Turning Two

It's nearly the end of the day and I'm thinking about how I now have a two year old. Though I'm still at work, my three kids all asleep upstairs, waiting for their mother to return from a business trip, I was fortunate to spend much of the day with the lady of the hour. When she awoke this morning, bright and chipper despite a ghastly mess in her diaper and bed, there was enough time for a bath and a round of gifts before Rob had to head off to work (a new position at the zoo as an educator; he now gets to travel to schools to show animals). He and I (mostly he) had assembled the wooden kitchen from Kellie last night so that it'd be ready for her to play with today. Inside the oven Rob stashed the gifts from his sister, Schelly, and mother. She carefully unwrapped the handmade sock cat and Frog and Toad book from her aunt, then another stuffed cat and sweet spring outfit from Grandma Cramer. Both cats were instantly adored, willing plush recipients of her hugs, unlike our real cat. She communicated with them in excited mews for quite some time.

Getting a good look at "Boosecat", the name this little brown fellow was almost instantly given.

Olive and I went to Music Together, always a wonderful time, returned home for her to nap and me to paint. Rob came home and we made olive oil granola from a recipe he found on http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/, a great food blog, that we plan on serving as a party snack for Buggy's party on Friday. It's been a while since I've put on a to-do like this, and I'm a little bit nervous about the spacial limitations of our apartment. I'm envisioning guests reclining on our bed when the living room and hallway areas have been filled to capacity. Fortunately many of the guests also have young children and won't be staying too long into the evening.

For dinner tonight, I was working, so the kids and I swung by the house to pick up Rob and Olive, and the six of us crammed into our car, clown-like, and headed to Quiet Storm, a nearby vegetarian eatery. With today being the beginning of the Lenten season and my kids being Antiochian Orthodox, they take things very seriously and abstain from meat during the forty days, making my restaurant choice easier to rope them into. They aren't the most open-minded kids when it comes to clean and wholesome meatless eating, but they went along with it since it was Olive's birthday. What those kids will do in the name of Olive .

And now an amendment since it's days later and I'm finally ready to finish this post, the birthday party didn't happen. On Friday Olive stayed with Kellie since Rob and I were and came down with a low grade fever. Not a huge deal, but I also thought it unwise to bring other kids into our home and risk them falling ill as well, so I called it off. It was actually a big relief. Party planning is not in the realm of things I consider fun. Fun to think about in the weeks beforehand, yes, but fun in the two days preceding, not at all. She, Rob, and I had our own party that evening and, on Monday, we still have a bounty of food in which we're just beginning to make a dent. She's doing much better today (Monday), with only a runny nose to show for it. We're going to make a foray out into the glorious warm sunshine in the jogging stroller. When we do this I let her make the call for the mileage; having never been much of a stroller baby she doesn't have the patience for it.

A few other bright moments in my life:

A splendid dinner party held at the home of my friend, Dylan. Eleven of us were in attendance. Pho was on the menu, with venison, beef, or vegetarian options. Large, plump spring rolls, fresh bread, and raw kale salad rounded out the meal. The company was delightful but I turned in early, tired after a day of work and wanting to spend the remainder of my evening with Rob. He doesn't feel as great a need for social interaction as I do, which is fine, but I sure am happy to have found such a neat group of folks here in this city. It continues to surprise and delight. We will host a game night here at our house in the next week or so with a handful of my buddies who have never had the pleasure of meeting my family.

Rob and I have two concerts to attend in the not-so-near future: Ben Folds in May and Justin Townes Earle (R.E.M. notwithstanding, my most-loved musician) a weeks and a half later.

One month from today Rob and I will be on an airplane bound for San Francisco. I know that the next month will fly quickly so I'm savoring the moments I have with my goon, but I am eager to be on that side of the country again and to see a dear friend who I miss every day.

Buggy has been unfathomably wonderful lately. I've always felt that way about her, but there's something about this two-year mark that brings about truly remarkable qualities in children. She mimics nearly everything we say, displays such real understanding for things that go on around her, and continues to be the sweetest thing imaginable. She surprised me last week: while sitting at the Khorey's kitchen table she turned around the study the jacket hanging on the back of the chair and declared it, "Lisa's coat." Olive rarely sees Lisa, and I don't know that even I have ever seen her in the jacket, but she determined that it most likely didn't belong to anyone else in the home, so it must be Lisa's. To me, this was the coolest thing, this logic and reasoning. When she speaks and I don't understand her, I can say, "What?" and she'll repeat herself. She's honing her taste in music, too, making requests when she wants to hear some of her favorites ("Ben Keller?", she'll ask, when she'd like Rob to play Ben Kweller). When Tom Waits is playing she'll say, "Monster song." A fair assessment, indeed.

Buggy Does the Alphabet

She's getting more confident with her singing of the Alphabet Song, followed by another A-B-C ditty that she has always enjoyed. Here she is, doing her best.

Kellie and the kids just popped by to say hello and dropped off the most dreamy birthday present we could've hoped for - and probably the one thing we would've sprung for ourselves had Kellie not landed such a killer deal (at one fifth of the original price!): a wooden kitchen set. The gift that keeps on giving. How I love all those wooden and felt pretend foods. She'll cherish it, I'm sure. Tomorrow is the gal's second birthday. Happy birthday eve, goon girl!

No Longer a Fair Weather Runner

I think I've finally broken my many-years-long streak of being a fair weather runner. I remember running through all the elements when I was in college but my commitment waned shortly after I graduated, and I'm ashamed to say that I've all too often reserved my runs for ideal weather. Needless to say, this minimizes my opportunities greatly. There were a few times while living in Maine when I'd run in the snow (but when would I have ever been able to run if I wasn't willing to brave some flakes up there?). My regimen over the past six months has been pretty sparse until recently. Having an almost-two year-old and a husband has done little to get me out, which is why training for a marathon is so helpful. I was discussing with some friends over the weekend about the ratio of women to men runners and we came to the conclusion that women were more concerned about their weight than men and thus more determined to log regular miles against all odds. I don't like falling into this category or for people to assume that I'm dragging myself out to lose weight. Over the summer I was jogging with Olive near the library when some men made the comment that I was "so close to losing the baby weight". Olive was nearly 18 months old at the time and the baby weight had been shed long before. I have to say, I resented the fact that it was implied that I was only running for that purpose and that purpose alone. I'm a runner. It's simply something that I have done for most of my life and will, God willing, do for most of the remainder of it. I do it because it's a great way to clear my head, improve my state of mind, keep my heart healthy (if not my joints), and set a good example for my daughter about the benefits of leading an active life. Staying "thin" is the least of the reasons why I run.

At any rate, I'm pleased that I have just gotten out of my rut. Though this one has been extraordinarily pleasant and mild, Pittsburgh winters aren't known for being kind, and we've been seeing more seasonal precipitation in the last week. Last Friday, thanks to a running buddy to keep me accountable, I enjoyed a lovely run in softly falling snow. Having broken the ice, I bundled up for another, longer, run on Sunday on very snowy sidewalks and temperatures in the teens. Today I took advantage of Rob's day off from the zoo and fit in my longest post-marathon run - a 2 1/2 hour jaunt across the Allegheny to the North Side around the aviary. It was cold, a little wet with a mix falling from the sky that ordinarily would've kept me indoors, and I was hungry, not to mention not accustomed to double-digit mileage just yet. Also, having realized that my iPhone doubles as a music player, I excitedly loaded two albums by my two favorite musicians, R.E.M. and Justin Townes Earle, onto it and plugged in the headphones. I'd underestimated just how problematic the headphones would be (they don't fit in my ears), and after stopping to readjust them by looping them over the fronts or backs of my ears, tying them around the front and back of my next, and recinching my running hood, I gave up one song into Harlem River Blues as I was approaching the 16th Street Bridge in the Strip and packed the uncooperative headphones into my pocket. Don't think for one second that I didn't order myself a set of Philips wraparound headphones on eBay as soon as I got home, because man, was that music nice! My head has been throbbing since mid-afternoon from exhaustion, as is usually the case when I run earlier in the day, but I'm so glad I did it. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to say I really trained for this marathon coming up in May, and that will feel really good.

Pretty Sweet Night

Last night I attended Pub Trivia Night at Brillobox, a nearby establishment that had always looked appealing from the outside. A friend named Keith had mentioned trivia night and I excitedly said that I'd love to go, mentioned it to my friend and coworker, Dylan, and we met up last night after I went to yoga, put Olive to bed, and ate popcorn with Rob. Our team was comprised of seven members, five of them regulars, all of them highly gifted in the trivial knowledge department and consistently pull in third or second place in the weekly competitions. We huddled round the table as questions were asked, most of them more challenging than I had anticipated. One of the segments in the first round were television locales; a slide of an image from a show was projected onto the back wall and we had to name the city in which the series was set. For whatever reason I had thought that Happy Days took place in Kenosha, WI, not Milwaukee, so we got that one wrong. I was also really disappointed that I drew a blank when a shot from Freaks and Geeks, a favorite of Rob's and mine, was shown (Chippewa, MI - gah!). We then debated long and hard about the frequency of cicada appearances. Dylan immediately said seventeen years, which sounded right to me, but Warren, another teammate thought seven. Recalling the last time the bugs descended in 2004, I nixed that theory because they would've come last year. James thought it was more than twenty. Dylan wasn't positive, but we were right to trust his instinct. My favorite segment was the last, wherein portions of songs were played and we needed provide the title and artist. This is a game that my dad and I play on road trips all the time, so I felt like I could really pull my weight. This time, though, we also had to find the common theme for additional points. Most of the songs were easy, with Derek and the Dominos' 'Layla' playing first. We realized that all of the songs had long instrumental intros (The Stones' 'Can You Hear me Knocking', Dire Straits' 'Romeo and Juliet', Michael Jackson's 'Don't Stop Till You Get Enough', The Velvet Underground's 'All Tomorrow's Parties', The Temptations' 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone', Guns 'N Roses' 'November Rain', Van Halen's 'Right Now', and two others that I didn't know). Doing well in this section, despite missing a whole slew of the television ones, really gave us a good cushion and we listened, all of us on the edge of our seats, as the announcer gave the rankings. Once the fourth place winners had been named we were delighted to know that we had placed in the top three. Our adversaries at the table next to us who had won the first of the two rounds, got third place. The second place winners were announced, and then, the landslide victors: us! The prize, a $20 gift certificate, was used to purchase a large glass a dubious-looking concoction complete with seven straws . I used mine to slurp up the rest of my water and brought it home for Rob, who told me as I was leaving to "bring home the trophy." It really was one of the best nights I'd had in a long time. How I love being married and having a family, but sometimes it's great fun to do things that take me back to the days when I was living in Baltimore, hanging out with my college friends. That's a lot what this felt like. I pulled myself away at 12:45, said so long to my friends, and crossed the quiet street to my car, floating on the adrenaline of the evening but glad to be returning home to my dear, sleeping husband. I tickled his nose with my victory straw when I got in, then fell asleep with a feeling of great peace and satisfaction, appreciating so much the life that I have.

Figs, Birds, and New Friends

This is the way my life works: I lose something important, I replace it, I find the original missing thing. The day after my new camera battery arrived in the mail, I was going through some things in the bedroom and found the extra battery charger and in it was the old battery. Ah! Under my nose all along. It's good to have two, though, just in case.

This morning Olive and I joined some of our new friends, Gabe and Ella and Courtney and Willa, at the National Aviary for a morning of bird watching (and feeding!). The three girls are all within six months of one another and are wonderful playmates. I also feel very fortunate to have formed a friendship with Gabe and Courtney, who I met at Music Together. We're now in the same class as Courtney and Willa and usually have a brief encounter with Gabe and Ella on their way in to the class after ours. During outings it's becoming increasingly challenging to keep a handle on Olive, ever adventurous, independent, and inquisitive. The aviary is a source of many wonders for an almost-two year-old, and at one point, while talking to Courtney, another mother brought over Olive and asked if she belonged to one of us. Sensing my preoccupation she seized the opportunity to make a beeline to the enclosure housing the green-winged trumpeters and toucans. She loved that exhibit most of all.

I'm going to start tracking the progress of my little fig tree. The thing has shot up with new buds and leaves appearing nearly every day. Just last month its first new leaf made its appearance and today I counted eleven. Truly miraculous. There's a chance of fruit this summer, I think, and I can hardly wait.

Buggy was smitten with the wattled currasows. I think she was inspired by their coifs.

Ella. Look at that face.

She will readily turn her face into a scowl upon request. It's one of the best tricks I've ever seen.

This rock wall provided just as much entertainment as the birds themselves. Put rock climbing gear on Olive's birthday list.

I really was impressed by this bird with its brilliantly hued metallic-looking feathers.

Ella and Buggy practicing good teamwork.

Just look at those lush leaves! And to think that it had sat dormant, just a few naked sticks, for four months!

Fig tree and Precious Junior, the rubber tree plant (it came with the name; we don't name our plants), enjoying the southward-facing window

Here's a sweet clip that Rob caught of Olive singing one of her favorite jams, accompanied by her ukulele. Not bad.

The Sleepover

Last night Rob, Olive, and I packed an overnight back and headed up the street to the Khorey's house for an all-nighter. The kids' mom is on her yearly business trip to Israel and their dad had band practice, so my guardian services were requested overnight. Olive was tickled to bits at the idea of getting ready for bed - brushing her teeth, putting on pamamas, and saying goodnight to everyone in the living room playing Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (most of us were not, of course, which is the point of the game). I think the kids were, at first, a little sketched out at the idea of Rob staying over, too. They don't know him as well, but I thought it'd be a great opportunity for all of them to get to know one another a little better. After all, they're my other kids and he's my husband; they all hear plenty about the other. It went really well except for Buggy keeping me up until nearly 2:30. I made the mistake of setting up her Pack 'N Play in our room, not wanting to stow her all the way in the basement, where she usually sleeps when she's there. When she began crying in the midnight hour I wasn't so much afraid of her waking the others, who will undoubtedly sleep through the Apocalypse, but of not getting any sleep myself. Uncomfortably warm and thirsty in the liberally-heated house, I'd been tossing around since we went to bed at 10:30. By 1:50 I'd had enough of Olive's knocking her water bottle on the sides of her bed and handed her off to Rob, partially collapsed the PN'P, enough to drag it down two flights of stairs, ran back up for Olive and deposited her in her more familiar sleeping quarters. I grabbed a glass of water, turned the thermostat down ten degrees, and went back to bed, sleeping soundly until 6 when I needed to get up to wrangle the kids out of bed (Noah was particularly difficult to rouse because, he complained, "It was so cold"). Olive was gleeful when I greeted her and has been all day, showing no signs that she'd been burning the midnight oil. I was dubious about my ability to drag the two of us in to Music Together at 9:30 but I pulled it off. I'm sure I'll be feeling the effects tomorrow.

Also, still no sign of my camera battery. Olive will probably be nine by the time it arrives. Get your postal system in check, China!!!!

Goin' to California

A huge relief is having found and purchased cross-country airfare for a steal of a deal. Southwest has always been my favorite airline, especially now when it's one of the few that don't charge fees when you need to check a bag or two (I'm still grumbling over the $165 fee I had to pay two years ago when I first went to Alaska). This will come in handy when I'm wanting to bring back cases of olive oil from the country's leading producer. As I've been reading Tom Mueller's new book, Extra Virginity, a highly informative olive oil primer, it's becoming increasingly important that I get the firmest handle on my business as I can. This means taking a sensory evaluation course where I learn to accurately detect different oils' unique taste characteristics and can speak more knowledgeably about my own products. Customers like that. So I pinpointed a great course offered by UC Davis' Olive Center, housed in the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, the most advanced sensory laboratory in the world. I feel like I can learn a thing or two here. The great part is that Davis is only an hour's drive from Napa, home of dear friend Bruce, who will be hosting us for the week at his olive tree-surrounded ranch. Airfare was $159 each way from Dulles International Airport, a mite more expensive than fare from Pittsburgh, but since we're opting to leave Olive with my parents (a difficult choice), this made more sense. I wanted to bring her, but it was illogical: paying a couple hundred dollars for her plane tickets (she will be over two by March, the age at which most airlines began charging for non-infants), subjecting her to a 9+ hour flight and jet lag, and the having to work around her nap schedule while trying to make the most of our short time there all sound like bad ideas, aside from the joy of having her near. It's going to be pretty wild and weird to be away from her for so long. After all, this is less of a family vacation than it is an educational business excursion that will be written off of next year's taxes. I think she'll really enjoy the time she gets to spend with Mimi and Pop Pop, though; she adores them both and I think we'll all be thankful for all the time they'll get to spend together. And Rob and I will return (if we do decide to return from spring in the Bay Area) with a heightened awareness of the industry in which we've found ourselves and undoubtedly an even greater appreciation for our daughter, who I'm already missing terribly.