Wednesday Afternoons

Whenever I'm given the chance to create a new tradition for our family, I'm usually pretty quick to go for it. Lena might make a mild suggestion such as, "why don't we go out for breakfast on Sunday?" (there's the best café at the end of our new street), and I'll immediately offer up, "hey, why don't we go out for breakfast every Sunday? It'll be like what we do on Sunday mornings!" It's part of the reason why I've been so drawn towards celebrating the Pagan holidays . . . I think I was probably meant to be born into a more religious family with more built-in traditions. As is, I've done pretty well with just making them up as I go.

Our newest family tradition was inspired by the fact that Luke and Jaz have a half-day on Wednesdays (this is true for all grade levels at their new school). I pick them up before lunch, and then we have hours and hours of unstructured time before dinner. What do we do with this time? Well, yesterday we came up with the new tradition of having a special lunch (either going out for lunch or having a picnic somewhere), and then going for a hike. I'm guessing we may have to modify this tradition somewhat to allow for a change in weather or season (i.e. perhaps there will be a "Sunny and/or warm Wednesday Afternoon Tradition" and a "Rainy and/or cold Wednesday Afternoon Tradition"), but for now we will optimistically plan to spend our Wednesday afternoons climbing mountains.

Yesterday we inaugurated the new tradition by eating out at our very favorite restaurant, and then doing one of our very favorite local hikes: climbing up "Bare Mountain" (Luke and Jaz always spend at least 5 minutes discussing the fact that Bare Mountain is named for the fact that "it's, like, bare naked at the top, not because there are bears on it!"). It's a very kid-friendly hike because it's not too long (it takes about 20-30 minutes to get to the top), the trail is fairly steep and requires a bit of scrambling (which the kids love), and the view from the top is pretty great (especially once the leaves start to change). It had been several months since we'd done this particular hike (it's too hot in the summer), and I was surprised by how quickly Jasper and Lukas made their way to the summit. They left me and Mr. DoItMyself! in the dust. Which is not to say that I wasn't equally impressed by our not-quite-two-year-old who managed to climb up the second half of the mountain mostly without assistance. And the kids were just as pleased with themselves as I was with them.

We hung out at the top for about half an hour,
snacking on apples,
soaking up some sun, and admiring the view before heading back down for dinner.

I'm looking forward to next Wednesday afternoon already!

Caterpillar Days

Here we are, smack dab in the middle of the caterpillar days of summer. And I don't know that the kids have ever enjoyed the caterpillar days as much as they are at this moment. Our new house seems to be right on the migratory path of the Monarch butterfly, and my mom's field is full of milkweed and baby monarch caterpillars. The kids have been collecting caterpillars and bringing them inside where we watch them grow, disappear inside a chrysalis, and hatch into butterflies. This year the symbolism seems especially relevant what with us having just moved, and the kids all transitioning into new classrooms. I think the big kids hatched out of their chrysalids on the first day of school, while Zeben is still stuck inside his, waiting to metamorphize into a confident preschooler, but still kind of wanting to cling to his mother milkweed (that would be me!). Anyway, symbolism aside, we've all been having a great time appreciating this magic of nature up close.

Jaz looks for any signs of caterpillars on a stalk of milkweed

Bringing fresh milkweed home for the caterpillars

The caterpillar house that Lukas designed
(made out of cardboard and mesh screening)

Over the course of a couple weeks, the caterpillars grow from teensy babies:

To adventuresome milkweed machines:

Before making their chrysalids on the ceiling of the house:

One day after collecting fresh milkweed and preparing it on the dining room table, Jaz spotted the tiniest caterpillar we'd ever seen! It looked like a small piece of hair, lying on the table. We actually didn't believe that it was a caterpillar until we'd looked at it with a magnifying glass.

"Peekaboo Cutiepie"

Luke studying the tiny "Peekaboo"

The first butterfly emerged yesterday, and luckily we were all there to watch it happen.

We brought it outside and consulted the monarch book to see if the butterfly was a boy or a girl.

It was a girl!

She didn't hang out long before fluttering off to the big flowering bush in our yard.

There are 7 chrysalids left hanging in the caterpillar house, and 3 caterpillars who are still eating milkweed and growing. By the time the last of them has flown off for Mexico, we'll be picking apples and getting ready to celebrate the start of fall. And hopefully by then all 3 kids will be happily settled into their new classrooms, and our new house will feel like home.

First Day of School

Since their preschool summer camp ended 3 weeks ago, Luke and Jaz have been hanging out at home everyday. Which, given the lack of stability in our home life in the last 3 weeks, has not been the best thing in the world for any of us. Basically, they've been driving each other crazy, driving Lena and me crazy, and working themselves up into psycho versions of themselves: bored, hyperactive and overtired all at once. So, we've really just been holding our breath, waiting for school to start up again.

The start of school is especially exciting this fall because Luke and Jaz are starting at a new school--kindergarten!--and for the first time ever, we decided to separate them into different classrooms. We made the decision after much deliberation with each other and the boys' preschool teachers. While Luke and Jaz were not overly dependent on each other in preschool (as sometimes can be a concern with twins in the same classroom), and they actually got along quite well together at school (as opposed to their up-and-down relationship at home), we couldn't help but wonder if things would be even better if they weren't spending 24 hours a day together. They are so incredibly competitive, and spending every waking moment in competition can't be good for anybody. We're hoping that by giving them each their own kindergarten classroom, we'll be giving them some space to take a break from each other's constant scrutiny and judgement.

If the choice had been up to them, they'd have chosen to stay together. But they've actually given us very little resistance about the separation. And after getting the chance to meet their teachers and tour their classrooms, they were even feeling pretty excited about the whole idea. The other day they asked for some paper and markers to draw with, and after setting them up at the dining room table, I realized that only Jaz was doing the drawing. Lukas explained, "Well, since Jaz is really a better draw-er than me, he does all the drawing, and it's my job to hand him the markers." Any lingering doubt that I had about separating them in school vanished from my mind. I think it's going to be really great for our whole family.

Dropping them off went exceptionally well, and it felt wonderful to leave two smiling kids behind in two wonderful new classrooms. They were so ready for kindergarten!

Yesterday was also Zeben's first day of nursery school. In the beginning of August, we found out that he got in off of the wait list for a school that I'd applied to send him to last winter. I'd mostly forgotten about it, but when I got the call I didn't hesitate to say, "yes, we'll take the spot!" He'll be in school 3 mornings a week from 9-noon. While I hadn't yet reached the point of feeling like I needed a break from him, I'm thrilled to be able to have some time to work on my own projects (sewing, writing, etc!), and I also think it will be great for Zeb.

The first day didn't go exactly as I'd hoped it would (I imagined Zeben smiling and saying, "bye, mom!" before blowing me a kiss . . . instead I had to un-pry his fingers from my shirt and hand him to a teacher to the sound of him wailing), but I'm sure that he will adjust in the coming weeks. He already loves his teachers and was excited to go back again today (and had a slightly less-sad time of it all).

I have this list running through my head of all of the things that I want to do with my 9 hours per week of freedom. I don't know where to begin! I really hope that I can use the time well and be my most creative self. At the very least I hope to be able to use the time to rejuvenate myself enough so that I can be my best, most patient mom self when the kids are home.

Any Excuse For a Party

As a kid, I began the tradition of celebrating half-birthdays in my family. My parents and sister never really caught on, so I was kind of the lone celebrator. I remember sewing gifts for my little sister and walking to the corner store to buy her a frozen Pepperidge Farm cake (which I then cut in half). And I'd do the same thing for myself on my own half-birthday. When Lena and I got together, I began celebrating her half-birthday, and for the first time ever, someone started celebrating mine! Eventually we branched out from the frozen Pepperidge Farm cake, and started frequenting the local bakeries for some sort of decadent treat. Any excuse for a party.

Luke and Jasper's half-birthday is August 18th, which this year meant that it fell right in the middle of our crazy, prolonged, living-out-of boxes experience. I was leaning towards not celebrating, but the kids were, of course, of a different opinion. I realized that I'm definitely no longer alone in this half-birthday thing, and no longer able to blow it off if I'm not in the mood. So, we actually unpacked some boxes to unearth the muffin pans and baking ingredients, and the boys made carrot cupcakes (in both gluten-free and gluten-full versions). We decided that a new part of the tradition will be that they get to do the baking for all of the half-birthdays in our family.

I gave instructions from the other side of the counter, and Luke and Jaz did all of the measuring, dumping, and stirring.

Jaz's favorite ingredient was the crushed pineapple.

The cupcakes turned out really well!
Even the gluten-free version (on the left below) were quite tasty.
Here are the half-birthday boys, decked out in their half-birthday crowns (which were the pure genius of the boys' baby-sitter, I had nothing to do with them!):

At the end of the day, I was glad that the kids hadn't let me cop out of this family tradition. And I loved overhearing the start of their conversation with a five-year-old neighbor the next day:

"Well, I remember that when we were five, we liked that book too. But now that we're five-and-a-half we like different sorts of things . . ."

Red Light

So we're supposed to be busy settling into our new house right now, but instead we're exactly where we were a few days ago. More specifically, we remain surrounded by boxes, unsettled children and the crumbs of the last remaining food from our cleared-out cupboards . . . a.k.a. in the old house. On Friday we had to cancel our Saturday move when a lead test came up RED, signifying the presence of lead in the trim of several rooms in the new house. I assumed all along that there was lead in the house somewhere seeing as it was built in 1823, but since everything I've read about lead says it's mostly only an issue with chipping, flaking paint and windows and doors, I assumed we were probably safe. There was no chipping or flaking paint, the windows are all new and I removed all of the doors (mostly out of suspicion of lead, but also just because we find that doors generally only serve to get in the way . . . I did keep the bathroom door, though). But then, standing in the new kitchen on Wednesday, just as we were finally finishing painting the last of the rooms (we ended up painting 8 of the 9 rooms in the house), I found myself staring at the unfinished trim.

peeking into the living room from the dining room,
note the unfinished wood trim

In several of the rooms, the baseboard and doorways have been stripped of their paint. The look is very funky and rustic and is one of the things that drew us to the house the first time we saw it. But as I stood there staring at it, it just dawned on me in slow motion . . . old house . . . lead paint . . . stripped, exposed wood . . . yikes! We happened to have a lead test on hand (I'd been concerned about a flaking-paint crawl space upstairs), so I quickly opened it up and read the instructions. The test would turn pink in the presence of lead. I brushed it on the surface of the kitchen doorway and immediately the test turned red. I looked again at the package and read that the darker the pink/red color, the higher the concentration of lead. Oh. Great.

Our landlords were less than thrilled about our discovery. First, they were freaked out about what this might mean for the rest of the house (as far as they knew, there was no lead issue in the house, but it had never been tested and children haven't lived there since they bought the place 10 years ago). Then they were worried that we were going to sue them or insist upon them getting the house officially deleaded (which in within our legal rights). Then, when we suggested that we simply paint over the exposed wood with lead encapsulating paint, they freaked out about us "changing the look" of the house. Needless to say, it's been an unfortunate few days. We even did a last-minute scramble to try to find someplace else to live, but luckily everything was figured out again at the new house before we had to seriously consider that option (i.e. the landlords calmed down and said we could encapsulate the lead).

So, long story short, our move has been delayed by a week. Lena is painting over all of the lead-positive wood in the house (and we've tested everything else in the house and it's all fine), and then I'm going to do a deep lead-dust-removal cleaning before we move in. There are definitely upsides to this new plan (more time to pack, time to move some things over ahead of time (kitchen stuff, bed frames) to lessen the nightmare of moving day), but it sucks to have most everything packed up and yet still be living here in disasterville. The kids are FREAKING out, and I don't blame them. They thrive on structure and routine and at this moment they aren't getting much of either. Instead they're watching Old School Sesame Street, eating out at restaurants every night, and asking every few hours, "so when are we moving?"

Mom in the Box

With all the packing and painting we've been doing lately, there hasn't been much time for bakfietsing. My legs have been feeling antsy about it. So when my mom called for a ride this evening (her car was in the shop), I got a most brilliant idea and asked if she'd mind a ride in the Bakfiets instead of the minivan. She hesitated only slightly before saying, "okay, I'll do it." I also had to pick up our dinner since we are so passed the cooking stage in our current house of boxes.

This was my maiden voyage with a grown-up passenger on board Bakfietsy Rose. I took the front bench out and put its cushion on the floor of the box. The back bench folds up behind its cushion, making a really comfy looking spot for a bigger person. My mom was a little concerned about her image as she climbed in (along with our dinner in a bag), but she needn't have worried. The only comments from passersby were, "woah, that's cool!"



As soon as we started going, my mom couldn't help but admit that riding in the box is really pretty fun. And it was fun for me as the pedaler too. I didn't notice any difference in handling as opposed to when the kids are strapped in, and it was so great to be able to keep up a conversation on our way home. One fewer trip in the car today. One more excuse to ride my bike. And how sweet to be biking my mom around!

Happy Birthday, Beautiful

Yesterday my Love celebrated her 31st birthday by painting the new house all day long. There was little time for romance or special treatment of any kind, which was especially unfortunate given that of the 10 birthdays she's celebrated since we met, this was only the fourth one that she's been home for (the past six took place when she was working in Alaska). So, I would have really liked to make it special. Instead, we woke up early and she left to go painting while I tried to pack amongst the kids. I briefly entertained the idea of making her a cheesecake (her favorite, and I've perfected the recipe), but realized there just wasn't enough time and decided to buy one instead. I ended up with a chocolate mousse cake from Whole Foods because there were no cheesecakes to be found anywhere in the valley. So, not only was it store-bought, but it wasn't even the right kind! (Luckily, it was still pretty yummy).

A lion cake for my leo love (and a gluten-free cupcake for Lukas)

Anyway, here are some shots of the birthday girl. I love you, beautiful. I am so lucky to have spent 10 birthdays with you so far. I love you a hundred million. I hope all of your birthday wishes come true. You are amazing.