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manicure by Helen

Hello, hello! 

Do you like my fancy manicure? 

Tempura paints, chunky brush, 2 year old artist.

August recap

 Can we talk about August for a second? I know, the month is already long gone. But there were some huge things that happened in August. Maybe I'll start with this: Treasure Island again.

On the last night of summer camp, we did a silly thing. We went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time as a foursome. That place is bonkers! But the kids loved it, and took comfort in each other on some of the moving rides. 

My Journey continues onward. I interviewed for a position which I later got. But before all that, I painted my nails gray. 

The first day of Kindergarten happened!

And so did the last bits of days where we could have vacationed whenever we wanted without missing school, but rarely did (oops!).

Lots of love. 

A fishing trip that turned up a pretty view instead of any fish:

They said goodbye to me at one library:

And hello to me at another:

Moving on up

Going back to the library I started at...to manage it! So long, Reference.

Cozy

"Sorry you're missing all of this summer camp, George."

"Why are you sorry mom? I love home."

Infirmary

Two words: stomach virus.

Everything turned out OK

We were the first ones up this morning; he asked if I would watch Octonauts with him. Of course! Got a cup of coffee and snuggled with my George. I thought to myself, You survived daycare, my worst nightmare when you were born. And you are the most lovable child, it didn't harm you in the least. Everything turned out OK.

July 2015

Posting from my phone, so things are kind of displaced. 

July was so fun. It felt summery; a time for pale blue nail polish, fireworks, dark gray stormy skies and marathon drawing and coloring during the rain, burrata and peaches, swimming all the time, Christmas in July wrapping session (trying to get ahead) while my mom visited and whipped up all the best meals. 

My children are the best part of every season, of course. Helen is a traditional toddler. You hear "two" and you might also hear "terrible;" you might be on to something. She is tough! One minute she is lightning and the next a blue sky with sunshine in the upper right corner. Like the weather in July.

George is steady, bright and imaginative. He's the reason for swimming, for artwork all the time. In about a week, he starts kindergarten. His solid group of daycare friends are all headed to different schools, and even though he's a little apprehensive I know he'll be just fine. 

 

new year, old year

I've shared before that I love New Year's resolutions and hate it if you don't.

Of course I want to read more, cook more, write more and run again. That is all I ever want. Doing all of this while mothering and working full time is complicated. These are my little successes in the past year:

I read Treasure Island to George this summer. Me, the librarian who never reads, realized I read a lot to my son (Steve reads a lot to Helen). When we finished the book, we drove all the way down to a pirate bar on a boat slip in Ft. Lauderdale. Bringing books to life: you may lay to that.

Thanksgiving was a weird time. Our original plans were canceled because of sick children, so at the last minute we did something else. "Something else" meant instead of organic free-range turkey and sides we'd be eating pasta bolognese. The night altogether was tough for me -- I was extra homesick this year -- but the pasta was great, and I wanted to make my own bolognese; in fact, I never want to eat sauce out of a jar again! I've experimented a few times, using basil from our herb garden! Mmm.

Did I ever share that I was dairy-free for the better part of Helen's first year? Remind me to tell you about that one of these days. I'm inserting that here because I felt so much better when I didn't eat dairy, so part of "cook more" means "eat more dairy-free meals."

Run again is floating out there like a pipe dream. But throughout the year, we went on short little hikes a lot. Every weekend, almost, we were outside. So much so that when we skipped a hike I really missed it. There's something about walking alongside Helen and sharing in her wonder. The trees are so big. The pine needles are fascinating, you can scoop them up by the dozens! A bug! A bird! Nature.

And hey, I'm writing now! Right now! So there's something.

go Ducks!

When I woke up this morning I had to clean up dog doodoo and weewee inside the house, which is my least favorite thing to do. I was thinking this is the worst year of my life! Haha. Anyway, it turned pretty sweet this evening when my Oregon Ducks beat FSU in the Rose Bowl. Weeeeeeeeee! We watched the game with cousins; my kid is on the right, obvi:

Normal is the new exotic.

I just came across the most interesting blog of my life. The author/mom feeds her kids Costco brand lasagna. And she has give or take 14 thousand followers.

figuring out my comeback

Most of the time, Helen is not like this.

Usually, she's like this:

We all get stuck sometimes. 

Slowly hope to ease myself back to blogging. Miss it so!

 

George names wild frogs

Farno
Cheezon
Seasign
Dinosaur Flag
Carsign
Redsign
Treelight
Bushlight
Parkhouse
Seaflag
Storebush
Housebush
Spidertree
Storetree

hello o o o o o

january

We wanted to see more of this:

And this:

So we got one of these:

You know.  George's legs can only go so far.  And Helen, well, the whole idea of this made her sing.