And Life Continues...

Hi all-  You know how sometimes in a movie, there is a calendar on the wall with today’s date on it and a breeze comes along and starts to blow the numbers off?  It blows off Aug 5, then the 6th, then 7th…and it blows harder and blows Sept 13, 17, 19 and keeps blowing to Jan 24, March 3, May 10 and ends up some time later and the story continues?  Well, so goes our blog.  A lot of time has passed but it is not for lack of subject matter that I haven’t written.  It’s lack of time and, honestly, lack of energy.  Once Bek started walking it sort of sped up my day by about 1000 times what it was before.  I’m so tired at the end of the day all I want to do is sit and stare at a wall and re-boot.  And before I knew it, it had been weeks since I have written anything about my sweet little bumpkins.  And they deserve to be written about because- lets be honest here- they are amazing and I adore them and I don’t want to forget any first anything or any cute story about them.  I’m not like my friend Carson who remembers literally every second of her life.  Nope, I am more of the ‘once it happens, it is forgotten’ kind of person.  So I write it down.  And I have been writing.  It’s on little scraps of paper around the house that I have been collecting in my desk.  So let me organize a bit and just start writing.  Let’s start way back in July...

As you know, we moved out of our beloved DC and into the suburbs and life is just a bit easier out here.  No mile long lines at the grocery store, no driving around the block twice before finding a parking spot to drop Rin at preschool, no drunk people walking home from Metro at 2am in front of our house.  Like I said, pretty easy compared to our life in DC.  One of the things that we loved about this house was proximity to the jogging paths that run throughout the city.  Most are wooded and it is heaven for a couple of nature loving boys.

And there is festival after festival out here.  I think we’ve been to four this summer and it just keeps coming.  Can you say scary face painting?  Yeah, no butterflies or unicorns here, it’s green faced superheroes.  And now we are into Fall festivals.  It is festival insanity!  There was a Taste of Reston Festival, Reston Festival, Asian Festival, International Festival, and those are just the ones I know of.  It’s so kid friendly out here.  We have made several trips out to Woody’s Putt Putt with Rin.  He doesn’t exactly play it but more like he gives it a go and if he makes it, fine, and if not, that’s fine too.  It’s all about the experience rather than the number on the scorecard when you’re four.  And should be when you’re 34 as far as I’m concerned.



 

We celebrated knowing Rin for four whole years with cupcakes this year.  A little more subdued than last year but full of love nonetheless.  And what could be better than cupcakes with the people you love the most?

This has been a blazing hot summer and so when Rinat asked one day “Hey Mommy?  Can we go explore a cave one day?” my answer was an enthusiastic ‘yes!’  We headed up to Luray Caverns and it was a wonderful day excursion for us.  We got out into the hilly part of the state and drove wind-y roads.  It wasn’t far but it was far enough to feel like we went somewhere.  And the cave itself was kind of amazing.  And nice and cool too.  Of course poor Peter was sweating his pants off hauling that stroller a million miles down the stairs to the underground but it was worth it. Even Bek thought it was amazing and didn’t even cry like I thought he would.  He’s still pretty unsure in new situations but he’s getting better by the day.  I like to measure the success of any outing by how tired the kids are after it's all over.  I'd count this as a rousing success.  These darling kids wore themselves OUT as you can see. It was a very quiet ride home for us grownups.  . 



And, because me and hot don’t get along so well, we’ve spent a decent amount of time at the pool.  Rin took a few weeks of swim lessons and is getting more comfortable with the water.  It’s hard though because they don’t allow floaties or life jackets except at lessons so he tends to just hang on me.  Bek, however, is a whole different story.  He could float and float for hours.  He will stick his little head in the water for what seems like forever holding his breath like a champ.  He’s going to be the little fish in the family I think.  Must be all that fat that makes him float- HaHa.

And other than that, we’ve just been hanging out and enjoying life.  Rin and Bek continue to get along like peas and carrots.  I don’t know why I like that saying but it just fits them.  But wait- is Rin the pea or is Bek?  Hmmm…  They laugh and laugh and roll around on the floor and laugh some more.

I have about a million more little pieces of paper tucked away inside my desk and a million more stories to tell of the adventures of the sweetest boys on earth.  But that’s for another day.  I am out of time (the boys are pounding the table and shouting for dinner) and out of space (Blogger only allows 20 photos per post).  So I’ll see you next time! 

Love to all, -m

Kicking and Screaming to the Suburbs

Hi all-

I fought it for years.  I really really REALLY didn’t want to move out of the city.  I hemmed and hawed, found something wrong with every place we looked at outside of my comfy city ‘hood.  But in those excruciating 7 weeks between leaving behind our little bumpkin in Kaz and going to pick him up from the Baby House for good, I spent hours and hours on Redfin trying to forget the reality that he wasn’t with us yet and looking ahead and trying to find a place that would give my boys the childhood they deserve. And  I finally hit on a place that seemed like it could be home.  A Norman Rockwell kind of place where kids bike around the neighborhood together and neighbors bring over a casserole when someone’s sick.  But, this being DC and all, it was with a multicultural twist- one of the selling points for me.

And have I mentioned that it had to be full of mature trees?  None of those annoying twigs they pass off as a tree in new developments.

And amenities.  There must be fabulous places to go and activities for the kids.

Proximity to the city is a must (it’s 30 minutes).  And, the most important part- we must be able to afford a house AND afford to go on vacation/get a babysitter for nights out/go fun places without worrying about what it costs.  All I can say is

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

The kids are happy, healthy and we are settling in quite nicely I must say.  The first night in our new home, the boys celebrated with ice cream cones

While Peter and I dealt with this

But we have settled in a bit and have had many backyard ‘parties’ that consist of Rin making decorations and making sure we all have a straw in our beers Kaz style- bendy to be precise because that’s how we do it 'round here.

And mostly we’ve just been enjoying having a place of our own. There have been lots of smiles and laughs as we bond and enjoy our new space.

Never thought I would say it, but...I sorta like it in the 'burbs.  But, shhh, don't tell.

Love to all, -m

Lake Mode

Hi All-

There’s just something about the lake. Wonderful things happen there. We are calm, we are relaxed. It’s how we should always be. But like most people, we don’t get to live on perma vacation.  So we have to make the most of the couple of trips we take down here each year and enjoy our break from reality  to the fullest.

We leave the crazy and hectic city of DC and head out, worrying about if we brought everything we could need, if the kids will behave or be horrific in the car, did I remember to lock the door/start the dishwasher/feed the cat?, and we set off hoping to regain our sanity in the few days we have there.  The road is long and not always easy.  We start off in the hurly burly world of traffic out of the city as we cruise down the highway.  No, that was an over statement.  Usually, we slowly creep down the highway as holiday weekends are bumper to bumper traffic around here.  But eventually we make our way out of the city and the cars begin to thin out and the roads begin to get hilly and curvy. There are cows and crops.  Grain silos and old farmhouses.

And we take a breath.

We turn off the highway onto a country road that winds past farms and through one stoplight towns.  We have to slow down and wait to pass a tractor going 5 miles an hour.
And we take a breath.

The two lane road turns to a no lane road- the lines are gone and it is only blacktop guiding us on our way.  We turn into the driveway and know we are somewhere like home but better.

  
Our pulses slow to a crawl, our blood pressure drops, and we can take a deep breath again.  There are 7 blissful days of lazy mornings, boat rides, digging in the sand, playing with family, frosty boat drinks, novel reading, nap taking, and floating in the water ahead of us.  The trip is long but we always arrive glad we came.  Despite the screaming from the backseat, despite the bad fast food, despite the packing and “arewethereyet”-ing, and despite the sheer effort it takes to pack 4 people into a car for 5 hours it is worth it. 

Growing up, we had a sailboat a few hours away and we went pretty often- at least it felt like that to me- and I have amazing memories of my childhood days there. Playing Crazy 8’s with my brothers, picking blackberries from an island in the lake, rowing around endlessly in the dingy, catching frogs and making giant holes for them to live in, sitting on the boom reading books for hours on end, special two-yolk fried eggs that I am pretty sure the lady at the marina faked for us. And I am so happy that we have a place for our boys to build memories like that. A place far enough away from our daily life and our daily interactions that it can be special. Like our own little secret getaway from the world. And maybe it’s part of the magic that the getting here is so hard. It makes you all the more happy to be there once you are. Sort of like our family I guess. 

  
I have said before that I really don’t think I would appreciate our sweet boys nearly as much as I do had they come to us easily.  I guess it’s just the world’s way of making sure they have our complete and unabating adoration.  And they do, more than they will ever know.  I know that the lake won’t be a part of our boys’ lives forever so I try to appreciate it for all that it is and have them store up just enough memories to last them a lifetime.   

  

And please check out my sweet youngest’s face.  Still not a fan of the sand or grass.     

The water on the other hand is a different story altogether. He could float for hours. And he did.

Go and make some lazy summertime memories- it's already half over!  Eat popsicles in the backyard, take a stroll to nowhere in particular and enjoy the company of the people you love the most.

Love to all, -m

WHO Makes it Rain?

Hi All-
It's been crazy rainy around here lately and the other day, the kids and I were just sort of puttering around the house and Rinat asked,
"Mommy?  Why are they making it rain so much?"
I stopped what I was doing and looked at him because I knew this was going to be an interesting one.
"Um..WHO is making it rain so much, Honey?"
and he looked at me through squinted eyes like he knew it was not the right answer but he said it anyway
"The weather people on the TV." 
After him telling me to stop laughing, this led to a short and frustrating discussion about God.  He keeps my on my toes. As does the little one. Just had to get that down before I forgot about it.

Can you believe the 'creek' in our new backyard?  More about our new digs soon.  We're finally settling in.  FINALLY.  And so far so good.
Love to all, -m