Weekend Junkets

The weekend began Friday evening with Rose, Eleanor and I watching the clock, literally, waiting for Cap to come home from work.

Friday night the rain lashed at our house all night long and Saturday followed with gusts of wind up to 60 mph. Knowing that most of the mulch-covered playgrounds in our area would be muddy messes we opted to take Eleanor and Rose to the handicap-friendly playground in Rockville. There the ground cover is entirely rubber and, therefore, dry, even after a night of rain. After playing on the playground for a while we took a walk around the playing fields where we snapped these pictures of the amazingly dramatic clouds and of Eleanor climbing, being chased, and finally captured.




On our way home Cap had to change Rose's diaper in the car using skills he has perfected over the last two years.


Today the weather brightened considerably and we decided to take advantage of the nice day by going to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. It was GREAT, the perfect place for kids and parents because, well, who doesn't love big ol' trains?

There was a beautiful wooden Round House filled with incredible old trains, stage coaches, and even an original covered wagon. The Round House collapsed under the weight of snow several years ago destroying many of the trains, but it has been rebuilt and many of the trains and exhibits have been upgraded. Cap and I were really impressed.


One of my favorite trains was one that had a series of spikes sticking out all around it. Each spike was hinged and numbered. The train was used for surveying tunnels at a time when new trains were built larger than some of the existing, but less used, tunnels. The crew of the spiky train (I can't remember what it was called) would go out for several weeks at a time exploring old tunnels in remote areas like West Virginia. As they would pass through the tunnels the spikes would be pushed down if they encountered obstructions. Detailed measurements were recorded by the train crew and this information was used to determine if the tunnels needed to be rebuilt.

Another highlight of the visit to the railroad museum was the 20 minute train ride on an old MARC train from the museum into West Baltimore and back. We all loved it, especially the kids, but perhaps for different reasons. I think Eleanor was just so excited to be on a train. Cap and I found it completely amusing that the train moved at a snail's pace, and included a wonderfully hokey narration complete with banjo accompaniment. The picturesque views included abandoned train cars, collapsing buildings, and we were even lucky enough to witness two couples disappearing into the brush for romantic track-side trysts. Good stuff for the kids.

But, actually, aside from the teenage depravity, the old trains and grungy buildings made for some beautiful (in my opinion) photos. Here are a few:


And, speaking of beautiful... (again, in my opinion!):

Looking back, looking forward

Writing the blog about some of the "Things I love" got me thinking about some of the "Things I miss" and the "Things I'm Looking Forward To." Don't get me wrong - I love my sweet Eleanor and Rose more than anything! Any normal person, however, would feel, as I do, a sense of loss of one's pre-baby life and goals! To be honest, I MISS my old life!

• I miss my friends in New York
• I miss Brooklyn
• I miss walking around the city in the evening after work
• I miss carousing on the subway with my happy gang of friends
• I miss wandering through Central Park with Cap
• I miss working in my museum, knowing that Cap was working at his museum across Central Park
• I miss savoring my tea and toast for breakfast on a quiet early morning
• I miss being able to have long, uninterrupted conversations with my sister, sometimes serious, but mostly hilarious
• I miss pretty much anything that involved having time by myself (guilt free)
  

I know that in many ways most of the things I miss will return over time, and that I should appreciate this time with my little girls, I know I know I know... but just for now, I'm missing the old way.

On the other hand, there are lots of thing I'm looking forward to.

• I can't wait to start traveling again!
• I'm looking forward to buying a used RV, renovating it, and driving across the USA with Cap and our kiddies
• I'm looking forward to taking Eleanor and Rose to Europe
• I'm looking forward to working more
• I'm looking forward to having time to do my personal art and design projects (not just the ones I do for work)
• I'm looking forward to all the great conversations I know that I will have with Eleanor and Rose as they get older
• I'm looking forward to reuniting with all my friends from New York without having to worry about putting babies to sleep at night
• I'm looking forward to going to the movies again

Ah, there's a lot I am looking forward to.

But, then again, there are great things happening each day. Today, on Rose's 4-month birthday, she showed real signs of sitting up all by herself! Oh the sweetness of it.

This photo is terribly dark but I hope you can see the cuteness shining through!

Today at the playground

Mommy Moke Incognito

Sleeping like a baby

The many faces of Eleanor

Things I love

I don't know if you know, but I spend a lot of time criticizing the world around me. Yep - it's true - I can't stand a lot of things and a lot of people, but... to offset all that negativity sometimes I can't help but think about all the things I just LOVE! So, here's a list (which may have to be continued later, as wakeful children might invade my typing-time).

Trader Joe's ... How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I was just at Trader Joe's which is why it is top on my list today. I love that they have balloons for the kids, I love that they have coffee samples, I love their low prices, and I love the crazy luau atmosphere. Some of their products that I just adore are:

• Dark Chocolate Covered Pretzels (perfect in the evening while watching the boob-tube... I mean BOOB-TUBE since I usually spend at least an hour nursing Rose while watching tv at night)
• Frozen brown rice (4 minutes to tasty, healthy rice for dinner!)
• Chicken and Cheese Tamales (tried them for the first time last night, mmm mmm good!)
• California Style Complete Protein Bread (this stuff keeps you going! in more ways than one, if you catch my drift)
• Honey Bran Country Bread (under $2.00 and TASTY)
• Irish Breakfast Tea (just as good as Lyons tea... the tea I fell in love with in Ireland...)
• Organic Milk (cheaper than elsewhere)

Trader Joe's is just great.

Other things that I love include:

Sleeping babies
New York City
Rum Raisin Ice Cream (especially the way my mom serves it... on top of oatmeal!)
YouTube (because it keeps Eleanor occupied while I work on the computer)
Old Sesame Street clips (as can be found on You Tube)
Tea (a day without at least three cups of dark, strong black tea with a little bit of milk is really rough for me)
Toast (to go with the tea for breakfast)
Cooking big, spicy, yummy meals
Spring and Summer (Now that the weather is getting cold here I'm getting that sick-to-my-stomach-feeling that I get each Fall. I love the beauty of Fall - it is really wonderful to be in the car or in the house and to look out at the changing leaves, and the dramatic skies, but MAN, that cold air is just too much for me. Maybe it is because I grew up in Africa? One thing that doesn't help is that twice I have suffered awful morning sickness in the Fall. The smell of decomposing leaves outside, and the feeling of the heater turning on inside, still bring waves of nausea.)
The way Eleanor gets all lovey-dovey and says "I love mommy SOOOO much!"
The way Rose can't help grinning up at me when she nurses
Reality Television (oh yes, I can't help it. I like to pretend that it's the anthropologist in me... maybe it is... but I find it facinating! Highlights of my television world right now are The Bachelor, the Biggest Loser, and the Amazing Race. Believe me, I am not proud of this, I just can't help myself!!)
LOST (more television...)
The way that Cap can crack HIMSELF up and send himself into a fit of uncontrollable laughter!

Okay, I guess that's enough for now. But - to be sure - there is more to come.

To potty or not to potty?

Yesterday I thought Eleanor was potty trained. Oh yes oh yes. She went the WHOLE day doing her business in the potty, including a dry car ride to the store, a pee in the toilet in the store, and a dry car ride home! It was unbelievable! It took NO coersion on my part, she just wanted to do it! She pulled her pants down by herself, peed in the potty, dumped it herself, flushed by herself, and washed her hands by herself! Joy of joys. We diapered her last night just in case, but she only did a tiny bit in the diaper and then peed a boatload in the potty this morning. But it went downhill from there. Too many fun things to do in the house and she lost focus. So, after FIVE "accidents" I decided it was time to give up until another day. But, OH yesterday was so great.

Okay... so that was last week, and I still haven't published this post. The latest development is that we have had several days of off and on potty success. Today is an off day, and I'm thinking of retiring the potty all together for a couple weeks so that we can regroup, as it were. Maybe Eleanor is too young? She's 27 months old... she is really aware of when she needs to go to the bathroom and it seems like the few times she has not made it to the potty are when she has been upset or fully engrossed in playing, or the toilet was too far away (as in at the playground where we were about a quarter of a mile away from the bathroom). I know she can do it, but I think we should take a break for a few days. Maybe a month. I don't know.

We all have our own little addictions.

what's up?

I have just finished watching this week's episode of LOST and so my mind is a little blurry right now. What's up with Desmond? Who is he really? How come Hurley doesn't know about the Polar Bear? What's up with Locke? How did he become part of that commune? Ah... I love to escape from my daily life. Tonight was difficult, however, because Rose seems to have lost her ability to fall asleep by herself. She's really into nursing these days, and I think I may have nursed her to sleep one too many times and now that's what she wants. RRRRRR. I wouldn't have done it (nursed her to sleep) but for weeks now I have been worried that she would wake up Eleanor in the evening, so I just stuffed a boob in her face to keep her quiet. The problem is that she probably would have just fallen asleep on her own if I had been able to tolerate the little crying noises. Too bad we have to have a veil of silence at night to keep Eleanor sleeping. We are such captives to her sleep (or NON-sleep) cycles, now I'm afraid I'm creating another NON-sleeper! AAAAAArrr.

Guess what? Rose is crying again - what do I do???? Let her cry? Go pick her up? The problem is that she WILL wake up Eleanor. I know it. So, I have to go.

Bye bye bantanabera!

I was in Starbucks this afternoon with Eleanor and Rose, getting a much needed cup of $3.50 coffee, and I was finally won over by their point-of-purchase display of CDs. You see, earlier this year I bought Eleanor a Putamayo CD and it came with a sampler of Putamayo kids music. On this sampler is a version of Guantanamera... a song I used to love! I first heard the song about 8 years ago on the soundtrack for The Mambo Kings (I've neve seen the movie but I love the soundtrack!) but little did I know that I would eventually have a 2-year-old who would completely ruin the song for me. Everytime we drive in the car we have to listen to "bantanabera, mommy! bantanabera!" Over and over and over and over. Track 5. The dreaded track 5.

So, today in Starbucks I saw a Dan Zanes and Friends CD and I broke down and bought it along with a decaf cafe au lait (or Misto as they insist on calling it) and an M&M cookie. We listened to it in the car ride home and I'm happy to say that it's pretty darn good! My ears are still ringing with choruses of Guantanamera, but hopefully in a year or two that will pass.

How we know that the Chesapeake Bay is salty.

I'm sitting in the car typing on my portable keyboard on my palm pilot, hoping to upload this to the blog this evening. (ha ha... that was a few days ago) Rose and Eleanor are sleeping in the back of the car and we're parked in the lot of a strip mall. I'm waiting for them to wake up so that I care of some errands. Can you believe that this is the only way that I can get something written?

We have had some cool developments this week!

Rose rolled onto her side for the first time - and she loves it! I put her down for a minute and PING she's on her side. Ping? I don't know... that's just the sound I imagine she'd make if she was a cartoon. Sje is also really interested in holding onto things, and in lurching herself into an upright position when she is sitting on your lap.

Eleanor can climb all of a sudden! Miss Slow Poke all of a sudden took off at the park this week. She climbed up a ladder, went down the scary big-kid slide, and climbed up all sorts of wooden terraces. I turned my back for a minute, to check on Rose, and KAPOW Eleanor was up on top of a 3-foot terrace. I seriously thought another mother had helped her up, but no, she repeated it again and again! I wasn't all that surprised when she took a 2-hour nap that afternoon.

What else is Eleanor doing this week? Well, we've had a couple really nice days together. Maybe all the exercise is mellowing her out a bit. Twice we went out for lunch and both times she sat next to me in a "big" chair and ate her bagel happily, leaning over to me to give me sideways hugs. I was so touched, it was like the old Eleanor! She can be so caring and sweet sometimes. We went into the bathroom of the bakery and they had one of those toddler seats where you can strap your kid up in the air while you sit on the toilet. She loves those seats - and I think I love them even more! Whoever invented them is some sort of freakin' genius. Your kid sits up about 3 feet, strapped on to the wall and can't pull the toilet paper, crawl under the stall door, or lick the pee off the floor. Thank you to whoever came up with that. Anyway, we were in there and after I had 'done my business' I left Eleanor in the wall-seat while I changed Rose's diaper. Eleanor, who was gleefull to be up in the air in the wall-seat, started singing this great song about how all three of us fit in the bathroom. She thought it was so funny that we could all fit in one stall - actually, it was pretty hilarious. Then she started singing, to the tune of Row Row Row Your Boat, Mommy is Wonderful, Rose is Wonderful, Eleanor is Wonderful. Jeez, she kills me sometimes.
So, all that happened earlier this week and it took me until now to upload what I'd written. Since then... Cap was off of work Friday and will be off again tomorrow (uh, that would be today... I still haven't gotten this thing uploaded...) so we've been up to our old junketeering. We went to Annapolis yesterday to tour around to look for neat places to live (one of our favorite types of junkets). Instead of our normal touring of Eastport (which we think is just awesome) we decided to venture further away, to Back Creek, and to Bay Ridge. We had lunch at the Wet Dog Cafe, which is in a marina filled with HUGE yachts. They were so big I actually had trouble processing the scale of them. I'm so used to looking at Cap's little 12-footer, these things were so big that they had 12-foot zodiacs and dinghys strapped to their bows making the little boats look like life preservers. After downing a greasy tuna melt and a Dr. Pepper in a can, and after chatting with some local ladies about living in the area (and getting way more information than I really wanted) we set off to explore Bay Ridge.

Bay Ridge is kind of cool... I think. There are lots of little old houses - like cottages - and then there are these enormous new constructions. Needless to say, I liked the little old ones much better. I liked it because it is a "community" with a pool and a little marina and a club house - but it isn't like these grotesque new developments that are chock-a-block all over Maryland (at least the Maryland that I've seen). It's an old old neighborhood out on this little peninsula in the Bay. Only, we didn't know that... and we were completely shocked and delighted when the little road we were driving along opened up onto the Bay! It was huge! And wild! The water was really rough and a dark charcoal color with whitecaps all over the place. The road turned so that we were driving right next to the water - about 10 feet from the water which was splashing up along the low seawall next to us. Cap rolled down his window because it was all very exciting to see the water spitting up like little geysers next to the car and all of a sudden... while we were driving... the Bay lept up INTO our car and INTO Cap's mouth! Holy crap, it was so funny - Cap's face and shoulder were soaked and Eleanor's window was dripping with Bay drops. Eleanor wanted to do it "again and again!" It was like a water-park ride! Twenty minutes later as we were driving on the highway, still recovering from the hilarity of the whole thing, Cap said - "I can still taste the Bay in my mouth! It's salty!" Maybe you had to be there... but, I'll always remember our junket to Bay Ridge as the day the Bay jumped into Cap's mouth.

Weekly Whodowha?

Okay, the pity party's over. The house is semi-clean and I had a great day with Eleanor and Rose. I'm BACK. I spent nearly the entire day with the kiddies at Cabin John Regional Park and it was awesome. And - some how I managed to do the dishes and clean the kitchen, living room, and Eleanor's room. And I gave Eleanor and Rose a bath. Whew!

Maybe all this good energy has to do with the fact that LOST is on tonight! Can't wait!

Oh damn - Rose just woke up for her nightly feeding frenzy, so I guess I won't have time to do the weekly report after all... well, maybe I can get to it later after the show.

Feelin' Blue

How do you type in a big ol' sigh? I mean a big long tired sigh. I'm tired. I haven't written any posts in quite a while because I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the things I have to do to maintain some normalcy in my life. I prefer to live in a house that is relatively clean, not the hovel that it seems to be every night when I go to bed. So I spend countless hours picking up after everyone and doing laundry and dishes, but it is a losing battle. The messes and the dishes and the laundry are winning. I prefer to have some space in my brain for quiet thoughts. So I try to get Eleanor and Rose out of the house for a few hours every day, but by the time I get home my head is ringing with the endless talking and singing and yelling. So, the noise is winning. I prefer to eat fresh meals and I love to cook, but with all messes, and the noise, and the endless demands to play in the living room, I end up heating up food that I don't even really like eating. And, I would really like to write my thoughts down in peace... but it's time to cook dinner, and Rose is crying. So, I'm feeling blue, or really, grey, since I like the color blue and I don't feel much like that beautiful color.