Claire getting in some shoulder riding practice – she somehow hunches over your head and makes it really uncomfortable. I walked behind coaching her – sit up straight, Daddy won’t let you fall.
Here’s the expert shoulder rider. Six years old and she still charms her way up onto his shoulders. I should also mention that Brian ran a marathon the day before he did this longish hike with little girls on his shoulders.
I think I lost the leaf fight.
The grasshopper with a missing leg that the girls became, strangely, sympathetic to.
We had dinner at a VERY classy mexican restaurant. It was yummy.
Have I told you that I just love my closet. Come on in and see how charming it is.
It’s on my side of the bed and it has a window. It has a big built in cabinet with shelving inside. And the best part is it’s mine – all mine.
I have big plans for this little space. I’d like to put all my most precious photos and artwork in there – on the walls and on top of the cabinets. I’d also like to frame a section of the wallpaper that is in our bedroom. There are extra rolls of the wallpaper in the basement and I like the idea of preserving some of the old part of our house because it makes me smile.
I like to put sentimental little trinkets on the window sil. And there’s more room to display pretty stuff on the top of the cabinet maybe with a nice little lamp.
I can keep my stack of thrifted suitcases under the hanging clothes. Brian doesn’t understand the appeal of these – I tell him they are both useful and nice to look at. A pop of vintage red with extra blankets and sweaters stored inside – what could be better Love?
Maybe I’ll paint it pink or green and it might even inspire me to pick my clothes up off the floor. I love it!
Claire’s favorite thing to do is to set up a party. She particularly loves to use this little blue table. She gets all her stuffed kitties and me arranged around the table and then she starts distributing the cake and cookies.
There’s lots of artwork happening around here lately. So much that I can barely keep it from taking over all the flat surfaces in the house. Here are a couple of the masterpieces that Claire has made at preschool:
Bea often sits down to draw something when she seems to be feeling stressed. One day she sat down and copied everything on the West wall of our TV room. We’ve started putting up the kid’s artwork and holiday decorations on that wall behind the TV so she made drawings of drawings. She even copied Trinitron on the TV. And you can see the sound coming out of the TV.
Here’s a playground scene that Bea drew.
When your wife is a stay at home Mom you can text her and say why don’t we celebrate, Composer, Giuseppe Verdi’s 200th Birthday with a mini party tonight. And then your wife makes some quick decorations and buys cupcakes. Then after dinner the kids get excited while you watch the Chicago Symphonie Orchestra’s live broadcast of Verdi’s requiem. Usually I’m the one that comes up with excuses to have cake and to make a weeknight a little less ho hum. But this time it was Brian – we couldn’t see the performance live but we did have fun. And the girls did get into the orchestra and the the instruments and they pretended to conduct and they tried not to be too noisy when Daddy was trying to hear the music.
And Bea had to draw Mr. Verdi:
The other thing I did this week – lots of felt cutting and pinning and sewing – for Halloween. We are soooooo excited to have a real American Halloween this year.
Here’s a preview of the mostly finished bird costumes.
Here are Bea and Claire having fun on the stairs. We’ve never had stairs before. They threw every stuffed animal they own down the stairs plus some pillows just to make it cozy.
In other news – I finished a dress for Bea:
It’s from the new Oliver + S Playtime Dress pattern. I got the fabric at Vogue fabrics in Evanston. It’s been four years since I was there. So fun to find fabrics for just a few dollars a yard – it really scratches my treasure hunting itch.
Lately I find myself in moments of true happiness, looking on with a dose of worry in the back of my head.
Things seem odd because we are going through something difficult with Bea, but at the same time I am having some really good times with my daughters.
We are beginning a process with Bea – a process to get her over some of her fears. It seems like a daunting mountain to climb, but we are glad to have a plan in place. Her school seems so good – everyone I have met seems so eager to help our little girl.
The good part has been going on for a while – as we have gotten settled into our new home the girls have seemed really comfortable. When I picked Bea up at school today she jumped right out of the crowd of kids and gave me a huge (toothless) grin. Claire is loving her ballet class, and getting used to her preschool days.
Just tonight we got dinner and took it down to the beach to eat. It was chilly, but the waves and the wind had a familiar soothing effect. The girls ran around free and happy chasing see gulls and making up little games. Then we walked along the beach and collected little bits of things that we found in the sand. On the way home Hot Buttered Popcorn came on the radio and I turned it up loud. They bounced up and down in their seats. Claire said popcorn was coming out of her arms and legs and ears and declared it her new favorite song.
A while back Bea and I watched this video and we both thought it was fascinating. I was just waiting for a moment when we could find some garbage on a beach – yes – garbage on a beach.
Here’s our inspiration – beautiful artwork made from plastic garbage washed up onto a beach*:
Looky what we did over the weekend. We ripped out the carpet in our bedroom! Oh I have such a swirl of ideas and questions about our home renovations in my head. I love it all and I’m so excited, but sometimes I end up in a black hole of Pintrest and This Old House trying to sort it all out.
Here’s the before. I love green, but the amount of green and all the pattern almost made me recoil and shield my eyes with my arm every time I came into our bedroom.
Bea made us cut a little square of carpet for her to save. Maybe it can be the grassy field for her playmobil animals.
She was a good helper – pulling out the staples and sweeping up the padding crumbs (yuck).
It’s been dark since we finished the project, and the floor looks three different colors in my photos. I guess you never know what you will find when you pull up carpet, but so far we have been lucky. The floors look great. I need to educate myself on how to refresh them. Plus, I need to do some sanding to get rid of the bits of carpet that are stuck with paint at the bottom of the baseboards.
Can’t wait to get rid of the carpet in the bathroom. I think the previous owners put that in just to sell the house. There is some rough looking black linoleum under the carpet. Add that to the list of a million other things…
What’s that sitting above my sink on the window sil?
It’s the little chocolate bars that Swiss Airlines gives out. The ones that Brian always tucks in his bag and brings home to the girls and I. I keep glancing at them. Thinking about how Switzerland is so good at these little details that make day to day life pleasant. Brian got these on a recent trip back to Zurich. In theory there will be an end to these little gems. In other words one day Brian won’t be going back to Zurich so often. I won’t be sad to see the end of Brian’s long trips, but I will be sad not to have that little pop of chocolate.
Today Bea lost a tooth at school. She had to go down to the school nurse and the nurse put the tooth in this cool little necklace pendant.
She was very proud of the fact that kids that lose their tooth at home only get a sticker, but she got the necklace. OK, so this is a nice little detail that makes life nice – so I’m contradicting myself. Or I just have rosey glasses on whenever I think about Switzerland.
Brian had to work at his company’s Chicago office one day this week. This is his view.
This was my view during my “work day”. I have three tall shallow cupboards that I really like. Since we moved in I’d just been throwing food in there all willy nilly. The canned tomatoes were next to the marshmallows were next to the rice were next to the oatmeal were next to the bay leaves were next to the peanut butter… It felt good to get them organized.
I felt like this was finally the first week where we had a normal schedule. It was a better week. Claire is liking her preschool – they have a fish named Sunny Rainbow. She is so good at letting me say good-bye when I drop her off. She gives me a big tight hug and then she just lets me go. And when I pick her up she struts out of there with a confident little stride. So nice and easy.
Brian was gone all week. Claire locked herself in the bathroom, and we had a hairy scene, I might have yelled. I opened the mail on Wednesday: Brian got a $100 dollar ticket and the car rental company is trying to charge us a bunch of money for damage that we didn’t do. Bea pinched her finger (bad) in a bathroom stall door. And, finally, we learned that Bea is not talking at school.
But there were some good moments too:
We saw a few animals and had some fun before Bea pinched her finger at the zoo.
Bea wanted to teach Claire to sew. She made a paper lacing picture and sat so patiently with her little sister. Side note – they love to sit side by side in that big chair that came out of Grandma Dice’s basement.
I got to do some sewing too:
We had a fun time down in the city. Brian toook us for a picnic and concert at the Pritzker Pavillion. It was some opera that we got to listen to and Brian was all smiles when the girls really enjoyed it.
Laowai 