the belly chronicles

princess, redux

It's been a full princess week around here. When I asked Miel a few weeks ago about her birthday, all she specified was a Princess Party, with a chocolate cake with a princess in the middle. Hmmm...where did this come from?

It was a challenge to my sensibilities, to be sure. What is a princess, anyway? And how do I really feel about all those princess stories out there? They're usually rescued by men, those lucky gals.

A deeper challenge for me was that Miel is very particularly social. She doesn't like to be around too many people at once, and she hates when they're all talking at the same time. It's not uncommon to spot her at the table with her hands over her ears, shouting "Everyone stop talking!" (She wouldn't have stood for the Sunday brunches at my grandparents' house, with everyone talking at the same time while their mouths were full of lox and herring.) So when I asked her who she wanted to invite, she really didn't want to invite anyone. A few girls from her school who couldn't attend. I really had to follow her on this one, much against my "the more the merrier" ethos. And I seriously had to resist my urge to fulfill my social obligations and let it be her birthday. So she handpicked a small few princes and princesses. (So please don't be offended if you weren't on her ever-so-short list :))

The cake, a lovely compromise. That blue is her princess in the middle, as requested, a Cinderella candle. And the flowers I rolled from Starburst candies at 1 am . . .that was actually quite fun and satisfying, as you can imagine. She didn't want any raspberries on her cake, but here I go again. . .how could I not slip a few from our backyard onto the bottom?

Helpful, but respectful brother. Ahhh . . .love those moments.

 

Raspberries on her own terms. The sign of a true princess?

fairy princess

The earth goes round the sun, tra-la, the earth goes round the sun.
She was born into warm water and loving arms.
She celebrated her first birthday living on the farm in a yurt.
She celebrated her second birthday with a beach party at Seabrook Island.
She celebrated her third birthday as a fairy princess of Silver Creek in Minnesota.
Where will she spend her fourth???

She fills our house with love and sweetness and fire. We call her Honeydrop and Jalapeno Jelly. Meli, Miel Fay, and sometimes she prefers Fay. Never Mel, though, she's instructed us.

Such a wonder, still a bundle, and even occasionally a handful. We love her!

first discoveries

I know I've told you how wonderful the children's little school is...a Waldorf-inspired home-based preschool/daycare. They've made a little family of the 9 children who go there and it is filled with love. They've started a blog so we can all see what they're up to every day...sweetness!

They've even begun a Monday soup day! Each child brings a vegetable for their lunchtime soup...we feel right at home!

I linger there in the mornings, arrive with time to play before we go home for the day. I think I'm more of a preschooler wanna-be than a helicopter mom...hmmm.

oy vay!

I just got my new birthday camera today and decided to take one bedtime picture once I had it all put together. Doesn't show off the camera so well as it's  flash-photography in a hotel bed, but I couldn't wait and neither can you . . .

I warned you it would be kind of a sucky picture. But I'm showing you to tell you that not 30 seconds after it was shot, Isaiah slammed Miel's head (accidentally, but with the rough body awareness he's been using lately) into the corner of the nightstand, giving her a huge gash a couple of millimeters from her eyeball. Closer than Tai Yang, for you acupuncturists.

She'll be bruised, but her eye is okay. Another sign that this should be our last night in a hotel...we're ready for a house. A home. Isaiah's ready for his bike, scooter, skateboard, and trains. Miel is pining for her "cafe bear." And we're all ready for some mom cooking!

reunion

A blessing and a curse of having lived so many places in our mobile world is that I have dear friends all over, many of whom I see too seldom. Such is the case with my friend, C. We were housemates in San Francisco in 1992. We were dedicated penpals who wrote pages and pages to each other from South America, Japan, Tennessee, San Francisco (ahh, the days before email and children). We had to miss each other's weddings and met each others' husbands and firstborns for one night 3 years ago.

Then we have the opportunity for a 3-day holiday here at this beach fantasy island with our same age girls, same age boys, and husbands, and it all falls into place. I love the way time doesn't really affect heart and mind connections.

And take a look at these boys, unknown to each other until the night before, ready to hit the beach...same crocs, same sunglasses, baseball hats. Couldn't be happier. Fast friends.

stormy weather

When thunder claps right over our heads for 2 hours straight, there's nothing like a safe shelter tent and a cocktail to make a kid feel cozy. At the beach, we realize that kids need cocktails, too, and the drink of choice during a deluge has got to be a Stormy. Just like Grandma's Dark and Stormy, though only lime and ginger beer. . . leave out the dark rum.

But guess who was the first one in the safe and cozy tent . .

corn dogs and cotton candy

Baseball under the lights. Magical. And we've found something Isaiah doesn't like to eat...corn dogs. If you're going to have one food that you don't like, ballpark corn dogs are a good choice. We had planned on having ballpark food for dinner, so Steve and I found ourselves in the unlikely position of trying to coax him to eat it until we came to our senses and realized fries for dinner would be just fine, too. This is not a guy you need to coax to eat.

When the sweaty vendor came around hawking plastic bags full of pink fluff, the kids wanted to know what it was. "I don't know. Looks like pillows to me," I answer matter-of-factly and resume watching the game. Some time goes by. Lots of kids are buying the pink bags. "Mama, those aren't pillows. Those bags are something to eat." "Oh really!? I thought they were pillows. Hmmm..."

Ah well, you can't keep cotton candy secret forever. Our neighbors kindly offered the wee ones a taste, and they quickly agreed that they would much rather have Cracker Jacks (what I described as popcorn and peanuts with candy on it). They ended up with strawberry ice cream. Don't worry, I'm not going to check the nutritional rundown of each treat choice and report back to you. You know by now I'm all about food for the soul.

On another subject, obviously I'm no veteran baseball fan (though I have been going to Pirates and Phillies games since I was a tyke). I'm in it for the hoopla, the ritual, the unexpected beauty of a freshly-groomed green diamond, the peanuts. So I'm a little embarrassed by my question . . . is the ump resting his hand on the catcher's back normal? I did see this article about the late Shag Crawford, but it looked so odd. Common? See this...? 

And one more thing...tomorrow morning there is an eclipse visible in China and Mongolia. If you can't get there in person, see this live view of the total eclipse. My total eclipse experience in Baja in 1991 was epic.  Ahhh...to be an eclipse chaser.
 

whatever the weather

As the Wheel of Fortune spins for our family and we hover before landing in our next sweet spot, we are so incredibly lucky to be welcomed at Seabrook Island. Our days are spent in the water and our nights are spent among loved ones.

So different from northern California, it's warmed up to seasonal temperatures, which today meant 94 degrees in the shade. As I said, our days are spent in the water with the children becoming little fishes, honing their swimming skills. The air thickens, the trees blow in the wind, the sky rumbles, and an afternoon thunderstorm unleashes its chill and fury upon the island.

How many of you Californians count thunderstorms in the top 5? 3? 1? things you miss about the east coast?

are we having fun yet?

"I wish we could live at Grandma and Grandpa's forever, mom."

Birthday Beach Bash

We love our honeysweet Miel and Miel loves being 2! She celebrated with a breezy beach bash, Southern fried chicken (one her faves), Bocce ball, and an ice cream cake. It's amazing how proud she is of herself and her age. She has a few new toys that are hers alone--a purse that she keeps careful track of and a tea set that she gets to be in charge of. For 2 nights in a row, we heard her talking in her sleep. Her words..."No, Isaiah. No, Isaiah."

A lucky birthday indeed...on the beach surrounded by love. May she have many more.
For more pics of the week, check out these pics on flickr.