Hypothesis

Yes, Max, that razor in my shower will actually shave your hair off if you use it.  

But, by all means, you don't have to take my word for it.

Spring Break: the rest of it

Prepare for a spring break photo extravaganza.  We spent until Thursday afternoon in New York, where it appeared that the magical spring fairy came, and overnight the weather was perfect, the trees became green, I found parking within five minutes (twice!), and every other spring-breaker went home since their spring break ended with Easter and Passover.

However, we got a little preview to our spring break vacation this year when the Burton clan made our place a little stop on their own spring break tour.  I felt no compunction about taking the kids out of school for the day and heading up to Philly to see some of the sights, including the boring old bell with a big crack in it--and that's a direct quote from at least two of my kids.  After the Liberty Bell, a walk about Independence Mall, and a tour of the Betsy Ross house (including a demonstration from ole' Betsy herself), we went to find some cheesesteaks and pulled-pork and brocoli rabe sandwiches at the Reading Terminal Market.

We loved having them visit, and it was a great time for catching up, talking late into the night, kids playing together, and working on the grand plan of someday marrying off our perfectly-matched children.  See, look at how cute those babies are together!

Once in NYC it was all sorts of good times.  We started the week with a trip to the Dinosaur playground in Riverside Park.

And the girls got to go with Sha-sha to get their nails painted.

And because I haven't been a parent for 10 years without learning anything, Max got his own special outing.  He wanted to go to Chinatown to hunt down a particular kind of hat.  Amazingly enough, we were successful, despite the fact that it wasn't one of the only four different hats that every single store on the street is carrying, which is how Chinatown works--in case you've never been there.  We found it at the very last store...hiding. We celebrated with a hot dog from Gray's Papaya on the way home.

We also went to the High Line, an old elevated subway line on the west side that has been recently converted in to a park. We'd never been there before and I'd been meaning to check it out for a while, and since it was a sunny day we packed a picnic and ignored the stares that accompanied walking through Chelsea with four children.  It was fantastic. And it wasn't until after they'd bagged the donuts we ordered when stopping at the at the Donut Pub that I realized that I'd left my wallet at home.

There is a section of the High Line with a little water exhibit, which after about two minutes Saul decided it didn't matter that he wasn't in swimwear and he might as well lay down in the water anyway.  

We then went over to Central Park with Sha-sha and our friends M & L to take a ride on the carousel and spend the rest of the afternoon playing at  Heckscher playground.

We met up with M &L again on Tuesday to tour the Intrepid.   

Just two preggers women out with our cumulative brood.

Since this was the trip of doing things we'd never done in NYC before, on Wednesday we drove up to the Bronx Zoo (and this time just M came with us).  This was mostly so that I could say that I've driven in the Bronx all by myself and so that Max could get a chance to wear his new hat in a somewhat wild setting.

On Wednesday night, Sharon took the kids out for a treat and sent me away with a gift certificate for a manicure, her unlimited metro card, and her blessing to take the rest of the night off.  Once my nails were a deep red, I went shopping and then to the late showing of Meek's Cutoff at the Film Forum. (Amazing.)

When we came home on Thursday, it turned out that spring had come to Delaware too.  The blossoms were out on the azaleas and dogwoods, and the lawn was knee-high.  Wasn't I only gone a few days? We finished out the week with the first trip of the season to Woodside Farms for icecream.  Ahhhh....and only a few more weeks until we're finished with school and the good times can continue.

Surprise!

We had an ultrasound today and from the photo it looks like we're having a baby seal.  We started debating between the names "Flipper" and "Shark Bait" but after a quick Google search we realized these names were already taken by a famous dolphin and a cartoon clown fish. Who knew?  Alternate suggestions are now welcome.

Baby seal due at the end of September.  It's a boy.

Easter

 Happy Easter.

This year we were without Adam for Easter.  He left on Friday for a conference in San Francisco and was going to be there for the entire following week.  So, rather than spend the holiday weekend and the next week's spring break in our boring old house where I'd just feel pressure to do stuff like mow the lawn and hassle the kids to clean the playroom, I decided to ignore all of that and head out to NYC for the week.  Besides, we couldn't be upstaged by Adam's trip and the resulting phone calls sharing the details of events like  going to church in the Berkeley ward, game nights with the Marosticas, et al, each lunch/evening's outing with Berkeley friends, Easter dinner with the Childs, camping with Kami in Point Reyes, and/or eating my favorite Bay Area foods. I have to trust him that he did actually attend the conference at some point.  And, he is apparently bringing me back something like 75lbs of bulk-food treasures from Berkeley Bowl, so I can't complain too much.

So we started the weekend with an egg hunt on Friday sponsored by some friends.  Then we headed out on Saturday for NYC.

 The obligatory Easter-day pics--post Church.

The weather was so fantastic that Max and Saul and I decided to walk home together.  Max wanted to take my picture....along with about 3000 other photos during week, which I'll spare you and let him save for his own blog.

The night before we dyed some eggs with Grandma Sha-sha.

Then after church we had our little in-apartment egg hunt.

The rest of the week just continued to get better (as well as the weather).  Hopefully I can actually get that posted soon, just to show Adam up....um, I mean, show Adam.

And it's only 8:30

And isn't this how you would feel if your sister borrowed your "favorite" shirt without asking and also took your lollipop to give to her teacher and then your mom told you that there was only banana yogurt for breakfast because for whatever reason Trader Joes has stopped carrying the strawberry kind and now she keeps insisting that you use the bathroom because you need to go but you really, really don't it's just that you sometimes forget and then the new bear that your friend gave you is coming unstitched and to add insult to injury your mom insisted on taking your picture during your tantrum even though you're trying to hide between the sofa and the table and you're screaming at her that you absolutely do not want your picture taken.

But your little brother, he's nothing-but-begging for his picture to be taken. The show-off.

A Whole New Me (pun intended!)

It was my birthday two weeks ago.  And Saul's the week before that.  And Adam's just last week.  And Max's still undocumented from February.  So I've got a lot of family birthdays to catch up on, but I say why not start with my own!  Who's writing this thing anyway!

Last year I celebrated my birthday by going to the DMV and getting my license renewed and feeling like in my new picture I magically morphed into looking old.  Then I spent the rest of that week researching orthodontists in the area--and if there's anything that will make you feel like you've now travelled well past the point of being young and hip, it's having a child old enough for orthodontics.  This year my friend Melinda suggested that I do something big and drastic for my 35th: I get my ears pierced.  After all, there's nothing that makes you feel more like a twelve year old than leaving the mall with your Claire's "Just Pierced" bag and wearing plain studs and dabbing antiseptic on your freshly-pierced ears a couple of times a day for six weeks.  I'm in! 

It went well and so far it's awesome, with the only unintended consequence being that I've spent far too long examining my earlobes over the past few weeks and am now slightly worried that they may be different in size/shape and that certainly everyone is noticing this!  And if I've talked with you in person since this big event, I should apologize and tell you that I've also been assessing your earlobes, just for a comparison. So far it looks like I'm the only one with crazy earlobes.  All the better to cover with very large earrings come six weeks from now, I say. 

 I also feared some aftermath of perceived disloyalty from my family since I'm the first to go down this rebellious little path.  But my dad laughed for what must have been a solid three minutes when I told him and then asked if I was sure that I was old enough to have made this decision.  When I made my youngest sisters guess what I'd done related to a family rule growing up, the first guess was that I got to make everyone sit through a re-telling a tv episode or movie that no one else has seen, with the second guess being that I got to hum during dinner.  My mom also took it very well and has only twice since counseled me to be sure and not to get my tongue pierced next.

And as for the rest of my birthday, it also was fab.  I had lunch with friends.  For dinner we ate our standard St. Patty's Day corned beef, cabbage and soda bread.  I requested a German's chocolate cake, which Adam painstakingly made me (and it was extremely delish).  I had flowers (even if they were from leftover from the funeral I helped do the luncheon for two days earlier).  The kids gave me chocolate and cleaned their bathroom.  And then that Saturday Max and I went skiing together and Adam did every last bit of packing up for me to get ready.  If I could have driven with ski boots on, then I'm sure he also would have buckled them for me before we left that morning.   

And if you were not one of the something like 476 people to send me birthday well-wishes on Facebook, then I'm still accepting belated gifts.  Preferably earrings.  Big ones.

Catching up: Christmas 2010

Better late than never, here's the record that we actually celebrated Christmas in 2010.

I can't go a year without trying to get a picture of all the children in front of the tree, a tradition I should cease since it inevitably leads to tears (not exclusively the children's either) and a desire for bloodshed. Nonetheless, I still can't give up on this effort, every year thinking that this will be the time it actually works.  And while I don't love them during the photo-taking process, my love always returns that evening once they're in bed, soundly asleep and looking as precious as ever.

This year we got to stay home and Auntie Kami and Sha-sha came to us.  Kami hadn't even had a full day in NY after flying in from Oakland when she was willing to brave the holiday traffic on Amtrak and come down.  She even brought me a personal selection of treasures from the Berkeley Bowl. It was a very Merry Christmas to me already.

On Christmas Eve we went out on a hike to the arc-corner monument at the border of Delaware and Pennsylvania on the Mason Dixon trail.

That night we actually built a fire and had some hot cocoa and story time followed by a reading of the Nativity story.  

As for Christmas Day.........

I made this stuffed pumpkin for the Christmas dinner, and it turned out as fabulously as the recipe promised.  Everything else was pretty darn good too.  It may have been my least stressed-out Christmas dinner ever.

For the Christmas-movie-of-the-year, Adam got Fantastic Mr. Fox and we even managed to convince Kami to watch it--even though it is (gasp!) animated, and therefore certain to be unbearably insipid--and she admitted to liking it.

Kami and Sharon spent a lot of time with the Kindle looking like this.

 We let Max stay up late that night and play games with the grown-ups. It might have been the best night of his life, he was so high with happiness. And he holds his own pretty well in Quiddler and is a superstar in Rummicub.

The day after Christmas was the first big snow of the season.  We've had snow on the ground ever since.  The kids spent a good part of the rest of the winter break outside playing and sledding.

 Thanks to the snow it took Sharon and Kami something like 9 hours to get back to NYC on the train. Too bad we couldn't have just kept them for one more day to avoid all of that.  Otherwise, it was a fab time for all.