My children are cute

I say this like a mantra.

Because it is true.

And it is also important to remember that it is true.

And to not let the bits of frustration in life color the truth of life.

The truth that is, I am blessed to be the mother of these two little people, who are unique and full of light and life and joy, who bring challenge and clarity and vibrancy everywhere they go, who are very, very cute.

Evidence A:

 

Ivy at 2 years, 10 months (egad, how did THAT happen????) is such a slice of adventure and sunshine in my life.  She does not sleep through the night, she has a quick temper and a scream to beat the band... but all is forgiven in an instant when she turns on this smile. She can always make me laugh. I love every inch of her and I am captivated by her spirit.  She talks and talks and wants to know what every word in the world means.  Her imagination is taking off:  tonight after she regaled us with stories of today's trip to Lake FarmPark, she then wanted to pretend to be a horse.  She carefully presented her feet to be "shoed"  and then galloped off, floating on tiptoe, arms akimbo, a feather with a face alight with joy.  The happiest of little blond horses in the world.  Gallop to mommy : "I sleepy!  Pet me!"  Gallop to Jack: "Wan go for a ride?"  Jack holding her hood like reins, they ran circles around Gram's house, giggling and finding patches of "grass" for our little horse to eat.

My children are cute.

Jack at 5 years , 8 months is a wild little man with quick and intense feelings and desires.  He loves a good project (like making his own Belt of Deltora, above) and listening to science fiction novels.  He lives to earn his allowance, loves to save it, and spends it impulsively and generously.  He would rather play Dungeon Keeper than... well... anything.  We are needing to set boundaries and structure for him, far more than we expected we might.. He can do mental math and read a lot of sight words and he doesn't love to write.  He runs fast, jumps with abandon, and can almost do a full split.  He's getting better and better at ice skating and is swimming like a little dog-paddling fish.   He wears a size 1 and half shoe.  He has a best friend at school.  He is so, so tall.  He is so, so grown up.  Yet he is still so very, very young.   His emotions rule him and he doesn't think things through.  There are times I have no idea what to do with him.  I love him so terribly much.  The curve of his cheek (still a little round), the mole behind his left ear, the set of his eyelashes-- these parts of him that are my baby still...

My children are cute.

No, they are more than cute.  They are complex, fascinating, exhausting, intoxicating, joyful, frustrating, intense beams of light. 

I am so lucky.

That's all for tonight.

February normal...

Not too much to say this week. Things have been comfortably normal, really.  We did have the pleasure of hosting Lulu this week for a brief visit over her winter break. Nat and Ivy squired her from museum to museum each day and evenings were spent eating and chatting and enjoying having, as Ivy would say, "all the people" around.   The kids sink back into their routine with their Lulu so easily, despite the distance between visits. I love watching them soak up her calm presence.

This weekend we had a nice respite, Nat and I, as the kids went to stay at Gram's on Friday night while we attended the St. Pauls fundraiser.  It was rather lovely to be out, with only grown ups, having beer and laughing loudly.  We had a most enjoyable time with the parents of one of Jack's preK  classmates.  We wondered alou d to each other why we don't spend more time with them.  Lack of time  in general, that would be why.  Friday night excepted, I feel like we simply don't have the time to devote to relating friendships beyond those we already have, delightful as those new people may be.  There is simply nothing to compare with the ease of our current family of friends.  As if to underscore this, Saturday night we gathered here with some of our nearest and dearest.  We had a dinner swap leftovers buffet, made pizza with the kids, and watched our littles as we chatted, looked at our phones, or enjoyed companionable silences.  If someone wanted a drink, they went and got it.  We didnt need to clean for five hours before people came over.  We were nonchalant about the playroom as there would be "only 6" children over (who knew that there would be a time in my life when I uttered that phrase!) Our children were sweet and wild and funny and it was the easiest Saturday night party ever.  We are so lucky to have these people in our lives ...

Weekending

 My love for long weekends is true and abiding.

I think I have mentioned this before, no?

Three days is, in my opinion, the minimum length of time that is acceptable for a weekend.  Enough time to relax, to play, to go places, see shows, visit a festival, shop, cook, bake, and even clean a little bit. 

Two more baskets of laundry to fold and we're caught up!

In the meantime, here are some pictures of our lives as of late.

To begin, a few from last weekend, snagged off Nat's camera.

In awe of the technology in GalleryOne

Preparing for the Valentine Party....

Those cookies never saw it coming!

Second Sunday Soup!  With Hearts!

Its strange to say, but I really do think I like the living room arrangement right now.  This is me in my "spot", facing the fireplace and TV, coffee table at easy reach.  Phone in hand.

Jack the skater!  He hardly falls anymore...

Valentines in bed!  The children were thrilled to receive cash in several Valentines this year.  Here they are excitedly opening a package from Lulu...

Saturday we headed to Playhouse Square again, for a Zydeco concert.  A theater full of dancing children, beads being thrown, an accordion... it was grand. A beautiful morning to be out downtown.. Lunch with Gram and Bec in the theater lobby rounded out the morning...

We headed back to the city in the evening for the Brite Winter Festival.  Ohio City opened its doors to the world with concerts and art.  We spent most of our time in the Festival Square-- lined with food trucks, two fires burning in the center, a band playing, craft booths and interactive art exhibits including giant Skeeball and Plinko games scattered throughout, it was a delight.  Oh, and as we arrived, giant cottonball snowflakes began to flood the air, blanketing our coats and hair and the world at large, proclaiming that this was a winter festival indeed...

We only look like hobos.  We were actually having fun, contrary to appearances.

The rest of the weekend included splurging on a new tote bag at a ThirtyOne party, watching the finale of Downton Abbey, swimming at the J, and some nice alone time working on an IEP for school.  No really, it was nice.  I made myself some chai. 

Happy Presidents Day!

Will you be my Valentine?

It's February Festive around our house and we celebrated tonight with a wonderful gathering for Second Sunday Soup.  Seventeen little ones ran amok and thoroughly trashed our playroom (several Star Wars figures lost their heads...)The tomato soup was lovely as was the company.  We all ate a lot of cookies.

Its been a nice weekend, finishing off a stressful week as our little boy battled a mysterious stomach bug that had him throwing up every other night, and had his poor mother up at night in between wondering who would be next.  So far, no one.  I am grateful that we were all healthy enough to enjoy this weekend.

Here are a few shots of the crazy troupe at the Art museum on Friday night.  Its a wonderful place in the evening, all light and shadow and clean lines and bright screens.

Wintry Week

 This week began and ended as a winter wonderland. In the middle, of course, we had two 60 degree rainy days that melted every bit of snow away.  Cleveland + climate change = good times.

I must say I prefer the winter wonderland.  Especially when it comes bearing a snow day!  Yesterday a nice white-out blew in right at 6am, just enough for Solon, and the other southeast districts, to call the day, but not enough for Cleveland Heights.  Which means I had the day off, and no kids at home for a bit of it, too.  What a way to start the weekend!  Snow days are such gifts.  This weekend has continued snowy-wonderful.  Our neighborhood is blanketed with such a thick, fluffy layer of white.  It is the kind of snow that coats the branches in that just-right, cover-of-an-old-fashioned-Christmas-Card kind of way.

Here we are out sledding last Sunday,  one "last chance" to enjoy the snow.  You know, before it came right back two days later. The children spent as much time on the playground as they did on sleds...

Tuesday:  A lovely birthday dinner and celebration with Becca.  I can't believe my baby sister is 22 years old.  She's such an amazing person, and I'm so glad she's back in town so we can have birthday dinners together again.  The kids, who absolutely adore her, are pretty happy about that too.

 

Yesterday-- our snow day!-- was a lovely, close to home, no-photos-taken day. 

Highlights:  starting the day with a swim and time in the hot tub, coffee at Starbucks all by myself, getting to pick up Ivy from preschool (so much cute in one little room!!)

In the afternoon we took the chance to go tour a school we'd thought about for Jack last year- a "charter school" that's actually a collaboration between CMSD and CSU, using the International Baccalaureate curriculum.  If Nat does end up with CSU next year (and there are some possibilities in the works...) then we'd have a pretty good chance of getting Jack in there.  It was pretty impressive, and it made me regret that I never got around to looking at it last year.  Because there are so many more layers of complication to this idea than there would have been last year.  And last year it would not have been complication-free.  It is hard when our politics collide with our personal desires and with the intense and frightening pressure to be absolutely sure we are doing the exactly right thing for our child at all times.

You see, its not that I am actually unhappy with Jack's current school experience in Cleveland Heights.  Its just that I kind of wish I was really happy with it.  Jack looks forward to school, he's learning, I think his teacher is lovely.  So what's not to be happy about? I want to believe in public, neighborhood schools. It's just that I wish his neighborhood school to actually reflect his neighborhood, to have his classmates be the kids he walks to school with, to see the other parents as we walk or shop.  That's the core and strength of a neighborhood school.  And that's what's lacking for us so far at Boulevard.  Please don't misunderstand me.  The children and parents in Jack's class are lovely.  I have enjoyed the interactions I've had with them.  But none of them live on our street.  Or within a 5 street radius.  Or anywhere that our paths would cross and friendships and real community can develop. That's what I'm looking for, that's the whole "personal desires" piece, right there.  And so I find myself wondering, if we don't have a true neighborhood school to fight for, are we doing the right thing for our child's education? Do we listen to test scores and doubt the level of rigor in our community's schools?  Do we fall prey to judgement and fear that class and culture differences will negatively impact our child's learning?  How can I not, as a good bleeding-heart liberal, insist that those things don't matter a bit?  How can I not, as an over-educated educator brainwashed into worshiping The Test and all its data portends, ignore the nagging thought that they really do matter quite a bit?  

Everybody else is doing it, so why aren't we?  Should we blindly follow our neighbors and pull Jack out of Boulevard to ...somewhere else...?  Or do we stick it out, fight for our local schools, put politics above the personal?  

I am working through this.   Bear with me.

On a lighter note.  Today we had a most wonderful time at the Natural History Museum Groundhog day celebration.  The kids couldn't have been better. We dug like a groundhog, tunneled like a groundhog, and made a groundhog puppet. We met Erie Eddie, our local groundhog.  I want one for  a pet now.

The kids got their faces painted.  A catty for Ivy, two dragons for Jack.  They are SO. SERIOUS. about getting their faces painted.

They also played Ring Around the Rosy...

Story time

Its been a nice Sunday, as evidenced by the fact that I am still wearing pajama pants, and the only time I left the house was to go sledding this morning.  It was a sunny-lovely day and I soaked in the sight of the bright-white snow covered world before the melt comes tomorrow.  We cleaned and played games and watched a movie.

And, Jack read us a book.

Here he is, reading from "Go, Dog, Go!"  With a little help, yes.  But this is his first time trying this book-- and I think he did pretty well.  He made it through about 500 of the 550 words in the book, which is also a tremendous display of stamina for our boy.

As he went up the stairs to bed, Nat said to him, "I can't believe you read 500 words tonight! Wow."  And Jack replied, "I'm really proud!"

I am too.




And did I ever post this one?   Meh, it's so cute it doesn't matter if it's on here twice!

About the Weather

As I prepare to post the pictures you'll see below, its hard to believe that it was only a week ago we  spent a blustery, sunshiny day outside at Wade Oval.  Since then our high temperatures have been in the teens, Jack has had his first snow/cold day, and our world is blanketed by a fluffy layer of white. The weather is a little crazy around here.  

So are the children.

You may notice Ivy's "Rocky" impression in these pictures.  She fell while on a walk around the block on Friday. On her nose.  We couldn't get this band-aid off of her for several days.  Cute look, eh?

Last Saturday we went to our second Children's Matinee at Playhouse Square.  Its so fun to dress the kids up and take them downtown, and to see the parade of other littles, dressed and pressed and so excited to be out with their parents.  Or at least, in the case of my little ones, to be getting a package of skittles from the refreshment cart in the lobby.  As soon as I mentioned the play, Jack began to work himself up for those skittles.  The boy is serious about skittles.

The play we say was a puppet adaptation of the children's book "Guess how much I love you."  It was sweet and calm and quite fun to watch and not nearly so over-long as the last one.  We shared a packed lunch in the lobby with Gram afterwards and it was a lovely way to spend a morning.

We got home to find that the day in general was getting lovelier by the minute.  In Cleveland, when you find yourself looking at a 50 degree, sunny day in January, and it's only 1:00, you do not pass go, you do not collect $100, you just proceed directly to the nearest outdoor, picturesque location.  

For us last Saturday, that was Wade Oval.  I am not sure why we don't spend more time at this perfect park in front of the Art Museum.  It is stunning there, really.  Symmetrical and planned, yet organic, dotted with sculpture and fountains, encircled by paths and steps, graced with flat grass begging to be run across.  The wind whipped our hair and the kids played "Daddy Monster" and Corydon and I had a brisk walk around the lake together.

We had to go inside the museum too, of course.   The new Gallery One interactive experience?  Yeah.  It's pretty awesome.  Nat says it is proof positive that we are, in fact, living in the future.

It was so awesome, in fact, that we didn't make it anywhere else in the museum...


The rest of the week, in brief and sans pictures:

Monday-- given a 3 day weekend and no other plans, we did what we always do:  drive to IKEA.  Never mind the two kids who had just come down with colds.  Why not go on a road trip?  We took lots of tissues...  We ended up having a grand day, relaxing at Fi and Anthony's lovely new house, watching Ivy and Keely play together, then a quick shopping run through our Mecca of consumerism where we picked up a new oriental rug for the living room (we'd meant to get a cowhide.... but I am actually-- dare I say it?-- really happy with how this one looks...) and $100 of who-knows-what to go with it.  Happens every time.

Tuesday-- records day for me.  Awful roads. Worked two hours at Starbucks while waiting for roads to improve.  Could get used to that.

Wednesday-- workshop for me.  Great day, really.  The workshop was rather boring and repetitive but the company was lovely.  It is vital to have these chances to connect with co-workers.

The rest of the week-- cold and snowy and busy!  This weekend has found us snuggling in with movies and games, with  one foray out to swim at the J this morning.

I really like my mornings at the J with the kids. We have a routine, and they do very well with it.  We change then swim for about 30 minutes. It's so do-able now that Jack is an independent swimmer (more and more independent every time!  Today he spent almost the whole time experimenting with how deep he could swim under water..).  Then, 30 minutes of enjoying a hot shower in the great, accessible family change rooms.  I am dreading the day we have to bite the bullet and say its no longer appropriate to shower together as a family, because this is SO convenient!  They have fun, they are contained, we all walk out clean and dressed and ready for the day.  We go upstairs and eat lunch and play in the Family Space rooms for about an hour before heading home...  A nice way to spend 4 hours together with a minimum of yelling.

(Sadly, 4 hours at home usually contains far more yelling that I am happy with.  Jack, while stunningly handsome and a pretty good swimmer, has recently been a bit of a pill when it comes to listening to us, or behaving acceptably towards his sister.  If she's not screaming at him for taking a toy or getting in her space, we're yelling at him for ignoring our directions the first 7 times we said them.   I am hoping that this is just one of those "phases" he goes through.  Please....)

And somehow, so soon, we 're entering the tail end of another weekend.  At the tail end of another month!  We shall see where the weather takes us this week...