Wordless Wednesday

Playroom in Action

It's Time ...

It's time for us to dig into the garage for E. to find one of the two trikes buried in there and just let him go at it. His sister didn't master it until she was closer to three years old but yesterday we were at a park and Super E. jumped on another kid's tricycle and started to pedal a bit.

These 2 kids are so different -- always keeping me on my toes.

It's also time for me to restart up my kid's music blog. I used to really enjoy it.

Colors of our Weekend

We are a family that is happiest surrounded by color. Our house is a reflection of this and so are our weekends.

This weekend's colors were MULTICOLORED as we celebrated Day of the Dead at the Walters Art Museum.

Sunday-ing

I love Sundays. The eternal laziness of the day. Well, most of our Sundays are spent that way. Not this one though.

Today by 10AM we had already:

- made super cheesy scrambled eggs and cornbread

- put a second coat of paint on the playroom (photos later)

- moved a huge pile of sandbags and mulch since those projects are NOT getting done for now

- showered (and I'm online while Mister showers) and then we're headed down to our favorite museum for THIS.

Saturday Letter

Dear E,

The amount of time that Mommy has put into your baby book is absolutely no reflection on how much I love you. Instead it shows how I'd rather spend time living the moment with you rather than documenting your weight, height and tooth count.

Do you buy that?

Well, let's face it - we barely make it out the door on time to any place and I'm running circles to keep up with the four different schedules we've got going on right now. If I sit down to: 1) write 2) make a call or 3) type -- it's an instant signal to you and your sister that I need to come to your (this week) 1) tea party 2) circus or 3) be a swamp monster.

But you're doing really good, kiddo. We laugh a lot, we play a lot, we dance, sing and make messes. And you are just one heck of a character - you are goofy and silly. My kind of guy.

Just know that you were healthy and happy -- even if it's not written down.

Love,

Your Silly Mommy

** photo by Brooke Baker our go-to photo gal (brookebakerphotography.com)

4AM

From a strange dream involving college friends, I jolt from slumber's warm embrace to the early morning yells of my son.

"I want MAMAID"
"I want MAMAID"
(louder)"MOM-MEEEEEE I want mamaid!

Next the bleary-eyed stumble into E's room.

"What's wrong, honey?"
"Mamaid"
"hmmmmmm?"
"MaMAID - wha my Ma-MAID?!"
"What?"
(howling) "Ma-MAID! I need my MA-MAID!!!"
(finaly dawning) "A Mermaid? You want a mermaid??"
"Yes!" (beaming at me)

I look around with half quinted eyes to find a fairy figurine on his bedroom floor. "How about a fairy? She's a friend to the mermaid." He opens his hands to accept it and I stumble back to bed.

Having an older sister means this boy is equally obsessed with mermaids, fairies and princesses. All things girly. And I'm totally OK with it. Loving on this post this week. You HAVE to be the right kind of mother to your son. I don't force stereotypes of gender on my daughter and my friends find great humor as the feminist in me still rankles at her princess obsession. But I feed her imagination with all sorts of books with females in strong roles. And I want to feed my son's imagination -- and let's face it, fairies fly AND sparkle, mermaids are beautiful and tea parties ARE fun!!

Take a Seat ....

Take a seat ... just shoved in the garage.

A little spray paint on a sunny day. add some scrap fabric and TA-DA
a perfect art desk chair emerges for Super A.

Mottos in action

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
~~GE Lessing

Rally in DC

So, my first post this month will just be a quick tour through my experience at the Rally to Restore Sanity this past Saturday in D.C.

Originally when the announcement for the rally was made I had many friends from all over who were interested in attending. We live close to D.C. so our house could become Hotel L. for the weekend. But unfortunately the weekend was also Halloween and said friends also felt that (understandable) parental obligation to their kids for the weekend festivities.

The Mister insisted that I go along and enjoy the day visiting museums and then stay for the rally. He and the kids had Halloween-y plans anyway. I knew other groups of friends were going and made plans to meet up with them throughout the day. Upon waking to our first truly frosty autumn morning, I layered up my clothes and jumped in the Red Monster to head down to the closest Metro station. I was excited that it was early and I would clearly have lots of time to enjoy myself.

On exiting the beltway I saw this mass of humanity arranged in a rather orderly line at the Metro station. The queue had to be at least a 1/4 mile long. But again, because it was early we got through at a decent clip. Everyone was chatting and chilly - happy to be experiencing the day. As the Metro pulled out we saw a very long traffic jam to get into the parking lot. I heard later that this was the beginning of the daylong jam.

Enough has been written about the day, but I truly was thrilled to be there. I got a rather decent spot up front where I could see the stage and bopped along to the Roots and then I got antsy. I was getting a little claustrophobic (being short in a crowd can do that) plus the journalist side of me really wanted to do a walkabout and take in the day. I sensed a lot was going on back behind the stagefront crowd and I was right.

There was no hope of meeting up with friends as the phone service was jammed so texts and phone calls weren't going through. I did go to a designated meeting spot but didn't find anyone at our set times Later we compared notes and we were all at opposite ends at different times.

At 2pm I was amazed to still see hundreds upon hundreds of people still streaming in from the Washington Monument side of the mall. The Metro stops were still massed with crowds arriving. At the end, the official count was 215,000 to 250,000. This total definitely doesn't take into account those that remained in the closed off streets, never making their way down to the mall area.

The best part of the day was definitely taking in the vibe of the crowd and the funny, poignant and apolitical signage. See a gallery of some here and here and here.