7.30.14 ~ Woodlawn 2.0 in the Park
This past weekend we had a little high school reunion at Patterson Park. Mel and Amara together with their families invited Angela and I to join them on a park playdate. It was so fun to see all these Woodlawn babies together. It was even more fun to see people who I knew as teenagers now as parents. Hopefully we'll have many more of these play dates -- with even more of our Woodlawn peeps and their offspring!
7.14.14 ~ Back to NYC
This past weekend, after the swim meet, Jason and I took Liam to NYC. We centered the trip around Liam seeing his friends and our old apartment and Columbia and anything else that would remind him of the first (almost) 5 years of his life. There were some things he remembered a surprising amount about. Other things came back to him because they had been second nature for so long - stopping at the building corner instead of running to the curb and pressing the exit button before pushing the front door open when leaving Simon's building. Even though she was away on vacation, Liam also remembered that Ada lived in the same building. He remembered the names of playgrounds and the general direction to walk to get to them and he remembered his friends. It took 14 seconds of shyness to pass before he Simon were playing and talking and interacting like they had just seen each other yesterday. And when we saw William there were a few moments where they stared at each other and then they were off. The year that had passed, was suddenly erased.
That's the way it was for me too. As soon as I set foot in that city, it was like we had never left. Everything was familiar and comfortable. Except for Jason's apartment which was brand new to me. All this time I had never seen the place he returns home to on Sunday nights. His little studio is a typical New York apartment and felt a little like the first apartment he and I lived in together in the city. Before kids, before we were even married. It, like our 72nd street apartment, is a happy, light, and comfortable place. Not like the shit holes we had lived in in Brooklyn and on 108th. In many ways this trip back was like a reconciliation between me and my city. I had grown to be deeply unhappy by the time we moved to Baltimore last year. Our apartment was dark and overrun with mice, I was overworked with insufficient child care, I was with the kids by myself frequently while Jason had to work around the clock, and things were generally just not going the way I expected. Baltimore represented a fresh start and a big change and has been exactly what we all needed. Now, all those bad feelings have melted away, and this weekend I saw NYC with new eyes again. All the life and the people and the delicious food and the kids on scooters and the elaborate playgrounds and the walking and subways and the taxis and the tall buildings and the different neighborhoods and the park and our friends and and and...
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Butts...
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That's the way it was for me too. As soon as I set foot in that city, it was like we had never left. Everything was familiar and comfortable. Except for Jason's apartment which was brand new to me. All this time I had never seen the place he returns home to on Sunday nights. His little studio is a typical New York apartment and felt a little like the first apartment he and I lived in together in the city. Before kids, before we were even married. It, like our 72nd street apartment, is a happy, light, and comfortable place. Not like the shit holes we had lived in in Brooklyn and on 108th. In many ways this trip back was like a reconciliation between me and my city. I had grown to be deeply unhappy by the time we moved to Baltimore last year. Our apartment was dark and overrun with mice, I was overworked with insufficient child care, I was with the kids by myself frequently while Jason had to work around the clock, and things were generally just not going the way I expected. Baltimore represented a fresh start and a big change and has been exactly what we all needed. Now, all those bad feelings have melted away, and this weekend I saw NYC with new eyes again. All the life and the people and the delicious food and the kids on scooters and the elaborate playgrounds and the walking and subways and the taxis and the tall buildings and the different neighborhoods and the park and our friends and and and...
Butts...
...are what you get when you hand your camera over to a five year old:
7.9.14 ~ Swimming Break Through!!!
Tonight at the novice meet, Liam swam his first FULL LAP!! I was so proud I nearly popped. That week at the beach and all the pool time worked wonders on him. Even last week - as evidenced in the last video I posted - Liam was stopping multiple times along the way. But tonight he told me he was going to swim the whole length and then he did! Then he got out of the pool and walked over to me like it was no big deal.
Liam's first full lap from NMPH on Vimeo.
Liam's first full lap from NMPH on Vimeo.
7.8.14 ~ OBX 2014
Another year of OBX vacationing is behind us. This year was probably the most fun but most exhausting yet. I was happy to get back to work where I could recover. Not really. I wasn't happy about it at all. I love my job, but missed my kids like crazy the minute I started driving toward DC on Monday morning. After this vacation I realized that every day of childhood - or at least every day of childhood during the summer - should be like this vacation was: Outside and active all. day. long. And I should be there to take part in the fun, right?
Liam and Nora came back totally fried with dark, dry, scaly skin and dry bleached hair from all the sand, sun, water, and sunscreen. They played all day long busy in the sand and water with their cousins. In the evening they collapsed in a heap of physical exhaustion. Or wait. Maybe the heap of exhaustion was actually all the adults. But it was all more than worth it for the fun that was had.
So, how can I get a job with summers off (where I don't have to teach anyone anything throughout the year)? I'm open to suggestions.
Liam and Nora came back totally fried with dark, dry, scaly skin and dry bleached hair from all the sand, sun, water, and sunscreen. They played all day long busy in the sand and water with their cousins. In the evening they collapsed in a heap of physical exhaustion. Or wait. Maybe the heap of exhaustion was actually all the adults. But it was all more than worth it for the fun that was had.
So, how can I get a job with summers off (where I don't have to teach anyone anything throughout the year)? I'm open to suggestions.
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