Slides

I have never been physically brave. Despite having grown up in a ski town, I find downhill ski terrifying.  Some of my favorite high school memories are at the local marble quarry where my friends cavalierly threw themselves off cliffs into the waiting water.  I definitely jumped once...but I wouldn't bet it was much more than that.  I once rode the children's roller coaster at Disney Land and thought I was going to die the entire time. I was 29.  I remain inordinately proud of having climbed the Precipice Trail on Mt. Desert Island on a church youth group trip.  It's called the Precipice, people.  This can't have been a good idea.  I think you probably get the point...Hell, I don't even particularly like diving boards in backyard pools.  I am a complete wuss.

Which brings me to this morning.  We were expecting snow in the afternoon, and thought it a good idea to bring the kids to a play space to work out some energy before we became snowbound.  This is the sort of place with a four level jungle gym with "platforms" made of webbing that dangle you (and your children) 30 feet above the safety of the carpeted floor.  And of course all the kids are running wild, completely fearless, and only worried about having to wait for their turn on the various slides.  Except Ellie. She's always been physically cautious, hell, we barely had to childproof for her, and now it manifests itself in playground fears of swinging too high and going down slides.  She's perfectly daring when climbing her way up, but go down a slide?  Heck no.

So, Brian had been climbing around this massive play structure with Ellie while Gabe and I stuck to the lower levels. She had even gone down two of the big slides with him. I was impressed!  And then we switched kids.  Suddenly I found myself following my three year old across Temple of Doom-worthy web bridges, fighting my fear of heights and (completely rational) mistrust of nylon webbing the whole time.

And then we faced it:  one of those corkscrew tube slides.  One that's been polished to a high shine by a thousand kids' bottoms, with no place to hold on to slow you down, and you have no idea what's at the bottom, and for all you know there are goblins down there.  And Ellie wanted to go down the slide.  That's amazing!  And I was so proud of her.  And then OH MY GOD, she wants me to go down the slide with her.  And I find myself with my daughter on my lap at the top of this children's slide at a suburban play space, and my heart is pounding as I realize that I am scared to go down this slide, and how I'd much rather just let Ellie go down herself and I'll meet her at the bottom, but NO.  She wants me to go down with her, and she's usually so scared of slides.  And now she's probably a little scared, and that's why she wants me to go with her, and so of course I have to go, and show her that there's nothing to be afraid of.  And so we wait at the top of the slide for thirty seconds while I gather my courage...and then we're off.  And of course, there aren't goblins at the bottom, and we didn't die.

This is a very small part of what it means, I think, to be a parent.  To be brave with your kids.  To show them that, yeah, the slide may be kind of scary, but it's also super fun and totally worth it. It's only a slide after all.  Someday there will be much scarier things, and I hope I'm able to still be brave with them, to help them face whatever real goblins come into our lives.   Until then, we'll keep practicing on slides.

Dinner Party Time!

Holy Smokes....I've know for a few weeks that we were getting a dining table today, but since it depended on the generosity of complete strangers I've kept my fingers crossed the whole time.  But it happened!  It really happened!  My "sister-wife" Sara tutors for a family that is moving, and I guess their current table is too big for their new space.  And they decided to give it away!  Sara mentioned that she had friends who had just bought a new house and through what I can only describe as MAGIC (and a U-Haul truck) we now have a table.  And I absolutely LOVE it.  Plus they gave us four chairs.  Brian brought cookies and a bottle of wine to thank them for their generosity.  I hope they know how much use and love their table is going to get in our house.

So the dining room has gone from this:

...to this:

Still on the to-do list:  paint, curtains, art, rug, new light.  But man, oh man, we are making progress.  And I am just thrilled.  Want to come over for dinner?

Holiday Madness

A few random pictures while we come down from our collective sugar high.

Ellie and her Poppop...

Mommom making pizzelles with the girls...

She kept deciding she doesn't really like candy canes, but that didn't stop her from wanting another...

Another candy cane fiend.

 I'm pretty sure this was a tattoo inspection.

Reading to Gabe...

Aww...they're all tuckered out...

 The girls wanted the boys to put on a show with them.  Apparently it's a male revue.

Playing with one of her favorite new toys.

 Sweetly, but unsuccessfully, trying to fasten the snaps on Gabe's pajamas.

And this one's for Uncle Rob.  May he never forget.

House Progress

I'm happy to report that thanks to the genius of my husband and the generosity of my in-laws, our kitchen hardware has gone from this:

...to this:

There are 32 of these suckers in our kitchen so it makes a surprisingly big difference.  If all goes according to plan we'll be inheriting a dining table this week...and hopefully that will inspire me to paint the dining room and change up our chandelier situation.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Fa La La La La

...This is for my mom, who's been practically begging for pictures of our holiday decorations.

Weather Schmeather...Holiday Hayride

Holiday Hayride and Kids Crafts at a local state park?  Please...you know I'm in.  So when today dawned cold, wet, and windy I wasn't about to let that deter us.  I may have wavered a bit when the local state park actually called to confirm we were still planning to attend, because, you know, they were going to cancel, but oh no.  We held strong, still determined to meet the Brabants at the park and enjoy our holiday hayride.  And damn it, we did.

 40 degrees and raining?  A perfect day for a hayride!  Seriously, we couldn't decide if we were the Best Parents Ever for not disappointing Ellie (who had been asking for days if it was time to go on the hayride yet), or the Worst Parents Ever for dragging our kids on a hayride when all the other parents were smart enough to stay home.

Luckily the hayride itself was only a small portion of the day, and since all the other wimpy families bailed we pretty much had our run of the crafts tables.

Gabe isn't too terribly particular.  Just give him a paintbrush and a cup of water and he'll "paint" for ages.

It's a good thing there weren't many other kids since Ellie totally monopolized this project and made FOUR tissue paper/stained glass masterpieces.

Wheeeeeee!

Holiday Train Show

Do you live in the New York area?  Have you been to the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botanical Garden?  No?  Step away from the computer.  Put your phone back in your pocket.  Tell your boss you have "stomach issues" and go straight there.  Now.  Actually, they have a couple evenings when it's adults only and they serve a complimentary drink.  That may be even better.  But OH MY GOD.  We went yesterday with Maggie and Baby Will, and it was just incredible.  It hit me in all my "fairy-house" madness, and Gabe went absolutely bonkers for the electric trains. I didn't think we were ever going to get him out of there. When I was a kid my dad had a huge train table in the creepy crawly basement of doom and spiders.  It had real running trains that I wasn't allowed to touch, and mountains with tunnels, and little villages with the makings of a whole basement civilization.  So maybe a train thing runs in my family. 

I didn't think I could easily navigate both kids and camera, so forgive the cell phone shots.  Thank god for my phone.

 I love that they look like they're walking the streets of L.A.

 

Mags and Baby Will.  

Gabe was moving so much it was hard to capture his enthusiasm in pictures.  Each time a train came he'd run after it like a dog chasing a car.

Gabe's "cheese face" never fails to crack me up.  And that's a model of Yankee Stadium behind them.  Awesome.

He would have climbed the walls if it meant he could touch the trains running overhead.

This is a model of Lyndhurst, made completely out of bark, twigs, and plants.  I run right by this house on my weekend jogs, and here it is...my perfect fairy mansion.

Parking Schmarking

So, seriously.  Who wants to teach me how to parallel park?  Every time I go to Brooklyn I just put my head in the sand and assume I'll magically find a parking spot I can pull right in to.  And every time I've been extraordinarily lucky.  Until yesterday.  Yesterday I drove around for 20 minutes before I finally found a metered spot with a one hour time limit.  One hour!  Meaning if I hadn't just gotten back from feeding the meter, I was putting on my coat, getting ready to go feed the meter.  Oy.

But who am I to let small ridiculous things interfere with Hannukah and good times with Sara, Paul, and Caroline?

 

Sure the picture's blurry, and not one of them is looking at the camera.  But what can you do?

We had a lovely afternoon just chilling at Sara's house and letting the kids run wild.  I really miss our easy days together when I lived in Brooklyn, and I'm so thankful that I can drive to visit.  Now if I could only park...  An extra treat came later when Brian met us in Brooklyn (and moved the car for me!) and we had dinner at our old favorite pizza place before driving back.  Hooray for a random Tuesday. 

A Boy and His Dreidel

Hannukah!

Night One!  Woohoo!  We lit the TV yule log and had some good old friends from San Francisco over for dinner.  It was awesome, and of course, my camera battery died.  Hopefully Missy will send me some pictures I can share later.  Her two kids, Jake and "Big Gabe," played so well with Ellie and "Little Gabe" that the grownups actually had time to drink wine and catch up.  Unbelievable, right?

We really need to get our real fireplace working.

Ready to pass out presents!

The after-effects of blue Hannukah cupcakes.

Brooklyn Visit

 

Ring around the rosey, pocket full of posies...

 

Ashes...ashes...

 

We all fall down!

 

But then we get up and strut around the streets of Brooklyn like we still own them.

Deck the Halls

My dad and Kathy came to town this weekend and we fully embraced the holiday madness.  Wreaths and garland?  Check.  Tree lit and decorated?  Check.  Mantel spruced?  Hannukah candles at the ready?  Check and check.  But my favorite part may have been decorating a gingerbread house with the kids.  Janis came over to visit, and thank GOD.  Because we never could have pulled it off without her.  Seriously, have you ever assembled one of these things?  I swear you need an architect and at least six hands.

 

Ellie, Gabe and Janis put on the finishing touches.

 

Our gingerbread barnyard.  I have to admit, I love it.

Thanksgiving Hat

Hugs!

Not So Innocent

He knows...whatever he's getting in to, he shouldn't be...

Pine Cones

We officially started "decking the halls" on Thanksgiving Day when my mom and I stole a bunch of pine cones from a neighbor's yard.  That's in the spirit of giving, right?

High Five

A Muffin Saga

It's a wet snowy/rainy day here.  Too yucky to be out and about, but not snowy and pretty enough to celebrate.  So, stuck in the house, and trying not to let the kids watch yet another episode of Little Einsteins, I resorted to baking.  Ellie wanted blueberry muffins, but we had applesauce, so sorry, kid.  Applesauce muffins it is.

 

Mixing dry ingredients.  And discovering flour tastes pretty nasty by itself.

 

Almost ready!

 

Inspecting her handiwork.

 

Hrmmmm.

 

Gabe'll eat anything.

The sad epilogue is that the kids didn't really like them and I ended up eating far too many.  Ugh.  That was not part of the plan.

Snowman!

The weather added insult to injury with a lovely Nor'easter just a week after the joy that was Hurricane Sandy...but Ellie's enthusiasm to make a snowman was insurmountable.  Sure, I wanted to be inside with a cup of coffee and some cinnamon raisin toast.  But a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.

Capitalism

Ellie turned our "snow day box fort" into a coffee shop.  A whole can is only a quarter, but poor Gabe is forced to buy it again, and again, and again.  Watch out Starbucks, she's coming for you.