Monday, April 30

I came downstairs this morning and saw this on my kitchen counter.

FYI, there is juice and milk in the fridge. I guess sticking a straw in a melon and sucking like the dickens seemed like an easier plan somehow.

On the trimming of hair.

We finally cut Eamon's hair the other afternoon.
It's straight as a pin and when the bangs are really long he looks like a surfer dude,









and when the back is really long it's all mullety and weird.









I am a fan of the former but since he's been trying to learn to read we've found it to be a huge distraction for him. So Tim finally talked him into a trim after multiple negotiations about hours of Lego Star Wars and Sugary Treats. We've taken it upon ourself to do the trimming because the outcome at Super Cuts is generally the same as ours (not so great) and we never seem to think about these things far enough in advance to plan an actual appointment.

(we did ok)
Anyway, the morning after The Cut I remember why I'm never in a hurry to cut his hair. His colics show up above his ear on either side of his head like little wings that he could fly away with. They've shown up every morning since the cut, and no amount of water and combing get them to sit down. As I was noting this to Tim, Eamon, listening, remarked, "Yeah, that's why I don't want to ever cut my hair. Actually, I'd like to grow it real long and give it to someone who doesn't have any, like a bald person."

which is fine with me. Let's do that then.

Saturday, April 28

On finding a house.

First i want to say how very lucky we are. The houses that we are looking at in LA are nearly 8 fold what our house here in Albany cost us. We don't have to buy this new house, Employer is buying it for us. We won't own it of course, but we get to live there, and that in itself is a very lucky thing. (luck, and a lot of fast and hard working brain cells on Husbands part.) That aside now...

The market in LA is just maddening. There are lots of crazy prices, and lots of crazy people who aren't really sure they want to sell their house after all. It's maddening when you are on a schedule and there has to be an address that you reside so that you can register your kids for a school maybe possibly for next year. It's maddening because we've hit it at a bad time. This market's bubble may not be bursting but it's at least deflating (if bubbles do that?) and the realtors going with it aren't going down without a fight. For Example- We have a very very favorite house on a lovely street that had a sign outside that read "for sale or lease". We had some details to work out and the house's realtor "had a hard time getting a hold of the owner" and upon mentioning the lease, she told Employer's Realtor that "Honey, you won't make a penny on a lease. Don't let them sign a lease, you've done so much work!". Did she tell her seller that? How can professionals do this? We are being taken hostage by greedy house sellers who who are under the delusion their house is the cutest and everyone wants it (but i have to admit, that house is real cute).

Speaking of that, Employer put an offer on another house that was totally in our range and they hemmed and hawed and decided, well actually, maybe we don't really want to sell this house. Chances are they wanted a bidding war for their house and chances are I don't want their house anymore. I'm not loving this.

Photobooth, Santa Monica Pier, 4/14/07

Friday, April 27

Photo Flashback Friday.

This is my own weekly invention, but it is a wide wide web, so maybe others do this too. Feel free to participate. Here it is (don't think there will always be pictures of my kids here. I just cleaned out my attic and I probably have old pictures of you, too) Photo flashback Friday:


Thursday, April 26

Daily Photo

I recently had a flashback to one of my photo lectures in college. I remembered seeing slides of a woman who took a picture of herself every day for one year. Somehow that idea instantly morphed into me taking a photo of the kids everyday for well, the rest of their lives maybe (i wonder if i can still get away with it when they are in high school)? Just noticing the difference in them from the beginning of my flickr to the end baffles me. Any way, with the amazing technology of flicker I can manipulate the time in between photos in sets, maybe have a set of once a week, once a month, once a year. And so starts another online project of mine, The Daily Photo. Give it some time and then check out the sets on my flickr. Here are the very first intentional Daily Photos:They are a little deer-in-the-headlights looking, but we will improve upon that as soon as the kids get an idea about what is going on ( i haven't told them about their participation just yet, I'm going to wait for one of them to bring it up. It will be a way more fun conversation). The artist in the lecture used a tripod that wasn't moved the entire year. She obviously didn't have children. I wont' be doing that.

Wednesday, April 25

The Leaves are falling back east...

The title of this blog is in reference to a Ben Folds song. Mostly a wink to my sister. She's the first person i tell everything to. She knew about the babies (was told about Eden and was the first to guess about Eamon) she knew about the house, the jobs, the vacations, everything before anyone else.

We told her about California first. We were in Boston eating pizza at Emma's together. What we said was "there was a teeny tiny chance that Tim possibly might get a good enough offer to consider the possibility of maybe moving to CA". In our attempt to soften the blow, i think we ended up making it more believable than before. Tim has gotten a lot of offers, but none of them were worth the cost of moving or the high standard of living out there. We've told her about them all, but this time, she just started crying. Without saying a word. Then she started laughing. And crying. Then apologizing. Then laughing again.

When I started to think about the pros and cons of such a move, proximity to my family was my first consideration. More importantly proximity to Lauren. She is my number one ally. I have loved her through everything, even when she left me in the middle of San Francisco and wouldn't answer her cell phone because I spent too much time looking for bags and not enough doing touristy things (we missed all the boat rides out to Alcatraz for chrissake). We have spent weeks together following David Gray and Tori Amos around (while significantly older than 25). We are self-declared northeastern girls. We have lived here all our lives. We ache for Maine in the summer, skiing slopes (even if we only stay in the lodge) , winter afternoons when it gets dark at 4 and sometimes even dreary cold rainy days. We despise Cheery Westerners (no offense to any of my cheery western friends)! We have always been a day's drive from each other. What am i doing moving 3000 miles away? I'm afraid that three hours time difference is more of a divide than either of us care to admit. When this particular Ben Folds song showed up the other day on random, i felt horrble pangs of guilt when Ben sang:
"don't change your plans for me
i won't move to LA
the leaves are falling back east
that's where i'm gonna stay."


And so when i start writing my list in each column of the good and bad of moving, Lauren will be at the top of the cons list and I'm afraid there is no collective of things on the pros side that come close to balancing her out.

Tuesday, April 24

Throw your things away!

I was a busy little bee today. In fact, I was so productive I feel a need to report on it. After leaving the children at school, I psyched myself up to finish the last of the three overwhelming and scary-but-must-be-done projects before yard saleing all our stuff and moving across the country. I sorted and cleaned the basement months ago, the attic was organized two weeks ago, and now that it's warm and the snow is gone, it's time to take on the shed. I usually don't get so ultra organized before big events like this. The last time we moved I was 8 months pregnant and we were taken by surprise by our moving date. I went to Albany to paint the new house and Tim and the in-laws packed up our very unorganized, untidy house. After opening box upon box of random things boxed with other unrelated random things i swore i would never bring an irrelevant item with me to a new house again (Tim instead swore that he would never move again). Anywho... I had all day to clean the shed, the kids were being picked up and given dinner to by a friend. I started at about 9:30. It was all neat and tidy by 10:30. I have a huge pile for our future yard sale and about 7 bags of garbage that can't really be used by anyone. So then i seasoned all the wood lawn furniture (8 whole pieces!) and then i painted the rocking bench red. Not only did i paint it but handy little me fixed it. I also painted a little table that goes outside red too. The bench is very much my favorite thing I did all day.

Morning Buisness

Today Eden is sporting a pink polka dot dress, her pink sweatshirt with arm stripes and her pretty dirty purple Merrel's. Monochrome with a punch of color. The stockings were meant to be left out, but the temperature dropped about 20 degrees last night in a hurricane force rainstorm. It left behind clear skies though, and for that we are happy.
Since we walked to school today, Eamon allowed me to come into the building with him. He even let me stay and hang out until the bell rang to go into the classroom. Most days I am not even allowed near the entrance. These are usually days when we drive to school and he says "No no mom, you can stay right there." by the door of the car. So I watch him until he disappears into the hallway and then drive off to get started with my day. Eden did the same thing, but it only took a month of Kindergarten before I was not allowed to walk in with her anymore. I still always stay and watch them until they get inside the door. Just last week I saw Eden peek over her shoulder before she entered school to make sure I was still there.

Monday, April 23

Palm Size

Let's start with a picture from today. This is my uncle and Eamon goofing after dinner. They have been buddies since Eamon was able to speak full sentences. Eamon has a special knack for finding a suitable buddy wherever he might be. He assesses a new setting or situation by looking for the most obvious "dude" in the bunch (meaning the guy who looks like he will tickle, play ninja/Kung Fu, and tackle him if need be). He approaches this male like a jungle cat scoping out his fine catch for the day. That is until he bluntly pokes prods and teases him for a reaction with which he asses the dudeness of said male's character. If the Subject reacts with cranky demeanor, Eamon (gives him a funny look and) moves on to the next dude-like guy. This approach is nearly flawless, Eamon usually finds his guy and barely lets him come up for air until it's time to go. (I should note this has only backfired on one occasion when he found the right guy, but the dude had a baby who had just started walking. There was much confusion all around, but no one got hurt and Eamon eventually moved on to his next victim.)
I don't really worry about moving Eamon to California. In fact most of the time I think he was meant to live there. There will be plenty of Dudes to keep him busy, but thank goodness for the good 'ol standbys like Uncle Bob.