Yesterday was one of those days–a rare and fleeting golden day. Henry and Annabelle woke up happy, ate all their breakfast, took a bath, let me go to yoga, etc. Annabelle is always a sweet conscientious child, but today, she deserves three gold stars. We went to Gym Rompers, their favorite weekly activity, and a little girl tried to push Henry. Annabelle ran up and stood next to him to protect him. Then, they put a big basket of instruments…
We got all dressed up and went to see The Nutcracker today at Roussel Hall at Loyola. Annabelle loves ballerinas and I thought she’d make it through about 30 minutes and I thought Henry would make it through 5. They both sat through the whole thing! George and I kept looking at each other in amazement. Annabelle sat on my lap in her purple tutu and pink cowboy boots, completely enrapt, and Henry, though initially scared of the lowering lights,…
I LOVE holidays!! Thanksgiving is not my favorite as I feel so bad for the turkeys and I’m not a football fan, but, I love the energy and excitement of people getting off work and spending time with their families. George, my little gourmand, has been like a kid in a candy store. He ordered a truffle from Italy and it arrived this morning on ice. He came into the bedroom where the kids and I were playing holding a…
I have found that Henry is Picasso with food. For example, I gave him yogurt today and he promptly painted the table with it, then his belly, legs and arms, and then the floor. He got it nice and goopy and then squished his bare feet in it and tried to ice skate. Later, he tried to shove his stuffed bear’s face into his macaroni and cheese, covering its fur in slime. I took the bear away and washed it…
We had such a magical morning. After retrieving the stuffed goldfish Henry was swishing in the toilet bowl, I turned on some beautiful classical music and set up the watercolors. Annabelle is at that age where her drawing has changed into people-type figures with heads and arms and legs. It’s amazing to watch. Henry is at that age where he sucks on his paintbrush and drinks the paint water. In any case, this is one of our favorite ways to…
I invited Cathy, my photographer friend who lived on the ashram for 7 years on a shopping trip with me. “Cathy, do you want to come with me on a commando cowgirl shopping trip where we plow through a few favorite stores as fast as possible?” (I can never leave the kids for long.) “Absolutely!” she said. She’s my yes girl. Whenever I ask her to do anything, she says yes or absolutely, my favorite words after “Can you bake…
I had the strongest deja vu today! I was sitting on the back driveway with Annabelle and Henry and our 3-year-old neighbor, Maggie, and her 5-year-old brother, George, and their fabulous mother, Allison. George had been howling because he scraped his knee, and in an effort to redirect his attention, I mentioned the first thing that popped into my head. “George, have you seen the anteater at the zoo?” I know he loves animals. He stopped howling and stared at…
Last night I was bathing the monkeys and Annabelle was singing, as she usually is, and George walked by the bathroom. He stopped and backed up. “Is she singing Macy Gray?” he asked. The lyrics of the song she was singing finally registered with me. My little three old was singing “try to say goodbye and I choke, try to walk away and I stumble.” Now, I love this song by Macy Gray, but I haven’t listened to it in…
Well, we were walking yesterday among the wild animals at Swamp Fest (is there anything more terrifying than an alligator oozing out of the water?) and I was telling George how I wanted to take the kids on safari, how amazing to see the animals in their natural habitat with no enclosures. “Doesn’t that sound incredible?” I asked him, imagining monkeys eating out of our hands, me in an adorable pith helmet and khaki suit, Annabelle and Henry dancing to…