D List

 

After a run near my in-law's house

 

My sister bought this for Chris a few years ago

In the entrance of Whole Foods

 

I had meant to capture this during the Cs, but better late than never

A lovely woman has left us. Over the years, a daughter, sister, friend, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. As part of her extended family, I felt the glow of her love and acceptance. My little family will miss you, Lois, as will so many others.

September 18, 1917- March 11, 2012

What good is having a blog if you can't post about your successes?

On Thursday, Oregon's Governor Kitzhaber signed House Bill 4164 into law. Last summer the Legislature passed a bill authorizing Oregon's exchange to be built, but the legislation included a requirement that the Exchange team return in February to get approval for its Business Plan. We did that and both chambers voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill that accepted the plan and put the Exchange team fully on the road to opening our doors in October of next year. The Governor signed the bill in a formal ceremony that felt a bit like a family reunion, as among the politicians and key stakeholders were a couple of dozen people with whom I have worked for the past half-decade. It was great to be able to smile together and marvel that we have gotten so far. 

It was a good day.

There was cake, signed by the Governor no less!

Now C Here

What did I C?

 

  Sign, Nob Hill

  
 Ada's rendition of a drawing from Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed (Mo Willems) 

 
Detail of the vegetable list, and attempt to remember what we've 
gotten from our community supported agriculture farm 

 
This C was a table marker at a workshop

Stuff Ian* said a month ago that I wrote down so I wouldn't forget and them promptly forgot

Does this have silver raisins?

You know, snow comes from the sky. Roovers are near the sky. When it snows it lands on the roof.

I can't even really 'magine it's snowing! How can it be snowing again?

(and, in the context of cell phones ringing in people's pockets...): I want to hear the call of Ellen's butt.


*To me these all sound like Ian sayings, but since I didn't write that down I will never be sure.

Just Doing

Me, to Ian at bedtime: Okay Ian, time to lie down.

Ian: Guess what Mama? Poop!

Me: Do you have poop?

Ian: No, I was just doing guess what.

Bs Knees

Wow are the B titles I thought up corny. If you doubt me, consider that the one I chose was not actually the worst.

Some highlights of my two weeks on the B side:

From a child-free weekend with Chris, during which we did not actually go to Mr. Bing's. I snapped this on the way from the most amazing sushi to delicious old-fangled drinks.

I love this little blue car. I wish it was mine. 

Then again, it is so small I could probably pick it up and make off with it!

 

Chris wrote this on our kitchen calendar, I snapped it with my macro lens.

 

My all time favorite fortune cookie fortune; the only one I have held on to.

Now I know my A B Cs

Life continues to be too busy. One thing I am doing (besides wiping noses, recommending policy, occasionally cooking mediocre dinners and losing my voice) is taking pictures. I decided I wanted to take on a photo-a-day project this year. I loved doing it in 2010 and it seemed like time to try it again.

I considered a time-based theme, but I could not commit to a single time for a whole year (though I have loved looking at friends' sets). I considered moving through the day, taking photos at hour or half-hour increments, but I have a sense that I'd mess it up. It is awkward to interrupt a meeting in order to photograph it. 

Ultimately I chose to divide the year into twenty-six 2 week chunks, one for each letter of the alphabet. So far I have done A, B and C. This theme combines my love for signs and words with my sense that switching things up every two weeks will make it easier to stick it out the whole year. 

I am breaking radio (er, blog) silence to post some of the pictures for each letter. Here are some A photos: 

A11 is for the A key

   

A10 is for (stop) Animals

   

A7 is for All

   

A8 is for Apple

Almost, but not all the pictures are shot using my iPhone 4s. The camera is surprisingly good and I have it with me most of the time (unlike my slr). My main tools are the Camera+ and Instagram apps. Once in a while I use Hipstamatic, which I love, but is definitely more unpredictable. Chris got me some lenses for my phone, so some shots are taken with one of those. (the "All" picture used the macro lens, hence some of the fuzz around the edges.)

The whole set is here. At the end of the year there will be 26 sets in an Alphabet Collection on Flickr. 

Better Late (Thankful) than Never

I rolled back into work on Monday, straight into an meeting, followed by an hour conference call and then six and a half hours of a meeting with out of town collaborators. All that talk talk talk makes me thankful for the weekend just past.

I am also thankful for:

• family (mine and Chris's both) - I got so lucky to have all these people to whom I am related by birth or marriage that I liketo be around. Also, my children are more wonderful than insane, though they are certainly a healthy dose of the latter as well. I never get over how good it feels to have three little people come running in at the sound of the opened door, yelling "Mommy's home! YAY! Mommy's home!"
• work - I continue to have a fulfilling job with people I like doing something I care about. Oh, and I have some flexibility in my scheduling too. 
• home - my house is warm and cozy, with a fire often in the fireplace and good smells coming from the kitchen. I live on a fantastic block with thoughtful, generous, fun neighbors, most of whom are good cooks too. My city is easy to love; interesting and filled with cool little discoveries. Plus, it has lots of bridges. The state is beautiful and often progressive despite itself.
• friends - from my closest friends to people we are getting to know, I feel love and acceptance. Often people laugh at my jokes and praise my children. 
• health - My body has continued to let me run without complaining too much, which gives me the emotional and physical balance I have been needing. It even stops raining for long enough now and then to make runs reasonably pleasant. 

What more could I want? Oh right, holidays that remind me how lucky I am to have so much.

Place cards from Thanksgiving dinner, by Ada with help from her aunt and uncle 

The kids' table at Second Thanksgiving dinner this past weekend.

Unclear on the Concept

Mmm, cake.

Moments after we all walked into the house, Ian was on the couch, yelling:  "Strawberry mrrmmmrrm! I want strawberry mrrmmmrrm"

"What?" I asked, "what do you want?"

"I want strawberry mrrmmmrrm" repeated Ian.

"Is that something you can eat?"

"Strawberry mrrmmmrrm"

"Is it something you read? Something you watch? What is strawberry mrrmmmrrm?"

louder, more emphatically: "Strawberry mrrmmmrrm! Strawberry mrrmmmrrm! Strawberry mrrmmmrrm!"

"Is it something on television?"

"YES. Strawberry mrrmmmrrm!"

"Strawberry Shortcake?"

"Yes, I want Strawberry Shortcake!"

"Oh. We aren't watching television right now."

"I WANT STRAWBERRY TELEVISION CAKE!"

 

Does he look like a kid who doesn't get enough cake?

Miss Me?

A few months ago I had a great idea for a blog post on the theme: "if you have time to blog about work-life balance, you have some." I never wrote the post, which should tell you something about the state of my life. Things are going really well, but wow, the busy.

At 2 and a couple of months, Ian is starting to use the potty, with little or no prompting from his parents. Mira was the first to use the potty, but after one successful try she has figured out that the potty is more fun as a distraction tool. She likes to declare her desire to use the potty whenever she is faced with something she'd rather not do (get her diaper changed, put her pajamas on, eat breakfast...). Ian has been shockingly interested in non-diaper based elimination. Thrilling and thoroughly unexpected. Who says boys are harder to train? We are a while off from dumping diapers completely, but we are making some good progress without trying much. (Anyone who remembers what we went through with Ada will find this a big and pleasant change.)

When I am not working and marveling at Ian's willingness to use the potty, we have been having a good, if fairly mellow, summer. We went to our college reunion, Ada turned six, we celebrated 4th of July with family and I took a bunch of pictures on a work trip to Chicago.

 

Newish Chicago Icon

More recently we spent a week at the beach with my family. The weather was better than ever in the years I have been going to the Oregon coast. Amazing. Even better, Ada got over her fear of the water. She lead me repeatedly into the waves, much to Ian's horror. We heard "look out, the ocean! look out!" a lot from him. Mira, who pretty much refused to touch the sand last year was a lot more willing to play on the beach, so long as we didn't expect her to get near that scary water stuff.

Mira and Ada on the beach

Ada and I built a fairy house, which was very fun to do. In case this isn't in your repertoire, Ada offers the following public service announcement: Fairy houses must be built with all natural components; no artificial/human made items and nothing currently growing. So no picking flowers, but fallen leaves are fine. Or in our case, sea weed, shells, driftwood and dried sea grass.

 
fairy attractor, dune scaler, child who posed for 10 minutes 

but later declared she does not like her picture taken

 

we could have never left the porch and Mira would have still had a good time

 
proof that we had fun inside the house too: cherry juice stained boy

After a few days to recuperate and wash the sand out of our pants, we went to see Chris' family, including his 94 year old grandmother.

great grandma

We had a great time, despite the rigors of traveling with three kids. (Pro tip: take a third adult with you!)

How can you resist toddlers in tiny cars?

And lest I forget to tell you the exciting news: my sister and her husband have a book out! It looks like this:

The book is great - funny, interesting and compelling. Also, pictures! recipes! a comic! Really, I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me. Go buy it and read it now. This means you, Maggie.

Before the summer is over we have a few more tricks up our sleeves. Maybe I can commit to a post every couple of weeks, just to tap the mike. You may have forgotten me, but I miss you. 

'cause I know you need this information

While catching up on a million posts on Craft, I ran across a great site called Visual.ly filled with infographics. What's an infographic, you ask? It is a visual depiction of information, not necessarily but often (at least to me) humorous.

Speaking of humorous infographics, I love this one on how to determine the trustworthiness of a man in a given style of beard. Apparently John Waters' moustache is just slightly less horrible than Hitler's.

Wouldn't you want one in your town?

The Awesome Foundation funds cool projects. Check it out.

And here is a video of a project funded by the foundation:

Time is like a river, or is that an ocean?

In honor of Ada's birthday, I offer one of the poems she wrote recently:

The Ocean

In the ocean the jellyfish is swimming.
The ducks are in danger because the shark is there.
The turtle is happy because the water is warm.
There is three happy sea stars in the water.

-Ada
May 2011

Watch their language

A friend of Chris's likes to collect phrases he has never heard before. When he gets a good one he'll mention it to Chris. A few years ago he heard a girl in the cafeteria say to her friend "every time I barf at night..." This jumped out as something new, a phrase Greg had never run across in his prior 40-some years.

I was thinking about this phenomenon in the context of two year olds. Two year olds are amazing. For instance, Ian points at the yellow rectangle under his bowl and says: "my place mat!" Which, sure, not such a big deal, but considering that I have never heard him utter this before it feels immense. Ian and Mira are literally learning new words every day. Those of us who are not toddlers do come across words we have not known before, but not with the intensity that is a young child's language development process. The world is a fire hose aimed at them, and they stand delighted with their mouths wide open.

Mira's all purpose happy salutation is: "Happy Dir Day" 

Ian, after learning he can make adults insane by getting too close to a horse's back legs

Now talking in paragraphs, only a fraction of which is comprehensible

The day they learned to say "hay loft"

Amazing in her own right. Did I mention she can read?

Two at Two

Mira and Ian turned two on Sunday.

In between the requisite cries of "Mine! Mine!" 

we are getting a lot of collaborative play these days. 

The cupcakes baked in ice cream cones (our friend Tera's idea) worked out well. The batch that fell a bit got ice cream topping them, the others received chocolate icing. 

Snacks were enjoyed, fun was had.

Reminder: Parents of Twins have Feelings Too

I took the kids to the Rhododendron Garden today. On the way out, we walked up the path in front of another family. Ian and Mira showed interest in the child; they are fascinated by all children small then them, especially when they are in a stroller. The mother asked "are they twins?"

Yes, I said.

"I'm so glad I didn't have twins!"

I just stared at her.

Think, people. Think before you speak.

What we've been up to lately

snuggling

creating

hiding and peeking

smiling

flying

Evidence that U.S.A. has not cornered the market on strange

This is fascinating and confusing. At first I thought it must be a put-on. 



I really love the investment these guys have put into their outfits. I do wonder a little about whether they might put some extra effort into their "choreography."

(found on the Craft blog)