botanical garden
April 29, 2010, 4:38 pm
Here are some pictures from Huck's pre-school field trip to the beautiful New York Botanical Garden today. They dug for worms, planted scallions and polka dot plant, watered strawberries, learned about a giant compost heap, stuck natural velcro called "bed straw" onto their shirts, ate fresh spinach and surprisingly delicious sorrel followed by a delightful picnic in the lovely weather. Huck was lucky enough to have his beloved Cecily and good friend Luca assigned to us for the field trip. He told Luca more than once that his Rice Krispies t-shirt made him hungry. Thank goodness for the sorrel!;)
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[ 11 comments ] ( 33 views )40
April 21, 2010, 2:08 pm
I can't think of a better way to celebrate turning 40 than spending the day in a log cabin with my two favorite people. On Sunday we drove our friends’ car to Lake Wallenpaupack in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania and relaxed together.;)
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Birthday fruit smoothies! I wasn't allowed in the kitchen. I like that in a birthday.
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This is all I want out of life: let me start the day reading a book with my coffee on a deck …
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… while Troy and Huck are in a boat.
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My favorite sentence of the trip came from Huck's mouth, as usual. While sitting around this fire pit he said, "Oh, I love this. It smells like burning infant." We're hoping he meant incense.
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Troy and Huck performed a special award winning puppet show from the loft for me. Really high quality entertainment in the Poconos …
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And here it is … my delicious, beloved cheesecake made by Troy, Huck and some You Tube lady. I ate three pieces of this in one day, which is unheard of! Not only did I turn 40, I also gained 40 pounds that day.
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[ 24 comments ] ( 74 views )there's always a smile
April 17, 2010, 3:18 pm
I'm sure every parent will nod their head in sympathetic understanding when I say that Huck and I had a challenging week and I almost sold him to the circus. It was either that or check myself into an insane asylum for truly incompetent mothers. Just when I think that Huck's so grown up and easy to get along with, I'm once again reminded that children are human beings with very complicated emotions and that I am completely unqualified to raise one. Sometimes just admitting that is enough to get you through the next day. (That and a glass of wine, some encouraging emails, a few LOST reruns and a handful of old Easter candy.)There's no better way to describe Huck's frustrating and sometimes heartbreaking behavior last week than the following two pictures. Knowing I wanted a shot of him in front of our church's beautiful cherry blossom tree that stays in bloom for approximately 8.3 days every year, he happily gave me exactly what I didn't want.
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But then he stopped and thought about it and decided to give his old mom a smile.
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[ 15 comments ] ( 44 views )brooklyn
April 17, 2010, 3:03 pm
I have a feeling a big part of Huck's childhood memories are going to include our trips out to Brooklyn, our favorite little getaway. It helps that some of our favorite people live there. Last weekend we had the use of a friends' car and so we packed it up and headed out to John and Shana's for a slumber party in Park Slope. Sometimes you have to get out of the city and go to another one for some extra fun.;)
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[ 25 comments ] ( 51 views )innocence
April 11, 2010, 7:18 pm
Every now and then I'm reminded of how little and innocent Huck is, and it breaks my heart to picture him losing that one day soon. Recently we were walking along 33rd Street when a disturbed man passed us. He was shouting very angrily something like, "WHERE'S MY CAR? WHERE'S MY HOUSE?" and right as he passed my precious angel of a child he shouted, "GET THE F-WORD OUT OF MY FACE!" Only he didn't say "f-word." I cringed a little bit and waited for Huck to respond, sure he's heard that word before but also sure he has no idea what it means or why anyone would say it. Or that his name rhymes with it. He looked at me and said, "What was wrong with him?" Always happy for an opportunity to instill some kind of compassion in my darling child's sweet little heart, I began a moving monologue about the man's sad mental problems, explaining that he thought he was talking to someone but no one was really there. Then Huck said, "Yeah, and right as he passed us he yelled GET THE FOOT OUT OF MY FACE!" With an overly sympathetic expression he added, "I guess he thought there was a foot in his face. But there wasn't."And the innocence continues for a little while longer ...
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[ 6 comments ] ( 40 views )oh, the fun!
April 5, 2010, 4:35 pm
Spring break 2010 can best be described as a time when Huck went on lots of egg hunts, Pappy T made lots of crosses out of palm fronds, and I followed them both around cleaning up fake Easter grass and leftover tree parts.During these last 11 days we survived a field trip to the Hall of Science museum with a bunch of friends in hurricane-like conditions and then a few days later enjoyed a perfectly heavenly spring day at the Bronx Zoo. Huck had a movie play date with Gus in his new Inwood apartment and also attempted to ride his bike without training wheels for about 12 seconds. We spent several days at the river in our new hammock and just this afternoon were busted for the first time in five years by very polite Parks people who sadly told us we can't tie our hammock to the trees so as not to kill them. (Troy's ordering bark protectors tonight. We'll show them!)
In holy news, on Palm Sunday Huck and the other children sang some hosannas, on the first night of Passover we enjoyed a wonderful Seder with our friends Amir and Lisa, and on Easter Sunday we began the day at a sunrise service, had yet another egg hunt somewhere in the middle, and ended the day with our traditional progressive dinner in the building with good friends and neighbors. And in the midst of all that celebration my niece Megan gave birth to baby Sadie on March 31st!
Huck returns to school on Wednesday. Between now and then I predict another fun outing full of picnic food, ice cream cones and more pictures. Then Mama's gonna send that boy to school and take herself a nap.
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[ 18 comments ] ( 63 views )