O moved up a level today!  He is a squirmy worm through the water.  His favorite thing to do is dive down to the bottom for rings and squid. He is a superstar!  We will wait until after our vacation to move into a new class.  And Soccer Shots begins after that, too.  Really looking forward to spring and being outside again. ⚽️⚽️⚽️

A juvenile raccoon found our bird feeder today; it is actually still out on the deck.  I noticed it and called the kids over.  A little bit like the zoo where the animal is up close but behind glass.  It was in the corner of our breakfast/arts and crafts nook.  Ollie got eye to eye until it could not make sense of the situation or us or both and slunk backwards, hunched down behind our grill.  Em kept walking over, peering at it, saying, ” Hi Haccoon!  Hi!”  

Sunny.  Mild.  Snowpack seeping into the streets.  Mud.  Time to hit the road for an adventure.  We went downtown expecting to explore the art museum, however, art museums…not that kid friendly, I’m afraid.  Too quiet and too many rules.  We will have to wait on that.  Thankfully, that museum is attached to the Museum of Natural History so we wandered over there to look at some Greek architecture and dinosaurs.  But it was too nice to stay inside.  We decided to stroll outside since we were in a walkable part of Oakland, in between two campuses.  Right outside there is a tough art structure titled Lozziwurm which is meant to be played on and O and E took to it.

Lily?  She (and I) preferred this:

Further down the block by the law library, we came upon some new (to me) food kiosks selling a wacky bunch of foods. While I was tempted by the Palestinian hummus place, the kids decided on Waffalonia.  We got a sweet {fresh! hot!} waffle with strawberries and whipped cream and another with ice cream and chocolate sauce.  What’s with all this dessert eating?! Yikes!

I want to also make note of a few funny things I have overheard or learned from the kids’ conversations recently.  We had friends over to play last week; the oldest is in 1st grade at PR.  His mom says he has learned so much on the bus ride to school  And sure enough, Ollie started saying “fart” after they left.  Ahem.  My dear Lily, though, is into her Kidz Bop and today when Olivia was over, L learned that All About the Bass was about your bottom.  “And I don’t understand that, Momma.  Why would you want to sing about your bottom?!”  Ahem.  I don’t have anything from Emmy but I’m sure that will be coming soon…

Ollie and I went on “not a date” tonight.  After dropping Lily at Daisys we headed for the local diner in search of a treat:  me{pie}, him{ice cream}.  Success!  He had a “frownie” sundae and I had some apple pie ala mode.  The conversation was interesting, the setting seedy and the company the very best.

Of course, this same boy is the one who just told me he hated me.  Why?  Because I don’t let him do what he wants.  Tonight he wants to stay up past his bedtime.  One day I know he will have lots more reasons to say that and deep down not mean it one bit.  I could only cuddle him and send him to bed.  I’m no Frownie.

This is Bryce’s white board in his room.  We celebrated his 14th birthday tonight with chicken tenders and Baker brownies (that Ollie started talking about early in the week).  I am so touched that our kids get to grow up next to someone who loves them  (and whom they love).  Having never been so lucky as to live next to people that were generous and friendly, it is sometimes otherworldly to me.  Sam was given such a gift to live next to the Weingarts growing up; I want our children to have the same warm memories and feelings when they are grown.  How unique, how lucky, and how very Northbrook!

This is Curious. He’s a good little monkey and always very curious.

Before breakfast, she climbed her gate, crawling into bed with me at 5, slept until 6:15 when she decided it was time to go downstairs, poured her cheerios all over the floor into a bowl, demanding milk.  After breakfast, she wanted to put on her own clothes, especially her socks and shoes, as well as nail polish that Lily left within reach.  On our way to co-op, she echoed the narrator of Little House.  While in the nursery, she told everyone she needed to use the potty and did so successfully.  She took off her shoes and socks and chewed on one so it couldn’t be worn the rest of the time. At nap time, though she appeared to be sleepy, when I checked on her, she was locked in my bathroom.  In my bathroom, she smeared my face cream on herself and a shelf, tried a Tums, cut her hair, and put mascara on her eyebrow.  After her nap, she absconded with a chocolate granola bar and ate it all, privately, and let Lily make her into a baby vamp with face paint.   Now she is up in bed, sleeping.  It takes tremendous energy to be that busy and curious.

and with that little tidbit, I realized I’ve posted 200 entries in the life of the blog.  Whoot!👍👏👏👍

I usually run around my life worrying or fretting that I didn’t do everything I ought to have done.  It wastes a lot of my energy.  It burns my telomeres.  It keeps me awake at night and has literally caused my stomach to burn in the past.

Betcha didn’t know I was so neurotic.

Alas.  

So I see last night’s slip to record a post as growth.  Or rather my reaction to it as growth.  I didn’t fret about it or put it off to do it later.  It simply slipped my mind.  I just forgot, completely and without regret.  When I woke up to realize the night had passed without an entry, instead of tossing and turning, I rolled over.  Normally I would have snarked something to myself, commenting on my  {terrible} character as though forgetting to do something, or failing to do something, or just failing, was this huge crisis.  But, dear lord, I need to cut myself a break {sometimes}.

All this snow is affecting my brain functioning. Woke at 4AM to realize there wasn’t an entry for March 4…back on track today!

I have started referring to our female members as The Girls.  Here’s some pics to show some girl fun recently:

Eating sushi on a snowy night

Making green eggs