Invasion

"A" and Michael have been "calling on each other" to use the old school words. It is adorable. Now A's older brother "E" is coming round too. I think I'm going to have to leave my door unlocked so the kids and come and go as they please! I am thinking of installing a revolving door....

Michael stayed over at A's house for a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Spaghetti and meatballs trumps my pork tenderloin ANY day. Even for me! :)

Then after dinner, we found 3 kids playing in our house. It was awesome. I love America. We could NEVER have done this in Paris. There were no other kids in our building! And while we did have another family friend in our apt block...they were French and beat up on Michael and they didn't understand each other. So I am so happy for my little boy to have friends to play with him who are from a great family. And so close by. And knowledgable about ticks and tick removal. :)

My Michael

Michael has discovered he likes to sing.

It is H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. For a variety of reasons.

1. He has his father's singing genes. Which as you know...
2. He has expressed ZERO interest in singing up until this last week. NONE. All other kids singing ABCs...Michael...mute.
3. So imagine our surprise when he busts out with almost his entire Chick-fil-A Veggie Tales CD by memory.
4. Then apparently U2's Mysterious Ways is also in his repertoire.
5. But this is not to say that he is perfect. Quite the contrary. It is extraordinarily funny to see which words he remembers and what he does when they sing too fast for him.
6. Best part? Michael LOVES it and he thinks he is GOOD at it. THAT is very funny too but I am so excited he loves to do it that I am never going to tell him otherwise. Judge me if you want. I don't care.
7. Car rides are never quiet anymore. Not that they were ever THAT quiet. But now, they are filled with Michael's singing. Which is the best and brings smiles to our faces every time.

I will post a video someday. It is funny enough that we are going to go find our video camera and replace the battery that we couldn't replace while we were in France!

And today...something happened that I remember from my childhood...and it happened to Michael. Your neighbor comes over and asks if you can come over and play.

So as you've read before, Michael's newest friend, "A," came over today and asked if Michael could come over and play. Well, yes.

And I watched him hurry and go and have fun. Brian and I got 15-30 minutes of free time. And then I couldn't hear their voices outside so I started to freak out because we do live near woods and a creek...so i started to worry. But he was with "A" who is 6.5 and her older brother "E" who is 10...so it should be ok? RIGHT? Brian told me to chill out.

Luckily...it was near bedtime anyways so I sent B out to get michael...he was just playing inside at A's house.

Gosh...talk about having to let go and not be so overprotective. Now I see why it was so hard for my parents. I just didn't expect to have to do it so soon!

Charlottesville - July 4th!

On Friday, July 2nd, we threw a weekend's worth of worldly goods into the back of our SUV and drove to Charlottesville, VA to meet this super sweet gal:
She was surrounded by this entourage:

And we had a F-A-H-B-U-L-O-U-S time. Seriously. A weekend just full of laughs and we loved every minute of it!

On the way, we stopped in DC at Fairfax center to have Chipotle with Uncle Bill. Mmmm!! I was trying to see if Michael noticed that Aunt AK was missing so I asked Michael, "Hey...is Uncle Bill missing someone? Who is usually with Uncle Bill who is not here now?"

Michael thought.

And said, "GRANDPA! Grandpa is usually with Uncle Bill."

Not quite. But probably correct...I think Grandpa is usually around when we see Uncle Bill!

We arrived late Friday night in Charlottesville, had a good chat, and went to bed to prepare for our Saturday!

Woke up, checked out the Charlottesville City Market downtown (they are big about eat fresh/eat local), and strolled a bit through their little downtown area. SO cute! Had lunch at Revolutionary Soup and then headed out to see Monticello.

Michael and Charlie played all in Jefferson's gardens, which were gorgeous!

Then, we took the family tour of Monticello, which was great! Highly recommend that! Monticello is incredible because the architecture was just so beautiful! Inside and out. And it was neat to see his inventions incorporated into his home. And also a whole wall full of Indian headresses and tomahawks. SWEET.

Michael slept through the whole thing but woke up in time to do this for our family picture: NICE SON. All the chairs and trucks were setting up for the citizen naturalization ceremony they do on the 4th of July.

Brian wanted to strike a pose on the lawn. Again, CLASSY: At least you can say he looks strong!

And because I just like this picture:
Afterwards, we had barbeque with some biting flies eating us alive and went home for an early evening! Then Amy and I ran off to watch Eclipse and left all the kids with the boys! I can't say we regretted it but we were absolutely thankful that they let us do that!

Sunday, we went to their, as Andy calls it, "Rock Band Church." And it certainly was! Michael went to the class they have for children during church and I sat there thinking, "Now tell me why Catholics don't do this?!??!! This is great!" We can pay attention in church and Michael is happy too!

After church, we drove out to Blue Mountain Brewery where we enjoyed some beers, bar food, and gorgeous mountain views!

Went home and almost the whole house went down for a 3-4 hour nap. Sweet. MY kind of vacation!

All this in preparation for seeing the fireworks after 9pm!! Here's our little blanket spread. Can you see who just came back from Europe and doesn't really have lawn chairs?? We got some pizzas, had some watermelon, and had a fantastic picnic!! It was so fun to let the boys run around and so American to get to watch fireworks on July 4th. It was Michael's first time! And there was this older girl who was about 9 years old who basically distracted the boys from antagonizing each other and in turn babysat our kids!! It was fantastic!

Michael LOVED the fireworks and Charlie kept coming back to tell us that, "The fireworks look like they are coming right down on you but they don't!" And then Michael came and got me and said, "Do you want to come sit with me and this nice girl?" Well, of course! And then I started to get nostalgic because one day, he'll actually ask me this and the girl will be his girlfriend.

Here's a fireworks picture. Because I want to:
And I leave you with this picture, which is my favorite of the weekend. My favorites are rarely ever anyone else's favorite. But I love it because it is so American Summer to me:We left Monday morning and were so thankful for a great weekend with wonderful friends who helped make this 4th of July such a great one!

Love,
P

Eclipse

Sooo....I'm a big fan of the Twilight series. Had a great time with Amy this weekend as we saw the poorly acted Eclipse! It was a fantastic time and such a guilty pleasure. It's like the book you read under the covers with a flashlight because you don't want anyone to know that you read it.

I know it's not the pinacle of literature or not some kind of romantic vampire smut...but it's a captivating story! It's romantic, fast paced, and incredible that someone conjured up this whole world. So maybe you're not a Twilight fan...but maybe you are a Narnia fan...or a Harry Potter fan...it's the same kind of deal. A book written for young adults about a fantasy world. So there's no need to hate on the Twilight fans!

Anyways, I ran upon this blog...and this woman makes her case, "confession," for loving Twilight. And except for her adoration of Robert Pattinson...it kind of sums up what I think about the whole ordeal too! Thought the other Twilight readers I had would enjoy it so here it is:
http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2010/06/confession.html

P.S. Post about our awesome weekend in Charlottesville next once I go through the pictures! Best 4th of July ever!

La Nina + Our neighborhood = Frequent power outages

I'm not sure if this is going to be a pattern or not...but we get kind of severe weather out here. We won't count the 1.5 feet of snow back in February. We'll give that the benefit of the doubt.

But since we have moved into our house at the end of March...we have gotten some bad storms. The first one ripped up 3 trees. There were 2 in between there that were a bit scary. We've got those big trees and they wave A LOT when there is a bad storm.

And then TODAY! Around 3:30pm I started turning the lights on around our house because I just noticed it got really dark. Like 8:30pm kind of dark. At 3:30. So I looked out the window and I saw my big maple trees waving like palm trees. Went around the house, turned off all said lights. Ran down to the basement, shut the door behind me, and went to get my Michael.

3:45pm - Electricity OUT.

9:05pm - Electricity back.

We've lived here for nearly 3 months and we've had our power go out at least 3 times. We're off to get a generator!!!

We were lucky (this time...). On Brian's way home from work (after the storms), he saw a huge (HUGE) tree hung up on a power line. A couple of our neighbors used to have backyards. They now have some kind of leaf/broken tree limb foliage there instead of a yard. TONS of uprooted trees...especially young ones.

To quote my senior citizen of a chemical engineering prof in school:
"Mother Nature...She's a B*&^*CH!"

Park

Last Thursday, I took Michael to a big park by Brian's work. I saw this little kid running around really cute...and thought to myself, "Reminds me of Michael at the Alhambra. He must have been a bit over a year and a half old." Talked to the mom and sure enough, the kid was! But this memory made me reflect on what memories live in my parenting heart long after the fact.

Life passes so quickly when you raise a little someone. All the moments blend together and get all fuzzy, even with the blogging! But there are some memories that stand out amongst the rest. They feel like you just made them the other day...not like something awhile back ago.

Here are some of mine. I welcome all my parents out there to post any that you have too! I'd love to hear of them.

• The first time Michael ran a long way into my outstretched arms and gave me the biggest and best hug ever. We were in Sevilla on the way to the cathedral and that was where he did it.


• Michael eating paella right out of the huge wok in the middle of the table with his spoon.


• Michael dancing along to a flamenco show we watched.


• His running around like a crazy kid in the Alhambra.
  
  Lots of Spanish memories so far...I'm sure I have other ones.
  


• How sad and scared I felt when Michael was a baby and we were getting a CAT scan on his brain due to his bulging fontanelle. I just remember thinking, "I'm not ready to let him go. He's just a baby and we've only begun to love him. He hasn't even lived his life yet." Dramatic. I know. It's me.


• Seeing him wrapped up like a little mummy for the above CAT scan.


• Of course, crawling in my lap and telling me we would always be friends and that he loved me. That'll be top of the list for a while.


• Him ripping out the rope railing post at Stonehenge and telling me he was just "trying to get to the big rocks."

But one of the memories that always shocks me the most is one of our last ones in Paris. We locked up our apt one last time and were running up Avenue des Gobelins to catch our bus back to the hotel.

Right next to Canon des Gobelins (one of our fav local cafes)...Michael, who was running ahead of us, turns around and says, "Mommy! Hurry Mommy! Let's Go!"

And I burst into tears...right there...on the corner...in the street...with the snow falling around me. Because this was something we did A LOT. Run up our street to catch the bus, Michael ahead of me, telling at me to hurry or we'll miss the bus. And this was the last time it would ever ever happen. Last time up our street. Last time in our neighborhood in Paris. Last time next to our fav cafe in the area. Leaving Michael's childhood behind. Because THIS was Michael's life as he knew it and we were leaving it. And all of my memories of his little life were there. And we were leaving it.

Brian stared at me and laughed. And told me to pull it together. THIS is my life partner. :)

Fruit pickin'

The Saturday Brian left for SF (June 5), we went fruit pickin' at a farm! We got some great strawberries, cherries, and raspberries. So fun. I loved this wire carton holder they gave us. So rustic:
The rolls of hay were so cute...should have taken some pictures with them!

Michael a'pickin'

Father and son digging around together:

And this place has a giant strawberry slide. Yes, it is true:

What farm picture would be complete without a good butt picture? Here's brian in the raspberry bush:

And here's my cutie...wish I had gotten more of the barn and less of that blue truck there but oh well. Michael's face makes up for it:

It was great fun! For cherry picking, they let you try a cherry off the tree first to find a good one...then you pick all the cherries off of the good trees you find. DELICIOUS! And the price of the produce was no more than what you would pay for at the store. And it's freshly picked and ripens naturally.

So I get a lot of my vegetables from my farming co-op! This week was a bounty with garlic snaps, snap peas, cabbage, green onions, cherries, squash, and SPRING MIX SALAD! I am so excited about getting fresh spring mix salad. The pre-packaged ones taste so chemically to me so I am pumped.

And now, we buy most of our fruits from the farms that we pick ourselves. I am lovin' this country life. Next is to chk the farmers markets near us!

Stay tuned for more adventures! We've got one planned for Father's Day...shhh...it's a surprise for B. And then next week, we have some more adventures. And July 4th will be more adventures.

Love,
P

P.S. Today, Brian watched the soccer game while I did chores. We went bowling! I did terrible. Like I never took it twice in college terrible. Bumpers didn't even help. Then we went to HOme Depot. Michael saw his first movie in the theaters, Toy Story 3, I made some gorgeous flower arrangements with the oriental lillies and hydrangeas growing in my garden, Brian chopped up some trees with his saw on a stick, and now Brian and Michael are about to make pizza while I make vegetables.

12:15am

12:15am

P: Why are we still up doing nothing on the internet.
B: I don't know.

There were dozens of fireflies in our yard tonight. What a gorgeous feeling to stand in the peace and quiet of our yard and watch it. It was mesmerizing.

Then I saw a slideshow a friend of mine did on her last day in Paris with French music. And I teared up a bit. What amazing life experiences we have had. What an adventure Brian has taken me on!

It felt like F-O-R-E-V-E-R ago that we were in Paris. But it was only 5 months ago. And I'm already ready to go back for vacation to visit my favorite food places and see my old friends.

Latest Obsession

Now that we have moved into the house...I have a series of obsessions. Most of which we can't afford as we pay for things like...I don't know...3 trees being uprooted in a storm. Just an example.

Here's one of them. This patio furniture. The sofa/loveseat both glide back and forth. It's super comfortable. How do I know? We saw the last set of these on sale at our home depot by us...marked down over 50% off...and we didn't get it. It was night, late, and the store was about to close. We couldn't see it in the daylight and wasn't sure if there were things wrong with it. Plus, it was a high pressure situation. Now, I wish we had gotten it!
Oh well.

Longwood Gardens...AGAIN!

While B was in San Fran last week, I took Michael to the Longwood Gardens on Tuesday, June 8th. We dropped the car off to get it's 60K service, got our terrible suzuki rental, and headed to the Longwood Gardens to take advantage of the weather.

Michael was hilarious. He wanted me to take a picture of him. Then he wanted to take a picture of me. So we did this with the iphone. And here are the results:

Lovely gorgeous flowering arches with Michael:
Ok, so it didn't start with Michael and the iphone until after this. I liked these flowers. Need to bump up the exposure in photoshop a bit but don't care to because it was taken from my phone anyways:

Then, we found this gorgeous flowering garden we hadn't seen yet:

Don't ask me why I decided to pose like a retard for Michael:

Michael really liked this fountain and asked for a picture with it:

Then, my turn. I really liked the composition of the one Michael took. The pathway stones were an interesting pattern that I didn't notice before:

Then, we did our normal walkthrough of the children's garden where Michael got super wet! Good thing I had a change of clothes! I ran into a field trip of 2nd graders from the school I want to send Michael to from K-? grades. Chatted up with some of the chaperoning parents and got some great feedback of the principal, Kindergarten teacher, and involvement of the parents/parish/etc. So I'm feeling really great about it! And the kids were very well behaved on the field trip so that made me feel good too.

After this, we stuck around to see the 5 minute fountain display at noon:

As you can see, we were pretty far away and it still looked huge!

More strolling after this and we found this nice gazebo:

Had a great time as always! Michael asked for pizza afterwards so we went and did that. Can you see we just did whatever while Brian was gone?!?! :) Afterwards, Target/Trader Joe's and then home.

I think this is a bargain for this seat if it includes Michael with it:

Met my neighbor 2 doors down...they are another mixed couple (Chinese guy, American mom)! So it was great to hear about the chinatown in Philly. Turns out she teaches 7th or 8th grade at the school I want to send Michael to eventually!! She loves it there, her kids go there and they are super sweet! So yea God for sending me some confirmation, direction, and hope for Michael's schooling.

Michael met a girl. We'll call her A. She is about 3 years older than him and lives 2 doors down (the family I just was talking about right up there). They have taken a liking to one another and ask about each other.

So I asked Michael,

"hey, Michael, do you like hanging out with A?"
"Yes! She is really fast. And she is nice to me."

"That's great! Do you think she likes you?"
"Yes, she likes me because I am funny."

LOL. SO true. Made me think of all the times Michael does his silly Michael stuff like throwing himself on the ground and running around in circles...and inevitably...there is some girl around that thinks he is funny. Well, I married his dad because he is funny...so I guess it's a great way to win a girl right?

We piddled around a lot of the week. We always hang out at the mall if I have to get Brian from the airport because it's only 30 minutes from there instead of nearly an hour from our place. Less car time.

So we were at Anthropologie just piddling around. I turn around and say, "Michael, where are you?" And I see this:

HILRAIOUS. Of course, I had to get my pic taken too. With a book about Paris bistros:

Michael's always great when I'm shopping. He went around trying out all the couches/chairs. Then, he found this display of towel hooks that were letters. So he brought them to me one by one and told me, "Hey Mom! A letter R!" "Hey Mom, A Letter T!" It was adorable.

Next up...farm pics and a giant strawberry slide. But I need to go get my camera to get the pics and that's 2 floors above the computer. SIGH.

Memorial Day Con't

Memorial Day, The Whole Story. Brace yourselves. There are a LOT of pictures. All of them taken by Brian's mom who did a fantastic job! Yea for vacationing with other photographers!

We arrived Thursday evening without event. A little over an hour and a half door to door. Pretty sweet. This excludes our delicious stopover to Red,Hot, Blue. Mmmm....barbeque...

Friday morning, we took a walk to the Eastern Market, which had gorgeous fruit. I was in awe of Brian's bearded prowess:

Michael started the walk off a bit lazily:

We had an awesome breakfast there! Delicious french toast, pancakes, bacon, and the arugula in my omelette was SO tasty!! I say this because it is unusual for produce to actually taste like what it's supposed to taste like here in the American supermarkets. But that's a soap box that I'm sure you're tired of me getting on.

Afterwards, a walk to the Library of Congress. Here are happy grandparents on the lawn:

There was a gorgeous view of the capital from the Library of Congress:

I liked these steps:

And The Mom got a great picture of the grandeur of the place! I couldn't get this all in my 50mm lens...

We took a tour and it was very informative! We got to see the main room where they filmed National Treasure 2. And saw one of the bibles first printed from the Gutenberg press. Amazing!

They had a cute reading room for kids open that day. This is one of my favorite pictures with Michael. I love the lighting and the colors. Gonna frame this one for me!

Afterwards, back outside for our family picture in the heat:

Then a walk for gouter at a cute cafe. Family picture outside of it:

We loved walking everywhere!! We miss it so much after moving to America!

Enough of that though! We jumped in the car and went to the Smithsonian. There was a garden there that was serious camera candy. I can't wait to go back with the tripod and get some family pictures.

Michael fell in love with this fountain. I took TONS of pics of him with it:

I carried around wet clothes for the rest of that trip in a Smithsonian gift shop bag that I begged for and the lady was all-not-too-happy to give me.

After getting soaked in the fountain, he got 2 very fast rides on the carousel outside the Smithsonian. Probably the fastest carousel I've ever seen, and we've seen A MILLION. But I LOVE this picture: the lighting, the happy subjects, and the patriotic flags in the background:

Great family picture outside the Smithsonian:

Word of advice: When you need someone to take a picture of your family....find an Asian person...make sure they have a fat camera...THAT is who you ask. Not some clueless person with a point and shoot. No offense if you have a point and shoot.

I think we then went to REI after this. But I can't remember if that was Saturday or Sunday.

We then had 10:00pm all you can eat Korean barbeque and Michael was the most overtired I have seen in 1.5 years. He cried through the whole meal and all the way home. That is what we call a "low point" on the trip.

YES. It is true. ALL of that was done in one day.

Next day! Sunday! We all went to our churches and then lazily headed out to Mount Vernon!

We strolled through the gardens: This is the picture you get from us when the photographer yells, "BE ROMANTIC!"

NICE. CLASSY. NOT.

We had fun walking down to the Potomac and exploring the farm grounds. It was great fun!

Then, everyone but Team Besancon PA biked from Mt. Vernon to Olde Town Alexandria where we had a great dinner and strolled along the sidewalks! Michael saw some lights hung up in the tree after dark and made us all stop and said, "Look! Those lights are so pretty!"

Another moment to stow away in my "Parenting Heart."

Went home and spent an even lazier Memorial Day Monday. Had a late breakfast. Here is a family full of labeled aprons for pancake breakfasts:

Then tried to make it to Great Falls...only to make it just to the mall to get Michael some shoes for Great Falls. That we didn't end up going to! :) Couldn't go to Great Falls because there was a HUGE line to go. Had a delicious lunch at The Four Sisters Vietnamese lunch by Bill/AK's place.

So the weekend ended with everyone doing what they wanted. Michael played Wii. Besancon family played pinochle. And AK was so nice and came with me to the Asian supermarket down their street.

It was great fun. And a great dose of "city life" for me. I really needed that! I forget how nice it is to have everything so conveniently close by!! And it was a great break from our spiders.

Been slow about blogging because I've been weeding this flower bed I'm trying to get ready for dirt/compost. Next up should be an entry about strawberry/cherry/raspberry picking we did. And then a visit to the Longwood Gardens (I know...again) while Brian was gone in San Francisco.

AND! More plans coming up. I am lovin' living on the East Coast. I think if we had gone straight back to Texas...it would have been a bit slow for me. At least here, we can satisfy our need to travel and see new things! We just jump in the car and GOOO!!!

Memorial Day in Our Nation's Capital

Washington D.C. is easily my favorite city in all the world. That I've seen. So far. Which isn't really that many. But of the cities I have seen, Washington D.C is AMAZING!

We spent the weekend there with Brian's parents and visited with Aunt AK/Uncle Bill. It was great fun!

This isn't a blog post to recap the weekend because apparently, I only took pictures of "stuff." Not many with people in it. That's definitely outside my comfort zone...but I felt like it I guess!

So here's a smidgen of the happenings of the weekend. When I get the pictures from Bill/AK and The Parents...I'll have more to post. Until then, here's a taste:

Saw the Library of Congress. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S:
Michael loved this water fountain. At first, I did not like the blues that the camera picked up. But after looking at it for a bit, I think I DO like it like this SOOC (straight out of the camera):

I guess I did take some pics of Michael (of course). I love-love-love this mischevious look on his face:

He did that to get a gummy bear. I think. Or some other sweet treat. I bribe from time to time. So sue me.

Saw Mt. Vernon. Apparently, I felt it was more important to get a picture of Brian and his soccer ball than to get the entirety of Mt. Vernon in my pic:

I just thought this pic is funny. Hairy Brian playing soccer at a major historical sight. RIGHT.

The first time I saw Mt. Vernon, I was in high school. And my big memory was of these green rocking chairs. I love them. They are beautiful. Comfortable. Cool in the shade. And with an unforgettable view of the Potomac River.

And here's a practice shot with lens flare. Definitely not awesome by any means. The gorgeous magnolia flower isn't as magnificent as it was in real life. Not sure the exposure is so good there. But I do like the flare I got there. And it's real. Not put in by photoshop. (Kim...that's a jab at you... :o)) But then again, if I had done it in photoshop, I wouldn't have gotten that stupid bright pink/purple spot at the bottom of the pic.

Between the 3 couples, we had probably $4K of camera equipment between the 3 of us:

SO I know the other 2 got tons more pictures and lots of pictures with people in them. I think it was just too hot for me to bother with taking pictures. And my purse weighed like 3 tons. Excuses, I know...but it's enough to distract me!

More later on the trip! This depends on when I can get the pictures everyone else took!

Off to bed,
P