Amen to this

My son's commentary on life:

I was tucking him in tonight and he's fidgety. He finally comes out with this gem:

"I just don't feel right with the way I'm living my life right now."

I tried to clarify and asked what he'd like to change, if he'd like to exercise more or eat healthier or be nicer to friends and family. He goes:

"It's like we're in the desert and there's nothing to learn about but sand."

Can you please tell me how I'm supposed to respond to that?

Books are Fun!

My friend emailed me a while back asking about book recommendations for her Christmas shopping list. Here's what I sent her:

One week down in the library and here are a few things I've noticed:

7-8 year old girl

The first-second graders are obsessed with this type of book: http://www.rainbowmagiconline.com/uk/books/books_ocean.html

There are all kinds of fairy books, and Norah's even reading them!

These are also hugely popular, and easily found almost anywhere: http://juniebjones.com/books/

Need suggestions for girls who don't like fairies?

Can't go wrong with puppies: http://www.ellenmiles.net/books.html

4-5 year old boy

Do they like dinosaurs? Try these cuties:

http://bobshea.com/ 

And you can't go wrong with anything by Mo Willems. (for any age/gender, really)

2-3 year old girl

When Norah was this age she couldn't get enough of these little books (both in board books or small hardcovers, perfect for little hands): http://www.olivierdunrea.com/Gossie---Friends.html

She also really liked Max and Ruby books. http://rosemarywells.com/category/books/new-releases/ 

And just for kicks (and parents)

#1 (maybe more for parents of littles who don't sleep? We sent it to some friends w/ a new baby as a welcome-to-parenting gift.)

and 

#2 (we found this one at the Howard County Library. We read it a lot!!)

I realize these are all fiction books. I can recommend nonfiction books too. There's a neat series of biographies that the older kids seem to like, but I'll wait to see what else is popular next week!

New School Year, New Job

Here we are, one week into September, and I've just finished my first week in my new position at the school.
The quick story: I went back to work at the beginning of the year as the aide to two fantastic teachers. But then a position became available as the library assistant and I couldn't pass up the chance to go for it! In my interview I got to talk about some of my favorite books (including Mo Willems--who doesn't like that guy?!?!), which was cool. And, surprise surprise, I got the job.
So now I'm working 25 hours a week in the school's library, and I get to help kids check out books all day! (Along with loads of other really important stuff, but mostly: BOOKS!)

It should be a fun way to get to know lots of kids at the school, and see what they're reading! The family is fully on board with my new position, and the kids are excited to see me every week during library class. Here's to a great year ahead filled with... more books! :o)

Conversations with Kids

Overheard at our house recently:

T: "Norah, where's that dog leash? I want to use it as a whip and pretend to be Indiana Jones."

...

N: "Mom, is heaven underground?"
Me: "No."
N: "Is heaven up in the sky?"
Me: "Not exactly..."
N: "Then why do we bury people when they die?"
Me: "Well...(My poor attempt at 6 year-old theology) You don't take your body with you to heaven. You get a new one when your soul gets to heaven. So we bury people here on earth and their soul goes to heaven."
N: "OK."

...

N: (whining from the backseat) "Moooommm, Toby won't let me read The New Yorker!"

Playing Catch-up

It would be overwhelming to post pictures of the year I've missed on the blog. So I am just going to ignore the fact that 12 months have gone missing (we'll blame it on user error--my inability to juggle too many things at once).
Here are a few pictures from the last month or so.

Norah at Kindergarten Promotion!

Toby played a month of post-season little league!

#18. He played every position, but pitching. He liked catcher best.

Toby got baptized on June 8th!

Carmel River State Beach--I had just dropped Toby off for a day at summer camp when I snapped this picture. I was a little jealous of his 2 weeks at summer camp!

Norah at open house, where we went on a tour of her classroom. She worked so hard this year!

Happy 4th of July!

From Carmel by the Sea!

My Five Random Interview Questions

Why is no one asking interesting interview questions these days? Well, no one except for NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me," of course. I love the segment "Not my job." Last week they asked Gillian Flynn 3 questions about Gilligan's Island. This week they asked Tig Notaro about Tug McGraw. I figure they'd ask me 3 questions about ABBA. I'll be waiting for their call.

I've been invited to a couple of job interviews in the last few weeks and I've been asked all the typical interview questions: What's your educational background? Why are you applying for this job? What would you do in a challenging customer service situation?

No one is asking me the questions I want to answer, though. Mostly because they have NOTHING to do with the job(s) I'm applying for. So I've taken the liberty of lining up five random interview questions and answers. Just for you. Maybe you'll be interested in hiring me.... for something.

1. If you could have a house concert with any person/band this weekend, who would you choose?
       Ray LaMontagne. Something smaller than this BBC show, or this PBS show, so I can hear this. Or this one. A while ago I would have said I'd like to see the Civil Wars in a house concert. But now that they've abruptly stopped working together that's a bit like asking a couple to show you their wedding video after they've just told you they're separating. Sad and awkward all around.
2. Tell me about a book you've recently recommended to someone.
        I told a couple of librarians about a book I checked out with a cover that glowed in the dark. I was really happy to tell them how cool I thought that was, and in the midst of my excitement about recapping the book and the fact that the book cover glowed in the dark I neglected to tell them the title of the book. They pointed out my omission, and once I told them ("Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore") I realized it would have been more witty for me to say something like "I was figuring you'd just stay in the library after dark and look for the glowing book."
3. What character trait do you wish you had?
        My sense of humor is very dry and leans towards the sarcastic, which is a fine line to walk. Going with my answer above, I always wish I was more witty. I think of the best thing to say about 12 hours after the fact.
4. What's the hardest thing about being a parent?
        I would have to say that there's sometimes a lack of accountability for parents these days. Beyond the extreme (hello, social services) or the voluntary (hello, MOPS or mom's playgroup at my house), parenting can be an isolated job without any oversight, accountability, encouragement, or guidance. Besides the obvious fact/assumption that you and your parenting partner (if you're lucky enough to have one) have consciences and morals and previous experience (from being a kid who was raised by, you know, parents), this parenting thing is really quite perplexing. Those internal guides or your friends or your kids' doctor might suggest parenting books, seminars, techniques, or trends, but when it really comes down to it, the buck stops with you and what you choose to try/do/listen to/follow. It's a wonder so many kids wind up being successful and healthy and accomplished and safe. Parenting is the hardest job I've ever had to do, and I took it on voluntarily. (I wish I could come up with an analogy to illustrate this. Give me 12 hours and I'll come up with the perfect thing.)
5. What new device or invention do you think makes peoples' lives easier?
        Frankly, I know what I want someone to invent to make my life easier: I'd like to see someone invent a tape-dispenser for band-aids because I hate them. I hate that my kids treat them like stickers and then only half of the wrapper pieces end up in the trash (see my answer to #4: parenting is hard. Like making your kids come back to the scene of the crime and pick up eighty billion band-aid wrappers). And then the ONE TIME you actually need a band-aid to stop the flow of BLOOD coming out of your (or your child's) finger or knee or elbow you have to have the finger dexterity to PEEL through three layers of wrappers and manage to get the padding where it needs to go and keep the sticky parts away from the wound. I might just have a case here to either inspire someone to invent a tape dispenser for band-aids, start a parent-led boycott of band-aid purchases, or get arrested by the grammar police for my use of that last run-on sentence.

   

   These two would hire me, I think.
   If only to pick up their band-aid wrappers.
   And they totally got how cool that glow-in-the-dark book was.

My One Year Anniversary

One year ago, on June 29th 2012, our family drove into this little town for the first time. We barely knew a soul within 1000 miles, outside of professional contacts and acquaintances.
We have invested our time and energy reaching out to the community, the schools, and the businesses (well, to be totally honest, the wineries), in order to settle in and make this new and strange place feel like home.
In the midst of work and school and holidays and exploratory day trips we coined a new catch phrase that we now find ourselves saying often, as a means of capturing just how much we've fallen in love with this area: We live here.
Last night we watched the sun settle over the Pacific on the anniversary of our arrival here, surrounded by dozens of locals--both friends and strangers. We are so glad to be in a position to say "we live here" and we look forward to the memories that will be made here for us and our family in the future.

My Preschool's Cuteness

It's just too much.

My Sweet Sunset

In honor of The Philosopher's birthday we went to the Carmel Sweet Shop for some toffee and fudge and then traveled down to the beach to watch the sunset. Toby and Daddy got distracted trying to rescue a kite while Norah and I watched the surfers.
Our new family motto was coined over this spring break:

We Live Here.

We are loving it.

My Mystery Trip

We snuck out of town one weekend last month and ended up here:

A view from an elevator.

A pit stop for pizza.

Toby tries out the camera phone.

We rode on interesting public transportation.

We played in the park.

We saw a ship in the harbor. And behind that ship, a prison.

We saw a very long bridge.

We stayed up late reading among the city lights.

We stayed just long enough to get a good taste of a wonderful city. We'll be back, I'm sure.

My Spring Time Activities

While the Philosopher has been working up in San Francisco this week we've been keeping busy at home, enjoying Spring.

On Tuesday we went to the beach after school.

 

 

On Wednesday we dined at Luca, stuffing ourselves on pizza, spaghetti, and gelatto. The kids shared their window seats with some friends, Ozzie and Little Dog, and they shared bites of their gelatto. It was determined before we ordered our meals that Toby would have chocolate and Norah vanilla.

 

We pulled out a box of old toys to have some quality block-building time.

 

And on Thursday we cheered on Toby at his game in Carmel Valley. The weather was just wonderful. (This was a picture of his last hit of the day.)

 

My Little Slugger and My Little Mudder

At baseball today Toby got three hits, and one was a double! It's so cute because he is still learning the rules of the game and how to make plays. I apologize for my craptastic video skills, but the sun was in my eyes while I was filming this so I missed my little guy running for first, as well as the first base coach telling him to keep going! But hopefully you get the idea.

And while Toby was swinging away (the nice thing for these kiddos is that the coach pitches until the kids get a hit), Norah was digging away in the mud.

My First Baseball Season

Playing catcher at practice.

A pause in the line up.

Opening Day practice inning.

Playing catch with teammates on Opening Day.

Toby is a Carmel Volcano! He has a buddy from class on his team (whose dad is the coach), and he loves to hit, throw, and play catcher. We're looking forward to a good first experience with baseball (although we're already lamenting the loss of those slow Saturday mornings!). Here's a video of his first hit in his game last week:

My Little Guy Got Glasses

We knew this day would come.... And he's super excited!

Toby's teacher emailed us a few weeks ago and inquired about getting Toby's eyes checked. She said he politely asked if he could move closer to the board so that he could see what she writes.

We took him to a great eye doctor, and then filled his prescription right away. He picked out two pairs of glasses (the ones above are blue with a white stripe and he also got some black flexible-wire ones).

He is so careful about taking care of his glasses and cleaning them. He is very proud to wear them and he feels like he has a super power now that he can see the board! (When he put them on for the first time and we walked through Costco he said, "Now I can see everything." I didn't realize he was missing so much!) We had our spring parent-teacher conference this past week and it seems like his lack of ability to see the board didn't hold him back from any of the activities or academics in the day to day classroom. He's doing an outstanding job in class, according to his teacher. We'll see how the "super power" of clear sight adds to his classroom experience! 

Norah wanted to see how her big brother was doing the first day he wore his glasses, so she staked out a position and watched her brother play. Then she came back to me to report.

My Intro to Wine Country Weekend

We finally did it -- we experienced the smallest sliver of California wine country. And we got to tag along with some wonderful friends, Chris and Katie, and their dog too!

We traveled to Sonoma and stayed in a house on a hill.
Beautiful views (which helped to erase the memory of the hour-long traffic delay we had on our drive up) and gorgeous weather for the whole weekend made for a relaxing, wonderful time.
We spent Friday night through Sunday afternoon in wine country, with the kids in tow, and we just played the whole time. We went to 4 vineyards on Saturday and two on Sunday. We had coupons for the tastings that we split with our friends and so we ended up trying a little bit of all kinds of wine. (The kiddos either played outside with Chris and the dog, Nevis, or they stayed inside and played on our phones. One time they stayed at the house with Chris and Nevis while we went with Katie to other wineries a bit out of town.)
It was so much fun to feel like we were on a real vacation, not just visiting a place on our way across the country (like when we saw the arch in St. Louis or driving through Yosemite last summer). Actually, we packed so much in our car Norah started asking questions like, "Are we moving?" and "Will it take days and days to get there?"
We ate in every meal except one, and we even had the owners of the rental house over for dinner on Saturday night.*
The favorite part of the trip for the kids? Definitely the hot tub! The Philosopher and I really enjoyed experiencing a different area of our new home, and we feel like we only just broke the surface of the exciting places that are just an afternoon's drive away.

The cheese tasting was more memorable than some of the wineries!

Strawberries and cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

This kiddo wanted to eat his weight in cinnamon rolls. He had to settle for waffles.

A pool with a view!

A picnic at a winery -- with built-in pets for the kids! (There were lizards in the rocks.)

*So, our friend Chris is from small town Iowa. The owner of the rental house was from small town Iowa. It turns out Chris' aunt married a guy named Denny who is cousins with the owner. Small world! We invited them over for dinner with us on Saturday night (the Chef made roast tenderloin, potatoes, and broccolini) and enjoyed hearing about the locals' view of Sonoma.

My 400th Post

Upon logging in to Blogger this morning I noticed that I have written 399 posts for this blog. This changed my (admittedly already weak) plan for what I wanted to post this morning. So, lucky you, I am going to post a "special" 400th posting here! Hooray!

This picture kind of captures what this blog has been for me, in my attempt to chronicle my life as a full-time mom. I feel like you're only getting the smallest glimpse of what our day to day life is like, and even then it's kind of blurry and misdirected. And as I write about something cute or funny or mundane the kids are already on to other things, faster than I can type! So instead of giving the "real time" highlights of life around these parts I seem to only grab a smidge, before we're all left wondering "what was that about?"
For example, in the picture above Norah is showing us that she has two pairs of shoes in different colors. She wanted to wear one of each while we walked Toby to the bus one morning last year. I grabbed a picture while we were walking. That in itself is pretty typical around here, but the picture completely illustrates my point about blogging this little tid-bit. I can only show so much about these wonderful, complicated, adorable, crazy kids and our adventures. And my attempt at a picture only goes so far. I hope it's enough for you to see that we are enjoying the ride.

My Weekend Should Always Start with a Beach Day

We had such a busy weekend! The Philosopher was philosophizing at a conference and we booked ourselves solid for the whole weekend.

On Friday we went straight from school to the beach. It was such a gorgeous afternoon. We found a little spot in a cove that blocked the wind and we hung out for hours. The kids dug holes (we really need some good shovels) and played in the trees and the moms just chatted. 

Then we came home and "enjoyed" some homemade pizza. I am working on my 2013 goal to eat pizza as often as possible, but I am on a mission to find a good dough recipe. I used a no-knead recipe and one from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. They both turned out really dry. I'll have to keep experimenting. Just because the dough was dry doesn't mean we didn't eat almost all of the pizza, though!

Saturday was completely booked. We made crepes, then ran errands in the morning (Toby needed cleats for baseball as well as uniform stuff and a batting helmet), which led into a birthday party for his classmate in the afternoon. The kids had so much fun!! The birthday girl's family booked out the entire Carmel Youth Center and so the kids could play games, do crafts, and even watch a movie in a mini-theater!

Once the kids were loaded on popcorn, soda, and cupcakes we went home for a brief rest before going to another friend's house for a really neat house concert. Some (newly) local musicians played folk-Americana music for a few hours, and there was even a babysitter for the kids.

On the way home from the concert Toby said, "I am so tired I just want to brush my teeth, get in my pajamas, and go straight to bed!" He heard no complaint from me!

Sunday was full of relaxation and chores-catch-up in the morning and baseball practice in the afternoon.

Some weekends are so busy that we (almost) look forward to a slow and easy weekday routine!

My Valentines Leftovers

Norah and I played Go Fish and Memory with a box of leftover Valentines. She had so much fun with them!

We bought the box after Valentines Day (originally thinking we'd do something creative with them for her My Little Pony birthday party, which didn't happen) and cut apart each Valentine. The box, like every other Valentines-in-a-box that you can buy in February, came with 2 cards in each of 7 designs. We played a few rounds of Go Fish this afternoon, and then I showed her how to use them to play Memory, which she took to her room for quiet time. Once she's tired of playing games with the cards we'll probably cut them up and make a collage of her favorite ponies.