Seattle

 

We're off to a great start. A week of fun yet to come!!

Watch out for the eggs

As I said, we celebrated my mom's birthday this weekend. Sophia and I did our part by making a cake for her on Friday. I didn't realize, until we were in the midst of baking, that the recipe called for three eggs. Seems a little excessive, but whatever. Much to my relief, I opened the carton to find three eggs precisely. However, as I tried to take the last egg out, it was stuck. You know when the eggshell just won't budge, and if you try too hard, the egg will crack. Since I needed that egg badly, I decided not to think about what might be causing the egg to stick and just continued on our way.

I had to confess to Sophia that the eggs were a little "iffy." Normally, I let her eat the cake batter, but on account of the threat of salmonella, I didn't let that happen this time. It's not a surprise that I had to repeat the caution many times before the dishes were washed.

Once the cake came out, I forgot all about the egg incident. When Mom & Dad came that night, we ate supper, then had some cake. I'm happy to report the night was uneventful from stomach issues.

The next day, as we sat down to have cake again, we were all finishing up, raving about its deliciousness. Sophia calmly pointed out, "Yeah, it turned out great. You'd never know the eggs were iffy!"

I must have turned ten shades of red - caught, as I was, in my culinary gamble. Everyone had a good laugh, except for Sophia, who just kept insisting that it wasn't a joke - the eggs were actually iffy! I was just glad she didn't announce it the night before when we may have spent some more time fretting over each one of our tummy's rumblings...

Excited!!!

We had a fantastic weekend visit with my parents, celebrating my mom's birthday. The quilt store, a nice walk and a fine meal were the highlights, just as she would have them. As usual, Sophia cried when they left. It's always so hard to say goodbye.

Today we had something to look forward to, though. Wednesday, we leave before the crack of dawn to head to Seattle. We get to fly, which we haven't done together in a year and a half. We get to see our friends, who we haven't seen in a year. We get to do anything and everything and nothing for a whole eight days - in Seattle!

So we're excited. And packing.

Patches

 

Patches is the one in the middle. The very unamused yet surprisingly cooperative feline between two dolls. I don't remember the story behind this picture. I can only imagine I was on the back porch playing with my favorite things, and Mom decided to snap a picture.

Patches was a good cat. Playful and attentive. Killed mice in the yard with regularity and pride. Snuggled with an occasional enthusiasm. Such a good cat.

I obviously loved her.

Happy Father's Day

 

Have I mentioned how grateful I am that Erick works hard at a job that he had to work hard to get? It's not a very commonly spoken sentiment, but there is more to having a stay-at-home parent than just the occasional budgetary sacrifice. It takes a willingness on the part of one parentt, in our case the dad, to allow the other the express pleasure of staying at home and ensuring the nurture and care of their kids. A joint agreement that, for a while at least, one person will leave the home to supply the necessary provisions for the family within those walls.

This Father's Day, I'm reminded of all the mornings that it's so hard for Erick to get up and out of bed, particularly if Sophia crawled in at some point in the wee hours of the morning. Our bed is comfy, and his family is cuddly. But he does it. Not just because it's what a man's supposed to do but because he cares so much about our family that he doesn't even consider a different option. I can't help but think of the days he calls and I tell him we're at the pool. "And how's work?" He doesn't bat an eye.

Because Erick goes to work while I stay at home, I get the benefit of relationship with Sophia that he has to work twice as hard to get. I don't take that for granted.

What I'm saying is this. Erick is a fantastic dad. Not only is he great at playing, reading, dancing, singing, goofing and kissing boo boos; he has put our family as a priority in a way that I can never hope to return. Thanks, Honey, for being such a wonderful dad.

Things that make me mad

Ridiculous super powers and my insanely mundane and unhelpful memory.

Please, allow me to elaborate. I hate the hiccups. Once I have them in a day, I know I'm going to get them again. And I don't get dainty, ladylike hiccups. I get the kind that jerk my whole upper body and leave me sore in the chest. Not a great experience. On the other hand, ever since I have known Erick, he has been able to control his diaphragm when he has a hiccup or two and stop its spasms. Imagine my frustration and infuriation when he advises me to calm down and focus as my body heaves involuntarily. I have always taken him to task for wasting such a clear gift of mind control on the hiccups. "This must be the lamest super power that I've ever heard of," I always said. That is until the last few times I've had the nasty hiccups and have been able to stop them after only a few minutes. This makes me mad. Are you telling me that I can choose to control my body, but only to rid myself of the hiccups? How about my metabolism or my hearing or coming down with illness?! I'm just saying. It's a ridiculous super power.

Okay, part two, which holds a similar frustration to part one. My memory. I have a really, really terrible memory. This is not an exaggeration or an excuse. It's a fact. My memory is particularly unreliable when it comes to names and how I know people. I can't remember names of people who were in my life on a daily basis only a few years ago. I can see faces but not names.

An example is easy to come up with. In recent months, I have met several new people. Two of these people are connected to my friend Hillary. These two also happen to share some similar physical characteristics. The circumstantial differences are that with one (let's call her Stacey), Hillary and I shared a long evening, full of laughter and deep conversation. The other (let's call her Sharon), was Sophia's babysitter one night. A lovely young woman with whom I shared general pleasantries but nothing beyond small talk. I haven't seen either of them in a few weeks. Fast forward to last night. Emily, Erick, Sophia and I were at the Botanical Gardens for the free concert. A young lady walked up and said, "Hi Laurie!" It took me a minute, but I placed her as Stacey, a person with whom I have a relationship of sorts. I stood up and gave her a hug, of course. It was more awkward than I expected, but no problem. Then I continued in the conversation with the assumption that I was talking with Stacey, not making any overt mistakes but enough small ones that I began to notice something wasn't right. All the while, Erick was looking on with an amused expression, and I had no idea why. Finally, she left, and the light turned on. That was Sharon. Not Stacey. Awkward. Unreliable memory.

Flashback a couple of weeks ago. Erick made a comment about the title of a book by Harold Bell Wright that I haven't read since junior high school. I answered with the complete title and could have added the rest of the author's works if asked. Why? That information was never important to me. It was just there. So why would my mind choose to retain that over people? This makes me mad. Really mad.

Words are Fun

 

In a few weeks, we are going to Seattle to see our friends the Chandlers. When we first started to plan the trip, Blake calmly announced that when we visit, he is going to teach Sophia to read. Imagine Sophia's excitement at that possibility. She is quite confident that when she returns, she'll be a reader.

The past couple of weeks, she has been doing some prep work, I guess, because she has been trying to write words. She's been practicing recognizing and reading small words in books and around too. It's a lot of fun, and a lot of work. I am very excited for Sophia.

As a kid, reading was my very favorite activity. I was talking about this last night with my friend Cayla. We could both remember the excitement of a summer reading list. As much as Sophia loves words and stories, reading is going to offer a whole new world, or limitless worlds rather, and I am so excited for her to start on the journey.

This and That

As long as the picture of Erick and me on our wedding day was the top one, it was going to be hard for me to post. So I'm just going ahead and getting that over with. My camera's in the van, and I'm not going to get it. Otherwise, I could show you pictures from our first week with Emily, our houseguest. Sophia's enamored with her. I have to work very hard to be sure Emily maintains whatever privacy she wants. She's been gracious enough to join us on a few very fun outings. I know Sophia has some more planned for this week. Maybe I'll show you pictures of those when I get them.

Or I could show you a couple of pictures of me and Risha, my college roommate. We had a girls overnight visit and shopping excursion here this weekend while Erick and Sophia hung out with Paul and their girls. It was a fantastic time for all of us. It's incredibly nice to have an extended uninterrupted conversation, and both of us are grateful to our baby daddies for taking care of them so we could make it happen.

I believe the only other thing on the camera are some pictures I took yesterday at Missouri Botanical Gardens. We hadn't been since our trip with Linda and Russ, so it was fun to see all of the flowers out and stroll around the lakes and ponds and such. We are hoping to see the free concert there on Wednesday night. Just depends on rain and energy.

But I can't show you any of those because I'm inside. Not going out for the camera. Maybe another time I'll show you the photographic evidence. For now, you'll just have to take my word.

The Happiest Day of My Life

I have had many, many happy days in my life. But when I do a real evaluation, I cannot think of a day that I enjoyed quite as much of that light feeling in my heart, almost as if I might take flight. My wedding day met every hope and dream I had for it.

And nine years with Erick has been everything I hoped for and nothing I planned. As I think about it, my heart just might fly away.

Zootastic

 

My nephew Henri had his first visit (that he could really participate) to the zoo yesterday. It was absolutely fantastic. Really enjoyable to spend time with him, his brothers and, of course, his parents. I hope I'm learning to live in the moments we have together. Blissful as they sometimes are.

Still, I can't deny the bittersweet reality that he's pointing at me...

House Guest

This weekend at some point, our apartment will become occasional home to another person. I'll make the story short because, as you can guess, it's a long one. Someone who lives in Columbia, that we have met once and liked (fortunately), got a part with the St. Louis Shakespeare Company to be in the Merry Wives of Windsor. She doesn't want to take up residence here because her husband will remain working in Columbia. She also doesn't want to pay what it would cost to stay in a hotel for that time, so we were a logical choice. Trust me. It was logical.

So, for the next few months, we'll have a visitor with us during most of the days because her rehearsals are in the evening. Sophia is beside herself with excitement at having a new person with whom to share all of her thoughts and vast experiences. Our guest is from England. Sophia is particularly excited about that for some reason. I can only hope we don't offend her too early or frequently... Sophia is currently calling her "the accent girl," so that should be a great start. One afternoon I had to pretend to be our guest for the day, and Sophia asked me all kinds of questions that I'm hoping were not really practice for the real thing.

I am really looking forward to having her here as well. Sophia and I both like having people around, so I'm going to work really hard not to overwhelm her with information or relationship right off the bat.

I'll let you know if and when we freak her out.