Decorations

Kiki was feeling possessive of a kickball as Steve, Rowan and I kicked it around the kitchen.
"Don't kick my ball!!!"
"Why not?"
"It's decoration. You can't kick decoration!"

Halloween Day

Although the Yoda hat didn't make a Halloween appearance, it will definitely make an appearance as a 2011-2012 winter hat for Kiki and/or Row!

Halloween try-outs

Goblin 2.0

Rowa-gator

Goblin Eats Gator

Row-gator moves to retaliate.

Kiki of the long blonde hair.

Kiki as an 80's club-goer.

Scott's guitar goes to 11.

Korean Venus?

Goblin 1.0

More Kiki

"Mama, when you go to work, I lose you."
"You mean you miss me?"
"Yeah, I miss you."

Kiki Does Impressions

Uncle Steve said:
"Kiki, we need to put a diaper on you."

Kiki happily replies:
"I gotta put a diaper on.
So Halbi (grandfather) doesn't say:
'Shit. You no have diaper!' "

Rowan's Chut-tol (first birthday)

You are a Blue Germ

Kiki walked up to me while I was working and said, "We ate chook (Korean rice gruel)."
I said, "That's good. Did you eat it all?"
"No, it's in the fridge."
"Oh, OK. That's a good place to put it. Do you know why?"
"No."
"If you leave it out, germs will think it's dinner time and start to eat it. But, if you put it in the fridge, they won't."
"I don't like germs."
"I know. That's why we put the food in the fridge. We don't want the germs to eat it. We want to eat it."
"You're a germ!"
"No, you are. You're a Kiki germ."
"You're a daddy germ."
"What color germ am I?"
"You're a blue germ."
"What about Rowan?"
"He's a purple germ."
"How about you?"
"I'm a blue germ. Mama's a black germ. Uncle Steve is a white germ. Halbi (grandpa) is a black germ."
"Are you a hard germ or a squishy germ?"
"I dunno."
"Here, lemme check and find out." I picked her up and started tickling her. She squealed and squirmed loose, then ran off to the kitchen yelling, "Maaama, you're a germ!"

Germany & They Call Me Lucy

These last few weeks have been a whirlwind of getting bad news, mobilizing the pep squad and then visiting Germany. My dear friend/mentor from my childhood, whom I recently reunited with via Facebook, found out she has advanced, aggressive stomach cancer. The news hit me hard. I can't even imagine what Karen's going through, but she seemed to be taking it as well as could be expected. Mentally, she seemed healthy, and her attitude was positive and constructive. She gathered her forces, her "Team Karen" of online friends who'd become her support team through the magic of email and skype.

Oh my God. Skype. It's so awesome. Talking to her on Skype has made a world of difference for both of us. Plus, I've gotten some good family photos that way.




But nothing replaces seeing someone face-to-face. So with the amazing support of Scott, who offered to watch the kids, I was able to go to Germany for a few days. It was an incredible experience. Memorable in its absolute comfortability, the natural-ness of it all, to spend time with Karen, hang out, chat, do some creative projects together, watch movies. As if I was visiting a dear friend who happened to live next door. Like old times, 27 years later.


She loved the drawing I made for her, and both she and her husband, Peter, wore them all weekend.
But I left out a very important member of the team -- her husband, Peter. So we spent the weekend figuring out how to add him into the drawing, through the magic of the computer and a kick-ass printer (go Epson, who knew the possibilities!). I added Peter in the middle with Fuzzy the cat on his shoulders. And it made the drawing complete!


Here's another Team Karen project -- all of us team members (6 of us) wore shirt that Kati created. Then she made a collage with all of our pictures for Karen


Next project: "They Call Me Lucy" will be recording a very special song of encouragement and love for a very special person.

New Hampshire Vacation

One of Scott's friends offered his parents condo timeshare in NH, so off we went for 5 days in the White Mountains. It was a great vacation -- just enough to do with the kids that we weren't bored, but not so much that we didn't allow for some resting time. We hiked, biked, swam in the pool and all piled into a luxurious king size bed for hanging out and sleeping. Kiki even shucked her first corn cob. She had great fun draping Rowan with the "hair."

July things

Scott said to me, "Kiki's so smart. She said something very insightful right now...what was it.....?"

As he sits thinking, Kiki jumps into the silence and says: "I AM A BANANA!" (More existential than insightful, if you ask me.)

"No, no, no. That's not what she said. She said, 'I can't do it by myself. We need to cooperate.' "




"Cradle, cradle, cradle. I made it out of clay" (sung to Dreidle, dreidle, dreidle -- sp?)



Family bike trip in New Hampshire: the Before



The After...

Kiki expands her vocabulary

"No, he's not gay. He's Ro-Ro."
-Kiki, in response to Scott's comments about the "gay" Bond (Roger Moore).

Kiki has a new boyfriend

Kiki, Rowan and I spent the afternoon with my friend, Caroline, and her son, Liam. Last time we all got together, I tried to create a photo-op by saying, "why don't you guys hold hands?" They've been holding hands ever since. It's the cutest thing! Today's playdate had hugging and kissing. And hitting and pushing and kicking, but that's all part of the fun.

A goodbye kiss. Oh my.