Happy 5th Birthday Gregorie Ann -- or the Story of the ET, I mean, Tipi

G:  Grandma, I'm kinda scared.
A:  You wanna sleep with me?
G:  I forgot my crown.
A:  That's okay.  You wanna sleep with my sheep?
G:  Okay.  Can I have the moose too?
A:  Okay.
G:  How about an apple.
A:  No, that's for the morning time.
G:  How about we have it in the nighttime.  As a snack?
A:  No.  In the morning time.
G:  Okay.  But what if I wake up in the middle of the night?
A:  If you need a snack you can have some.  But just go to sleep.  NOW!
G:  I can hear the traffic.  I can't sleep.  [there is NO traffic, btw]
A:  GREGORIE, go to sleep now.  [I'm waiting for her to say, "Go the fuck to sleep!"]
G:  This is MY ET.  You don't make the rules in my ET, I mean tipi.  It's my tipi.  My tummy is empty.
A:  That's not true.  You should have eaten more dinner.
G:  It's my ET.
A:  It doesn't have anything to do with the ET or the TE or the TP.
G:  I'm taking the basket outside.  I'll go eat with the coyotes.
A:  MOOOOOOMMMMMMM, can you make Gregorie go to sleep?

Uh, no.  Five years later, and NO, I can't.

Okay, that is not where I planned to start this post but well, as I was typing that is what I heard...

Rewind to yesterday.

I was cleaning the house, sort of delayed Spring cleaning.  Or 5th bithday party cleaning.  Or just cleaning because houses NEED cleaning.  And for once they weren't UNcleaning.  The house.  In fact, they were actually cleaning OUT the house.  Carrying all sorts of stuff to the driveway.  Where they had set up some sort of makeshift camp.  With lots of stuffies and blankets and of course doll clothes (though there were no dolls to wear them).

I had asked Mr. Bubble to fill a galvanized tub with some sand to make a play area for the party.  I meant on the back walk.  But he put it right there, in the driveway camp.  And the Bubbles had obliged by bringing all the sand toys, from the back walk.  The camp was becoming a tent city, without a tent.

Dinner came and went and bath too.  And they said, "We're going to sleep outside in the camp."  With no tent, I asked?

A:  Yes!  You and Daddy can sleep together.  In our bed!
G:  Yes!  It will be ROMANTIC!
A:  Make us a baby sister!

And out the door they went.  And 4 seconds later they were back.

A:  We need a tent.  There are raccoons out there.
G:  And coyotes.
A:  And it's cold!

So they slept with me.

Today I went to the Valley to pick up the bikes Gam bought them.  As I was driving home I passed a small shop I had passed a thousand times before -- right on Topanga Canyon Boulevard, just south of Ventura.  I'd noticed it before -- it sells custom and vintage baby furniture.  There is always something cute out front. Today there were adorable tipis out there.  Hmmm... I drove a block further and then I said, "I NEED one of those.  For Gregorie's birthday present.  Well, I at least need to find out how much they are..."  I quickly circled the block and parked as close as I could to the storefront (as the bikes were in back, spidy webbed in but not locked...).  I walked into a special space, a complete custom boutique.  The owner/designer was speaking in Spanish to a potential vendor about showing his wares.  They paused and I inquired about the tipis -- I got the new price, the price of the older display model, and the price of the new display model.  I considered, for about a second, and took the new display model.

When I got home the girls were at the camp.  I told Mr. Bubble about the bikes and the tipi.  And I asked him if he minded if I gave G her gift early -- I mean, there they were playing the exact game that inspired it.  Why waste a day of her tipi sitting in the bed of the truck????

She, they, instantly loved it.  And made plans for sleeping in it.  They further fortified camp.  Which further emptied the room I have to clean tomorrow...  They pulled out extra covers.  And clothes for tomorrow  (Sherri, the lemon skirts and green t's to match).   Then they packed a picnic basket of apples and eggs and cheese sticks and fruit leathers.  And a jar of dry oats.

And when the time came, they got flashlights and started out and....

they came back in.

But, with it being the Eve of G's 5th birthday and all... I couldn't let it go...

I thought, "This is a moment.  A moment, a turning point, that I can INSIST on to get them out of my bed."  Not that I really want them out.  I love them there.  Most of the time.  But they do not have a baby sister because... And G has really taken to this strange habit of trying to plant her toes somewhere between my knees and my kidneys.  So, yeah, out with you!

At first I just set up the ET, I mean TP.  And they started rolling the stuff back in.  And then I thought, "If I really want them to SLEEP here..."  Duh!  Roll out the bed from under mine!  Genius!  A perfect set up!

Who's doing the work here?

For real!

OK, I'll play too.

We're in!

Making funny faces!

AH, not in, but OUT!  Check out the oatmeal mess though...

G'night hamster!

The Share

This past week Alex finished her final days of her first year of school (kindergarten at Topanga Charter Elementary).  Friday was her last "share" (what we called "show and tell" when I was in elementary school).  She chose a family photo, which I'm proud to say has been a big theme of her shares all year -- most kids bring in toys or gadgets -- I love that what she wants to share is her family and our tales.  Well, it has been so much a theme that I wasn't at all sure that the framed photo of the four of us, my parents, and my bro, SIL and niece and nephew hadn't already been shared!  So, I suggested that she take instead a photo from the Panama Cruise we took with my folks a few years ago.  She enthusiastically agreed.  And then I was struck with the realization that I had no idea where I had stored those photos...

Well, I did eventually find them.

But not before I found a large box and an overflowing bag of "stuff" -- finance stuff.  Commercial real estate structured finance stuff, to be exact.  Research and deal summaries and statistics and theories I had accumulated over a career in that stuff.   Stuff that holds ZERO appeal to me now.  I pulled the box out of the girls' closet with emphatic disgust.  "WHY is this crap taking up vital space that could be used for craft supplies and to-be-grown-into-Patagonia-jackets-bought-on-great-sales  and memory boxes?"  I got the whole stinking pile to the hall before I paused and said, "Could I...  Ever... Maybe?  Would I...  Ever?  Maybe..."  NO NO NO NO!  I could not would not could not join the dance.  Again.  Ever.  The Stuff must go.  But as of this writing, it hasn't.

But it's sitting in an annoying enough location that it will soon. Go somewhere.

The other day, this day specifically, I was going to stake the tomatoes and went in search of our sledge hammer.  I thought that it was in a box in the storage area under the back deck.  I dug around through the cobwebs and the dried oak leaves, checking box after box (why why does Someone not organize that area????).  I never found the sledge hammer, though I did find several boxes of tools and one of old tupperware containers.  And I also found a large box of law books.   Heavy hard covered tomes into which I poured my brain and spirit and over $100k over 20 years ago.  (Yes, 2011 will mark the 20th anniversary of my graduation from Columbia Law School -- scary how that time has... well, no it's not actually scary at all -- in 20 years, wow, the lives I've led...  the journey to arrive HERE has been grand; I digress...)  For the longest time those ridiculous books (because trust me, I NEVER had cause to consult one after my graduation one sunny day in May in Morningside Heights -- no reason to ever lift one and crack it open) sat on a shelf in my living room(s).  My Black's Law Dictionary still sits on my shelf.  But that's different, a true reference manual, which has been cracked.  These were text books, nothing more than class materials.    But they were so HEAVY, so serious.  Maybe their presence reminded me to be proud of my JD, a degree that led me down the proverbial garden path.  Until I found myself on the right garden path.  But I AM proud of my JD, proud of my education, my knowledge, my abilities, proud of my career (to an extent), proud of my journey.  I don't remember when I put those books in a box and moved them into a dirty cellar.  And I wonder why I put them there -- did I ever think I'd want, or need them again?  I'm going to send them packing.  This week.  With the Stuff.

Remember those cruise photos?  I found those in a bag that had somehow become a last minute carry on tote as we boarded the ship.  (Where did we get that bag?  I'll have to ask Gregg.)  

Inside the bag I found the photos, a bunch of "scrapbook material", and my journal  The journal I started the winter before my year long solo adventure of self discovery -- three times across the US and to Panama and back. Yes, I had been heartsick over its missing status.  Thank the Universe for the Share!

p.s.  I just now realized that I could have used one of those heavy books to drive in my tomato stakes...

A really big spider! Oh my!

Today, the first really hot and sunny day in over a week, I decided to stake my tomatoes (yeah, I'm smart that way).

While I was pounding and tying and sweating and swatting, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, hanging out (literally) in the pear tree.

Gregorie and I found him/her wonderful and fascinating and we took lots of pictures!

Gregorie helping

The pepper bed

And my NEW bed, with tomatoes and beans, which I just realized I forgot to cover with bird netting -- crossing fingers!

Onion goggles

Today Gregg made some amazing onion soup for dinner.

As soon as Greggie saw him slicing onions she ran to get him the onion goggles she bought him for Father's Day.  But then, she put them on herself!

After the slicing was done, she took over with the cooking!  So I should say, Gregg and Greggie made some amazing onion soup for dinner (btw, all with homegrown onions and thyme!).

Of clutter, screen time, and embarrassment

Yesterday I was chatting with a group of friends about stainless steel appliances and whether kitchen appliances needed to match and stuff like that and one perfectly obnoxious friend (KIDDING, totally love her) shared a picture of her absurd, insane, perfectly lovely kitchen.  Aside from the fact that her kitchen is just beautiful, what we all noticed, and what we all commented about, was the complete lack of clutter on her counters.  So she shared another picture today.  Ahem... still NO clutter.  

So, being pretty anti-clutter myself, especially in the kitchen, I looked around.  My kitchen was in good shape.  I had some dishes drying in the drain rack which I quickly put away and then I snapped these photos:

Then I started wondering, hmmm.... how does the rest of the house look?  I knew I had vacuumed the office and cleaned all the toilets and sinks/counters in the bathrooms, but I hadn't actively "cleaned up".   I had, multiple times told the girls to be sure to clean up whatever they were playing with before they headed outside to seesaw.  But I had doubts...

I looked in the living room:

Okay.  Good.

Then I checked the office.  Uh oh.

Well, I mean, it's okay, in terms of clutter/neatness-- just a basket of clothes to go on the line.  But what is Alex doing in here?  With her vReader?  Hmmm...  I took the clothes outside and then checked the girls' room:

Uhhhh... again, okay on clutter.  They DID clean up.  They just didn't go outside!  Yikes!

Oh, and here is the other one in the master bath, with the Mobigo.  GO OUTSIDE NOW!!!!!

Ahhh!

So later one of the girls (Greggie I think) got ahold of the camera and snapped this:

One word:  GUILTY!  And yeah, that's an Etsy shop and I bought myself two rings...  Double yikes!

Today in p-p-p-pictures

This morning I tried my hand at braiding garlic.  My first couple attempts were not grand:

But by my third try I was getting it down!

I'm pretty proud of this last braid.  So, I hung it by my front door.

And took lots of pics of it!

I'm also pretty proud of the potato chips I made for dinner!

And I'm most proud of my princesses on the porch eating peach popsicles! (I think my favorite part of these pictures is there pheet!)