Weekends Fly

And somehow two have gone by since I managed to post pictures.   We've been busy enjoying two full weeks of wonderful weather, warm fall sunshine highlighted by foliage ever-so-slightly tinged with orange and red.  It hardly feels like fall has begun yet October is right around the corner.    I am confident that we have enjoyed this month, despite the fact that busyness of school and back-to-the-routine has swallowed it up almost without a trace.

A few updates on the blog's star attractions.

Jack is settling in to school, after what may have been some anxiety about starting ELA mornings with a new teacher.  Once the switch into the full schedule happened, we saw a definite decrease in his tendency to drive us completely crazy. This past week, he's been back to the sweet boy we love so much (and missed!) with an occasional bit of 6 year old attitude thrown in.   He is progressing at warp speed in his academics, in that first grade way, with noticeable improvements in his letter formation, reading, and math skills in just this first month.  Today he was doing two digit addition and subtraction, mentally.  That's my boy.

His news-du-jour is the newest addition to our family -- small pet version 2.0, a young grey and white rat named Lightning.  Hampy the Hamster has not reappeared after his great escape on day 13 in our home. We are imagining him happily living in the wild (and hoping that we will not discover his remains inside).  Sigh.  In the hopes that we are just not hamster people,we are boldly trying again. Lightning (named for the shape of the markings on her back) is a little sweetie so far and Jack seems thrilled with her.

Fingers crossed.

Ivy continues to be the most entertaining little thing around.  Constantly making up stories and scenarios and roles for us to play, she borders on manic as she orders us through the motions of pretend-life, at high speed.  Tonight she was the mama, and I was the baby, and we drove back and forth to swimming lessons, her in a swimsuit pulled on over her dress, a headband on over her ponytail, a scarf around her neck and pretend earrings-- "because I'm a mama!"  Her imagination is a known quantity around our house. At dinner we were exploring a 1937 Oxford dictionary the kids found (which Ivy had been using as both a story book and a menu) and Nat read the definition of "macabre": gruesomely imaginative.   Jack pipes up-- "like Ivy!"

That's my girl.  Macabre.

 She is intense and intensely funny, which is good as she demands our attention at every moment these days. She is loving preschool, complaining frequently that it is "too short" and referring to her friends in conversation.  Her language is more precise every day;  I am trying to just soak up all the syntactic imperfections I can because I will miss it when she no longer says "Dem were playing" or "When I was a grown up".  I love her so much.

Pictures, now.

Last weekend-- a trip to Ingenuity Festival.  While we continue to be underwhelmed with the Festival (we miss the Bridge location!), we did have a nice day exploring the Port Authority warehouses, a venue we don't frequently get to see.  Jack had a visit to Fun N Stuff with auntie Bec, so we started the day with an only child.

Can you find Ivy's art?
hint:  it's directly above her name in this caption...

 After Bec dropped our boy off to join us, we decided to take in some of the City Hop, too.  Always one of my favorite days of the year,  the City Hop draws people into all the neighborhoods of Cleveland with free trolley rides and spontaneous events at every stop.  Sadly, this year we suffered from a moment of really bad timing-- one stop into our tour (after a nice 20 minute tour of the Asian Town Center), we had an overfull trolley arrive, just as it began to rain, and our little no-nap girl hit the wall.  Ah well.  We shall try again next year, and at least we were a part of it, for a little while.

Sunday of the Weekend of All Festivals brought another of my faves-- Woofstock at the Holden Arboretum.  We headed out first thing, and were greeted by a chilly and perfect fall day, full of dogs and dog people and even little helium balloon dogs for the kids.  A good time was had by all. 

After a nice lasagna dinner for Virginia's 90th birthday, we were all too tired to squeeze in a visit to the Chalk Fest before Nat and I headed out to see Ani DiFranco at The House of Blues.  A wonderful date night!  Wings at the Greenhouse tavern, a sunset over the city, and a fun, intimate concert that took be back to my college days (kind of.  The angry-punk-feminist heroine of college girls everywhere is now settled down with two kids and seemed really... well... happy.  I liked her happy.  it was just kind of weird...)

Then we went to school and week went by.  Seriously.  That's about all I can say about it.  How can that be? Life just... happened.  I did have a great choir rehearsal, complete with an ever entertaining drive home with Fiona.  And Wednesday I took the kids exploring at Acacia Reservation, a defunct country club bought by the Metroparks.  We played hide and seek in the long grass.  That's something to remember.

Friday night: our traditional trip to Legacy Village with our friends.  Chipotle and Frozen Yogurt and our four running around like banshees in the cool evening air.  Perfect.

Saturday morning Ivy and I walked in the CureSearch walk for childhood cancer, to support our friends who are battling their little one's brain tumour.  Becca is doing well, her spunky and beautiful self, and it was wonderful to see her and her family out enjoying a splendid fall morning with 40+ friends there to cheer her on.  All clad in purple, we dominated the day, the highest fund-raising team with a total of $10,600 raised.    Hope, in the form of a purple dress and a sunny blue sky.

That evening, we celebrated Greg's birthday with a Knight party at a nearby park, where children wielded blow up swords and waged epic battles among the ramparts of a fabulous play structure.  We are so lucky to be friends with this family.  And not just because they throw a mean birthday party!

My mom took the kids for an overnight and Nat and I had a great coffee date at Moca, a small independent place we discovered on the near-west side, where we sat by these two wonderful gay men and their little dog Griffin.  They were so engaging Nat and I almost forgot to talk to each other!
We spent the rest of the evening quietly at home, Nat setting up his new phone, me moving things down to my new office.  Very slowly.  Because it takes time to look through EVERY photo album and blank book as you move it.  Good lord I keep a lot of stuff.

Today, forecast rain showers held off again and we had a picnic at Rocky River Beach before starting our quest for small pet 2.0.

It is hard to keep up with a life so full of good things.  May the days ahead continue to bless us all so well.  Relish the autumn sun, everyone.

Our porch

I've been meaning to write about our porch for a while now.  Pretty much every time I walk across it recently, I've imagined writing this post.  Then I go inside and get hit in the face by life and the words and the time disappear.

But it is Friday and I am tired and I don't feel like folding that laundry, so instead I will write about our porch.

I fell in love with the porch first.  I remember that first day we toured the house, how solid the porch felt.  How rooted.  How sheltered and gracious.  We walked inside and were blindsided by woodwork and bay windows.  But the porch is where we lingered, sitting on its low walls with Melinda and Will, imagining futures bordered in yellow and brick red.

The porch welcomed our first furniture to arrive-- a porch swing of course-- and then my plants, and then a collection of scavenged chairs and side tables (carefully arranged), and candles, and company.  We would adjourn to the porch and sit to talk late into the night, that first summer, back in the day when our friends could stay later than 8:00.  Soft and candlelit, the porch had room for all and held us close.

The porch,  festooned with hanging baskets and a wreath on the door, announced to the world that someone loved this house again. Neighbors complimented it, said how glad they were to see things looking so nice.

Then life changed.  Our "Stay in it" house welcomed a baby.  And then another.  First to go were the ferns, then the potted flowers, then any semblance of careful furniture arrangement.   Late night lingering fell to the wayside in favor of sleep when we could get it.

The porch still greets us every day-- we always come in the front door-- though these days it is more a hallway than an outdoor room.    It still has those perfect, hugging-the-earth proportions,  the calm, wide walls, the sense of shelter.  Even if it seems to be sheltering nothing but wheeled conveyances for our children.  The porch does not seem to mind the fact that there are currently two strollers, two bikes and a wagon taking up most of the floor space.  Because it knows they are parked here to be used, every day, by the two little people who are growing up taking the porch for granted.

The porch will wait.

It already has, for 90-some years.

It will only be a moment in this porch's life, before it will be a gracious social center again.

And I will miss all the bikes when they are parked somewhere else.

I love our porch.  And right now, I am loving the way it reminds me to savor the now of my life, every day, when it welcomes me home.

Always walk through the Gardens

Do you ever get tired of my endless stream of "oh, how I love where I live" posts?  No?  Good.  Cause here's another.

(disclaimer:  you know I have to wax poetical about my love for the Heights just to combat the uncomfortable discontent that can rise up when I think about my property taxes...  no worries, its not all wine and roses.  Or it is, but just really really expensive wine and roses...)

On Wednesday evenings Wade Oval stays open late.  Summer festivals have gone, leaving the Oval a calm expanse of green, with museums beckoning on all sides.   We've been having a spate of warm-fall weather and the sunny evening begged a trip down  Murray Hill for the kids and I.  We loaded bikes and helmets and dog and made the trip.

You know, the 7 minute trip.  Because I love where I live.

Jack rode at least 8 circuits, beaming, riding one-handed, proud, almost disappearing on the far side of the Oval (imagine how free he must feel??) as Ivy and I slowly made our way around.  The girl is pedaling her trike like a champ but it's hard to make much progress when you are stopping every five feet or so to imagine yourself at a restaurant, or to carefully stow your imaginary pink, purple, silver and gold bike locks in the back basket.  "I have SEVERAL locks, momma.  Good I have so many locks!"

The sun flitted down through the leaves, shining golden halos through my children's hair.  Walkers and runners circled around, with smiles and waves and hardly any perturbance when the littles got in their way.  We admired chalk art and drank from every drinking fountain. Corydon sniffed everything in sight and we soaked up the light.

Then, we locked our bikes to a big yellow flower and headed into the Gardens for dinner.

The Gardens!  The sense of calm and well-being I get just from walking in the door.  The well-lit, perfectly proportioned space, the oxygen-rich, heady air, the opulence of green all about.   We sat outside to enjoy the pumpkins and haybales decorating the patio for fall, eating grilled cheese and making up a collaborative story about a Princess and a wise, break-dancing monster and an old dragon named Sookaroo and their quest to bring the dragon-riders back to the kingdom.

You need to know that I hardly ever think of dinner with my children as something to be savored.  The endless negotiations, the wheedling, the whining, the reprimands.  Dinner is rather something to be endured, most nights.

But not at the Gardens.

At the Gardens, we soak up dinner together.  We revel in each other and their eyes shine and we have all the time and ease in the world.  Dinner could have gone on all night.

But-- there was a children's garden to explore!  Scarecrows to discover, herbs to smell, plants to water.  We never even made it to the pond and treehouse because some nights you just want to be where you are, a little bit longer.  Especially when you have popsicles.

We couldn't leave without a trip to the glasshouses.  Glowing and magical and just a little eerie with the light fading behind the high glass walls, the glasshouses were places for wishing. We found little purple flowers on the paths and wished them all into the streams.

 Birds were arcing above us and crickets were chirring with all their might and the butterflies!  They were alive and alight with the excitement of the evening.  The big ones, with the fake eyes on their wings, swooping and diving and looking rather like bats, as Jack pointed out.  They traveled in pairs and threes and danced in the air with no fear, landing on our arms, in our hair.  We laugh-shrieked and ran along the path, seeking refuge behind the waterfall to recover.

A tiny butterfly alighting gently on your shoulder in the sunshine?  Fairy magic.  Giant butterflies dive bombing your head?  A little scary.  Having each other to hold and hug and laugh through it?

Priceless, actually.

We didn't get home til 8:30 but that was totally OK.

Because I love where I live.

Feeling happy and lucky tonight in Cleveland.  A busy weekend of memory making to come.  Tune in again soon, loves.

Picture Post

September's been a good month so far, by the looks of these photos. I am glad we took them, as I feel like I've hardly noticed this month going by....

This weekend, at least, seemed to slow down a little.  The kids had an overnight with Gram and some nice one-on-one time with various members of the family, and the time apart/together seems to have done us all good.  The cool September air and sunshine hasn't hurt either.  Last night, Nat and I had a great date at Tree Country Bistro, one of our favorite Coventry destinations, then stayed up late finishing Ivy's new room and reorganizing Jack's.  Today, the kids and I had a peaceful visit to Rocky River Beach, complete with a picnic, bike riding, and many Japanese beetles to catch and build sandhomes for.   Tomorrow, back to the busyness of the week, with Ivy off to her first "full" day of preschool and another 5 day week for the rest of us.  We are settling in.  Fall is coming along nicely. Pictures are a good thing.

My apologies for repeats of previous posts.  Eleven-pm-brain has a hard time keeping track.

Labor Day Weekend:  Last days at the outdoor pool.  Our girl can touch! She's a swimmer all of a sudden...

 

First loose tooth!  That faraway wiggling face.   Refusing to eat crunchy food.  He lost the tooth at school on Friday.  It was kind of nerve wracking to play tooth fairy-- imagine if he woke up to find me the one reaching under his pillow!

Bike riding!  and more bike riding!  I even went out and bought a bike today so I can join in on the fun.

Sometimes, we catch him smiling.

 

First day of first grade...

I think we've been out for ice cream more often these past two weeks than all three months before.  It is kind of like a talisman against the end of summer.

First day of threes at St Paul's!

A spontaneous trip to Kalahari to use the tickets Jack won last year.  It was a really great day, actually, surprisingly fun for all of us.

 Love me some Rocky River Park.

Jack, enjoying his new fishing rod at Penitentiary Glen park.  Thanks, Grandpa Jon!

A wonderful picnic at Horseshoe Lake.  Time with M and W and the girls, as well as an unexpected meet up with neighbors and preschool friends.  And ducks to feed!

I'd like for you to notice how high these little girls are climbing.  They are fearless and wonderful.

Ivy and I had a nice Sunday in Lakewood last week, joining Gram for church and playtime at Madison Park.

 

The boy has been a fundraising fiend, selling candy bars at every opportunity.  We've taken several walks through Coventry and he just goes up to everyone who passes, so confident and polite, asking them if they want a dollar candy bar.  A motivated young man, our Jack.

While I am at work, Nat takes Ivy to picturesque locations.

this giant nest is outside the Cleveland public library.  love my city!

What's that about Rocky River Park?

ladybugs!!

Ivy's room!  She is asleep in her new big bed for the first time, as of this writing.  (we shall see how the rest of the night goes!) She is so excited about her new space.  We had a lovely bit of time carefully putting her doll's clothes into the tiny dresser and feeding her at the little table and my heart just swelled with joy and pride that she has this place to feed her imagination and dreams.

Sweet dreams to all of you, too...