Margaret, Are You Out There?

A few months ago, my friend Margaret, from Boston days, commented on my blog. She hasn't commented since, neither Geoff nor I have her email, and she's not on Facebook. So this message is for her:

Times I Think of You: A List For Margaret
-whenever I see flowering eucalyptus, which I used for Thanksgiving
-using silver trays for every day like when you served McDonald's on silver trays with plastic Ikea cups by the light of the Christmas tree
-whenever I re-arrange furniture
-when I make a boundary as in, "That's not my red wagon to pull."
-whenever I make apple cake with hot custard
-when we use the fire-engine plate you painted for Manny

-and now that I am trying to apply to counseling school, I'm thinking, how did you pull that off??

BTB's Seventh Trip Around the Sun

To our dear son as you turn seven:

Over the weekend, you invented "Tag Ball," made your own passport with this question, "grownup or kid" and you wrote:k-I-d, and you tithed your birthday money. You make all of us around you look better, be better and want more out of life. You navigate critical adults, awkward and stony-hearted children, and your carefully-selected friends. How do you do it? It's like you are able to finely tune the world around you to play perfectly in your harmony.

I know that I am the toughest on your character because I know we are very similar, and you don't know how hard I pray that you don't get messed-with in life. That you can find your corner--get strengthened and rally back into the tough and terrible world out there. I know you know this and yet you work hard to bring hope and beauty into it anyway. Like the moon-power reflector you made tonight. It was a skinny stick that you whittled to expose the bare wood. You drew on it with soft-graphite so that it was silvery. Then you held it up under your eye. It was to reflect and catch the moonlight, you said. All out of a stick!

We are dumbstruck, flat-footed, and bowled over by you every day but know that we are your parents. We are here to keep you safe and to lead your way.

highlights, lowlights

From my weekend sans Geoff:
Highlights:
-Scrubbing the kitchen sink to a satisfying shine while listening to Ah Perfido! while the kids played in the sun.
-A long game of hide n' seek at the arboretum, chasing the heck out of them with nowhere else to be.
-The litany of the Saints on Sunday morning, the kids touching the Book of the Dead with wonder in their eyes.
-They collected kid-sized armfuls of kindling at the arb.
-Wrapping them up like burritos and tickling them til they drool or toot.
-Waking up before all of them to read and have my cup.
-Wearing jammies and robes and reading stories on the front porch to wait for Geoff.

Lowlights:
-Almost 20 minutes, five of us, in the bathroom at Whole Foods.
-Dropping the F bomb at breakfast when 5 dollars of organic milk splashed our feet.
-Trying to arrange pillows to simulate my husband's sleeping frame.
-The worst combination of 2 kids fighting, one injured one and one precariously close to being injured-- and all of them SIMULTANEOUSLY asking for help in some way.

Sons of Geoffrey

These are things the boys have done while Geoff is away that demonstrate that they are, in fact, his sons:
-Manny sat on his feet for 45 minutes straight while silently building with Legos.
-Manny wanted to listen to Christmas music in the car and also at home.
-Benicio ate two Tarzan sandwiches.
-Benicio put his T-shirt in the drawer and took two out that he no longer needs.
-They both put away an entire homemade pizza last night.
-Benicio has drawn surveys, look n finds, and scores of battle scenes just today.
-Manny says, "I have not been on my water today."

Proustian Quiz: Clara and Calliope

I just gave the girls the questionnaire from the pages of Mini Boden via Genevieve's blog. I can't wait til the boys get home. I am surprised at their answers and can see how people spend so much time doing this. Give them 10 years or even 20 and the answers could be the same.

Name:C-L-A-R-A

Age:4

Best thing in the world:
HERSHEYPARK

Fave movie:
ALICE IN WONDERLAND

I want to be:famous ballerina

Animal I'd Like To Be:a pig for Sophie

Worst food:salad

best gift: heart purse from Kayla Joy

fave book:Alice in Wonderland from Zady

Afterschool, I enjoy:watch a movie at home without the boys

favorite word: princess

favorite sandwich: cream cheese and jelly

hidden talent:soccer

fave game: hide n seek no tag stay hidden

Best thing I’ve found: found the hook at my school

something nobody knows: Sometimes I’m bored.

Name: Calliope

Age: 2

Best Thing In the World:Nanay calling me “Chula”


Favorite Movie:Bible Songs

I want to be a: princess

Animal I'd Like to Be: crocodile snapping my arms

worst food: peas

favorite book: Toot and Puddle

After play group: get gum


Favorite word: perfect

Favorite Sandwich: cheese and pickle

Hidden Talent: doing ABCD’s

Fave Game: pbs kids

Best Thing I've Found: treasures from L.A.

Nobody Knows: That I’m perfect and grownups stop saying it.

a list for lost time

Entries I Could Have Been Writing:
-Calliope's Drawings
-Clara's New Signature
-Teacher Conferences
-Floor Hockey, the New Frontier
-My New Love/Hate with the Treadmill
-Why Geoff No Longer has Night Bikes to School
-St. V's
-How I Am Staying Calm Before Turkey Day
-The Book I'm Reading (which contains both the words "frottage" AND "mutatis mutandis")
-How I'm Supposed to Write a 400 Word Essay (for my grad school app and it's turning into a doctoral thesis)

Plum Wine and Ace of Base

Okay highlights from K with the M's"
-Role call: one med student, one law student and one PhD student, one Catholic housewife.
-Drinks ordered:two ice waters one plum wine.
-Songs belted: Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E", Xtreme's "More Than Words" (Guess who held the mic.), Ace of Base's "Signs."
-Duets attempted:everything Disney like the one from Aladdin and the one about Moses.
-Embarassingly satisfying and enjoyable: Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" and "Tainted Love."
-While trying to channel Maggie Gyllenhaal singing "Just The Way You Are" karaoke, I might have been more of a sleep-deprived but studious tween.
-Endnote:It was great to come home by walking through our backyards and up the back deck into the kitchen door. It felt very Family Times-ish.