Note: There’s something wrong with the spacing around punctuation in the post. We must be due for a redesign.
While Eva was eating breakfast yesterday I asked, “Eva would you like to visit a farm today?” She nodded thoughtfully, and continued to eat her oatmeal.
I thought I hadn’t made much of an impact, but as soon as she finished her breakfast, she ran to turn off the radio and attempted to open the garage door… while still barefoot and in pajamas. This was a girl trying to get out the door and to the farm as quickly as possible.
We drove about an hour to get to our cousin’s farm, and the moment I took Eva out of the car she squatted, picked up a handful of gravel, and threw it on the ground. Throwing rocks must be an innate toddler instinct, and one they know is likely bad – Eva looked surprised when I didn’t put a stop to it.
We rode out into the fields with our cousin Gay in a golf cart to find the inspiration for our trip, a motherless calf who needs a bottle of milk twice a day. For Eva it was pretty much love at first sight. Unfortunately, the calf didn’t feel the same way.
After feeding the calf, Eva spent some time running across the fields saying, “You pet the cowwwws!” But the cows would have none of it. Matt asked Eva later that night if she petted any cows. She nodded, but that might be wishful thinking.
After chasing the cows and shredding some wildflowers, we got back in the golf cart to go see a tractor. At this point, Gay and I learned that Eva had not enjoyed her first trip in the golf cart. By the time we reached the barn Eva was in full flailing meltdown. As soon as she was out of the cart, she refused to get back in saying in between sobs, “All done with bolf cart!”
Luckily we found cousin David picking produce in the garden. As soon as Eva saw his basket of tomatoes, got her hands on a pepper, and discovered she was allowed to organize the produce, she decided everything might be okay.
We got to take some of the vegetables home, and we’ve been having fresh tomatoes on our salad every night. I also have a giant zucchini I’m looking forward to turning into bread this weekend.
It was a lovely day at the farm. All of our pictures, including plenty of cows and rolling fields, are up in the photo gallery. Now we just need to find a petting zoo with cows that actually want to be petted by an enthusiastic two-year-old…
You know that place on the map where the squiggly street lines give way to blank space? That’s where we live now. The last housing tract right before a bunch of farmland. Things have been quiet around here (except in the photo gallery) as we settled into our new house. Here are a few things we’ve been doing the last 2.5 months.
My family flew in from Washington and California a few days after the move to help us unpack. When you have six people working, you can almost get a whole house unpacked in just one week. It was pretty amazing.
Matt and I took a week off to move, then both of us went right back to work and we’ve been busy. This is evidenced by Eva’s sudden obsession with working. If I leave my office unguarded, Eva likes to climb in my chair and pound on the keyboard and announce, “Eva is working.” She’s created some faux tasks in Outlook, but luckily she hasn’t sent any of my customers email.
In addition to working, I managed to completed the very first summer NaNoWriMo this month… and finish a few days early. After this experience, I have to say I do not recommend participating in NaNoWriMo if you are a stay-at-home-mom/business owner. It is too much. I suspected as much when I skipped it last November, and unless all of my business disappears I won’t do it again this November.
In the meantime, Matt has become Mr. Home Improvement. He and my dad painted our basement TV room, Matt painted our mudroom, and now he’s working on his dream of having a bright red dining room. He’s also patched our driveway, painted our light post, and fixed our air conditioning. After which he said, “I never knew how air conditioning worked. Now I do.” I really like this newfound skill set.
In absence of some of our old activities, Eva and I have been spending a ton of time outdoors. Our neighborhood was built in the late 1990′s, so we are lucky to have some real trees. Our new playground is a wooded area, which means it’s shaded all the time, as are my new running trails. And let me tell you, this makes a huge difference on a 90 degree day. It also means there are a lot of great sticks (Eva calls them all “dog sticks”) for toddlers to find.
We have a community pool that is fantastic for little kids. It is set up like a beach, which means two-year-olds who are afraid of their own shadow feel comfortable walking right in. We also have a deck at home and an inflatable pool, which means if we’re too tired to go out, we can have a pool experience right on our back porch. Eva has really bonded with her fish pool.
Finally, we’re enjoying all of our extra space. Eva can spread out her toys and not block a main pathway. Do you get the sense she’s a Lego kind of girl?
And on days when the heat index is 115 degrees, she can burn off energy by running laps around the kitchen.
While I’m still in mourning for our beloved Duncan library and Alexandria Gymboree, I really appreciate Ashburn’s empty stores and roads. And I’m looking forward to starting our busy fall schedule, which includes some free time for me. And that’s something that was hard to come by in Alexandria.
Today is Eva’s birthday. We’d like to introduce you to our two-year-old:
Can you guess what her favorite book is right now?
Today is also the last day in our Alexandria house, and I spent a great deal of time trying to decide what do today. Which special activity would make Eva happiest?
It turned out Eva was in the mood to stay at home, which was a better answer than any innovative idea I could have come up with. We took a quick trip to our favorite grocery store to buy some cupcakes (homemade was just not happening today) and took a walk, but that was it.
We’re saving Eva’s big present until next week, but Matt brought home a balloon, and Eva couldn’t have been happier. Matt thinks this was the first time she realized a gift was for her.
We ate naan, tandoori chicken, and basmati rice from our favorite local Indian restaurant, then had bumblebee cupcakes for dessert.
Doesn’t that look like a stock photo? (Photo credit: Matt, who doesn’t think it looks like a stock photo.)
Eva approved of the cupcakes. They were delicious.
Last February I bought Eva a sketch pad and a box of crayons. Our new activity (she calls it “Kay-ons!”) was an immediate hit, especially when we added stickers to the mix.
While we played, Eva did not do much actual drawing, but we managed to fill up the sketch pad with drawings from family and friends, some of whom are amazing artists (we’re looking at you Humma and Auntie Kay-Kay).
On Wednesday this week, Eva stood by her table, scribbled a bit more emphatically than usual, then looked up at me and announced, “Woah-bah” (robot).
Matt and I looked at each other in surprise, and I said, “She just drew her first picture.”
So I give you Eva’s latest leap in learning. Please enjoy this work of modern art.
This Saturday Matt, Eva, and I are moving to a new house in the suburbs, about an hour from where we live now.
We are doing this for several reasons – we want more space (in the house and yard), we want to live closer to Matt’s work (right now he commutes about two hours a day), and some of us (me!) are tired of living in a crowded urban area.
Even though I am not fond of DC metro area, I do love the neighborhood we’ve lived in for the last six years. Matt has lived here longer – he bought our house in 2002.
Del Ray is quiet, family-friendly, and walkable. If I walk a half mile I can get to: two playgrounds, a library, two coffee shops, a UPS store, my VW dealership, two grocery stores, a CVS, and a number of fantastic hole-in-the-wall restaurants.
I didn’t realize what a goldmine that was until I looked at a map of our new neighborhood and discovered I would walk to… nothing. Well, there is a nice wooded trail I’m looking forward to running on, but I’ll need to drive to the playground and library, which makes me sad.
We actually signed contracts to sell our house and buy the new one in January, so I’ve spent the last few months saying good-bye to my neighborhood by going on as many walks as possible. It has been a particularly beautiful spring:
We’ve never had tulips bloom in our front yard, but this one popped up this year to say good-bye:
Click through to the largest view – it’s stunning.
So good-bye Del Ray and Alexandria, I will remember you fondly. But I am looking forward to my new quiet, suburban dwelling, where spring of 2012 will look something like this:
My grandmother passed away in her sleep last night. It was both expected and sudden, and I had no idea what to do after receiving the news. Work and do yoga, as I normally do during Eva’s nap? I decided drinking coffee and looking at family photo albums would be better way to start grieving.
Tata loved our blog, so I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures in this space, where her comments will be missed.
Above, Tata is second from the right, lunching with friends at a jazz club. I love the caption on this one – Tata and her friend on the right are wearing snoods, which were very popular during World War II and “great for bad hair days.” If only I had a digital copy of Tata in her Zoot Suit – that would be right next to this picture. (Click on all pictures for larger versions.)
Tata is in the middle row on the right on the stairs at Nat King Cole’s house. Yes, that Nat King Cole. The caption says he wasn’t there the night they were invited over.
This is our family heirloom or, as I call it, The Famous Jazz Picture. Of the four women in the picture, Tata is furthest to the right. There are some famous musicians in this picture – I want to say that’s Duke Ellington on the bottom right, but I can’t remember for sure, and my captioned photo is in storage.
Eva’s latest favorite book is The Cat in the Hat. Or as she likes to call it, “Meeeeoooow. Hat-tah.” Apparently love of The Cat is contagious – here I am reading it to Eva, three of her second cousins, and my mother:
According to my quick Wikipedia research (forgive me, I’m tired), The Cat in the Hat was first published in 1957. My mother remembers reading it, I remember reading it, and it seems the newest generation is entranced. Though these days I’m on Team Fish – that cat makes me nervous…
Note: In this picture am reading the book on my Droid, but we read a hardback at home.
You would think there would be a story behind this much laughing, but it was just a giggly kind of day. Please enjoy three minutes of Eva losing her mind.
Have you ever wondered what life looks like from a mother’s perspective?
As I put up a picture from storytime captioned “Mom’s-eye view,” I thought, “I think I have a few pictures now with this very caption.” I ran a search in our photo gallery, and found five pictures. So here you go – this is what life looks like from my vantage point.
April 2009: The “nursery preparation while pregnant” view. I’d forgotten how big that belly looked – thank goodness that view is temporary.
July 2010: The “toes in the breeze on a walk” view.
August 2010: The “toddler holding knees” view.
December 2010: The “toddler tugging at clothing” view.
February 2011: The “hold onto Mama’s shoes during storytime” view. (Also note the girls in the top left corner holding hands. So cute.)
