Author: brookeshelf

Since baby Emily and Zak were both sick, I decided to get the more lively nephlings out of the house and have some fun. Also, it gave me an excuse to go see some of the things I’ve missed about Pittsburgh.

Like the chocolate-chip banana pancakes at Pamela’s. No other swedish pancakes can compare.

Especially delicious when I have these two cuties at the table with me, right?

After breakfast, we walked up to the Squirrel Hill library and played a game of chess. I was impressed at how quickly Sarah caught on to the game. She easily remembered the movements for each piece on the board. As a going away present, I gave her an inexpensive chess set I picked up from Target, and she was thrilled.

After the chess interlude, we headed off to the Phipps Conservatory, where I proceeded to drive my nieces nuts by taking way too many pictures of them. And now I will drive you nuts by showing them all off. Flowers! Cute girls! What’s not to love?

And then it was time to say goodbye. Baby Emily recovered and came home from the hospital . . . we picked up a Prantl’s burnt almond torte and consumed it greedily . . . I got yelled at by a neighbor for parking in front of the neighbor’s house, and I remembered why I wasn’t too sad about moving away from Pittsburgh in the first place . . . and I got to hug baby Emily goodbye.  See you later, sweet thing!

My little sister has caught up with me, kid-wise. Baby Emily, kid #4, arrived in town in January, but I didn’t get to see her until the beginning of February.  She’s so snuggly — like her big brother Zak, she weighed some ten pounds at birth.

It was wonderful to see the little one, and my other cute nieces and nephew. But sad, too: Liz & Ryan are finishing up with medical school this spring, and we are going to try and sell the little brown house. It was difficult not to get choked up about it during the visit.  Three of my children were born while I was living there, and I was surprised at how much my subconscious remembered the house: my arms automatically reaching for light switches, doorknobs, and bannisters, the familiar stumble to the bathroom in the morning, the soft hum of the freeway at the bottom of the big hill. It’s probably the last nights I’ll ever spend in the “chocolate house,” and likely the last time I will ever visit Pittsburgh.

Which is why I’m glad I got to do so many wonderful things while I was there, like:

Finally visit the legendary “corner store” in Greenfield. This is a teeny little grocery shop run out of a converted living room by two elderly ladies. They had shelves loosely stocked with cans of soup, rolls of toilet paper priced for individual sale, and an ancient Pepsi-Cola refrigerated case with quarter-gallon jugs of milk and iced tea. Best of all was  a counter filled with penny candy. Two cents per tootsie roll. Sarah’s classmates at school call this place the “candy store,” for that reason. Both Sarah and Abby walked home with a fat baggie of treats for $1 total. I had heard about this place when I moved into the neighborhood, but never got around to finding out where it was.

I also got to visit the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and two of my favorite co-workers happened to be there. It was great to reconnect and find out about the projects they are working on — the “historic children’s literature” collection is finally funded and being re-catalogued and preserved. This is an undertaking that was first being proposed when I left the library in 2008, so it’s wonderful to see it come to fruition.

And of course, Baby Emily! The sad thing about my trip is that she caught RSV and had to be hospitalized during most of my visit. The good thing about my trip is that I was around to help care for the other kiddos while baby sister was sick. No fun for anyone, but at least I had an excuse to order take-out from my favorite Squirrel Hill restaurants (Mmmm, Aladdin’s!).

More to come in Part Two . . .

My kids are usually oblivious to sporting events. But when the Seattle Seahawks went to the Super Bowl, the levels of fandom reached such a fever pitch that even my kids seemed aware of what was going on. Impressive!

I mean, how can they ignore the sports life when we pass things like this on the freeway?

And how can I not coo with admiration when William brings home these kind of drawings from school?

We had a Super Bowl party that involved finally roasting the discount spare turkey that had been lurking in our freezer since November, and turning it into awesome sandwiches with homemade pesto and really good baguettes. Our friends came over, and we ate and ate and talked and talked . . . and some time after homecoming, we got around to turning on the game.

Only to find . . . that with the Seahawks up 20-0, the game was pretty much over. Poor Ghost Horses!

It was still fun to jump up and down in our blue & green duds. And when it was all over, we had a sing-along to as many Frozen music videos we could find on the internet.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, we even had a discussion of how the lyrics to “Let it Go” could ostensibly be sung about toddler toilet training. And that’s how the sports is done at Casa Camisas.

So, Eleanor came home with this “all about me” poster, and the level of detail was rather cunning:

Dancing is apparently a big part of her life. So when I got an e-mail for discount tickets to the “Sleeping Beauty” ballet, guess who I took along?

Yep, Eleanor. She was enthralled by the whole show — and even got a little teary-eyed at the end. Intermission required a little fancy footwork in the lobby:

The production was totally deserving of Eleanor’s accolades, in my opinion. Everything was blue, gold, and grey, really wonderful designs, and the dancing was delightful. The first photo is from the performance we watched.

It’s so fun having a kid who likes to go to arts events with me!

Katie is quickly outgrowing all her toddler clothes, and it’s triggering the response it always does:

I need to photograph my kids in the cute clothes before it’s too late.  Hence a series of photos on my camera that look like this:

Little did I know when I took them, that there would be more cuteness in store that evening. Back in October, I found a Link outfit at the thrift store. What turned into enthusiasm for the Legend of Zelda blossomed into full-on obsession. He even insisted on wearing the outfit to the zoo, and doing a lot of action moves on the zip line they have there:

But on this particular Sunday — where I took the pictures of Katie in the red dress — Wim went a step further, dragging a cardboard box up to his room and creating his very own WindWaker boat. I think Brian helped out with the construction of the sail. Thank goodness I happened to have a big sheet of butcher paper laying around, because the results were pretty amazing.

I don’t think any of our other children’s third birthdays were celebrated at quite the level that Katie was on hers.

This is mainly due to the efforts of a doting big sister.  Eleanor planned the Katie-fest for weeks in advance, cutting and pasting in the craft room, planning games and thinking of what Katie likes best.

The theme of the party would be “pink,” Eleanor decided, “because that’s Katie’s favorite color.”  (I had to talk her down from other themes based on Eleanor’s favorite movies.)

The celebration began when Katie woke up.  Eleanor had made a trail of paper hearts leading from Katie’s bedroom downstairs to the kitchen, where there was a special breakfast waiting — a piece of toast cut into the shape of a dinosaur and spread with Nutella.  (I had to talk Eleanor down from chocolate waffles.) A birthday crown lay on the high chair.

And if that wasn’t enough, there was a special birthday dinner (Aunt Kristen & Uncle Sven were in attendance) with a big chocolate cake.  (I used a bit too much pink food coloring in the frosting, so it was a bit day-glo.)

. . . followed by games.  Eleanor did everything; it was probably the easiest birthday party I ever hosted.

First, Katie got to go on a treasure hunt.  She followed a pathway of (more) pink paper hearts to a little suitcase full of all the shiny things Eleanor had managed to collect: a little gold foil box, fake diamonds, glass marbles, a medal on a ribbon, etc.  Totally charming (and yes, we were digging paper hearts out from under the chairs for days).

(Sorry about the blurry photos.  It’s difficult to photograph kids when they won’t hold still.)

Then we played “Chase the Bee,” which is a game I had never heard of, mainly because Eleanor made it up.  She had drawn a picture of a bumblebee on a piece of pink (of course) paper, and tied it to the end of a long string.  To play she shouted, “okay, Katie, chase the bee!” and ran around the house, trailing the “bee” behind her like a kite.  You’ve got to hand it to her for innovation, I guess.

Then we broke apart an intentionally weak-structured pinata.  It was a pinata designed for a toddler wielding a felt lightsaber, but there was enough candy inside for about 15 children, not the 4 on hand.  Sugar rush for sure.  I think I audibly gasped when it all came pouring out.

I love this little baby elephant that is Katie.  She is such a sweet, spunky little thing.  It’s great to have a three year old, and even greater to have two great sisters in my family.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was unusually warm and sunny, so we decided to get out into the sun.  Hiking is kind of a challenge for our family right now, since Katie is too big for the baby backpack (indeed, the poor thing fell apart at the end of our climb up Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone last summer) but not quite big enough to walk long distances or any kind of elevation.

The trail we chose — Padilla Bay — is flat as a pancake, but Katie still got very tantrum-y.  Eventually she gave in and cheered up — there were lots of distance markers for her to “race” towards — but it was rough going before she reached that point.  Sigh.  Summer hikes will be awful this year, but we have to stick ’em out or she’ll never learn to enjoy hiking.

Anyway . . . Padilla Bay is a birder’s paradise.  We saw scads of waterfowl, including blue herons and trumpeter swans.  At one point, all the birds on the water flew away, and we wondered what could have startled them.  Looking up, we found the answer — a big bald eagle, flying right over our heads.

CUE THE PICTURESQUE BARN!

On the way back, I saw this big flock of some unidentifiable birds swarming out over the water.  Their bodies shimmered in the light and it was hypnotically beautiful.  I tried taping it a bit (the wind was biting so I couldn’t hold my camera out for long before my hands got too cold).

We decided to try out the children’s museum in Everett, and were rather pleased with the experience.

Especially the room in the basement full of big foam blocks.

ENTER THE FATHER!

Brian rallied all the kids to begin building a giant . . . wall?  Fort?  Whatever it was, it was awesome.

Higher and higher.

It was actually nice to not have to chase kids  around the museum for a while.  Kickin’ back on that cushy museum-grade bench, taking pictures . . . the sweet life.

But, of course, this foam wall went the way of all foam walls.  Kaboom!

Once it began to crumble, all the kids in the room ran over to knock it down. You could tell they had been anticipating the crash for a long time.  I loved seeing all the kid-limbs squirming in the rubble.

Jeffrey’s never really developed an interest or ability in writing anything by hand, so it has been quite the delightful surprise that Eleanor has taken to doing this sort of thing, which I found on my bed a few weeks ago:

Amazing, right?  I don’t know if I would have really appreciated it without having Jeffrey first.  It’s like his disability throws the other children’s normal-ness into high relief.

In recent weeks, Eleanor has also put together a LEGO kit for William:

And she invited me to a Royal Ball:

A few minutes after getting the invitation, she marched into the kitchen, slapped this sign on the wall, and then marched back upstairs without saying a word:

Naturally, I had to attend.  Here’s what I found:

William is the “guard,” who announces guests as they arrive and keeps the riffraff out.  Jeff declined to participate.

However, she did talk him into another ball a few weeks later.  This one was for the record books.  Eleanor handed me another invitation to a “Royl Boll,” and the kids all trooped into the living room and asked for music.  I happily obliged and put on some Strauss waltzes.  The results were predictably awesome:

Later, I found them all in the library, reading Garfield books together.  A grand pack of lovelies.

 

Otherwise known as “how many museums can we hit in one week?”

Well, the art museum:

We had come to see an exhibit featuring ancient meso-American art (esp. gold metalwork), but it could not be photographed.  The children’s play room had no such restriction!

The zoo:

I love this photo — the very first header image for this blog was of my kids riding the merry-go-round in Schenley Park back in Pittsburgh.  It’s nice to have something similar again.

The Burke Museum of Natural History (they were celebrating Archaeology Day, hence all the Roman stuff.  Jeff was over the moon):

The week concluded with a the big ham dinner that we bought for Christmas but didn’t eat because we decided to drive to Utah.  A cheese plate was procured, friends came over, it was quite the fattening meal.

The Sunday before school resumes is our traditional time to take down Christmas decorations.  I’m always especially sad to take the Christmas Cards out of the mirror.  It’s a big oval mirror that used to belong to Brian’s grandma.  She kept it in her front hallway, and now so do we.  I love to see how many cards I can wedge into the glass, until my self-reflection completely disappears.  There’s a metaphor in there somewhere, I’m sure.