Laowai

I’m not feeling very inspired to write anything interesting lately. So I’ll just post some more photos and say that Bea and I had a really fun weekend with Grandma J, Jennifer and Jenna in Cleveland. Jennifer was sailing in a big regatta and so Grandma and I wrangled the littles.

The morning after their first slumber party:

Jenna the carnivore:

Jenna at the Cleveland Zoo:

Jenna driving my car:

Now poor Bea has a cold and I keep having to maul her with a kleenex to keep the snot from taking over her face. We’re looking forward to spending some time with Daddy this weekend.

So I finally got our vacation photos off Brian’s computer. Here’s my report on our first vacation with Bea.

We went to Quebec City and had a wonderful time. We basically walked around all day everyday and stopped now and then to eat. Quebec City is perched on the side of a big hill so we had good excercise pushing the stroller up and down and up and down…. We ate maple cake and maple fudge and way too many other desserts. Our best meal also featured the worst service from a moustached frenchy who was probably offended by anyone who didn’t speak fluent French. Oh well – it didn’t stop us from having fun. Bea was really good. I think she likes it when we are all together. She seemed to be smiling and giggling all the time. We only had a couple stressful moments when it was late in the evening and we probably asked a bit too much of her. She seemed to make friends everywhere we went by catching the eyes of people walking by and then giving them one of her big grins. And everyone who learned her name was pleased because of its Frenchness.

So here are a bunch of our photos – starting with Bea and her Daddy all around town.

There was lots of military stuff – control of Quebec seemed to go back and fourth between the French and English a bunch of times. The city was protected by a big wall and the Citidelle perched above the city. We toured the Citidelle and it was pretty interesting. They called the big cannon below Rachel.

Here’s Bea and me sitting at a restaurant. We got in the habit of letting her gum a spoon or a butter knife before our meals came. It’s amazing how long a simple piece of silverware can entertain her.

Here are a bunch of architecture shots. It’s strange seeing such old buildings in America. It feels like going to Europe without the long plane ride. The streets were filled with beautiful buildings. All over the city there was construction going on to prepare for next year’s 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec.

There was a lot of beautiful really animated sculpture throughout the city. I wish I had taken a few more photos. Here’s a shot of a very French looking man. And then an interesting bunch of bird houses that we saw on a walk through the less touristy area of town.

One last photo of all of us. We had a great time and now can look forward to more travel with Bea. She got her passport in the mail the day after we got home so she’s ready for some real international travel now.

I’m constantly aware of the fleeting ephemeral time that I’m experiencing. I’m aware that tomorrow Bea will stop doing the cute and charming things she does today. Of course she will start doing some other cute thing but I don’t want her to stop making that sweet smile where her nose wrinkles up, or the smile that her daddy calls her evil smile where her eyebrows get pointy, and I don’t want her funny giggle that sounds like a sputtering engine to stop or change. And what about the way she stares at you when you talk on the phone with her big unblinking eyes. Or her funny babbling in that deep groany voice. Or her habbit of sticking out her tongue and then laughing when you copy her. I know that those habits won’t last forever.

I realized the other day that she has pretty much stopped making her heart-melting smiles in her sleep. Does this feeling that life is so precious and yet moving at 1000 miles an hour ever go away?

Note: I’ve put a few new pics in her Photo Album #4. And photos of Bea in Quebec City are coming as soon as daddy gets home and gives me the photos from his computer.

Just a quick post to show some snippets of our very fun weekend visiting family. It felt so good to spend the day with my mom and Jennifer. And we had loads of fun introducing Bea to her cousins.

Stay tuned for highlights from our vacation. Here’s Bea on her first plane trip – it was all smiles – whew.

Brian has this funny collector streak running through his veins. Let me illustrate:

There’s the record of how many miles he rides on his bike. I think he started this in October of 2003. He put 11,700 miles on his old bike and he’s up to 1,900 miles on his new bike (purchased this spring). He keeps this little pile of papers taped to the inside of one of our kitchen cupboards.

Then just to make his biking hobby more interesting he marks his progress on a map. He already went across the US a couple times and now he is going all around the edge of europe. He uses the little ruler and a black Sharpie to mark out his miles according to the scale on the atlas. He often goes 50 to 70 miles in one day so he has been moving around europe at a pretty good clip.

Then there is the Opera related stuff. He keeps all the tickets to all the operas he/we have been to. The first one is Aida at the Detroit Opera House in 1997. There are some really memorable things in there for Brian. Lots of favorite singers and some neat places like the State Opera in Vienna and a performance in Brussels.

Next collection – wine stuff. Whenever he opens a bottle of wine Brian takes the label off and puts it in a book. I personalized the covers for him – he’s on his third book. If we shared the bottle of wine with friends or we celebrated a special event like a promotion or anniversary he’ll make a note. It’s fun to look through the book and remember special meals together. Also, I like to look through the book to get design inspiration from the wine labels.

He can’t just throw the cork away – here’s part of the big pile of corks that we have. Right now they sit in this big vase on our bookshelf. I need to think of something to do with them that’s not too cheesy.

Last but not least. Brian has a huge CD collection. Someday when we move Brian will have his own special place to keep his CDs and listen to his music.

Should I be offended that Pioneeer Woman chose to name the ugliest cow in her herd Beatrice?

Compare this:

And this:

My baby is six months old today. Six months ago I was gazing into her eyes and looking at her little pouty bottom lip for the firs time. And then I blinked and she was six months old. I suppose I’ll be saying the same thing when she turns twenty.

The phrase pride and joy comes to mind often. These are some of my favorite photos.

We were walking the other night – on our way to dinner and we saw a big dead rat. Now that just makes the place where I live sound awful, but Evanston really is a nice green and pleasant place. And yet I can’t deny that we have seen rats on a couple occasions. It was just dead, dead, dead, there on the edge of the sidewalk with it’s un-hairy tail. Brian said it looked like somebody ran over it with a bike. It was kinda deflated looking.

My sleep is really different these days – I am super tuned to any little sound that Bea makes. I must sleep really lightly and so I remember my dreams more. The night after we saw the rat I kept dreaming that we had run over the rat with the stroller and then I was all panicked because I thought we had pushed the stroller all over the living room where Bea rolls around on the floor. Of course we did not run over the rat and we never push the stroller into the living room. But that didn’t stop me from having this revolving dream. I kept imagining Bea sucking on the hard floor like she does occasionally when she rolls off the rug. It was like she might as well have been licking the rat. So then I would become half awake and tell myself that this was silly but all the same I should be sure to scrub the floors tomorrow. And then I would doze off and have the same crazy dream again and again and again. I must have gone over the same scenario 20 times in the night. I woke up with a headache and a tense neck and shoulders. I should have just gotten up to clean the floor and then gotten back to the business of sleeping. Brian thinks I’ve gone nuts. Hmmmm.

Along with our baby cereal so far we’ve had peas, peaches, bannanas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, apples and pears. Bannanas were the favorite. Green beans, she was not so enthusiastic about. Time to move on to some sort of meat.

Mmmm.

I’ve posted a few new photos in album #4.

I love a simple lunch that comes together spontaneously when you have a fridge full of good seasonal stuff. I remember a summer when mom and I kept having meals of steamed swiss chard and little red potatoes with a good amount of butter and salt and pepper. Those simple seasonal things taste so good. I’m so satisfied when I can throw some ingredients together and come up with something like this: focacia bread, a big slathering of cream cheese, arugula and pickled beets. Mmmmm!