One year ago.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Saturday, May 27, 2006
The Dixie Chicks, Part Two
You must get this album [Taking the Long Way] if you are still singing to babies. It’s no accident that both of their last albums have contained a lullaby – the Chicks have seven young children between them. And while the Time Magazine article said a childless person might mistake “Lullaby” for a love song, this mama is here to tell you, it’s a lullaby. And it belongs in the pantheon of lullabies, for every mother to sing and pass on to her children. It’s simple, repetitive, with a narrow range anyone can sing, and it’s beautiful. More than that, the Dixie Chicks have perfectly captured the oxytocin-addled tender bliss that accompanies nursing, once you make it a little way up the learning curve. It makes me want to crawl into bed with my baby and fall asleep. Except that he turned three today, and as he told me tonight, "You forgot, I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy."
You must get this album [Taking the Long Way] if you are still singing to babies. It’s no accident that both of their last albums have contained a lullaby – the Chicks have seven young children between them. And while the Time Magazine article said a childless person might mistake “Lullaby” for a love song, this mama is here to tell you, it’s a lullaby. And it belongs in the pantheon of lullabies, for every mother to sing and pass on to her children. It’s simple, repetitive, with a narrow range anyone can sing, and it’s beautiful. More than that, the Dixie Chicks have perfectly captured the oxytocin-addled tender bliss that accompanies nursing, once you make it a little way up the learning curve. It makes me want to crawl into bed with my baby and fall asleep. Except that he turned three today, and as he told me tonight, "You forgot, I'm not a baby, I'm a big boy."
Friday, May 26, 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Mystery solved
I finally asked the right question: "Who did you play with at recess today?" And the answer came, Ashwin, and we spend every recess racing around the track. My legs get tired. But when Ashwin's legs get tired, he keeps running.
"And is that why you wanted running shoes, so you could run better with Ashwin?" A nod in reply.
I finally asked the right question: "Who did you play with at recess today?" And the answer came, Ashwin, and we spend every recess racing around the track. My legs get tired. But when Ashwin's legs get tired, he keeps running.
"And is that why you wanted running shoes, so you could run better with Ashwin?" A nod in reply.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Picture of the Day: "If you dream it, you can do it." Walt Disney
Randy and I were working in the yard this weekend, when Turner spied his wading pool in the storage room. I told him it wasn’t warm enough to use the pool, but he replied, in his zen master form, “Mommy, if you say that, then it won’t be warm enough!”
I laughed and went back to pulling weeds. A few minutes later, he had pulled the pool from the storage room, through the garage, out onto the driveway. He disappeared into the house, returning ten minutes later wearing his Nemo swimsuit, then ran up the driveway to fetch the garden hose.
Of course, at this point I had to admit that it must be warm enough, because there was the pool and the swimsuit and the hose. I really hate feeling that I’m losing my sense of logic, or that my two-year-old has a better grip on the nature of reality. But I do believe in rewarding initiative, or letting initiative reward itself.
I found the following quote from Henry David Thoreau on a web page titled "Manifesting Reality: How We Make Things Happen."
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live a life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him, or old laws will be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings."
It's just one more reason we don't really push him to eat meat -- which he doesn't like. After all, what if he really is Buddha reincarnated?
Randy and I were working in the yard this weekend, when Turner spied his wading pool in the storage room. I told him it wasn’t warm enough to use the pool, but he replied, in his zen master form, “Mommy, if you say that, then it won’t be warm enough!”
I laughed and went back to pulling weeds. A few minutes later, he had pulled the pool from the storage room, through the garage, out onto the driveway. He disappeared into the house, returning ten minutes later wearing his Nemo swimsuit, then ran up the driveway to fetch the garden hose.
Of course, at this point I had to admit that it must be warm enough, because there was the pool and the swimsuit and the hose. I really hate feeling that I’m losing my sense of logic, or that my two-year-old has a better grip on the nature of reality. But I do believe in rewarding initiative, or letting initiative reward itself.
I found the following quote from Henry David Thoreau on a web page titled "Manifesting Reality: How We Make Things Happen."
"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live a life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him, or old laws will be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings."
It's just one more reason we don't really push him to eat meat -- which he doesn't like. After all, what if he really is Buddha reincarnated?
Monday, May 22, 2006
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Friday, May 19, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Picture of the Day: Victorian Contemporary, or Living Room
This room is not nearly done, but it does at least suggest where we are going, unlike the kitchen, study, hallway, basement, master bedroom, etc. The paint is all wrong...that's what comes of choosing from a paint chip instead of buying a quart and painting a sample. We were going for champagne, not Easter sunshine yellow. And I painted this room before I figured out that to make the moldings look good, you need to strip off the ratty old caulk and re-caulk. And apparently I was supposed to have the floors refinished before moving in, because it gets dust everywhere. And we could probably use a coffee table, but that would interfere with the prime train-track building location. I'm not sure how I managed to get a picture without the ever-present trains.
But despite all that, we love it, especially the David Salmon side table in the top photo and the contemporary Thayer Coggin barrel chair in the bottom photo, both bought at the Washington Design Center floor sample sale. And despite being an economist, despite knowing the evolutionary advantage of being a good bargainer, I am still amazed at how terrific it feels to find such a great deal. We also got the slipper chair, the carpet, and the red settee (also a very good deal) at the same floor sample sale, which makes us happy, but we don't love them quite as much. Really, the table is gorgeous, and the barrel chair may not stand out in the photo, but it sits on the border between furniture and art, and we think it makes the room.
This room is not nearly done, but it does at least suggest where we are going, unlike the kitchen, study, hallway, basement, master bedroom, etc. The paint is all wrong...that's what comes of choosing from a paint chip instead of buying a quart and painting a sample. We were going for champagne, not Easter sunshine yellow. And I painted this room before I figured out that to make the moldings look good, you need to strip off the ratty old caulk and re-caulk. And apparently I was supposed to have the floors refinished before moving in, because it gets dust everywhere. And we could probably use a coffee table, but that would interfere with the prime train-track building location. I'm not sure how I managed to get a picture without the ever-present trains.
But despite all that, we love it, especially the David Salmon side table in the top photo and the contemporary Thayer Coggin barrel chair in the bottom photo, both bought at the Washington Design Center floor sample sale. And despite being an economist, despite knowing the evolutionary advantage of being a good bargainer, I am still amazed at how terrific it feels to find such a great deal. We also got the slipper chair, the carpet, and the red settee (also a very good deal) at the same floor sample sale, which makes us happy, but we don't love them quite as much. Really, the table is gorgeous, and the barrel chair may not stand out in the photo, but it sits on the border between furniture and art, and we think it makes the room.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Should we be worried?
The other evening, shortly after Randy arrived home from work, he joined me in the kitchen and we had the following conversation.
R: Did you get that email from the neighborhood association saying that someone in the 800 block of Cherry St. [substitute our address] had been burglarized?
A: No, I'm not on the list, but I did get a call from Mrs. Miller [next-door neighbor] asking if it was us. So it wasn't her.
R: So we know it's not her and it's not us. Do you think it was Charlie and Karen?
A: Maybe...
At this point Jesse pipes in: "Well, it wasn't me. I don't have the skills."
The other evening, shortly after Randy arrived home from work, he joined me in the kitchen and we had the following conversation.
R: Did you get that email from the neighborhood association saying that someone in the 800 block of Cherry St. [substitute our address] had been burglarized?
A: No, I'm not on the list, but I did get a call from Mrs. Miller [next-door neighbor] asking if it was us. So it wasn't her.
R: So we know it's not her and it's not us. Do you think it was Charlie and Karen?
A: Maybe...
At this point Jesse pipes in: "Well, it wasn't me. I don't have the skills."
Picture of the Day: Okay, wise guy, identify this!
Or would that be knowledgeable guy? I forget that in addition to being able to identify every muscle in the body, Brad can identify anything swimming in the South Seas, as well as any creature Jurassic or Cretaceous or otherwise Paleontological. Nice to see you settling down, Brad.
Or would that be knowledgeable guy? I forget that in addition to being able to identify every muscle in the body, Brad can identify anything swimming in the South Seas, as well as any creature Jurassic or Cretaceous or otherwise Paleontological. Nice to see you settling down, Brad.
Amazing, two and a half years of constant companionship and not one clear picture of Nemo. We know he's not a clown fish -- no black stripes. And he hails from Singapore. :)
Rant of the Day:
Aaaargh! I've spent about two hours trying to figure out how to post video of Jesse's poetry reading at school (all 15 seconds of it -- it's a short poem). To that end, I registered for a YouTube account, a gmail account (couldn't get the YouTube confirmation email at my verizon address), and spent no small amount of time trying to figure out how to get one of my movie maker programs to load the video, only to realize that the CD they had burned of the poetry reading was actually a DVD, I suppose to make it easy on us, but essentially making it the most complicated process possible to post it online, and yes, it took me quite a while to figure out that ripping a DVD was not a simple process. I probably shouldn't complain, after all, somebody volunteered to edit video of the reading and burn 22 DVDs, but hey, this is McLean, everybody has at least 3 computers and I'll bet half of the parents want to send it to relatives electronically!
Only one thing to do. I'm going shopping.
Aaaargh! I've spent about two hours trying to figure out how to post video of Jesse's poetry reading at school (all 15 seconds of it -- it's a short poem). To that end, I registered for a YouTube account, a gmail account (couldn't get the YouTube confirmation email at my verizon address), and spent no small amount of time trying to figure out how to get one of my movie maker programs to load the video, only to realize that the CD they had burned of the poetry reading was actually a DVD, I suppose to make it easy on us, but essentially making it the most complicated process possible to post it online, and yes, it took me quite a while to figure out that ripping a DVD was not a simple process. I probably shouldn't complain, after all, somebody volunteered to edit video of the reading and burn 22 DVDs, but hey, this is McLean, everybody has at least 3 computers and I'll bet half of the parents want to send it to relatives electronically!
Only one thing to do. I'm going shopping.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Picture of the Day: Art. It's a start.
We looked at our blank walls and said, "We need art." I decided to take a couple of years, look through galleries, refine my eye, and learn what spoke to me. To that end, I stepped inside the first gallery I happened by, and was astounded to find this Ferjo print, rife with personal symbolism about the profound changes that we had gone through at the start of this millenium. If the fish was orange with white stripes I would swear it was custom ordered. Speak to me? No, it serenaded me. And it now resides in our living room, above the location of the eventual piano.
We looked at our blank walls and said, "We need art." I decided to take a couple of years, look through galleries, refine my eye, and learn what spoke to me. To that end, I stepped inside the first gallery I happened by, and was astounded to find this Ferjo print, rife with personal symbolism about the profound changes that we had gone through at the start of this millenium. If the fish was orange with white stripes I would swear it was custom ordered. Speak to me? No, it serenaded me. And it now resides in our living room, above the location of the eventual piano.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Shoes and Sandals
I took the boys to the mall one evening last week to buy them shoes and sandals. At the first store, Kids Foot Locker, Turner disappeared twice, within the store, so I carried him around on my hip while trying to get Jesse fitted with shoes. Inevitably I had to put Turner down, at which point he immediately grabbed two display shoes and dashed out the door. Sigh. I just can’t keep up with him. Literally. I count on pedestrians to get in his way. Fortunately, he’s not very good at scoping out the path in front of him – he’s too busy looking over his shoulder giggling at me.
We picked out a pair of shoes for Turner at the second store, and in an effort to keep him occupied while I gathered our things I handed him the shoebox and told him to take it to the register so we could pay for it. I hope he just wasn’t listening, because he took the shoebox and hoofed it straight out the door. Sigh.
But that’s neither here nor there. I did not really intend to talk about my nascent shoplifter. Jesse, it turns out, had to have running shoes. Not athletic shoes. He specifically requested “running shoes,” and he really did mean the shoes underneath the sign that says, “Running.” He is now the proud owner of a pair of Nike running shoes that are better than any Randy has ever owned. I must have asked Jesse a dozen different ways how this idea came to be in his head, without getting any useful information out of him. But on the way out, passing the hair salon, he asked to get his hair cut. What? He’s seven. Whence comes this emphasis on appearance? Is this what comes of living in McLean? Or were the shoes really about trying to improve his performance?
I’m hoping it was the latter. Jesse wore the shoes home from the store, and he was definitely showing Turner what he knew about the sport of leaving Mom in the dust.
We never did get to the sandals.
I took the boys to the mall one evening last week to buy them shoes and sandals. At the first store, Kids Foot Locker, Turner disappeared twice, within the store, so I carried him around on my hip while trying to get Jesse fitted with shoes. Inevitably I had to put Turner down, at which point he immediately grabbed two display shoes and dashed out the door. Sigh. I just can’t keep up with him. Literally. I count on pedestrians to get in his way. Fortunately, he’s not very good at scoping out the path in front of him – he’s too busy looking over his shoulder giggling at me.
We picked out a pair of shoes for Turner at the second store, and in an effort to keep him occupied while I gathered our things I handed him the shoebox and told him to take it to the register so we could pay for it. I hope he just wasn’t listening, because he took the shoebox and hoofed it straight out the door. Sigh.
But that’s neither here nor there. I did not really intend to talk about my nascent shoplifter. Jesse, it turns out, had to have running shoes. Not athletic shoes. He specifically requested “running shoes,” and he really did mean the shoes underneath the sign that says, “Running.” He is now the proud owner of a pair of Nike running shoes that are better than any Randy has ever owned. I must have asked Jesse a dozen different ways how this idea came to be in his head, without getting any useful information out of him. But on the way out, passing the hair salon, he asked to get his hair cut. What? He’s seven. Whence comes this emphasis on appearance? Is this what comes of living in McLean? Or were the shoes really about trying to improve his performance?
I’m hoping it was the latter. Jesse wore the shoes home from the store, and he was definitely showing Turner what he knew about the sport of leaving Mom in the dust.
We never did get to the sandals.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
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