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Monthly Archives: June 2011

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Utopia

June 28, 2011 – 11:15 pm

“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.” —T.S. Eliot

By kara | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, James, Owen | Comments (0)

A Rainy Day Fort

June 24, 2011 – 8:51 am

“The best kind of rain, of course, is a cozy rain. This is the kind the anonymous medieval poet makes me remember, the rain that falls on a day when you’d just as soon stay in bed a little longer, write letters or read a good book by the fire, take early tea with hot […]

By kara | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged fort, rain, Sophie | Comments (1)

Happy Birthday, Babe

June 24, 2011 – 8:43 am

I love that you’re playing again. And I love all that you are and all that you do. Happy birthday. (And thank you!) “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” —Berthold Auerbach

By kara | Posted in All | Comments (0)

Charlie

June 24, 2011 – 8:31 am

Sophie’s Great Aunt Susan and Great Uncle Dale visited us for a night, along with their son, Charlie. We introduced them to Cincinnati-style chili at Skyline (and they treated us to dinner—thank you!). And Sophie had a blast playing with her ever-patient and ever-fun cousin. It’s not easy being asked over and over and over […]

By kara | Posted in All | Comments (0)

Date Night, Past and Present

June 19, 2011 – 12:45 am

Tonight, while my parents are at Shaker Village celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary, Andy and I hired a babysitter to watch all three kids for the first time and we dined at Brio where I had the lobster ravioli and Andy had some sort of chicken pasta dish and then we saw Woody Allen’s “Midnight […]

By kara | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged parenthood | Comments (1)

Let’s Make Wishes

June 15, 2011 – 12:46 pm

Lately, Sophie is obsessed with wishes. (And the word “obsessed.” She uses it constantly. Like when Owen is trying to take her baby stroller from her—she’ll run to me and say, “Mommy, Owen is obsessed with the stroller. Make him stop!” She demands puffy white dandelions on our walks—she makes wishes while she blows them. […]

By kara | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Sophie, wish | Comments (0)

"Watching" the Reds

June 13, 2011 – 5:31 pm

My dad recently took Sophie to a Cincinnati Reds game, just the two of them. She was so excited for this outing and, literally, grabbed his hand and pulled him out our front door when it came time for them to go. My dad loves baseball. He grew up playing it, listening to it, dreaming […]

By kara | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baseball, Sophie | Comments (4)

Sophie’s Treasures

June 11, 2011 – 1:10 pm

Many months ago Sophie’s Grandma and Paw Paw made her a small treasure box. They painted it to match her room and lined the inside with lovely fabric. She loves her treasure chest, more so than many of her beloved toys, and is very specific about what’s allowed in it. The contents change, sometimes daily. […]

By kara | Posted in All | Comments (4)

Daddy’s Home

June 6, 2011 – 5:25 pm

“There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again.” —Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

By kara | Posted in All | Comments (0)

Now That We’re 1 …

June 6, 2011 – 5:02 pm

Mom decided we could paint! While we sat in our highchairs Mom and Sophie rolled our painters’ paper and taped it to the floor. After we scribbled for about two seconds (on the paper and ourselves), we decided to suck on the paint. And then, we decided to crawl. At this point there are no […]

By kara | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, James, Owen | Comments (3)
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    3rd, 5th, 3rd! James can’t really see (he lost his glasses a couple days ago so he has an appointment to get a new pair tomorrow) and Sophie managed to forget her lunch box (which I swear was in her hand three seconds prior to this pic). But they’re all at school, with brushed teeth, semi-brushed hair and that first-day mix of nervousness and excitement. And James let me hug him in his classroom (a real win). Onward! There was another roll on top of this roll. Pulling it out revealed this tube of toothpaste. Sophie doesn’t approve of the boys’ interactions with toothpaste (they get it everywhere) so she has her own tube and she hides it someplace different every night. This place is pretty clever although I’m regularly impressed with her ability to tuck it away behind the bathroom mirror. (Life with 8-year-old brothers can be challenging. For all. ) Months ago we planned a trip to Atlanta to celebrate Marty’s 70th birthday, which is today. We still went. We visited the aquarium, ate at Mellow Mushroom (a restaurant Marty loved), the cousins played together, Lizz made biscuits and gravy ... wish you had been with us, Marty. We sure miss you. It’s Twin Day! Owen flipped his Gatorade bottle and it landed here and I’m fairly certain he’s never been more proud of anything he’s done in his 8-year-old life. “Is this heaven?” (This quote was even better when there was a crop of corn growing where the pine trees are.) This is a $400 mattress. I was living with a girlfriend in Mariemont, and my parents were lending me a bed. It was 2002? I think? I received a $400 freelance check (a fortune, I felt, at the time) and I purchased this mattress, from The Original Mattress Factory. It was my first “adult” furniture purchase. Fast forward 16 years. What are these two doing?!? It’s a 16-year-old, $400 mattress! Their beds have to be more comfortable than this. (Some truths: Instead of waking them up or attempting to carry them to their bunk beds I simply rolled them over to Andy’s side of the bed so he can deal with them when he comes up. Also, it’s not my fault they’re not wearing pajamas. They long-ago figured out that sleeping in next-day’s clothes saved time in the morning.) I really should write a book on parenting . from the weekend ... After realizing we didn’t have seat assignments and were officially on standby, we woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the airport early to see what we could do about the matter. In these situations Andy and I try several things: kindness, patience and humor. (No one likes to be yelled at for something completely beyond their personal control.) Maybe that helped or maybe we got lucky but not only did we all get seats, we got upgraded to Comfort+. It’s incredible the difference a little extra leg room can make. 22 hours later, from the time we woke up in Munich, we were home. Sophie was upset during the rainy train ride back to Munich. We were scheduled to fly home the next day, and with thoughts of home came thoughts of Grandpa. I said all the things, both in my heart and from what I’ve researched on the matter. But often that’s not enough. So then, as usual, I just let her cry and I listened. Maybe the signs she and I see are silly, I don’t know. James recently told me matter-of-factly there was a 50 percent chance that a bird or a sunset is from Grandpa. Then he thought about it more and said, “But it’s probably just a bird or a sunset, Mom.” Still, I was thankful for the rainbow we saw when exiting the train station in Munich. It was something visible I could show her, something beautiful and unexpected that appeared right when she needed it. I’m sure the odds are less than 50-50. But it’s the great unknown, no? You can’t bet on it. But if a sign can be a blanket of comfort for a 10-year-old who is so angry and sad that she can’t shake herself out of it, I’ll take it. And use it. And, let’s be honest. I use them, these signs, often and quietly for me, too. I devote a lot of my life to looking for truths of the matters. But I’ve also learned that sometimes, we simply see what we see. And maybe that’s OK, too. the boys, playing with ducks at the lake (Alpsee) view from the castle We couldn’t get tickets to tour Neuschwanstein, so on Tuesday we toured its neighbor, Hohenschwangau Castle, King Ludwig II’s childhood home. His story is fascinating. After eating lunch in Füssen, we ran in the pouring rain to catch a bus to see this: I loved these six little trees in a row. (View from the train to Füssen.) Tuesday morning we woke up early to take a train to Füssen. After our afternoon Munich adventure (note we did all that the same day of our later-than-we-hoped-for train ride from Salzburg) we had dinner at Hofbräuhaus. In this picture we had just ordered, and yes, my beer is already half empty. 🤣 We made the 5 p.m. “show” of the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. Sophie forgot her glasses, so Andy recorded it for her. His face in the second picture ...
    TAP

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    The View from Up High

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    The Huffington Post guest post: Apologies to the Parents I Judged Four Years Ago, a TIME's top 10 opinion piece in 2012

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    Changing Love

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