10.27.10 ~ Pumpkin Painting and Oktoberfest

It’s lame for me to keep saying it. But here goes. Liam’s little blog is getting neglected because I’m a mother, a wife, and a grad student. I’m effing BUSY! And I’m not going to pretend that juggling these things is easy. Mothering and working really don’t go together well. Both take a lot of time and concentration. And the transition from managing temper tantrums and playing trains on the living room floor to data analyses and academic writing is a tough one. Each time I switch back and forth, it takes me a bit to adjust before I can get back into the role at hand. And when I’m in the middle of building the most loopy and intricate train track with Liam, I can’t imagine wanting to sit at a computer and look at data. On the other hand, when I’m sitting at my desk and am rolling with my dissertation analyses, I can’t imagine cutting my work short to pick Liam up from school and then explaining to him 650 times on the way home that he shouldn’t throw his blue car on the subway floor because it’s very dirty down there. Anyway, work/family balance is on my mind all the time. Even more now that I’m rounding the final lap of my dissertation and will soon have to make real decisions about my career.

Despite all of the dissertating, tax consulting, and train track building going on in our family, we still manage to have some fun.

Here are some examples of fun from the past few weeks:

A few Saturdays ago, Rachel, Chad, and Lynda came over for some fall/Halloween activities with Liam and Simon. We walked to the farmers market, picked out some big and small pumpkins, and then let the kids go to town on them with finger paints. That was Rachel’s idea…. and it was a pretty brilliant one. As you can see in the pictures, Liam and Simon took their painting jobs very seriously. Unlike Liam, Simon did not choose to basically bathe in his paint…. but the end result was the same. We had four very messy hands and three very nicely painted pumpkins.

Have I mentioned we didn’t have any heat until this week? It’s ok. We’ve been getting by:

Last weekend we were in Baltimore for Oktoberfest and Klaus’s 60^th birthday.

Here’s Liam playing soccer with the big boys.

Soccer with the Guys from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

What Language is THAT? from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

Only I would have a two year old that WANTS to clean (the outdoors).

Sweeping the Outdoors, like Klaus from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

And here is Liam with his buddy Mason at Oktoberfest. The two of them partied harder than all of the adults at the party combined. Their energy level just seemed to keep going up with every hour that they were up past their bedtime. Mason is coming over for a sleepover tomorrow night. Rewatching this video just scared me a little. Jason and I might be in for a wild night.

Crazy Kids from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

And here are two videos from tonight. He’s cute when he’s being silly, isn’t he?

Running Sprints before Bedtime from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.

Now that's just Silly from Nina Philipsen Hetzner on Vimeo.