Butterflies, trains, and putting out fires.

Took the kids to Como a Friday or two ago. I heard it is the last year for the butterfly house, which we have enjoyed every summer it's been there. It's hard to resist about a million gorgeous butterflies landing all around you.

And sometimes on you!

Fisher actually loved that exhibit this year, delighting in each and every butterfly he spied, so that meant about a hundred different delights.

After we meandered through the highlights of the zoo, we headed over for the amusements.

We had been telling Fisher about the fire truck ride, about how he could hurry hurry spray the fire, hurry hurry spray the fire, hurry hurry spray the fire, ding ding ding ding ding, ding! So he sang that song the whole ride, and they ended up going on again right before we left. He loved it.

What kid doesn't like a good old choo-choo?

Alla likes to squish her poor little brother's face toward the camera. Nice.

I think she might be saying choo choo here!

Como was a big hit as usual!

We're just warming up for the State Fair.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. We're having an oppressively hot day. Like 95 with 90% humidity. Seriously.

2. Bet you didn't spend your morning chasing Dusty the Street Sweeper around the neighborhood on bikes. We did.

3. Alla set up a lollipop stand during our garage sale. I'm guessing she would have made more money had she not bought her friends' lemonade and cookies. 4. She was such a dilligent seller, though, and a HUGE helper in going through every closet and chest of drawers in the house to pile up stuff to sell.

5. After at least six weeks of not seeing our [second] Mama Robin return to her nest, we've assumed the worst and taken the nest down. I think it's just lovely, though I'm also trying to block out the memory of how those eggs smelled a few hours later when Alla had for some reason decided to stash them in the [hot] garage in a plastic bowl and they, of course, burst.

6. But let's get back to how lovely the actual nest is.

7. If you look closely, you can see one little strand of white curling ribbon she used to pretty up her home. Alla and I stashed those in the backyard a couple years ago to encourage nest building mamas to make their homes with us. 8. Today is our anniversary. Eight years!

9. We are actually going.out.to.dinner. Alone. To a grown-up restaurant where they serve things like swiss chard souffle and sturgeon and even duck and quail if you're so inclined, and they most definitely do not serve hamburgers. Or french fries.

10. Now I'm off to pretty myself up, as much as I can, since it is oppressively hot.

Middle of the week.

We're full-speed summer this week. Monday, we all napped (me and Alla, snuggled on the couch, unplanned), then the last soccer game. Tuesday, beach all morning (there is nothing like spending the morning swimming in fresh water). Wednesday, run/bike, and don't turn on the A/C because it's so so amazing outside.

We're also preparing for our neighborhood garage sale to begin on Friday, culminating in our block party on Saturday evening. Alla told her friend Carter that it will be the awesomest day in his life. Probably.

We are consuming mass quantities of fruit: cherries, watermelon, nectarines, blueberries.

We have the makings of a great salad in our fridge, all ready to go: beans, marinating chicken, jicama spears, carrots, spinach, romaine, red pepper, cukes from the garden, a few eensy tomatoes from back there, too. Homemade dressing. I think I'll saute some red onion and garden zucchini, too. Ah, summer.

One of these days I'll get around to uploading new pictures from all the fun stuff we're doing. One of these days.

Swinger.

Almost five years ago, she was placed on a swing like this. And pushed. Now, her biggest delight is to push herself from a stationary position and just go higher, as high as she can.

It seems a few of those simple, lifelong pleasures come together at the same time: riding a bike, swimming, swinging.

Soccer, part two.

Here's what the little one does while watching his sister run amok on the soccer field. A little sitting and watching.Then he'll scramble over to where our bikes are parked against the fence, and ring Alla's bell for awhile before he starts to climb.

And then he'll get upset that he isn't allowed to climb over the fence entirely.

Thankfully the soccer field is adjacent to our park, and of course earlier in the day Fisher has already asked to play there.

And then we ride home. Ah, summer.

Soccer: Summer 2010.

This Monday marks the last day of soccer for the summer. Alla seems to be enjoying herself more this summer, getting it slightly, and, with some Daddy encouragement, even kicking the ball. She seems fired up enough to play fall soccer!

But, we still get some of this, where we actually have to remind her, sometimes mid-game, to get up. The ball's coming. Ha!What she truly lives for, though, is to play goalie. She rocks at being goalie. When asked what she's most looking forward to for soccer night, it'll most likely be a toss-up between after-game snack and playing goalie.

It's so hard to know as a parent, how much to do, how much to let them choose, how long to stick with it. It's so fun to think about what parts she'll take away, decide she loves, what she'll really be in five, ten, fifteen years. Which is why I have to document all the early years, all the little moments that will invariably add up.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Fisher: When we all done at the soccer field, can we pway at duh pahk?

2. Alla: You know, 5 is a big number, Mommy. It's very close to 10.

3. Fisher can be in the span of five minutes both the biggest monster and the biggest sweetheart. Read: bite your arm and then (when he's good and recovered) give you the sweetest kiss and tell you he loves the marigolds. Ah, two.

4. He woke me at 6:21 this morning. Why? Because it's Trash Truck Day, that's why. (Mental note: go to bed early on Monday nights.) I told that one to either go back to bed or sleep with Mama. He chose the latter and really tried his best for a good 40 minutes before he started playing with my eyes: Keep you eyes opened, Mommy! At some point he realized I was doing no such thing, so he, Lovey, and Glo-Worm crept downstairs and put a chair by the window to watch for the trash trucks himself. I was then asked to go move the trash can from behind my car where Daddy put it 'cause he could not see it and that would not do. Ah, two.

5. Alla's swim class is over for the summer. She could swim everyday, that girl just loves the water.

6. Before Alla was born, one of my nesting projects (completely unrelated to having a baby, of course) was to get my cookbook in order. Since then it's become a complete disaster. Add to that all of the substitutions to account for Fisher's allergies, plus a carb-count for nearly every ingredient, and the pages are just a mess. I'm slowly chugging away at a cookbook re-do, typing up a few here and there. It's quite the project.

7. Tonight is scrapbook night!

8. We are having our annual block party next weekend, and in conjunction, a block-wide garage sale! I've been a pricing machine and hopefully can unload some of our old stuff for a little profit.

9. With *her* portion of the profit, Alla has decided to purchase a pink guitar.

10. I've been greatly enjoying the food ideas on this blog lately!

Happy Tuesday!

Pink car season opener.

Yep, it was today. The day we charged the battery and pulled it out of storage (ok, by storage I mean the side of the house all wrapped up in a tarp) so the kids could ride it. You can always count on a 'new' thing to save you on a Monday.

There was some careful and some careless driving. Note the eyes not being fully on the road. And the passenger constantly getting out (at top speed!) to pick up sticks. The driver finally instituted a two-stick maximum rule.But mostly it was fun and games. I'm happy to report no major incidents. Not even a spat. We even put new batteries in the radio and Alla about flipped her lid when she started around the block and her beloved Adam Lambert came on. Her very favorite singer! In her very own car!

Later in the day, Fisher hopped in ("I'll just hop in," said he.) and drove down the street to pick her up at a friend's house so she could come home for dinner. She thought that was just fantastic!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. We had a little visit from my brother Josh and my sister-in-law Kyra for the Fourth. We had a most splendid time taking them to Snail Lake one day and Central Park the next. Kyra made us play Scrabble and kicked our butts, too. Well, mine at least. 2. Fisher woke at midnight on Saturday with the sniffles, then it seemed every 20 minutes thereafter. Sunday was rough as we were all tired and he'd developed a full-blown barking cough.


3. Sometimes I think they are either at each other's throats or in love with each other. When I catch them in love with each other, I make a big deal.

4. Haagen-Dazs Five? We love it. Lemon, Vanilla Bean, Mint, even Ginger!

5. Alla is busy catching things in her bug house as usual. This grasshopper, thankfully, was released. She tends to catch things, fall in love with them and want to keep them forever. Only she forgets, and then, oops, they die.

6. Speaking of green things, we've been enjoying home-grown peapods so incredibly early this year because of our early spring. We got to plant everything in early May, and now are enjoying it all. In fact, I ripped out the peapods yesterday cause they were all done! Sadly, Fisher went out back to pick some more today and was upset to find they were gone. We planted a second crop of seeds; we'll see how they do.7. Took Alla to see Willy Wonka, a musical, on Saturday with my friend and her lovely daughter. The girls seemed to just love it. The mamas loved the antique shopping afterward, and the girls got on board with that, finding their own little treasures. Alla chose a red vintage pair of toy binoculars.

8. I am loving The Hunger Games!

9. My sweet nephew turns one tomorrow!

10. Alla has learned to swing! Like start from a still position and pump her way into the air. She's giddy and wants to go to the park every moment.

The Duckface.

For those of you who do not spend oodles of time with my son, you are likely not aquainted with his Duckface. Awhile ago, I realized I did not have a picture of it, and so I set out to get one. We see The Duckface on a daily basis, so I figured the opportunity was there. I was a little worried about damage to my camera while on assignment, however, no harm was done and now I have captured this face for posterity.

P.S. He does own his own helmet, however, he doesn't really seem to care, grabs whichever is right in front of him. Safety before fashion, I always say.

Home Anniversary.

Today marks four years in our home. Four years is the longest we've been anywhere, and I think it's safe to say we've established this as our home. I would bet lots of money that we'll be living in this house for a long, long time.

(Close-up of the new house color - Ron's finished painting the front. He's painting our house this summer! He's awesome. Here's what it looked like the year we moved in.)

When we first moved in four years ago, we definitely thought that by now we'd have started to think about where to move next. For a more permanent home (bigger, newer, fancier). As in, this will do for now but not forever.

It's funny how things change. We don't have a big house, or a very new house, or anything really that spectacular. But what we do have is a house that in four years has turned into our home. I could go on and on about the events and moments that have made that happen, and most of them would have to do with my children, because what I've realized is that they really do make this home for me. This is the only home they have ever known, and there is something magic about that. I am giddy thinking about them coming home from college to sleep under this very roof, watching their own kids maneuver the very steps they slid down backwards (should we just leave the baby gates up?), crowd around the same dining room table that I've been eating at since I was some single-digit age.

I am sentimental. I am not all that patient, but have learned that over time we turn this house into just what we want. Over time, we call on this house to do different things for us, we live in it differently. The play areas of the toddler days will be the hang-out spots for the teenagers to come.

And when they are both gone off on their own, this is all the house I want, and these walls hold the memories that will sustain me until they come home again.

This is what our home looks like today.

I'm sitting on this chair now. I love the print of Monterey I found at Goodwill.To my left across the room is this vignette atop our wine bar. I got the orchid for my birthday this year, the white vase was my grandmother's, the box is a treasure of Ron's from my parent's travels abroad. At times I notice it has disappeared from that spot and will find it next to Alla's bed, full of beads or rubber balls.

One of my favorite walls in the house, over the playroom bed.

I could not be without the gallery we installed in the hallway, you see it right when you enter the front door and get closer as you walk up the steps.

When you live in a smallish space, you have to get creative with organization. This is the best idea I've ever borrowed from Katie! I think having it actually inspires the artists in them.
A watercolor from Fisher.
Alla's drawing of me, and those are not curls she gave me, but tangles. She told me so.An Alla watercolor of a castle.

Children have a way of prettying things up. Alla made me this 'necklace' for my book/magazine basket and I think it might be there forever.

This little nook in our room houses a vanity that is quite ugly and dated, but highly functional. There's a mirror on half the wall, an out of reach cabinet for medicines, and a lower linen cabinet.

I left it unadorned for quite awhile but then decided to pretty it up, and now the space makes me smile every time I come into our room. There's an art print by Amy Rice, a photo Ron took of Fisher in my belly, and an early Alla watercolor.

A close-up of the Amy Rice artwork. It's printed on a page of poetry by e.e. cummings.

The house has its quirks. Things that need fixing, painting, re-doing. But it's ours, it's home. I love dreaming here, staring out at the walls and imagining what they'll become.