My Solo Weekend

BJ went to Seattle for the weekend. I'm home alone with both kids. It's raining here and it's nice in Seattle (I think). Ironic. It's actually been very manageable here, despite the weather this weekend. Toby's been saying some funny things and I thought I'd share one with you.
On Thursday we were headed to the doctor for Norah's 18 month check up (she's in the 75th percentile across the board at 25 pounds). Out of the blue he says, "One day will I marry someone and will they grow a baby and will I be a daddy?"
....Silence in the car.....
"Yep, Toby, that's how it works for people." I can only imagine what he was thinking about that led him to say that!

We've moved the coffee table out of the way to have dancing competitions (something to occupy the slow hours of the evening). Norah absolutely loves to dance. And Toby is always making up new moves. We take turns being the judge (which is really just taking a break on the couch), and Norah just dances to anything.

(As a bright spot for me, our local library notified me on Wednesday that Catching Fire was available for pick up, even though I knew it wasn't available in stores until the 1st. Score one for being the first one on the waitlist! And it was great, by the way. Every bit as good as the first, and I paced myself so I wouldn't stay up until 2am reading this one--although I was tempted!)

My Quick Pick

Just an FYI--if you haven't read A Prayer for Owen Meany I'd highly suggest you put it on your "To Read" list. I took a break from my typical YA lit list to read from the adult section at our local library. (Toby always enjoys trying to hide from me in the stacks.) Great read!

It's by John Irving (it's one of his older books--written in the late 80's). I don't know how I've gone this long without reading anything by John Irving. He wrote Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp and a bunch of other books.

I read a few other books that weren't so great before this one (to wit: the last line of one of the books was "Who the f*** cares?"), and now-- I'm hesitant to venture into something new. Maybe I'll just take a break from reading for a bit and "gear up" for the release of Catching Fire?

[I ran 3 miles this morning, after taking 6 days off because I hurt my knee. And I made it back home before anyone was up. That's the longest I've ever run. Some friends that we had over on Friday are training for the Marine Corps Marathon. They said they "got hooked" running 5K's and that soon they decided 5K wasn't far enough. I don't see myself going that way, but it's good to know that I'm at least able to run 3 miles. We'll see how I feel tomorrow!]

My Crazy Local Beach (Eastern Point)

I took the kiddos over to our local beach this afternoon for a few hours. We go there several times a week, varying in time and duration. Sometimes I've taken Toby there for an hour while BJ stays home during Norah's naptime. We like catching hermit crabs and Norah is getting more used to the water, even venturing up to her waist (my knees)--while she's clutching my hands in a death grip, of course.

This is a great little beach. It's eight tenths of a mile from our house. It cost $30 for a season parking pass. (Seniors get one for $10.) People who want to pay for just a day are charged $20 on the weekend or $10 on a weekday. It's never extremely crowded; we've always gotten good parking and a great spot on the beach. I've seen a lot of mothers with their little kids, but haven't gotten the courage to strike up a conversation with any of them. This beach also has its fair share of old, orange, wrinked women who do nothing but sit in their chairs and gossip or sleep all day. I've seen them on several occasions. There are also a lot of grandmas or "aunties" that are similar shades of burnt-orange who sit in chairs by the water and yell at the various kids (grandkids and what have you) they've brought along with them.

Toby always seems to find some kids his age or a little bit older that are looking for hermit crabs or building a great sand castle or hole in the sand. So he occupies himself pretty quickly, and then I busy myself keeping Norah amused.

Today Norah found two small balls near the water and immediately claimed them as hers. (This happens a lot with the smaller kids, of course; every toy they see is theirs for the taking. We always seem to come home with one toy missing and a new toy acquired with each beach visit.) This grandma/auntie lady in the chair closest to said balls sees Norah pick them up and says "Oh, she can have those. I just got them today at the dump!" I turn to see Norah chomping on one of these balls like it's a huge piece of candy. I try to be polite to the lady "Gee, thank you, um, we'll get them back to you..." while trying to pry them from Norah's mouth. This lady continues on, "The Groton dump is open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I guess for people having garage sales. You just go grab whatever you want. I got myself a nice lawn furniture set, you know, we're always having company..." At this point I had to just smile and walk away because Norah was heading down the shore in the opposite direction. I just couldn't get it out of my head that this lady had said she got these toys at the dump! And that Norah was putting them in her mouth!

These are the types of people that I see at our local beach. They just leave me laughing and wondering: would my mom end up like one of the grandmas if she lived out here? Would I want to end up like one of these little old orange ladies? (They are this burnt-orange color from sitting outside all day every day; it's kind of creepy looking.)

My Ice Cream Headache

I like to curl up on the couch and enjoy a scoop of ice cream from time to time. It's a treat I don't indulge in often, but I do try and enjoy it when I can. I have learned that I can't have ice cream to myself when the kids are around, however. They flock to me like ants and then proceed to beg with wide-open mouths for a share, while saying "ahhhhh" like they're at the doctor's office.
Yesterday we went to a carnival at my aunt's church. The kids each got a scoop of ice cream of their own, and for once there wasn't anyone trying to steal bites of my ice cream.

At the carnival they also got to go on a mechanical elephant and lion. These things were pretty fun, and I think Toby really enjoyed riding them with his cousin Tova.

My "Kermit" Crab-Catcher

Toby and I discovered that hermit crabs are very easy to acquire at our local beach. Toby called them "kermit" crabs for a little while. We even brought a bucket full home one time. They didn't last through the night, sadly.
But we've spent our last two trips to the beach searching the shallows for these little guys. Then we put them in a bucket at the shoreline and Toby tells all the passersby about them. All I have to do is stand in the water and feel them crawl across my toes and reach down and grab them. Kinda creepy, but it keeps Toby occupied.

My Neighborhood

I was out jogging yesterday afternoon and -- for the second time in a month -- was stopped by a passerby asking for directions. It felt kind of nice to be able to help out these people (one was a cab driver looking for the airport and yesterday a woman was looking for a building on campus--about a half mile away from campus). It's a little bit freaky to be jogging along (slowly, of course) with my headphones on and then get flagged down by an oncoming car, but it made me proud to be able to point these drivers in the right direction. It was also lucky that they asked me about places I knew around here because there are easily as many streets that are unknown to me as those that are familiar. That's why I am enjoying jogging around the neighborhood. It's helping me to learn about back routes and streets that I never would have driven down. For example, I found an old school the other day while mapping out a new route. It was all weeded over and closed, but it looked like it was a nice school back in the day.

My First Tomato

Toby picked the first red tomato of the season yesterday. He then proceeded to launch it across the yard like a golf ball, oblivious to the fact that this was a momentous occasion for me, the novice gardener. It shows that despite my utter lack in skill, weeding, and overall attention, our garden has actually produced an edible vegetable. Well, I guess that fact remains to be seen because our first visibly-edible vegetable is now rotting somewhere near the neighbor's fence, or has been devoured by a local rodent. (Which we have several; have I mentioned Toby's attempt at petting a skunk, thinking it was a cat?)

We have five or six blooming tomato plants and three or four peppers (on six pepper plants). We've used the basil we planted in several dishes, but it now looks like it's been eaten away by bugs. We'll see if we can salvage any more of it to coincide with the fothcoming tomato harvest--a summer Caprice Salad was our original goal when we started the garden back in April.

My Morning Paper

Today was kind of weird because Norah actually got up before Toby and so I got to spend some time with just my daughter. That doesn't happen often because usually Toby is up first and goes to bed later. So we made a blueberry pie. I think she learned a lot, but specifically that she likes blueberries that have been tossed with sugar.
Toby and I spent time reading the paper after Norah went down for a nap. But since Toby doesn't read (yet) and certainly has little to no interest in the New York Times I made it into a game. I got a pen and put circles all around the letters in his name that we found on the front half of the Business Day section (above the fold). We spelled his name four times over and then he wanted to find the letters to spell zoo. We did (thanks to an article that mentioned "Amazon") and then we tried finding all the letters in the alphabet. We did it very quickly with the letters in the headlines and thanks to a blurb about the Red Sox and an article about the flu vaccine (influenza). We had a lot of fun and it makes me appreciate the fact that we subscribe to a paper that can occupy me and Toby with a simple "find the alphabet" game, while enabling me to read up on the news too.

My Kids and the Big City

Here are two pictures I got off of BJ's phone yesterday, even though they were taken weeks ago when we went to New York City. Norah and I are smiling from the enclosed children's play area inside Central Park. We also grabbed a picture walking down part of 5th Avenue after leaving the Park (Toby's tongue is blue from the ice cream treat he just finished). It'll be fun to look back on these pictures some day and see what we were able to do with the kids.

(Update: BJ and I have officially signed up for the 5K race in September. I am excited to see our progress, though I feel like 3.2 miles is still a long way off from what I'm able to accomplish right now. Hopefully our knees will keep up with the training--from nothing to 3.2 miles is a lot--and our kids will cooperate for us to fit the workouts in while our runs are getting longer.)

My Sleepy Head

Toby fell asleep yesterday while snacking on pretzels in the car. We snapped a picture with BJ's iPhone.