ajmatt blog » matt

Easter dichotomy

allegra — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:26:52 +0000

PEEEEEEPS!

Portrait.

What are you reading?

allegra — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:29:48 +0000

The other night Matt asked, “So what are you reading right now?”

“Well,” I said, “I’m trying to decide between two books. A futuristic Cinderella story about a cyborg or a historical fiction novel about Japanese-Americans in 1940′s Seattle.”

“I know what I would pick,” said Matt. Cyborgs, obviously. If you look at my Library Thing widget on the right, you will see I was of the same opinion.

And what was Matt reading? Alternate history/science fiction short stories that take place in 1600′s Europe.

We are not limited by genre in this household.

*** PS: Obsessive (and patient) photo-checking Grandparents, et. al, the weight of the backlog was too much. I am starting to update pictures again. ***

Halloween in Wonderland

allegra — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:02:33 +0000

If you asked Eva any time in the last month, “What do you want to be for Halloween?” Her answer was, “A queen.” Said with grave solemnity.

Now, Eva did not understand this question at all. She probably still doesn’t know what happened last night, except that our street was filled with kids in costume, which was awesome, and our neighbors had a fog machine in a pumpkin, which was scary.

Because Eva does not understand Halloween and was actually just referring to the name of her favorite song, Dress Up Queen, I took some creative license with her request. I give you, the Queen of Hearts:

While I was searching for a queen costume, I found this hat, and discovered I needed to be the Mad Hatter.

I also found a White Rabbit hat. Matt stayed in his suit after work, dug out the bow tie that goes with his tuxedo, and grudgingly obliged. Poor Matt, forced to wear crazy hats once a year.

I found great meaning in all of our costumes. Matt, like the White Rabbit is very busy, always running off to meetings. Eva, like the Queen of Hearts throws tantrums while I pardon people in her wake. And I, like the Mad Hatter, find life can be a never-ending tea party.

Matt & Eva

allegra — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 03:29:18 +0000

This is classic Matt and Eva:

Suburban life

allegra — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:37:17 +0000

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.

We moved on May 14th and May 15th. I posted pictures of our empty house here, which Eva found entertaining.

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.

Birthday girl

allegra — Sat, 14 May 2011 03:15:14 +0000

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.

There are more pictures in this birthday photo gallery. Happy birthday, Eva!

Eva meets Santa

allegra — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 05:03:05 +0000

A few weeks ago Matt, Eva and I attended Matt’s company holiday party. It was an amazing event – on-site babysitting, catered with a full bar, stockings and wrapped gifts for the kids, and a real live Santa.

Now this wasn’t just any Santa – he was an enthusiastic Santa with loud, aggressive bells who took his job seriously. The kids loved him – except Eva. Click on the picture at left to see the full terror after her first Santa-sighting.

Below you’ll see the fun continued when she was encouraged to interact with the loud bearded man. Not that I was thrilled to be so close to a stranger, but I like to think I hide it well.

While Eva recovered from her initial trauma, she never did return to the babysitters (who were lovely). Instead, I saw a lot of the view at left.

Santa certainly left an impression – I don’t think we’ll bother him again for a year or two.

In the meantime, thank goodness we have cute Couch boys in Santa hats to make Eva laugh.

A bug, a cat, and a pirate

allegra — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 03:20:30 +0000

This may be Eva’s second Halloween, but it feels like her first. There’s a glint in her eyes when you put on her wings – she knows she’s cute, and she knows she’s dressed as a bug. She knows Mama is a cat or, as she puts it, “Mamaaaaaameow.” And she thinks other kids in costumes are hysterical.

We even trick or treated at three houses. What does a one-year-old (who does not know what candy is) do with her loot? Organize it, of course.

There are more pictures, including last week’s Gymboree party in our Halloween photo gallery.

Happy Halloween! Or as Eva would say, “Boooooo!”

Early debating

allegra — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:49:01 +0000

Eva pulls her stuffed sheep out of her toy basket.

EVA: Mama.

MATT: Eva, the sheep says, “Baa baa.”

EVA: Mama.

MATT: Baabaabaa.

EVA: Mamama.

MATT: Eva, trust me. I’ve seen sheep. They say, “Baaaaa baa.”

EVA: Mama.

Toddler: 1. Daddy: 0. Mama: Might shed a tear when Eva learns what the sheep really says.

Summer travels: North Carolina

allegra — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:45:41 +0000

Remember when I mentioned we took a baby to Quebec City? Less than month later we took a toddler – and not just any toddler, one that was teething – to Princeton, North Carolina for the annual Hartley reunion.

The trip was a great opportunity for Eva to spend a few days with her great-grandfather, Pop-Pop. They have a special connection – Eva spent the whole weekend giving Pop-Pop this smile:

And then she would remember she was cutting molars, and she would look more like this:

She was up, she was down, she was carsick… really, you have to look through the whole gallery (and read all of my crazier than usual captions) to get the sense of how much toddler-chasing Matt and I managed.

But in the end, look at this bond. Isn’t it beautiful?