Beet Beet, Sugar Beet

I LOVED this clip on Sesame Street!

I was singing it's catchy song this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find it on youtube. E immediately started bopping and snapping her fingers to the tune and asked to watch it over and over.

Featuring, Us!

If you haven't gotten a chance to make it over to the 10 on 10 site yet, check it out!
Jen and I were featured this month.

10 in 10 on 10 - April

This month's inspiration:

(11 o'clock hour)

(12 o'clock hour)

(1 o'clock hour)


(2 o'clock hour)


(3 o'clock hour)


(4 o'clock hour)


(5 o'clock hour)


(6 o'clock hour)


(7 o'clock hour)

(8 o'clock hour)

Persepolis

I was recently reminded of a film entitled Persepolis that I had seen a preview for a while back but had since forgotten about. It is the true story of a young girl growing up in Iran and enduring many of it's struggles during the 80's and 90's. I frequently find myself too overwhelmed and confused with all of the goings-on in the Middle East to try and actually understand it. This autobiographical story helped me fill in a few of the blanks. The comic book format simplified without trivializing these heavy issues. I was able to understand a little bit of the mind and heart of an Iranian woman, her childhood, and possibly her future struggles. I highly recommend reading the 2 graphic novels, then setting out to see this subtitled, book-based film. It's now playing, you won't regret it.

Trophy

Our little cupcake spot was recently featured on Martha Stewart's Show for Cupcake Week (April 03 '08 for those of you that would like to view the episode & recipe on her site). I met up with a few friends and their children for the featured treat.

In case you were wondering; They are as good as they look.

Well done Trophy!

And of course we had to bring Daddy home a treat...

Bruiser

Last night I got a few friends together for Thai food and a movie. E and D had their Daddy-Daughter-Date-Night; they headed over to Green Lake for hot pizza slices and a walk to the playground. She's really been into 'racing,' and 'beating you,' and unfortunately while racing, the toe of her shoe caught the corner of some raised cement and really crashed landed hard. It doesn't usually take her too long to recover from these missteps, but apparently this time she was a wreck, and her poor little knee's showed it the next evening at bath time...ouch!

Well, it seems that we're quickly heading into these lovely warmer days and I'm beginning to get the feeling that her tiny shins and kneecaps have only begun to get worn in with all our outdoor activities.

Scuba

When E was younger (I mean like 3 months - 1 1/2 years old, before she could talk to him on the phone) I would hang up photo's of D at her eye level when he was gone on tours. I plastered them everywhere: on the wall next to her changing table, on her highchair tray, down both sides of the hallway, in the car; everywhere. It was a way I could keep him close to her in those long drawn out weeks. I suppose it was a bit for me too, being a single parent for months at a time and on call 24/7 was hard. Keeping up appearances while holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries were repeatedly missed stung a little. Maybe in some ways it kept him close for me too, memories of the times we did have together. But, I'm straying from the point.

These photo's played a pretty important role here at home, and E talks about them from time to time. In particular she asks about the one I hung in the bathroom just above the tub. It's a shot I took while we were in Kauai for my sister's wedding. The day before we left the tropics my parents made reservations on a day-long sight seeing tour around the island. We all were plagued with a bit of seasickness but D jumped at the chance to do a bit of scuba diving and I grabbed a picture just before he splashed in.


E loves this picture, and until recently I didn't really understand why. I mean she wasn't there, it doesn't bring her back to that sunny afternoon in Hawaii 4 years past. Perhaps it was because he's playfully sticking out his tongue, or maybe it was the thrill of seeing her dad in this uncommon paraphernalia, or just plain excitement to see documentation of him enjoying life around the water. It was puzzling to me. She has taken to the water like a fish, already learning so much in the short time she's been enrolled in her weekly lessons. In this way, she and I are cut from the same cloth. But she really identifies with her dad in this picture. Her attitude is almost like: "Well duh Mom, you and me like swimming, but look, Dad does too."

She's seen the professional scuba divers down at the ferry docks slowly entering and retreating from the waters edge. She'll stand motionless with her mouth open every time, in total awe, not quite able to picture the real people underneath all the tubes, masks, flippers and tanks. Oftentimes we're at the aquarium during feeding times. She'll stand off to the side almost refusing to watch these folks in scuba gear. She's panicked somehow that she's witnessing something that isn't altogether OK, but not quite able to look away.

But safe at home in her warm 3 inches of bubbly water she happily recreates these underwater scenes. Nearly every bath time she requests goggles and does a little deep sea diving herself. Placing one end of her goggle elastic in her mouth like a snorkel she'll declare: "Mom! I'm a Scuba!"

Then it started making sense: She's been unable to wrap her mind around the fact that Daddy wore all that same stuff, and very likely the people under all that get-up are nice daddy's and mommies too. She's scared of these guys and her way of working through her fear is, and really always has been to become a little bit obsessed (i.e. Pirates). Owning it. She has to personalize it so it's not so scary anymore.

In the Lanes

D gave me a great gift last weekend: The Promise of "'Till 9:00." I have until 9AM every morning to do as I see fit. And what I really want to do is get fit. So I gradually started collecting all my swim stuff, and psyching myself up for the challenge.

Before I got pregnant with E (I was too nauseous to swim with her growing in my belly) I swam laps nearly every morning, and I've really missed it. It's hard to get into any exercise routine when D is so 'in-and-out' with his job, but right now he's home for a nice long stretch and I'm hoping to make the best of it. I had to get a new suit and cap, but my goggles were in good shape, and my sister-in-law thoughtfully got me a 10-punch swim pass for Christmas, so I was good to go.

It wasn't easy this morning. It's hard to convince yourself when you're all snugly in bed and even your 3-year-old is still sleeping that what you really want to be doing is slipping on flip-flops and chipping the ice off your car to head over to the pool. But I did it! That familiar humid chlorine climate hit my face and I couldn't help but smile. The water was warm and that initial aquamarine view below the surface made me giddy. It's where I wanted to be. I won't lie, it was a hard workout. I only made it about half of the way through my original program, and I was winded with my muscles shaky when I climbed out of the water (and are still remarkably tired 1 1/2 hours later as I write this). But I did it, and I'm excited to do it again tomorrow; to hopefully become a regular.

When I got home E had a nice sleepy smile for me and D even had a hot slice of cinnamon toast and coffee waiting. I could get used to this.