace: Oh!......Why they are clouds in the riv-ah?
Me (deeply amused): Oh Gracie, that isn't a river...we are in an airplane and we have flown up into the sky. You see clouds out the window because we are up in the sky with the clouds.
Grace: Oh....but why the clouds are in the riv-ah?
Me: It's not a river, Grace.
Grace: Yes it is.
Me: No, Grace. It's not.
Me (later, on the way back from the airport): Do you see that airplane up in the sky?
Grace: No, I can't seeeeyit.......OH! How those clouds get back up in the sky?

Papa Dear (warning Grace not to do something naughty that was in danger of really making me angry): Grace, don't wake a sleeping dragon.
John: Why?
Papa Dear: Because they are usually very grumpy.
Grace: Acshully Papa De-ah, I woke a sleeping dwragin yestaday an he was vewy nice.
Papa Dear (the next day): John, you are being very grumpy.
Grace: Acshully yesterday when I woke the dwragin it was a baby dwragin. The dult I didnt' wake up.

Papa Dear (amazed at how well Grace can do a puzzle): You're too much Grace.
Grace: NO I NOT!! I (she holds up three fingers).
Papa Dear (laughing): No, of course. You're not too much, you're three.

I truly wonder what it must be like to live in her brain.

Sweet Summer Mornings

2008-07-16T08:29:00.004-04:00

The thing I probably love most about summer is not having to rush out of the house each morning to school. The kids can play, I can stumble around a bit until I properly wake up, and we can all find little things to do that we never think of otherwise. The other day the kids asked me to paint their faces. We have discovered google images as a source of face painting inspiration. The kids choose what they want to be painted as and moments later they have dozens of examples to choose from - it is really fun. John is a cat (a rather fierce one):

Grace is a doggie (that red thing is her tongue):

Grace's Brain Takes a Big Leap Forward

2008-07-15T17:49:00.004-04:00

I am tortured by the events that pass us by unrecorded these days. Birthdays, holidays, trips, and (maybe even more crucial) simply all of the mischievous smiles and skinned knees. I have always said that if there are no pictures of it ("it" being anything), "it" never happened. Without a record to look back on any given event I won't/don't/can't remember. I can't remember Grace's first word. I can't remember how John used to say "thank you" (although Will swears that it was cute, he can't quite remember what it was either). Gone. So many moments. So much invested, so much enjoyed (or endured) - but never remembered. The way that my children stand before me right now is the way that I see them in my head. I can't picture anything else. I can't even really remember what they were like even a few weeks ago. And ten days from now what I see in this moment will almost certainly be lost. The sweet, spongy texture of Grace's forehead, the way that she curls up into such a tiny ball in my lap, the way she hugs so dearly, the way that she makes annoying squeaking noises thinking that she sounds like a "baby doggy," the way that our previously fearless girl has suddenly become tentative about little things like stepping onto an elevator, the way that she doesn't like most fruit, the way that she seems to show the first signs of a very bad sense of direction, the way that she picks a ridiculous grievance almost every night as a catalyst to cry herself to sleep. The shininess of John's eyes and his dimple (oh, I hope that these will stay with him forever!), the way that he comes into my bedroom to snuggle with me in the mornings (the only time that he is for a few moments both awake and not like a restless tiger, a coiled spring), the way that he will try any new food cheerfully (and more than once), the way that the gestures with his hands when he is explaining something, one eye half shut, head cocked slightly..., the way he shouts for me to read more and more of the chapter books with which he is newly obsessed, the way that he now gets mortified and runs screaming from the room if we laugh (joyfully!) at the delightful things he says, the way that he shouts NO at me and (implausibly) thinks that it might further his cause. They exact way they play together. The exact way they fight. Soon to be gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.

Will speculates that our documentation is lacking because we neglect to realize, now that our kids are full-blown children, that each developmental stage although less rapid-fire, is just as fleeting. I take offense. I am achingly aware of the loss of footage (both tangible and in my mind's eye), aware that I can only hold onto each stage until is is just-passed, but there it is. I am TIRED. But still, today I feel I must persist somehow so that I can possess the moments where, like now, the children play happily together and I feel full-hearted. So I can live in this moment with droplets of intense sweetness, free of irritation and the weight of daily hassle, and live too in that moment passed. Moments where I can remember that this is what I wanted, THEY are what I wanted, and I am really living this life that I have wanted so badly. To be a mother. To have children. These children. These are the children that I wanted so badly. And they are perfect.

My grandmother, my father's mother, often noted to me how much my aunt enjoyed her young children. At the time, years ago, it seemed strange to me that she would point that out. A natural act, to enjoy one's children. Hmmmmm. The truth is that without the critical pause of documentation, I mostly forget to linger on the delight in my children.

My current delight is that Grace today created her first representational art. Well, it was yesterday really, when I heard John shout "Really good people Gwrace! Really GOOD PEOPLE!" Curious, I stuck my head over the counter to check out the spot that they do their drawing on the floor. Grace met me halfway with a piece of paper that had two pre-stick figures on it and was cut in several places (she's pretty friendly with the scissors). Legs with heads. And faces. Eyes and a mouth. I have to confess also that seven months ago I was sure she drew a fairy on a Christmas present, but she immediately scribbled over it and the evidence was completely lost. But for the sake of posterity I would like to consider the painting that she made today to be her first piece of representational ART. I had set out to record this stage in the life of little Grace, and asked her to paint our family.

From right: Daddy, Mummy, John, Grace (Note that Grace is almost as tall as I am and much bigger than John. John, in fact, looks fairly squash-able. This was no mistake.)

John also made a lovely painting, of himself by a little house with a bird.

Crazily, watching my children move into each new phase of life makes me want to tear my hair out mourning the one which has just passed. That first tooth means no more gummy-mouthed babe. The relief of weaning also means the loss of a suckling infant. Is Grace really losing her (stupid, dangerous, admirable) fearlessness? Will her fierceness go too? I loved her intense, dense paintings, so carefully made with not even a gasping breath of white space. Layers and layers of paint. Of concentration. Of intent. How can that suddenly give way to recognizable humans?! How does it happen? How can they grow up! Truly it is life's greatest betrayal. How desperately they want to grow up. And oh how I want them to grow. Congratulations Gracie; your brain got bigger today!

Inside John's World...

2008-03-16T07:03:00.003-04:00

(Oh, the insufferable delays. The musings never posted, achingly cute utterances never recorded and now forgotten, pictures taken and never seen again, video camera left untouched. I am now a working, yet still stay-at-home mom. This post was written in March, but not published until now):

Yesterday Will and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit John's classroom for half an hour with him so that he could present to us some of the materials that he has been working on recently. After pleas from the parents' committee, the teachers at the school had all given up a very precious Saturday morning in order to make this event happen - an effort which does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. In their position I can imagine very little that would be less appealing than to lose a quarter of the weekend in this way.

The kids were all assigned a half hour time slot, with four families in the room at a time. John began by showing us a math exercise that teaches the concept of "teen" numbers by hanging the appropriate bead groups on hooks under written numbers. I've seen kids do this in the Montessori classrooms I have subbed in - but it was neat to see John do this. He had mastered the material well enough that he knew to just hang all the wired-together groups of ten out first instead of havign to count up every last bead.

Next John did astound us a little by getting out a wooden world map puzzle from which he removed the continents and then placed them correctly with their written labels. The experienced proficiency with which he did this required both a firm knowledge of geography and the ability to read words like "Europe" and "North America." Not only does the kid know what Africa looks like (both by shape and by name), he could also show us the general location of Kenya (where Lara goes with regularity).

The final demonstration was our favorite. John showed us the moveable alphabet, which is basically a collection of small wooden letters that John used to spell random words for us. Lately we have been watching John's rapid progress in reading and spelling with much delight. The other day he handed me (out of the blue) a slip of paper that read "no BrAcin THE LoS mum - ofsr JOHn" (no breaking the laws Mum - Officer John). John has also been shouting out the words from signs as we drive down the street like "Stop!!!!!" and (ominously) "FOODMASTER!" - so weren't exactly shocked to see him do some spelling, but still, watching him come up with the words right out of his little head was fun.
These are the words that he spelled:
apl
zoo
fir
cat
lic
mop
stop
go
cat
elf - this one we watched him put together in surprise - it seemed a whole 'nother league of word to think of - but then John grabbed more letters and kept going, adding "int" to the "elf." I could see Will struggling to understand what John was writing, and I had to brace myself for his moment of recognition. but when Will suddenly snorted and started giggling I too lost it just a little right there in John's classroom. Yup. We're bad parents. I mean, laughing at our kid in the middle of his proud presentation. Not cool. It got a little worse when, John's imposing (though wildly wonderful) teacher approached us and under her direction, John read back the words that he had created (a neat method of self-correction). When he got to "fir," he realized that he needed to add something. First he grabbed an "a," and read that with what the teacher called "a strong Boston accent." But then he put the "a" away and picked up an "e," confidently put it at the end of the word and moved on. When he added another "e" to lic, however (intending to spell "like"), Will and I nearly hit the floor.

Needless to say, we lost 100% of any respect that John's teacher might have had for us as Montessori-minded parents. And I am sure the other parents went home wondering what type of jerk laughs at his kid's all-serious school presentation. When you get old enough to read this John please know that you delight us from the roots of our hair to the tips of our toes. We REVEL in your every achievement, we bask in your sparkly light. We are juvenile - your father and I, perhaps, but I think that we were laughing mostly with astounded delight. Mostly.

A John's Eye View

2008-02-29T20:09:00.012-05:00

We gave John his first camera a little over a year ago. At the time there was a lot of back and forth about whether or not we should get him a crappy kids camera, or the more expensive impact-resistant 'dult camera. Believing that he was capable of creating images that would give us a window into his world AND that would also be worth saving on their own artistic merit, we went for the grown-up camera. Thank God. Behold the images from John's trip to Spain:

Home Again, Home Again Jiggedy Jig

2008-02-29T15:14:00.002-05:00

So we are back. The trip home was extremely smooth (aside from the fact that we once again almost missed our flight), as the kids were just stellar all the way back.

We have settled into our at-home routines, and all is well. Normal anyway - Will is swamped with schoolwork, Grace's nose is runny, and the kids spend most of their time together either dressed up like fairies or fighting.

Here are some snippets of conversations that have taken place since we have been back:

Lara (on the way back from the airport): Bobo, tell me about Spain!

John: Well, I liked the castles and the caves best. We went up in the castle and it was really dark and Daddy used his iphone to light up the stairs and on the way back down Gwrampa used his iphone but it wasn't bright enough so I used my camwra and that was good.

Grace (unsolicited): I liked the (incomprehensible toddler speak).

Me: What did you like Grace?

Grace: I liked the (incomprehensible toddler speak).

Me: I'm not sure what you are saying Grace.

Grace: I LIKED THE WALLS.

Me (grasping at straws): Oh, you liked all the old walls?

Grace (as clear as a bell): I LIKED THE WALLS AT THE ALAHAMBRA.

Lara (almost peeing herself at the cuteness): Oh!

Grace: Auntie Ah, I have an owie on my knee.

Will (later): And to think that we just carried her around like a sack of potatoes.

-----

Grace (upon new arrival at home after 10 days away): I have to go pee.

Me: So go pee.

Grace: Oh!....Where the toilet?

-----

John: My new swimming teacher is my best swimming teacher ever!

Me: What do you like about her?

John: Well, I like that she doesn't yell at me all the time...

Me: Anything else?

John: I like the way she looks.

-----

Grace (as I am buckling her into her car seat): Mommy, you just hurted myself!

John: You shouldn't say "myself" Gwace, that's wrong. You should say-

Grace: Aaow?

----

John: Mummy, my Spanish teacher almost never cawls on me to tell her what day it is in Spanish.

Me: Do you mean your French teacher?

John: Yeah, she never cawls on me to tell her what day it is.

Me: Do you know what day it is?

John: Yes! It is Jeudi today.

Me: Ummmmmm, yes that is true.......how did you know that today is Jeudi?

John: Weeelllllllll, it's almost always Jeudi when we have French.

----

Me (to Will): I've just noticed that our toilet paper says "uscented bathroom tissue"...that means that there are people who use scented toilet paper. It's like there's a whole 'nother world out there.

Will: Yeah, Republicans.

Me: What, they're the ones using scented bathroom tissue?

Will: I'm pretty sure.

Spain, Day Ten (Sunday) - Granada to Malaga

2008-02-29T11:05:00.010-05:00

Frank and Melanie left for Pamplona this morning long before Will and the kids were up. When they did finally arise, we headed out for a lovely little breakfast at a cafe in the Plaza Nueva. John is clearly feeling better and has his appetite back, although when he asked for a third order of hot chocolate and toast Will told him that we were not going to be the Americans who order three breakfasts each.

Gracie getting a head start on breakfast:

Pan tostada con mermelada:

From breakfast we headed off toward a large local park with playground. We wandered through the university area, past the law school, and ended up getting really lost, with the lovely consequence of discovering the most beautiful, old (although not particularly sterile-seeming) hospital that I have ever seen. Our detour took a very long time, and we finally just picked up the car from the parking garage and headed back to the apartment to have lunch and pick up our bags.

Will, at the law school, reflecting on the BC campus and on potential transfer opportunities:

Full of beans again:

Grace's photo (assisted).

Grace's photo (assisted).

The hospital:

Will gives a lesson on left and right outside a door labeled "Transfusiones"

After lunch we drove back to the playground, which turned out to be very cool and had all sorts of stuff that we don't have in America (which Will and I have concluded indicates that Spain has a less litigious culture). Here are the kids having some fun in the park:

We then set off on a drive up to the ski resort in the Sierra Nevada mountain range (at the foot of which Grenada is nestled). This was, as was expected, a pretty drive, but in the spirit of the past couple of days, we arrived just as the ski lifts were closing (the lift operator shut it down just as we approached the gate). In general, our wee John handles disappointment well, but this insult on top of the Flamenco episode from last night was difficult for him to bear (the lifts were right there in front of him, and they looked REALLY FUN!!)

On our way up the mountains there were palm trees and (strangely) snowboards, promising:

Snow!

Poor, poor disappointed Bobo...

We tried to tell him it was all still really fun:

But Bobo was not convinced.

The scene:

Scenic:

Still, we played in the snow for a few minutes, took a couple of pictures of the view and of our family fun in a Europe-meets-Niagra-Falls-type ski resort, and then bought some bread and nutella with which to feed our hungry, disappointed kids (a little well-timed chocolate can go a long way). On the way down the mountain Will looked over at me, covered in crumbs from cutting a crusty baguette with a plastic knife, and snorted (he disapproves of eating in the car on aesthetic grounds). Me: I know, it's like we're animals. Will: Yeah, animals who've learned to spread nutella.

We drove straight to Malaga, and spent the night at the Novotel near the airport, which gives out stuffed animals (seals or moose, bizarrely) to all child guests. They also have a tiny play room, which the kids enjoyed until late at night, when we finally wrangled them into bed.

Spain, Day Nine (Saturday) - Granada

2008-02-24T03:47:00.007-05:00

Today was the first day on this trip that John has seemed quite well. I am not sure about Grace - I think she's not feeling 100% yet, but both of the kids were in pretty good spirits. We wandered into town and saw the Capilla Royal, the burial place of King Fernando and Queen Isabela. This was neat because is was so different from the Alahambra - the art is Christian instead of Moorish. John was fascinated, and it gave us an opportunity to discuss with him some of the basic differences between the two very different styles. He, not surprisingly, was a big fan of the gaudy, overly gilded, representational Christian art. Hmmmm, it seems that I need to give a little more attention to properly molding his aesthetic. Outside the Capilla Royal we stood for a long while listening to some great musicians on the street, and the kids fed coins to a woman dressed as a statue of a nun.
After a lunch at a little middle eastern place in the souk district of the Albyzin, we checked out the shops around us and bought little prezzies for the Harders (not telling what they are though! as I do occasionally pretend that Liz reads this blog). Wandering home, John announced that "today has been extra fun!"

The scene outside the Capilla Royal:

This evening Will and I committed the kind of insane act that makes one question one's suitability as a parent...We decided that we would take the children out on our last night in Granada to see Flamenco dancing, which we were sure that they would love (if John's open-mouthed witnessing of the belly-dancing at Nicole's wedding was any indication of his appreciation for exotic dance). The problem, of course, was that everything in Spain begins so late we had to reconcile ourselves to keeping the kids up really late in order to partake of the evening's events. So we busied ourselves packing up and clearing out of the apartment in order to distract ourselves from the fact that we were increasingly weary - all of us, of course, except Will, who inexplicably got into the shower at midnight...Apparently there were are series of misunderstandings between us - about the fact that my seemingly endless games of Go Fish were actually a way of taking the kids minds off of their exhaustion (and not entertainment that he had to wait for us to finish), about what time it actually was (neither of us have a watch at the moment), about what time the Flamenco was likely to be performed (he thought all night), and about how late the kids and I could possibly be expected to stay awake. When we finally set off at quarter to one, we unhappily discovered that the events we sought were long-past. My spirit broke, Grace's legs gave out, and John broke down into into a miserable, grumpy, shouting, screaming mess. Clearly a different life form, Will tried to point out that it was a lovely night and we could have a beautiful walk. It was now about 1:30 a.m., and I felt like an idiot standing on the street peering hopefully into smoky bars with hoards of drunken youths passing all around me, realizing that even if we had come out at 10:30 this was an event I would have hated. We lugged the kids up the hill and fell into bed.

Spain, Day Eight (Friday) - Granada (Alahambra)

2008-02-22T11:50:00.014-05:00

If I ever come back to Granada, I will be sure to take the guidebooks at their word...the Alahambra is difficult to obtain tickets for even off season, like it is now. So, after being told last night that all advance tickets were sold out and that we needed to wait in the morning line if we wanted to get in during our three-day stay here, Frank and Melanie ran out of the apartment at some truly early hour to try to secure entrance today. We were quite lucky, it seems, to get the tickets. Touted by our guidebook as "One of the most sensual architectural creations in the world and the greatest treasure of Moorish Spain), the Alahambra is definitely worth a visit - even if you are, like me, not particularly inclined towards sight-seeing. Very, very lovely. Grace mostly just thumbed her nose at the "no eating in the palace" rule and downed one snack after another (we were just so glad that she was finally hungry that we couldn't bring ourselves to tell her no), but John really connected with the place when we told him that King Fernando and Queen Isabela lived here for a while, and Christopher Columbus may have come to this very palace to try to get Queen Isabela to fund his famous trip (I have no idea as to the accuracy of that idea). The palace was not what John was expecting - he found the decoration surprising, but lovely. Will had also bought John a neat book for kids about the Alahambra, which was great to read to them in advance of the visit.

On the way to the Alahambra:

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

Inside the palace:

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

A recurring theme...the children fighting, and Frank avidly learning.

After a couple of hours of palace-gawking, John started dragging his feet and looking a bit green, so I offered to take him home. We headed off, with me carrying him in the backpack, and holding Grace's hand while she bawled that she needed to ride instead of John. Eventually I carried them both - her on my front and him on my back - until I could find a taxi. These kids are both too big and too little to be abroad and sick. We're back, they have fallen asleep and I am enjoying the peace and quiet...

The photos below were taken by Frank and Will, who remained behind with Melanie to see the rest of the Alahambra grounds.

Frank's photo.

Will's photo.

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

These mosaic streets and paths are everywhere here. I LOVE them. Love them. LOVE them. They almost make me consider permanently leaving my clothes dryer and central heating behind and taking up residence here in this frost-heave free place so that I could behold them every day.
Will's photo.

Will's photo.

In Plaza Nueva. Two of the pleasures of our time in Spain: the prevalence fresh orange juice and decent coffee.
Frank's photo.

Will and I got a chance to go out by ourselves Friday night for a quick walk around the Albyzin. It was nice to get out for a stroll, and interesting to see (from a distance) a little of the Spanish night life. I still feel really confused about how people live their lives here. There don't seem to be many restaurants around - just tapas bars really - which seems to be the way that people get a dinner into themselves. But where are the family-friendly joints? And when DO the kids go to sleep around here? When do they wake up? How do they function?

Spain, Day Seven (Thursday) - Cordoba to Granada

2008-02-22T11:37:00.008-05:00

I am on my last pair of underwear, and the total items of vomit-free childrens' clothing is dwindling rapidly. After an ill-spent morning of breakfasting and packing up and an apparently ill-timed (Frank and Melanie were left waiting for us in the hotel lobby for an hour) trip to Toys R US (that's "Toys Errr Ooos" for all you Spaniards out there) for sunglasses for the kids, we headed off to Granada at around 1:30 pm. The trip is a few hours, and we arrived in Granada mid-afternoon. Our apartment is in the old Moorish quarter here, called the Albyzin. The Albyzin is very pretty - a little like a pueblos blancos, but more crumbly, and with more overt Islamic influences (like mosaics in the streets). Walking around, it is clear that many of the inhabitants actually speak Arabic. After lugging all of our suitcases up two flights of stairs with Melanie (the men very conveniently needed to park the car) I immediately took inventory of the clothes washing situation. There is, of course, no dryer. And, of course, it is raining. And, of course, the detergent box in the apartment is empty.

I have gone out for a long but lovely walk looking for detergent and an adapter, so we can finally plug in all of our electronics without bugging Frank and Melanie to borrow their adapter again. Amazingly enough, I was successful! That I found an adapter is not just surprising because we are in a very residential neighborhood, but also because this success depended on the telepathy of the nice man in the DIY store who sold the thing to me. I looked at him, said "Quiero" and he smiled, patted his forehead, and handed me "un adaptor." I returned with the adapter, detergent and even some fresh fruit, feeling on top of the world. My children however, are not on top of the world. They are still quite green, and I feel bad for them.

We ate dinner in last night, but ventured out for a walk and some mint tea (OK, I went for mint tea, the rest of them were after coffee) afterwards. It was nice; this city is very charming.

I am listening to Grace cough right now, praying quietly to myself that she doesn't throw up again.

View from the terrace of our new apartment at night:

Frank's photo.

Spain, Day Six (Wednesday) - Cordoba

2008-02-22T11:31:00.009-05:00

Of course the first thing that we did today was check online to see how Obama had done in Wisconsin and Hawaii...Yee Haw!!! When we all finally tore ourselves away from our computers to get down to breakfast our conversations were not particularly interesting, as we had all poured over the exact same articles. When everyone has the same information there isn't always a ton to talk about.

We had hardly started from our hotel over the bridge across the river to the city's attractions before the kids started in on their hideous fighting and whining. Who gets to ride in the stroller is apparently worth arguing over to the brink of violence - and beyond. By the end of the bridge we had already given John a final warning for the day. I don't know about the rest of the 'dults, but my spirits were low by the time we arrived at the Mezquita (our first stop of the day). It is an impressive structure, although I have to say that I spent a large percentage of my time there with my nose in the Spanish phrase book (there is nothing like a desperate, dancing two year old to inspire language acquisition), trying to figure out how to ask where the bathrooms were (donde esta los servicios), and then just trying to find them on my own anyway after receiving directions from several guards in useless, rapid Spanish.

This is the view of old Cordoba from our hotel:

Frank's photo.

On the road to the Mezquita (note the decorative orange trees):

Frank's photo.

Inside the Mezquita:

Frank's photo.

After the Mezquita we headed out into the Juderia (the old, Jewish quarter), which is really quite charming (although I am pretty sure that the neighborhood that we traveled also happened to be the red light district, as the women in the doorways started seeming a bit suspect, and it was pretty clear that Frank was propositioned in a moment when he rounded a corner ahead of our group). At some early point in the walk we began to look for a suitable place for lunch (much to Frank's chagrin - he didn't want to stop sight-seeing and suggested we would probably all be hungrier if we waited until 7 or 8 at night. No doubt.) We ended up finding a great middle eastern place, with an iced lemonade with fresh mint drink that was fantastic. But poor Bobo couldn't bring himself to eat anything and was clearly feeling poorly.

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

By the time we had reached our next destination, the Alcazar de Los Reyes Cristianos (Palace of the Christian Kings), which is a fortress/palace with botanical gardens (a sight we had guessed John would be really into), poor little Bobo was really dragging his feet. The palace was neat, especially the baths and the gardens (where Grace captured the hearts of a group of twenty-something Italian tourists - one of whom taught her how to use her thumb to turn a fountain into a sprayer...she then modeled her new found skill for the next ten minutes while they photographed her with exclamations of "Bella! Bella!")

At the Alcazar:

Frank's photo.

Our wee Grace definitely has a thing for water...like the moth to a flame...

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

And our sweet John, trying to keep it together, but feeling rather rough:

We had to carry John out, and he was asleep before we set off back to the hotel around 6 o'clock for a rest. The kids both slept for hours, and when they woke up (at 10 pm!) Frank and Melanie came to our room for dinner. When Grace suddenly projectile-vomited all over the room they decided not to hang out for a movie though. And when the guy from the front desk came up to help clean up and just spread the mess all over the carpet with a broom and mop, I hit a low point and curled up on the bed for a few weepy, pathetic minutes. Then I got up and made a carpet of towels across the room. But honestly, no matter how lovely or exotic the locale, I do not think that there is anything, anything that can make me more homesick than being in a foreign place with two vomiting children and no reliable washer/dryer access.

Spain, Day Five - (Tuesday) - Gaucin to Malaga to Cordoba

2008-02-22T11:30:00.005-05:00

After a morning packing up and a quick trip to the health food shop to stock up before we move on, we zipped into Malaga to pick up Melanie at the airport. We wandered (it was a great walk) through the city to find a (terrible) vegetarian restaurant right around the corner from the Picasso museum (which we decided not to check out because Frank's back is out and was really bothering him) and then headed north to Cordoba. We are all deeply relieved to be warm again (although Melanie is looking at us rather suspiciously, as we warned her to pack as though for the tundra. I think she may suspect foul play). Cordoba is pleasantly temperate, and the hotel here in Cordoba is nice.

Some kind of wall in Malaga.
Frank's photo.

Grandma is here! Hooray!

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

Frank's photo.

We thought it would be a good idea to let them get their beans out before the long drive to Cordoba...

...but of course they just ended up fighting.

Spain, Day Four - (Monday) - Gaucin and Cueva de la Pileta

2008-02-22T11:28:00.004-05:00

Ugh. John was sick in the night, all night long. I lost count at four am, when he had already thrown up twelve times and I finally decided that I couldn't stay up any longer hoping that he would be finished with it for the night. He continued, of course, waking up every 20 minutes until six am, and tried like a champ to not create laundry work for me, but really, I feel up to my elbows in puke. Frank is now also feeling sick. We have pretty much all spent the morning in bed, trying to recover. This is our last chance though, to go to the Cueva de la Pileta, and so Will and I are going to take John at his word that he feels better, and will sneak off with him, leaving Frank to watch Grace (and praying that she doesn't throw up on him while we are gone.)...

Oh, the caves were AMAZING!!!!! Amazing! Amazing! It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen! After a long climb up rock steps on the side of a mountain there is a little round door...turns out the mountain is practically hollow. We had to wait outside for almost an hour with the guide, who was hoping that more people would show up, but in the end it was only us. Inside, there are chambers (galleries) that have paintings, some of which date back as far as 25,000 B.C., among the oldest cave paintings that have ever been found.
The cave is (obviously) a National Treasure, but surprisingly it is still owned by the same farming family who accidentally discovered it by falling into it while looking for fertilizer (bat guano) above in 1905. The caves are impressively uncommercialized, and the family seems to really be serious about preserving their integrity. It was amazingly refreshing to see something as historically important as this without lines and ticket counters (or any other people). They keep the crowds small on purpose - even in summer during the high tourist season only a few people are allowed in at a time (in part because body temperature and too many lamps would raise the temperature of the caves, which would be bad for the paintings). Honestly, to go into the cave, with two burning paraffin lamps casting shadows onto the walls where people have lived since the times when we don't even quite refer to them as humans but rather as "prehistoric (Cro-Magnon) man," was really (for lack of a better word) neat-o. The upper-paleolithic period! These cave-dwellers lived in the first major chamber of the cave, and on a wall there you could see the massive soot stains of their fires. There were lakes, and stalactites, and stalagmites, and the claw marks of ancient bears who had filed their post-hibernation nails on the walls of the cave. There was a wall of hollow vertical ridges that reverberated to different notes when the guide thumped on them. The guide held his lamp up to them and we could see that some of them were actually translucent. We saw paintings of animals and fertility signs and the marks that they made to chart the cycles of the moon (to see the beginnings of the tracking of time...remarkable!) and schematic drawings that mark the very beginnings of a written language. I LOVED it. John was quiet, and held my hand as we walked around. I felt so bad for my sick little scientist - he had really been looking forward to this. Toward the end of the tour, as we were heading back to the entrance, he must have suddenly felt better because he let go of my hand and started scurrying ahead of me up the steps (which had been carved into the rock soon after the cave was discovered in 1904.) He bubbled over with enthusiasm as we left the caves, but was hit by another wave of nausea as we got back to the car, and curled up in his seat for the ride home - sick, but satisfied that he had seen something incredible.

The view from outside the cave door.

The walk up to the cave.

This is the entrance that humans have used over the ages to enter the cave. The door, of course, is fairly new. Come on, how cool is that?!

Inside the cave. We were allowed to photograph in this first chamber, as there were no paintings here. It was surprisingly warm (a constant 15-16 degrees Celsius), and it smelled exactly like our basement in Garrison - weird.

There was, of course, no photography allowed in the caves (light from a flash would damage the paintings), but I have taken the images below from this site:
http://www.elestrecho.com/arte-sur/pileta.htm

A cow.

A horse.

A fish. Interestingly, this lovely, large fish surrounds a smaller, much older, much more crudely drawn fish. I marvel at the idea of one cave artist considering the work of another. Did (s)he wonder who had made the first drawing? Did (s)he have any idea that the first fish was drawn thousands of years before the second?

Here you can see what they call the schematic drawings. Archaeologists guess that this is the charting of the cycles of the moon. Cool.

Spain, Day Three - (Sunday) - Grazalema and Zahara de la Sierra.

2008-02-22T11:25:00.012-05:00

I have been excited since I started researching this trip to see the renowned pueblos blancos Grazalema and the (supposedly) most perfect Zahara de la Sierra. Most specifically, I was hoping to travel the scenic route between the two. The drive was amazingly lovely, and it was really astounding how much the topography changed as we traveled. There were cork forests and fertile fields, olive trees, cherry trees in blossom, and spectacular mountain passes. The weather was supposed to be truly miserable (really cold and rainy) and while it was definitely cold, the clouds parted during our drive, and the day was a real delight. And the wind was wild (very exciting for John - and Frank)!

Below are a couple of photos of the cork forests that we drove through on our way from Gaucin to Grazalema (the trees were much smaller, mossier, and more poodle-like than I had imagined them, but the forests were still very lovely, and looked quite enchanted in the fog of the day):

Although Will needed us to stop the car once at the beginning of the drive so that he could lose his breakfast into a bush overlooking a spectacular vista, both he and Grace managed to refrain from vomiting for the rest of the day. Frank and Will loved Grazalema, which definitely has more greenery than Gaucin and is more majestic and gracious. We didn't stay long though, as no one was feeling well, the kids were fighting viciously, and everyone was hungry (Spain doesn't seem to offer much for the vegetarian traveler - we are eating a lot of bread and peanut butter. Frank is of course gorging himself on oranges, which are in season.) Not much is open on Sundays in Spain, and there was a bit of a ghost-town feel to the place...almost every person we saw on the streets was a tourist - but perhaps we were just there at siesta.

This is Grazalema:

Grace practicing her "safety stop" jumps at the top of a little flight of stone steps...she fell, of course, while I was photographing her. Bad mom.

Frank's photo.

Grazalema has a lot more of this Spanish-looking ironwork than Gaucin. It has a certain something, but I prefer the plain facades in Gaucin.

After being navigated out of town by Jack (our GPS guide who has terrible pronunciation of the Spanish street names) through the impossibly narrow streets of Grazalema, with Frank sweating the whole way, we suddenly arrived at the main road, and this charming view of the village.
Frank's photo.

The stretch of road from Grazalema to Zahara is through the mountains, and is really stupendous. At first it seemed that the fog was going to obliterate any possibility of a view (we could hardly see two feet in front of us), but then we rounded a corner and this!:

The fog.

The view.
Frank's photo.

Zahara de la Sierra:

A church.
Frank's photo.

The men chill out at the bar, having a coffee (Frank is much less comfortable at the bar than he appears).

There are orange trees everywhere!

The castle.
Frank's photo.

Pooh Bear is still not feeling great, despite the scenery.

Will's photo.

View from the walk up to the castle. The cold alongside the cacti is really confusing.

They call him "El Dragon."

We had a great time climbing up to the old castle at the top of the town. We found our way in the mysterious dark up its three levels, and imagined with John what it would have been like to live way back when it was built. I am pretty sure that this will be one of John's favorite parts of the trip.

Frank's photo.

On the way home.
Frank's photo.

It was a lovely day, except for the constant bickering of John and Grace. The apartment, however, was completely frigid when we got back. Not that I am one to complain or anything (ahem) but I am beginning to feel bitter and resentful (of the Spanish people and maybe of the fellow who owns this joint) that I am expected to live this way with a sick child, and really (irrationally) angry at Lizzy because she and her lot would probably find it pleasant. Silly? Perhaps.

Spain, Day Two (Saturday) - Gaucin

2008-02-22T11:24:00.007-05:00

John and Frank playing fairy snap at La Casita:

Aaaaaaagggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! Grace woke up in the night in a puddle of vomit. Or rather, I woke up to strange noises, and found Grace in a puddle of vomit. No no no no no no no no no! This can't be. No. No. No. No. No. NO!!! I will NOT have another foreign holiday (the only other time I have taken my children out of North America [to the Dominican Republic] they puked their way through the trip) rife with illness. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Of course, it wasn't just the once, and being two years old, Grace was never able to get to the bathroom, or even the pot that I put beside her, in time. Armed with the experience of dealing with seriously sick kids in places without adequate laundry facilities (there is only a washing machine [no dryer] here - up two flights of stairs in a separate, shared part of the building...and it is raining!) and finite sheet sets, I quickly put down layers of towels for her. She still managed to soil enough linens to make for a day of washing. So here I am in glorious Spain. Grace is sleeping and Will, Frank, and John have gone out for a hike. I keep frantically running outside along the street, unlocking another section of the building and dashing up all of the stairs to check the wash, horrified by the idea that Grace will wake up violently ill and have no idea where I am. Still, in between all of it, I can crawl under my covers and rest. I am almost warm by the time she throws up again....
The boys have come back from their walk...Will apparently needed to take a few minutes en route to puke into a bush. He has gone to bed. Grace is trying to go to sleep, but those of us who are not ill are experiencing schedule disruptions due to the fact that we are a full six hours ahead here. Beyond that, the Spanish live truly bizarre hours (dinner times begin at 10 pm, for example), which means that is possible to be here and not actually try to adjust at all (a moderately-timed 11 pm dinner time here, for example, feels much the same as a 5 pm dinner time at home)...
At midnight John and I were wide awake, and John was (literally) bouncing off the walls. Since we wanted Pooh Bear to be able to get some rest, I took John out for a walk. We ran into a local festival, complete with adult costume competition. It was fun, and crazily enough, the place was hopping with little kids. When do these people sleep? I don't get it.

Here are some images from the the boys' walk (I obviously wasn't there, so these are all Frank's photos. Isn't it impressive that he is both a law scholar and has an amazing eye?):

Spain, Day One (Friday) - Malaga to Gaucin

2008-02-22T11:22:00.009-05:00

After collecting our bags and renting a car, we plugged in the GPS (Will is in love with his Christmas present to me...and I do have to admit that it radically alters the way one travels) and headed off toward the Pueblos Blancos (a spectacular genre of Spanish mountain villages) - specifically a little town perched on a mountainside, called Gaucin.

A pueblo blanco (none of us can quite remember if it is actually Gaucin):

Frank's photo.

The drive up from the coast was really gorgeous, although I have to admit that the kids, although still awake, didn't see much of it. About three minutes from the airport I pulled out the portable DVD player that I had lugged along with me, closed my eyes, offered a prayer of thanks and switched the blessed thing on, grateful for the hour and a half of quiet. I did force the kids to look out the window for the final spectacular 20 minutes of the drive, but predictably, both kids fell asleep just as we pulled up in front of our apartment. Gaucin is really cute! At least I think so...Will and Frank seem to think that it is somewhat severe and strange. I totally dig the narrow streets and stark white walls - and the streets themselves are so beautifully made (with patterns of pebbles set in cement). It is really cool. I also have to admit that the fact that this little town has a health food shop colors my experience of it with a rosy hue. The place we have rented (La Casita at El Molino del Carmen) is really great - it is tiny, but the floor plan is smart, the kitchen is so cute, it has this great fireplace and the views are beyond breath-taking.

The kitchen at La Casita:

The place only has two bedrooms, and Frank has decided to take the sofa, which happens to be (ahem) in front of the fireplace. Which brings me to the one terrible flaw of this lovely spot...IT IS FREEZING HERE!!! I find it actually shocking that anyone expects me to live here in this frozen space (and even more amazed to think that some people [the people all around me] actually consider this normal.) I don't like to think of myself as soft or wussy, but this is is truly unpleasant. The "central heating" that was advertised for this lovely little place exists, but is on a timer to only come on for a few hours in the morning and evening, and honestly, I can't tell that it is even on.

View from our apartment:

Frank's photo.

Another view:

On a walk in Gaucin:

Frank's photo.

One of us at least is awake enough to smile:

Frank's photo.