Paris, day 1

I know you all are waiting with bated breath for my posts....unfortunately, you'll have to wait a bit more. Apparently, my large American photos are too supersized for the crazy french internet here at our hotel....so I can't post any until we're stateside! I'll get to it asap, promise. As soon as I get over my pastry withdrawl. No, seriously.

Oh yes, one more thing.....

Next posting...from Paris!

Fun with nature.

Our robins are having babies.

I feel so proud. Like we did something. I mean, we did have some babies too, but not hatched. From eggs. Beautiful eggs. So blue. So.....robin's egg blue. I get that now. Anyhow.

Mmm'kay. So remember down below, the nests? Well, they ended up only occupying one (as far as we can tell). For a minute, I thought maybe we were going to have the first ever polygamist sect of birds on our deck. But from my viewpoint, this is a one-on-one relationship.

Previous post was June 5. First day of noticeable nest-making. Here's June 7....




Then, a few days later, we noticed mama bird sitting on the nest. Alot. So, when she flew away, I climbed up on a ladder, stuck my camera up as far as I could, and started taking pictures. I couldn't get my head up there to see, so each time I had to stop, look, all while mama robin did an unhappy dance from the fence about three feet away. Papa robin was not far off, and they were chirping back and forth. Nature lovers, do not worry - I touched nothing. Here's what I saw....

June 13...Two!

Hold on....Three!

Papa keeping watch...

Mama has had enough. She's chasing me off!

I've taken a quick picture each day since, and each day they seem a bit less worried. We can't wait to see those babies! Hopefully in the next few weeks.....

June 15

June 16...can you believe how intricate that nest is? amazing...

visitors...

We had some visitors yesterday. You know, of the animal type. First, we had this crazy moment where our kids knew something we didn't.

A few months ago, Aidan kept telling us there was a bird tapping on the window. We laughed. Then, a couple of days later while we were making coffee, there was a bird. Sitting on the lilac tree, tapping on the window. Duh for us. Ever since, he's returned every few days to try and fly through our window. Apparently his short term memory is a bit dicey. Probably from all that banging into the window?



Anyhow. Yesterday, while we went to Jackson's end of the year awards ceremony, said Robin & friend (wife? life partner? mate?) built this under the eaves of our back porch. Pretty cool, no? Actually, they built about four of them, one under each eave. Maybe they're planning for a big family.

the excess, on my deck. i have a feeling i'll be doing a bit of sweeping.

Then in the afternoon, there was a windstorm. And it knocked the nest down. They came back looking for it, and were confused, and I felt oh so sad for them, after having watched them scurry around all afternoon working their little tails off. So, of course, I made my husband get the ladder. And gloves. And scoop it up off the deck, and gingerly place it back where they had built it. Which he managed to do while rolling his eyes practically out of his head. But this morning?

It's bigger. All four of them are. We'll keep you posted. Perhaps there will be babies?


Oh, and I almost forgot. Last night, while we were cleaning the small landfill that is our playroom, we looked out the window. And saw this on our front lawn. In broad daylight. Cool.

School's out for the summer....

Come on, sing along now....or don't. That's okay too. But it's true. School is done for us - which means I am now mother to a (gulp) second grader. Yeah. And one who can read. Pretty darn well. Which is great, and fun, and a teeny bit scary. Because he can read just about anything. Anything. Seriously. So you can imagine all the fun we're having, trying to explain...stuff. Nothing bad, just lots of stuff. Phew. It's alot of work! But my heart is full to bursting with excitement about the world opening up for my boy. His mind is so curious, so sharp, so inquisitive. And as someone who has devoured books by the dozen my entire life, I am dying to watch him dive in headfirst. It was a bit of a struggle for him, but the switch has flipped, and there's no stopping him now. Read on, baby boy, read on.

Anyhow.

We've been doing so much lately that I am way behind in blogging. Which I'm okay with. I have to remember that I'm here to do life, and writing about it comes after. So once again, I'm going to give you some links. Check them out, enjoy the pics, and please DON'T SKIP THE PICTURE OF AIDAN. You'll know which one. And then try not to wet your pants.

we want a pitcher, not a belly itcher!
ummmm, yeah. just, yeah.
project baby runway
hot. seriously hot.
to market we will go...
beach, anyone?
we have a future in civil engineering (or, please support me in my old age!)
memorial day roundup
10 years...in a flash.

we want a pitcher, not a belly itcher!

Jack got to pitch at the game last night. He was super excited. And nervous. And extremely emotional, because we had just broken the news that he'll be changing schools next year. Which is sad, and good, and scary, and exciting all at the same time.

He did brilliantly.

I know you don't really want people to get hits when you pitch, but in first grade baseball, it means that you actually got the ball in the vicinity of the plate, and another player was actually able to make contact with it. It's a good thing.

Two different kids hit off of him. He was the only one. I say that in my small, I'm totally not bragging about my kid voice. So maybe it won't seem obnoxious. But probably, it will.

Have I mentioned how much I love baseball season?

Ummm, yeah. Just, yeah.

Aidan. He's so awesome. Seriously. He found this and decided he looked like a basketball player. So he wore it. For the whole day. All around. Including nap time. I'm so totally keeping him. Also, there's this. Remember?

this is what the mama does while the babies are sleeping. and no, i wasn't driving. i was parked. waiting. just waiting. because it was quiet, and babies were sleeping.

Project (Baby) Runway.

I did my first remodel. No, not to the house. To a baby dress. And quite frankly, I'm pretty excited about it. I shall explain, because obviously, you're dying to know more.


I found this dress at a resale store in So Cal last time we were down. It's super soft cotton from some european brand. At $3.99, I figured I couldn't go wrong, plus I love love love the preppy, Lilly Pullitzer pink and green.

Well, guess what. You can totally go wrong. When I put it on her, the collar looked like one of those things a dog gets at the vet, and one of the sleeve cuffs was so tight I literally could not get it on her arm. Which is tiny.

So I remodeled it. I cut the sleeves. I ripped off the collar.



And then I wasn't sure quite what to do. But I had a secret weapon. I'm probably the last crafty person in the world to discover it, but I'm completely obsessed with elastic thread. You wind it (by hand!) onto your bobbin, and use regular thread on top. I hemmed the neckline, then used a single stitchline with elastic thread. I left the sleeves raw and just stitched around each one with the elastic as well. Do you have any idea how hard it is to stitch around a tiny baby sleeve? I do.




A quick steam iron when you're finished and VOILA! instant cuteness.



You can save your applause for the model. She's pretty darn cute herself.