Saturday, November 29, 2008

Things remembered

Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, I was watching the Anamaniacs and saw Pinky and the Brain perform a song called "Brain Stem". Even though I could only remember one line ("Hippocampus/neural node/Brain stem! Brain stem!") the song stuck in my head. And stuck in my head. And stuck in my head. And now, probably a decade later, it still pops into my mind from time to time, indicating that it is taking up increasingly valuable brain space. However! A few days ago I realized that the video was surely available on youtube, and it was. Enjoy!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Thankful

I've kind of fallen down on the whole blogging thing lately...tonight, Becka sweetly pointed out that she was over the "Jump to Conclusions Mat" post, and probably everyone else was, too. So I got off my tired, lazy bum and made this post. Just for you. All of you.

Kenn and Giselle came up yesterday. They discovered a new way of getting to our house, and I must say I like it. I like it so well I'm considering asking my parents to get here the same way when they are out in December. Stay tuned for that. Anyway, we cooked the usual Thanksgiving foods, ate them with great delight, and then went to Craig, Vivienne and Valentina's house for dessert and drinks. Other friends were there too: Abby and Asi with Gari and Eli, and Naomi and Dave with Agatha. The kids played and played and the grown ups ate and drank (Zion ate, too- 3 pieces of pie! Child sized pieces, but still. The boy is just not a big sweets eater, and 98% of the time doesn't even finish dessert). It was all very wonderful.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment. First up: Uncle Kenny dancing the turkey! This is a Thanksgiving tradition in our family. Before the turkey is put into the oven it dances, and sings a little song about how much it looks forward to being roasted and eaten. I think it started because my mom sometimes used to dance whole chickens before roasting them, and as adults Kenny and I were delighted to discover that we both do that, too. Zion has always loved watching the chicken dance and we just naturally fell into it with the turkey. Now it is one of the most anticipated traditions of the holiday (really).



Zion, enjoying the leg of the turkey. Someday he and Kenny might have to fight over these.



And Liel, with a mouthful of food, not wanting to smile.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

It's a "jump to conclusions" mat!

OK, not really. You got me. But damn, I love "Office Space"!

Just now Liel and I were looking at the birthday card the Tolls sent her, which has a picture of a dog on the front, and says "celebrate like someone forgot to lock the gate" on the inside. I read the words to Liel and she closed the card and looked at the front again.

"There's a dog on it", she said thoughtfully, "and his people forgot to lock the gate".

We have neither a dog nor a gate (or even a fence), so I was surprised she seemed to get the joke. "That's right", I said,"and what's the dog going to do?"

"Run around!", she said enthusiastically. So I guess she got the joke after all! Clearly I need to give the girl more credit.

Yesterday afternoon Zion was asking about our Dia de los Muertos alter, which we notably forgot to set up this year. "Who do we love that is dead?", he asked.

"Well," I said, "My grandpa, G.G.'s husband. He died when I was a little girl. And my great-grandpa, up there in that picture. You're named after him. And grandpa's brother- Uncle Kenny is named after him".

"How did Grampa's brother die?", Zion asked.

"In a motorcycle accident", I said.

"What happened with the motorcycle?", Zion wanted to know.

"I'm not sure", I said. "It was a long time ago, before I was born and I don't remember. If you want to know we can ask Grampa".

"But...will that make Grampa sad?", Zion wondered.

"It's very nice that you are concerned about Grampa", I said, "but I don't think it will make him sad".

"Because I would not want to make Grampa sad", said Zion.

And here I was, typing up this heartwarming story about how Zion is developing empathy and I hear crying downstairs. Zion and his friend J were fighting bad guys and Zion swung something too near to J and caught him on the side of the face. You win some you lose some, I guess...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Underoos and the like

I see I touched a happy collective memory nerve with my last post! I had Wonder Woman Underoos, too. Oh how I loved them! About 7 years ago I got it in my head that I needed grown up sized ones. I googled around and found nothing. So I actually emailed the company that makes Underoos and asked them if they were going to make adult sizes. Rather to my surprise I got a personal email back saying that yes, they were planning to make adult sizes in the near future. I checked for about 6 months and then forgot...until yesterday, when someone posted a link to these beauties. The total rad-ness nearly blinded me, and I'm glad it had the same effect on some of you!

I've also been swept off of my feet by bread. Bread?! Yeah, I know. I'm not one of those "eat my weight in bread" types...bread serves a purpose from time to time, but most days I don't eat any at all (and I bake a significant amount of the bread we eat in this house, too!). Anyway, someone recently shared a no-knead bread recipe with me and I just had to try it. Cause even though I let the kitchen-aid do most of my kneading I am apparently so lazy that even that small effort (turning on the machine??) was more than I really wanted to put in. So, I was intrigued, but slightly skeptical. I mean, if you could make good bread without kneading don't you think everyone would be doing it?

So, the night before last I mixed up the dough before bedtime (it sits at least 12 hours) figuring that at worst I'd have wasted 3 cups of flour. I baked it yesterday afternoon, and when we ate the bread last night I wasn't sure which I loved more: the bread, or me (for baking such amazing, delicious bread). I'm about to put a loaf in the oven right now, and will be back later with p0rn pictures.

Monday, November 10, 2008

FINALLY!!

I have been waiting for these for YEARS. I must have them.



Just leave a comment or send me an email if you need my address ;) Hey, I'll even post pics on the blog!

For Stacie

My dear friend Stacie tagged me in a game last week! But I'm so lame and slow that it's taken me this long to get around to it. Sorry, Stace!

I'm pretty sure that I'm supposed to list 6 irrelevant facts about myself and then try to get 6 of you to do the same. Hmm, shouldn't be too hard, right??

1. This one time, in Bali, I got a 4 handed massage (two masseurs, one me) and even though that was 7 years ago I still daydream about it. I am a massage piglet, so double the attention = rockstar.

2. Actually, I'm an attention piglet in general, come to think of it.

3. I play a live-on-teh-interwebz high end yarn swap game 1-2 times a week. It's probably the most grown up oriented social activity I do these days, and it's lots of fun.

4. I like my men manly. You know, the dangerous bad boy type who might get in a bar fight before roaring away on his motorcycle? Yeah, that one. As long as there was a good reason for the bar fight. Boys who use hair products (for example) are O-U-T. Oh, and so are boys (celebrities, I'm looking at you!) I've never met. Sorry, oh my thousands of fanboys!

5. Folding and putting away laundry was NOT on my mental to-do list today. Until I came home and saw it on my bed. The laundry is still on my bed (and I'm waging a tough mental battle against it), but it appears I'm going to have to do it at some point today, unless I want to sleep with laundry on my bed. And while I admit that my housekeeping is not really up to snuff, it's not far enough below snuff (whatever the hell that means) for me to do that.

6. I think I cook better when I cook with music and on and love front and center in my heart. Other things are probably better with music, too. Accordingly, I await the soundtrack to my life with minor impatience.

Leslie, Becka, Abby, Lilly, Mel and Robin, give it a whirl!

Friday, November 7, 2008

A day of days

Because, my darling daughter, it was just 3 years ago this day that you came to be with us in this world. Like your brother you were born at home, but in your case home was on a different edge of the world, in Brooklyn. You were posterior and sunny side up, which made labor a little different, but right before you entered the world you turned and spun (I think it was the not-quite-born equivalent of a leap), entering the world in grace and beauty. The midwife who was attending us even commented on what a beautiful birth you had.

Sweetheart, I love you in, on, around and through all worlds. This morning you said, "Mama, when you were just a little, little girl you wanted to grow up and be my mommy!", which shows your precocious wisdom :)









Happy birthday and MANY happy returns of the day (G-d willing!) Liel!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Pinch me

I think I'm dreaming. Last night I finally fell asleep around midnight and this morning I woke up at 530am. I couldn't fall back asleep. As soon as I was awake enough to read the clock my brain started in, "Did Obama really win?? What if the polls changed over night? Oh my G-d we actually elected him! Did we???". So I had to get up and check the polls again. And he still won. And I still feel like I'm in a dream.

The first presidential election I remember was the Carter/Regan race of 1980. I was 4 years old and remember being at school the next morning feeling sad. I didn't really know who Regan was, but I knew that my parents had voted for Carter and were disappointed and upset that Regan had been elected.

Zion is 4 1/2. Will he remember this election? Time will tell of course, but I think he will. We took both kids to vote yesterday, as we always do, and Zion asked questions about Obama and the presidential race. This morning when he woke up I told him that Obama had won and he came and sat on my lap an we talked about what that meant. I told him that our new president wouldn't take office until the beginning of the year, and that he would have a lot of work to do because our country wasn't in a very good place right now.

"What kind of things aren't good right now?", Zion asked. So I told him about the economy and the wars and the health care problems. He listened quietly and then said, "Yes. And the old president was not so good. He did not protect endangered animals".

So, I think he will remember. I hope he will remember. And if he does, I'm oh-so-glad that his first election memory will be more positive than mine! Either way I'm loving his interest in and engagement with our political process.

Today I am tired, but glowing.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween! Very low key. After nap/quiet time we carved pumpkins.







Then we went to Vivienne, Craig and Valentina's house so the kids could trick or treat together. Their neighborhood is more fun than ours in that respect- there were many houses with lots of decorations and a very Halloween-ish vibe. The kids were uber-cute and had lots of fun!





This morning I presided over the "mandatory allergy trade" wherein Liel gives Zion all her candy with peanuts and he gives her all his candy with eggs and any disparity therein is rectified. Now they've been at me all morning to let them eat candy. And I really do mean ALL morning...Liel ran into my room at 7am with her pumpkin bucket.