To School!

The busy season is winding down, thankfully, although my semester is nearly over so I have many projects to finish, most involving statistics and math. Statistics I get, math, meh.

But! Nathan and Evan are now both in school. Evan goes to the Gloucester High School's daycare on Tuesday and Thursday, my school days. He seems to be having a fun time, there's some other cute babies there, and it's a small little group of babies with a good ratio of caretakers to kids. One day I picked him up at the end of the day and he was wailing because he was tired and his nose was running and WIPING HIS NOSE IS AKIN TO TORTURE AND THIS STRANGE LADY DID IT - so I'm pretty sure I just lowered the future Gloucester teen birth rate by a good amount. DOIN' MY PART.

Nathan is going to Head Start preschool in the mornings. Nothin' like bein' so poor you qualify for free preschool, but honestly it's wonderful. His first day was Thursday, I totally forgot to mention to his teacher that he was wearing underpants and not a diaper (most kids are diapered still) and...

He peed on the slide. Kid's first day, and he peed on the playground slide. I'm a terrible mom.

He seemed no worse for the wear, as 2 year olds don't really yet understand the social non-acceptance of peeing one's pants, and his next day of school he had pizza and a field trip and he was so excited to be back. He's warming up just fine, and I love getting to the classroom to pick him up and seeing him mouth "that's my mommy!" when he sees me through the window.

Speaking of cutest goddamn thing EVER, Nathan started skating - the Cape Ann Skating Club takes kids starting at 2.5, and Mike had previously found toddler skates at Savers for $6.99. He LOVES IT. His first lesson he just fell all over the place, but now he's actually able to move his little feet across the ice and even reach down and pick up items off the ice by himself.



I missed today's lesson because I am super sick, but he was a huge fan of the Zamboni and kept asking to see Zambonis at home. We told him he had to wait until tonight when the Bruins game is on. He also has a tiny hot wheels Zamboni he spent the afternoon cleaning the coffee table with.

And that's why we don't eat our young. Because yes, he's two and terrible and whines about everything and NEEDS CANDY NOW MOM and pushes his brother but holy crap, he's just so CUTE and he learns something every day and he's so earnest and so helpful and sweet. I couldn't be more proud of the kid, honestly.

This is why I'm not around much anymore!

Mike and I started our own company selling bikes at the Cape Ann Farmer's Market. We called it Big Mike's Bikes, and we're focusing on selling accessories and bikes at the farmer's market, as well as on-site tuneups and service and such. Last week was our first at the Farmer's Market. It was a blast!

So since that takes up most of my time, I probably won't be around much (not like I post regularly anyway).

I do promise to update about the bumblebee-colored playroom I'm making out of our old master bedroom that was functioning as electronics storage. When it's done, of course.

This is a Rooster Playing Soccer.

My mom and I took both kids to Stage Fort Park yesterday and a little girl was running around with the tamest, tiniest rooster I've ever seen. Oh, and it played soccer.



Kinda awesome, Gloucester!

The City of Brotherly Food

Last week we took a trip down to Bethesda, MD to go visit my cousin Jillian, who was having a baby shower for her impending firstborn. We all drove in our Mazda5, with my mom added, which was the cheapest option. Apparently, you can fit three adults and two kids in those things for a 10 hour stretch! Who knew. We also did not kill each other, which was an added bonus.

My mom took the Amtrak back home so she could get to work at 7AM Monday, and we had nowhere in particular to be until a class I had Tuesday, so we took an extra day to check out Philadelphia. We didn't have too much time, just enough to realize the cheesesteaks aren't particularly special (but that cheese wiz is pretty damn good on it).

One of the coolest things in Philadelphia if you like ingesting food-like substances is the Reading Terminal Market.



It reminded me of the Lonsdale Quay in Vancouver, but with a bigger selection, and more of a focus on deli stuff, as well as a noticeable lack of maple sugar beaver tales (HUMPH.)



It wasn't lacking for desserts, however. Shortly after this picture was taken I had to wipe the drool off Nathan. And myself.



Nathan's favorite, however, was the spice shop full of assorted bags of colored sugars and sprinkles.

We also tried raw milk for the first time ever. It was good, and the lack of homogenization meant you could lick the cap because it was all butter stuck to it, which was tasty. However, it's nothing I would go miles to seek out at home.

The only other notable thing in Philadelphia was that people were staring at my Bruins tattoo, apparently (Mike noticed, I didn't). However, we have a Stanley cup this year, and they don't, so they can kiss my ass.

CHECK OUT THIS SWEET-ASS MOURNING DOVE

He was hangin' out, bein' a bird, eatin' from our feeder. We usually get small finches and the like, but usually nothing as cool as this guy.

Toddler Hijinks

Yesterday morning, Nathan stuck his Self-Propelled James the Red Engine into my hair, and his whirring little wheels immediately caught a large chunk of it. I was not even awake yet, so this was most unwelcome. I ended up having to pull out a small chunk of hair.

As I was pulling out that hair, he managed to grab the baby shampoo from the side of the tub and dump it on the hardwood floors in the hallway, then slipped and fell in it.

This morning I went to make myself a cup of coffee and came back in to find he was banging the crank arm of a bicycle against our flat screen TV. While completely naked.

He's also had a hilaaarious habit lately of tossing any toilet paper left in the vicinity of the toilet (I mean, why would it be there?)INTO said toilet. I've become adept at measuring how much toilet paper can be flushed in one flush in each bathroom and how to keep the rest stuck to the side of the bowl with a stick until the toilet refills. Kids HATE THE ENVIRONMENT apparently.



So destructive. YET SO ADORABLE.

Early Harvest

We got to eat the earliest of our garden's harvest this week. Sugar snap peas, and kale. Gardening Year 3 should be the most successful so far (year 2 was a complete disaster, year 1 was pretty good for a beginner).

20 miles!

I accidentally biked all the way to Beverly yesterday! Backstory: Mike fixed me up an awesome little road bike.



Orange and blue!

I kinda just got on my bike and went. Mike took both boys to the Wenham Museum so I could nap, because I'd had a long sleepless night with a sick kid. But I couldn't sleep, so off I went, figuring I'd turn around after a few miles.

I made it to Manchester-By-The-Sea, and was ecstatic! I asked Mike to drive up 127 and meet me when he got out of the museum, so I just figured I'd keep going until I was really too tired and I'd wait for him. The great part was that 127 ends in Beverly, so the mile markers counted down, and when I got to Manchester it was at 5 miles left, and then I kept going and all of a sudden I saw this:



I was at Pride's Crossing, and Beverly Farms, and then in Beverly, and he happened to be waiting at a light right where 127 ends.

I won't lie, I stopped like 5 times, and walked up a few short but excruciating hills. And I know 15 miles is pretty much a cakewalk for most people, but I'm terribly out of shape, damnit!

Then, later, I took another bike ride around Wenham Lake with Mike, a shorter 5 1/2 mile ride. So, like, 20 miles! Woo!

State of the Garden

Last you saw, I had just planted our garden for the year.



This was taken nearly a month ago, when things were just getting rolling.



And here, this morning. The difference is insane!



Tiny zucchini! Yay!



Peas!

The weedblock stuff is legit awesome (newspaper under it really helps). I won't do it any other way again.

I'm totally okay with days apart from my kid. Am I an anomaly?

Confession: I'm not as distraught as I feel I should be when my kids aren't around me.

It's not like when we're apart I don't miss them. I just seem more detached than the other moms I know. For instance, once every couple of weeks Nathan sleeps over with my mom and dad (and sometimes my siblings who are in college). Sunday night, he asked repeatedly to see my mom until I called her at work, and we arranged to meet to drop him off until the next day. Sure, I missed him a little, but I also had so much time to get things done without him. Never at any point while he's with them do I think "I want to leave right now and get him!" A week and a half ago, my mom took him camping for two nights. I think every other mom I know would have never let that happen, but I was happy to get time to do homework and have more time to myself. I was glad to see him when he got back, of course.

The same happened while I was working. I missed them a little, but it was intensely relaxing not to be in a routine of manual labor taking care of them. It's not that taking care of them means constantly toiling, but it does have hard parts. Work has adult-time, which for me was really necessary. My need to feel validated by contributing to a workplace was far more pressing than my need to be around my sons all day, every day.



Maybe the fact that I know they're having fun, and in great hands with either their dad or a grandparent, leads me to be completely relaxed and laid-back about them being without me. Or maybe I'm too detached and individualistic, and I'm not the greatest parent?