Simple Joys

Melanie has been asleep for the last hour. Isabella and I used most of that time to decorate the Christmas tree together. Just now we are eating cheese and crackers while singing (over and over again) "Cheese, glorious cheese... cheese, glorious chee-eeze".

I try to enjoy these sweet moments without clinging to them... like sunrises - beautiful in the moment but then they are gone, each one a unique beauty that will never happen again.

Isabella's 4th Birthday Party

Today was Isabella's 4th birthday party. Several weeks ago I decided that I wanted to cook a full meal for everyone coming to the party. So call me a glutton for punishment, I cooked the following for over 30 ppl -

• Green lentil dahl with spinach (Indian)
• Creamed chicken with cashews and raisens (Indian)
• Cauliflower and carrots baked in olive oil with garam masala (pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom)
• Fresh green salad
• White rice
• Yellow cake with milk chocolate ganache frosting (decorations with white chocolate ganache)
• Almost a gallon of chocolate ice cream

About a day into the 2 day cooking process I was kicking myself pretty hard for taking so much on. The cooking wasn't necessarily so hard, but add the whole while-watching-2-kids part it all gets a bit overwhelming. My friend Darcy saved the day by coming to help for the last 2 home stretch hours before the party started. Thank you Darcy! Anyway in the end the food turned out great and I'm glad I did it.

Once all the guests were done filling up on Indian food, cake, and ice cream, the present opening began.

The delight was, well, delightful! "Look Mom, Uncle Heath gave me a PLANE!!!"

Isabella's friends pitched in and helped with the present opening. Perhaps rather than 'helped' I should say that it was a complete FRENZY of excited kids ripping open presents. Seriously... ravenous present opening warriors.

We gave Isabella a Drs kit and a Drs costume. She immediately put the costume on and wore it (mask and all) for the remainder of the party.

The fun lasted well into the evening after the guests left. Isabella and John made fresh whipped cream with her little toy mixer (from Jeanette, Ray, and Sylvie). Seriously, the cream actually whipped up inside this little battery powered toy!

And Isabella used her new Drs kit on Ellie. She took Ellie's blood pressure and even gave Ellie a shot of medicine.



At the end of the day, Isabella did not want to leave her toys behind, so we allowed her to take some into bed with her for the night. So cute!

All in all, a truly wonderful day. Good food, good friends, happy frolicking kids. What more could I want in life?

Thank you Mary, Heath, Austin, Michael, Ryan, Kai, Cindy, Mike, Charlotte, Jeanette, Ray, Sylvie, Topher, Marjorie, Henry, Mohammed, Kahina, Antionette, JohnE, Jean Mikel, Pachi, Maetesha, Bill, Maddie, Ran, Yonatan, Ella, Adam, Marcie, Peter, and Elise for sharing it with us.

Holiday party (or - Like Mother, Like Daughter)

Last week John and I went to his Holiday party. Here's us!


And here is a picture of me. I'm providing a full length shot to show that -

1. I have lost most of the pregnancy weight!

2. I am my mother's girl. I bought this dress for $9.99 (plus tax) at the local Value-Village. My mother is the most amazing bargain hunter I know, and I'm not sure there is anything that would make her prouder than to know that her daughter can find a bargain too!

Field trip

Yesterday I chaperoned Isabella's field trip to the Museum of Flight. It was one of those days that I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera. Picture me with Melanie in her baby carrier on my chest, Isabella by one hand, Kahina (her pre-school classmate) in another hand, and Darien (a boy from the class) alternating between holding Isabella's hand, holding Kahina's hand, and running off.

Chaos!

Or rather, some sort of magical controlled chaos. Each of us parents had 2-4 kids on hand. Inevitably, one would run off. As the parent turned to chase that kid, another would run off. Fortunately, another parent would notice and would help that parent during that difficult moment. It reminded me of... what was that game... pong? A ball bouncing around and you try to move your little line at the bottom of the screen to bounce the ball back in, like tennis? Except in this case there were many many balls, and many of us lines (parents), and somehow all the balls seemed to stay on screen. Magical slightly controlled chaos.

In fact, there was some sort of magic to the whole day. On the drive over there I heard Isabella and Kahina in the back seat chatting. "What do you have for lunch? I have peanut butter and jelly." or "I like your socks, see my socks?" or "Do you want to come over to my house for a sleepover sometime?" They chatted back and forth and I delighted in the simplicity and sweetness of two little friends, not a trouble in the world. They ran around together, argued over who got to use the controls when sitting in various airplanes, and shared snacks at lunch.

Then, after 2 hours, we all went back to the car, I strapped 4 kids into car seats, and we drove home. For them - just another day of playing. For me - a day of delight and exhaustion. I know now that this is just the beginning of me volunteering to chaperon class trips, as I can't help but savor these sweet moments - aware that they are fleeting, aware that my 2 little ones will be grown up before I know it.

Blog Withdrawl

Ok, so I haven't blogged in a while. I actually really love blogging, but almost everything besides mommying, sleeping, cooking, and exercising seems to fall off my plate. Anyway, I am bursting with stuff I want to blog about, so prepare for a flurry of holly-ness!!!

My husband is amazing

Several years ago around Thanksgiving time I was heavily pregnant with Isabella (due mid-December). Obviously, considering my condition, we weren't going to travel, so we decided to have Thanksgiving at our house and John offered to do all the cooking so that I could relax. Unsurprisingly, the meal he cooked was fantastic. He decided then and there that he would start a tradition of always cooking the whole Thanksgiving meal himself. Who am I to complain!

This year, we were joined by many members of John's family - Mary, Pat, Marjie, Granny, Gramps, and Uncle Tom. Everyone happily gorged him/herself on the fantastic meal that John produced.

The dinner consisted of -

• A 20lb turkey
• Gravy
• Stuffing
• Green salad with feta and candied pecans
• Mashed potatoes with black truffle oil
• Sweet potato pie with candied pecan topping
• Cranberry sauce made with fresh (not frozen) cranberries
• Fresh green beans sauteed with almond slivers and lemon zest
• Boiled onions in cheese sauce with truffle salt (a tradition in his family)
• Pumpkin pie made from freshly baked pumpkin (no canned pumpkin in this house) with homemade crust and freshly whipped cream
• 3 different kinds of appropriately paired white wines (a pre-dinner wine, during dinner wine, and then desert wine)

John - um, I'm keeping you until the end of this life, maybe for a few more lives after that too.

My adorable kids

My life is filled with cuteness! Here are a few snapshots.

John cuddling his 2 little girls -

Isabella decided to put a frog on her head, a snake around her neck, and then exclaimed "It's Halloween and here is my costume. Can I have some candy?"

Isabella cuddling Melanie -

This is Isabella teaching Melanie how to swat at the hanging plastic birds/fish on the bar above her chair. Isabella got VERY excited when I plugged the bar in and sat there for a long time saying things like "See Melanie - you just hit the bird and then it plays a song!"

Melanie sucking her thumb in her sleep. Yes believe it or not - sometimes when she stirs she soothes herself back to sleep without needing me. Amazing!

Life is so, so sweet.

My incredibly difficult day

Here is how my day went today -

5:30am - wake up, eat, shower, pump milk

6:30-8am - taught a private yoga lesson to a sweet and dedicated yoga student.

8:15-9:15am - took my own yoga practice

9:15-9:30am - dropped Isabella off at pre-school

9:30-10:30am - nursed Melanie, cooed at her, made funny faces, got drooled on, changed diapers

10:30am- 12:30pm - nursed Melanie to sleep in bed, cuddled, drifted off to sleep with her

12:45 - picked Isabella up

1-2pm - made paneer (Indian cheese) with Isabella while Melanie watched. Isabella LOVES making cheese, loves eating it even more.

2-3pm - nursed Melanie, played with her while Isabella watched, participated, and interjected in various ways - "Melanie, you want to hold this rattle?" and "Oh Melanie, you are such a cutie pie!" At one point, both kids were in my lap cuddling me and Isabella said "All the girls of the family are here!!"

3-4pm - took a bath with Isabella while Melanie swatted at the hanging plastic birds/fish in her Fisher Price musical chair. Bath time included foot scrubs and a bubble bar from Lush. The bubble bar was filled with gold dust/glitter, so the whole bath got sparkly. Isabella was delighted to say the least. All in all, some very girly time.

4-5pm - put Melanie down for a nap, proceeded to get some 1:1 time with Isabella. Play time included book reading, airplane-ing (think - me on my back with Isabella balanced up in the air on my feet), and tickling

5-7:30pm - Melanie continued to nap while Isabella and I cooked dinner together. Isabella is now quite skilled at garlic peeling and pepper grinding. In addition, she took some of the cauliflower I was using, put it in one of her toy cooking pots, put the pot in the microwave of her toy kitchen, and turned the microwave on. She requested some towels to take the pot out of the oven so that she didn't burn herself, and also asked for a trivet so that she could put her play pot of food on the table. SO cute!!!

7:30-9:30pm - Heath, Austin (Heath's sweetie) and Michael came over for dinner. Much relaxation and gluttony resulted.

I love my life!!!!!

Juliet - I can hear your uterus weeping softly.

43lbs down...

I am now 43 pounds less than the day I gave birth to Melanie 3.5 months ago. Just 5 more to go and I'm back at my pre-pregnancy weight. Yay for hard work paying off...

Love, sewing, and halloween

Per my previous post, I sewed Isabella's Halloween costume this year. The process went something like this -

October 2 - John mentions that Isabella wants to be a fairy this year and that he thinks Melanie would make a really cute caterpillar. I agree to sew both costumes.

October 15 - John says "How are those costumes coming?" I say "Um... I'm thinking about them." to which he replies "Maybe we should buy a costume for Melanie so that you can focus on Isabella's costume." To which I reply "Sold!"

October 17 - I go shopping for a pattern and material for Isabella's costume.

October 23 - I decide I can't procrastinate any more (with just 8 days to go) and begin sewing after the kids go to bed. I realize that this is the first thing I've sewn in almost 5 years. I try to move quickly and proceed to make several mistakes. I am reminded that a master seamstress I am not. I stay up until 1am and get barely anything done. I find myself regretting the whole project.

October 24 - more sewing

October 25 - Mary (John's mom) stops by to answer some questions and give me some tips (she is a very experienced seamstress). She proceeds to laugh at me, good naturedly. Mary - "You didn't hand baste, did you?" me - "um, yes." her - "I need to teach you how to use your sewing machine!"

October 26, 27 - hours and hours of sewing until the costume is just about done. I find myself saying "I'm never doing this again... this is just too much work."

October 28, 29 - I do nothing and procrastinate the last few details as I pat myself on the back for being near the finish line

October 30 - "Oh crap! I still have some finishing touches to make." I stay up until 1am again.

October 31 - The finish line.

Here is Isabella in her fairy costume with her friend Kaina, the butterfly. Note - I made the vest, the skirt, and modified the wings so that the elastic band matched her outfit, but did not make the wings themselves.

Rear view -

I have to admit that halfway through this sewing project I found myself saying "What was I thinking taking such a thing on? I don't have time for this!!!" At the end of the process, however, I was definitely glad to have done it. I guess, as I'm fond of saying, It's all about love. My teacher often talks about all the ways we can put love, light into others. He says that if you cook food with love then the food is much healthier for the person who eats it. I'm sure costumes are the same way. On a conscious level, Isabella didn't really appreciate the costume more because of all the work I put into it... at her age she couldn't really grasp such a thing. On an energetic level, however, she can receive all of the love put into the garment. So much love went into that costume... while sewing it I found myself thinking of her, imagining her twirling around in the skirt, imagining what her smile would look like. Every stitch tucked in a little more love. I know that on some level all of that love flowed into her as soon as she donned the costume, and I was able to sit back and enjoy watching her dance around in the symbol of my love. I must admit that I'm already excited to sew her costume again next year. I guess that's what parenthood is all about - wearing yourself out, losing sleep, doing things for your kids that they won't really appreciate, and loving every minute of it.


As for the rest of Halloween, here is a pic of John as Thing 1 (from Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat) with Melanie the butterfly -

And some more pics of our sweet sleeping butterfly Melanie.

I dressed up in a costume as well, but we didn't get any pics. I was a late 1990's candy raver. Think Larame's phat cords, powder blue Sketcher platform sneakers, glitter, candy necklaces, a sparkly belt, pig tails, and lots of bracelets with cheap colorful beads.


Yay for Halloween!!!

Fairy costume

Well it's almost midnight the night before Halloween, and I'm finally done sewing Isabella's fairy costume. Phew!!!! What a long haul... I haven't sewn a single thing in almost 5 years and forgot how much work it is. At this point I'm just relieved that I pulled it off. See below for a quick pic... I made everything but the wings. More details to be provided after the big day tomorrow!

Happy kids frolicking

The other day Marjorie (another mom from our pre-school) and I took Isabella and Henry (her son) to the Childrens Museum. There is such a sweetness to watching your kid happily frolicking with a playmate - sharing well, doing projects together, chatting in their own little language. I dare say that the sight of my child bonding with others makes me happier than seeing her learn some new fine motor skill, do a new puzzle, or rattle off some impressively complex sentence. Why is that? Well I guess, to be cliche, it's all about love. Love is like a warm ray of sunshine - even with your eyes closed, you can feel it.... even without words, you know it is there. The other day I dropped Isabella off at pre-school and as soon as she walked in another little girl started beaming, jumped up, and said "Hi friend!" and then another girl also jumped up and said "Hi friend!" and then all three girls held hands in a little tiny circle and beamed at each other. Love, pure and simple. When that kind of light is shining in front of me, I can't help but fill up with the extra that spills over.

Here are some pictures of Isabella and Henry, sharing some good times, filling up the space around them with light.


Isabella and Henry in squirrel costumes, poking their heads out from a log -



And here they are with Marjorie and Isabella, in bat costumes, in the bat cave!

Lastly, here are Isabella and Henry at our house, sharing a horsey ride.



Life, as always, is good.

Visit from Rose

Last week my beloved sister Rose visited. Rose is an amazing person. She makes beautiful pottery, is a fabulous chef, runs half marathons, and holds down an impressive corporate job. Most amazingly, though, Rose is a super sweet person - always loving, always compassionate, always there for you. Rose has made an impressive effort to keep up with me (and her other siblings over the years). This was her second visit to Seattle this year, and probably 10th visit over the course of the decade or so I've lived out here.



When Rose arrived, I said to her "Well we could either make truffles, take the kids out somewhere, or go downtown and buy a larding needle." She said "OOOHH! What's a larding needle?" I then explained that I had found a new recipe which required me to inject pancetta strips into a roast with a larding needle, which would be a new experience with me. She promptly rejoiced at the idea of buying a new kitchen gadget, so we went downtown and acquired the tool.

Here is Rose with the pancetta stuffed larding needle.




And the pancetta injection in action!

The next day we hiked up Tiger mountain. I was the one with the baby strapped to me, huffing and puffing 3mo after giving birth. Rose was the one who lightly stepped up the mountain with a smile on her face.

And here is Rose with Melanie, being the sweet Aunt that she is.

Thanks for a great visit, Rose!

R.I.P Teddy

A couple of weeks ago Isabella's Mammie (Grandma Mary) went on a trip to Sedona. Isabella had been asking for a special teddy bear to bring to bed with her, so Mary brought back a beautiful Gund teddy bear, which Isabella treasured instantly. She would take Teddy on pretend airplane trips, would take him to bed every night, would even pretend to nurse Teddy with her pretend boobies (see previous post). Isabella has had a number of stuffed animals before, but this one clearly became a special companion more so than any of it's predecessors.

Then, on Monday night, my 6th "Ellie is being bad" sense began to tingle, and I found poor teddy in Ellie's clutches. To be clear - I had reminded Isabella MANY times to be careful with Teddy, to always keep him in one of the toy drawers, to not let Ellie get him. Of course, one slip up is all it takes.




I have to say, I literally almost cried. My poor, sweet Isabella... I knew she would be heart broken. I also knew that it would really hurt Mary's feelings to find that she had bought something special for Isabella, only to have it destroyed. Fortunately Isabella had not yet seen the carnage, so when John tucked her in he convinced her that Teddy was missing but that we would find him soon. She asked for Teddy about 5 times and then went to sleep.

Naturally, I decided to go on a mission to find a replacement. The good news - I knew it was a Gund brand bear. The bad news - Gund makes a LOT of different bears (they are all about teddy bears), each with it's own name, and Ellie had eaten the tag that had the name. So I looked at, literally, over 400 teddy bears online. It was a painstaking process, as colors can look different on different monitors, and (again) Gund makes soooo many bears. Eventually I found what I thought might be a match, selected 1-day shipping (after all, this was an emergency), and crossed my fingers. 36 hrs later - Teddy's twin arrived. Phew - an exact match, even down to the scarf around the neck (which was also eaten off the original Teddy).

When Isabella got home from pre-school, she asked "Where's Teddy" as she has been asking since he was 'lost'. I said "Guess what? I found him under some clothes in our closet!" She lit up, took Teddy in her arms, and (I'm not making this up) sweetly said "I love you Teddy."

I guess that's what love is all about.

Kids are funny

This morning Isabella came down clutching her teddy bear with no shirt on. I asked her "Where did your pajama shirt go?" She pointed to her nipple, looked very serious and said "I had to take it off so I could feed Teddy with my pretend boobie."

HILARIOUS!

Visit from mom

Last week my mom was here for a 7 day visit. She and I have had our differences in the past, but this was a visit when we both let go of whatever we were carrying around from the past and simply enjoyed being together. It was quite wondeful, really. We chatted, went to a museum, went to Pike Place Market, etc., but mostly just hung out and enjoyed my children together.


My mom is someone who is, well, a mom in all senses of the word. She had 5 kids, stayed home with us, and never stops telling us that it was the happiest thing she could have done. Whe she talks of the past, her sincerity is clear as she talks about how she nursed me for 2.5 years (!), didn't regret leaving her career in physics, and wouldn't trade her life with a single other person on the planet. It's admirable, really, to be with someone who is so clear on her path to joy.


My mother doesn't have kids at home any more, but she does have 9 grandkids (and counting) and thus is able to shower them with all of her natural maternal goodness. She was so sweet... doing art projects with and reading books to Isabella, holding and cooing at Melanie, and in general shining love onto my children. Here are some pics of Granny Annie with Melanie, and of Isabella showing her Grandma what a loving big sister she is.

I tried to pamper my mom while she was here. The one thing she expressed interest in was chocolate, so, of course, I was happy to hand dip some truffles.

All in all, it was a great visit. My mom and I bonded, my kids got showered with love, and I got to play around in my kitchen with chocolate. Who could ask for more?

Thanks for a great visit, mom!

Snapshots from yesterday

Yesterday was one of those very full days. Many sweet moments, and a few moments that weren't so sweet but were pretty darn funny. Here are some highlights -

• Woke up before everyone else, snuck up to the yoga studio, and took my daily practice. Yet again, I ended the practice feeling so blessed and grateful for all that I have.


• Came downstairs to find John getting ready for work. Discovered that when your husband starts biking to work every day, his legs turn into rock hard sexy masses of muscle. Yay.


• Went to the childrens museum with Isabella at her request. How could I resist the sweet wishes of my beloved child? Spent the day watching her play joyously. Below is a pic of her painting in the art room at the Museum and a self portrait of me with Melanie in her baby carrier.

• Left the childrens museum and spent some time enjoying a wonderful Incan band playing at Seattle Center. I love street performers! These guys are great... I've seen them around lots and they always get me dancing.

• Took the bus home from Seattle Center. Across from me on the bus was a man in tiny shorts with his legs wide open. Unfortunately, he was hanging out of his pants, so I tried to look away. Even more unfortunately, he tried to talk to me and thus could not be ignored. Him - "How old is your baby?" me - "9 weeks, and tuck yourself back into your pants please, sir." 10min later when he forgot to keep crossing his legs and started hanging out again, Isabella said loudly (to the audience of the full bus) "Mommy, why doesn't he have any underwear on?" Sometimes you just have to laugh. And no, I didn't take a pic for the sake of my blog.
• Spent the evening at Montlake Ale House with friends. MAH is a pub with a kid pit - i.e. a sunken part of the floor with tons of toys and a ring of seats around the perimiter for the parents. So Isabella played with her friend Charlotte while we watched the presidential debate and ate pub food with Charlotte's parents Mike and Cindy. Yay for getting our kids exposed to politics so young! Here is a pic of John and Melanie watching the debate.

All in all, an excellent day!

Mul-acres Labor day weekend

This past Labor day weekend John, Isabella, Melanie, Ellie, and I headed out to our wooded property in North Eastern WA. We left on a Thursday afternoon and planned a 5 day trip lasting until the following Tuesday.


The day we left, Melanie was just 5.5 wks old. We knew that the 4.5hr drive (each way) would provide quite a challenge. I remember when Isabella was that little. She would sleep for short drives but if she woke up and wanted milk then there was no calming her down unless I stopped the car and took the time to nurse her in a relaxed fashion. Road trips at that time would have been near impossible. This time we came up with a solution that made us feel pretty damn brilliant, if I do say so myself. It worked like this - Isabella's carseat was strapped into the passenger seat up front next to John. John bought a bunch of sticky velcro and secured a DVD player onto the dash board in front of her. He put all the movies handy up front so that he could change the DVDs while driving! Also, he packed up a water bottle and a couple of small baggies of snacks for her and kept them up front so that he could hand them over when necessary. She was completely entertained and fed without him having to stop the car! On Melanie's end - I put her carseat in the back and sat next to her. Before the drive, I used my trusty breast pump to pump out as much milk as possible (see previous post on my breast pump - I love that thing!). When Melanie stirred during the drive I just popped the bottle in her mouth and she was totally happy! No stopping, no waiting. The result - a lovely relaxing drive with no crying, no fussing. Anyone who is a parent knows that a 4.5 hr drive with no fussing is a true achievement. Yay us!



We arrived at Mul-acres that evening and John proceeded to setup camp. I have to day, there was something so sweet about our first campfire of the trip. John had a bunch of wood split already from our last trip, so he just brought it out of the shed and lit a blazer. Aaahhhh... big fire on our big piece of land. Yay. Late that evening, some clouds cleared and we reveled in the simple joy of gazing upon the stars. Even the Milky Way was visible. So there we sat, warm by the fire, gazing up at the Milky Way. Yay and Yay again.



The next day, Isabella woke up very ready to run around and play. She got out her butterfly net and started chasing bugs. Ah, the simple joy of running after flies, butterflies, and grasshoppers. Isabella was just delighted. See below for her up close with the grasshopper she caught.









As Isabella frolicked with the bugs, John proceeded to lumberjack. He began by chainsawing a tree into rounds, then split a bunch of rounds he had seasoning in the shed, then split the unseasoned rounds he had chainsawed that morning. GO JOHN! Is it just me, or is a sweaty man swinging an ax incredibly sexy?











On my end, I spent a lot of time doing what moms do - nursing my sweet babe. It was quite lovely, in fact - sitting in a camp chair in the sunshine, nursing Melanie out in the woods.







As far as Melanie was concerned, she was happy as long as she had lots of cuddles, access to Mama's milk, and sufficient swaddle blankets. It was COLD! It got down to 30 degrees in the evenings, but Melanie was always snug as a bug.







Ellie, of course, was the happiest of everyone. She ran, ran, and ran some more. This trip, we discovered that Ellie is a natural cattle herder! The Oakanagon area is a free range cattle region, which means that you have to fence your land if you want to keep them out. We have a fence but it is broken down in a few places, so twice during our trip cattle came onto our land. No problem, though. Ellie took care of it! When the cattle came onto our land she started barking, growling, and chasing them. If you know Ellie, you know this is unusual for her... she really doesn't bark a lot. You could tell that she had a clear sense of the land as her territory, and she let the cows know too. Sure enough, they left pretty quickly and did not stay to graze. Yay Ellie! See below for her herding them out. Ellie is in the bottom right corner.





On Saturday night, or friends Ray, Jeannette, and their daughter Sylvie showed up. Yay for camping with friends!

And then our good friend Heath showed up late on Sunday night. By Sunday night it was getting REALLY cold, but fortunately Heath had all the right gear and was toasty in his tent. Monday morning Isabella woke up delighted to find him around, and they proceeded to have many sweet moments hiking around over the next two days. Look closely at the second picture below for the caterpillar on Heath's hand.

All in all, good times. I'm delighted that we continue to be a camping family and that a newborn isn't slowing us down at all. Yay for family, yay for friends, yay for being out in the woods, yay for our newest baby who will grow up always knowing camping as a way of life. Yay and yay again.