The Things They Say

the year in photos and memorable quotes...

// Clementine, wondering aloud: Is this real life? Are we living in Chinese people's dreams, because they're sleeping right now? And when we're sleeping Chinese people are living in our dreams?

please note: dreamcatcher earrings. December

// Josie, in a similar vein just yesterday: You know what I can't stop thinking about? Other people's lives!  What is Clementine doing right now? [She was playing tennis] What about Anouk? I know she has a white couch from her Zoom. And a little brother. And I wonder what Grandma Pat is doing right now. Probably sewing. Having fun. Maybe eating lunch.

April

// The girls have been wandering into our room around 4:30 am and they get back to sleep and we don't.

Me: you girls have to stop coming into our room. Mommy and Daddy have to sleep.

Clementine: So do we! That's why we come into your room!

dressed up for a walk, April

// So 2020: Josie calls it "hand sanz-zi-tizer".  (I should correct her but I don't.)

Halloween: I'm a talented unicorn!

//  Josie: "I saw it in human!"  It took me a minute before I realized she meant "in person".

watching a movie with the squad, April

// Clementine and Josie pronounce delete as dee-LATE as in "did you dee-LATE that photo?" Again I should correct them but I don't.

Front porch session, October

// Josie says everything with a flourish but also with so much earnestness.  Luke presented her with an English muffin for breakfast, spread thickly with jam, and she exclaimed "An English muffin...with strawberry jam no less!" He thought it was so funny "with [x] no less!" has become a family saying.

"Let me do your makeup", April

                                 


// Josie, musing on a walk, "I don't like the way mulch smells, but I love flowers growing."[shrugs]

April

                                          


// Both girls will see a man running shirtless and ask, "Why is he only wearing nipples?" [dissolve in laughter] Luke went outside barefoot and Clemmie asked, "aren't you cold? Only wearing feet?"

botanical garden, July

                                    


// Josie lost her first tooth and Clementine inquired: "What are you going to ask the tooth fairy for? Something for both of us?"

before the outdoor screening of Coco

                                       

// Clementine sizing up someone new: How old is she? How many teeth has she lost?

French girl haircut, November

                                          


// Josie looking at our snow-covered roof: Our roof is pitch-white!

zoo, November

                                                   


// Josie arranging all of her most-loved objects around herself at night:

December 2019

// Clem to Luke: Why don't you wear pajamas? Is it because bad guys might come in the house and you want them to see all your muscles? And all your moves?

Luke: (laughing) no, that's not it.

Clem: Oh. Is it because you get sweaty?

before the new couch was delivered, September

                         


// I whispered something to Clementine and Josie said: WHATEVER YOU SAID, IT'S NOT FAIR!!

zoo, September

                                          


// Josie was crying about something Clementine did to her and ended it with "I was adding the finishing touch! [wail]" I burst out laughing - I had no idea she knew that phrase.

zoo, November

                              

// Clementine twists and cracks her back - POP POP POP POP - a maneuver she calls "cracking my back knuckles."

Ghouls in the Garden scavenger hunt, October

                                                     


// Clementine watching a polar bear hunt a seal during a heavily dramatized scene in "Night on Earth": "can the seal hear the music? Is that why it can get away?"

early quarantine, 2020

// Clementine, regaling my parents with gory details of Josie's cut finger that necessitated an ER visit: there were THOUSANDS of drops of blood!

 

and then...

// Josie skipped out of the ER and when she saw the COVID triage tents she said excitedly: can we go to that circus?! (During any other year we would have gone to Circus Flora in June).

June

// Josie knows precisely when she received all of her toys... she picked up a Barbie and said, "I got her for my fifth birthday, when I turned fifth."

October, with the last mask Walgreens had

// I started listening to In the Heart of the Sea, a book I had read about in The Writer's Almanac e-mail. I'll listen to this audiobook then listen to Moby-Dick, a book I don't recall reading or certainly not as as adult. I was explaining this to Luke (and having him listen to the description of harpooning, killing, and breaking down a whale in In the Heart of the Sea) when:

Clementine and Josie: I know what Moby-Dick is!

Me: You do?

C and J: it's a book about a whale who bites a man's leg off and they are on a ship called the Peacock or something.

Me: How in the world do you know that?!

C and J: we listened to it in Ramona! Ramona's mom is in a book club.

{They've been listening to Ramona Forever at night - then they produced the book to show me the passage.}

Clementine's family portrait with chickens, October

// Watching America Ninja Warrior and thinking up their nicknames a la Flex Labreck.

Clementine [echoing Luke's idea]: Prime Time Clementine!

Josie, not missing a beat: CRIME TIME CLEMENTINE! 

Checkup, June. Bunny showed up wearing a hat made from "a broken bra"

                                                 

Josie's Sixth Birthday

When the mom of Josie's best friend from kindergarten asked us to her birthday party, I knew Josie would be so thrilled -- she had not seen any of her friends in months. Then I asked... would you mind terribly if we also acknowledged Josie's birthday the next week? [Since we would not have a party...]

She was so gracious and said absolutely.

Look at Josie's face. Pure joy! She had pizza and cake with her friends and played outside. 

For her actual birthday dinner, she requested cake pans pizzas from the ATK My First Cookbook. I made the dough the night before.

The day before I thought about the yard signs that our neighbors had had for their birthdays and how much Josie would love that ... luckily one business had last minute availability! Luke brought the girls home from camp and they squealed with delight.

The girls assembled their own pizzas. 

Pointing out the big day in her new Cinderella costume.

Polly Pocket is her favorite toy of the moment.

// My birthday was decidedly low key: I read Thomas Chatterton Williams' Losing My Cool most of the day.  A couple weeks before I decided on nachos as birthday meal, but Nachomama's is closed on Sundays! Luke picked up Chevy's nachos for lunch ... I'm going to need a re-do at Nachomama's.   After the girls went to bed we watched Perry Mason on HBO. We rarely watch tv together and it was so nice to have several weeks of appointment television.

A Fall Weekend

 Oh, how I have fallen behind with this blog. Life is moving so fast, even during the pandemic - because of the pandemic? - but I need these small moments, frozen.

On Friday night I worked a bit later than usual and came home and scrounged up dinner from the fridge. Movie night was already in full swing - Matilda.  Clementine is performing a ensemble song from the musical version in youth theater this semester. We opened a box of fall-winter Hanna Andersson clothes I had ordered, all in a new size.  Ever since I discovered HA, I buy many garments that go together at once. It is bittersweet to start buying a larger size. Josie loves the skater dresses (one of my all-time favorite memories of her is putting one on and exclaiming, "Oooo! A pocket for rocks!") and Clemmie wanted a cardigan and pleated midi skirt.

Saturday morning: CrossFit at 7 am then home to water the garden and newly planted berry bushes. We are very invested in the success of the berry bushes! I fed my sourdough starter. We went as a family to drop the girls at dance class and perused the farmer's market, buying eggs, labna, and skirt steak. 

Home for quesadillas (Luke bought a huge pack of refrigerated tortillas at Costco... we've been eating a lot of quesadillas). Clementine was owed a trip to Party City (parity is everything) which she took in eagerly, aisle by aisle. She selected a plastic sword for herself and a Fingerling for Josie.  She and I picked up a couple of perennials I had ordered at a nearby nursery - Caryopteris. I bought one two weeks ago solely because it was covered in bumblebees at the nursery and is now covered in bees in our yard.  

Clemmie and her sword:

We had a little bit of downtime before Boo at the Zoo -- one of the events they loved last year (last year... feels like so long ago).

Josie wanted to wear the pj top that we tie dyed last weekend, her new Belle skirt/pants, wings, unicorn headband, and bring her Fingerling and paintbrush. When I asked what she was, she answered "I'm a talented unicorn!"

When I saw this snap on my phone I couldn't believe it!

Clemmie wears costumes at home all the time but was so enamored of her new top and skirt she added a beret - a braid - a basket - and an attitude as "a French girl".

Last year we went on the first night and it was sparsely attended. This year was packed! Luke brought his camera for photos. I whined about the girls' wanting to ride the carousel - the line was very long - but then I thought about how soon they won't ask to ride the carousel again. I waited contently.

Earlier in the day Josie had mentioned how much she likes "the song that begins with a J" from Coco and we listened to it on the way home.

The day had been very full and sunset is early now - despite our fatigue it was only 7:30 when we got home. Frozen pizza and Spirit and Barbie shows on Netflix. The girls finally fell asleep. Luke asked me about classic movies - I've hardly seen any... "like The Manchurian Candidate" I offered as an example. He watched that movie while I did some CME reading and wandered off to read the novel I'm enjoying but can't quite find the time to finish, Fieldwork.

Sunday morning. Outdoor CycleBar ride followed by the grande flat white at the Starbucks next door that I look forward to every week. 

Back at home, I made pumpkin pancakes and baked a loaf of sourdough.  Luke watered the front yard plantings (they didn't fill in as anticipated this year and we are worried many won't return) and I watered the garden and cleaned the chicken coop. We planted the caryopteris and a couple of black-eyed susans. Come on, pollinators! 

I brought one loaf of bread to our neighbors and baked another. (I had a lot of freshened starter. I've gotten in to the habit of refreshing the starter two or three times over the weekend and keeping it in the fridge during the week).

Inexplicably the girls were hungry again: quesadillas to the rescue. Luke took Clemmie to her rehearsal and Josie and I made school lunches, folded laundry, and read Highlights.  Because the pumpkin pancakes called for only a little pumpkin puree and I wanted to use the rest of the can, I made pumpkin muffins from BraveTart.

Tomorrow is their first full day of in-person school since mid-March.  😳

Leavenworth, WA

Luke's best friend and his wife have two girls almost the same ages as Clementine and Josie and we've gotten the girl gang together several times:

San Antonio (2013)
Seattle (2015)
Denver (2016)

(looking back at these I cannot believe I traveled so far with such little kids!)

with our last visit overshadowed by Josie's hospitalization for asthma (2017). I wanted to go to Seattle this time and I asked Adrienne about vetted vacation spots. She suggested Bavarian-style village Leavenworth, WA, where they had vacationed before. She made the plans - including a train trip that we agreed the girls would love.

We got up very early and flew to Chicago and on to Seattle. The girls were so excited to have their iPads (=flyPads) on the plane, the only time they see them.  The day was long but uneventful. Traveling with kids was EASY! Luke, we have arrived!

everybody loves free snacks

Josie can't bear being hot (or even warm) and rolls up her pants constantly. As someone who is investigating all weighted blanket offerings, I just don't get it.

Jeremy picked us up at the airport, we met Adrienne for lunch, and then caught cabs to the train station from their house.

The four hour train ride passed quickly, with the girls chatting away and playing games. Adrienne packed bags of fantastic snacks.


Late night pretzel and sausage in Leavenworth.

The morning was a surprise - we arrived at night and couldn't see the scenery. We opened our hotel room door overlooking the courtyard to see the Cascades!


After breakfast we went for a walk.

Becky at Broken Barrel Distillery. She was so hilarious - Adrienne bought an insulated growler and mused that it would be perfect for champagne and Becky said with impeccable timing, "it's perfect for a champagne day." Here's to champagne days!

Discussing piano lessons.

Amy and Joel, who have become first time parents since this photo was taken, joined us for the day.

Strolling to dinner at Andreas Keller for German fare.

Christmas lights up most of the year!

Alphorn serenade at our hotel.

Needing to get the wiggles out, we asked the front desk if any playgrounds were nearby. Fortunately this school playground was unfenced and a basketball was lying around.

Mexican for lunch.

Ice cream in a sunny spot.

Nutcracker museum. Each pair of girls completed successively more difficult scavenger hunts but somehow always ended up in front of this display - the most brightly lit and Disney-themed. They raced around this place - a long rectangular two story space - for 90 minutes and we had to establish a zone defense to corral them.

Italian for dinner.

Introducing us to a now-favorite game, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, plus a viewing of Frozen 2.

Another long travel day. The train was a little delayed - we caught it around 6:30 am after waiting in the bracing cold on the platform.

Sunrise in the snowy Cascades. This was so beautiful!

Getting to play "with the electronic" on the train.

We had eggs in the dining car and the attendant surprised the girls with trifles of whipped cream and Hershey's syrup. A perfect ending to a busy but also relaxing couple of days with friends.

We flew through Phoenix and finding our car in the parking garage late Monday night, Josie asked Luke, "do you remember how to drive?!"

The next day we dropped the girls off at school and Luke and I went to sit on couches for a sectional purchase in the future. We had lunch at the Pan-Asia grocery store.

Now Luke and the girls have been home almost one month and this trip feels like a long time ago. Fortunately, none of us were sick upon returning from Seattle (our trip was almost two months ago) up until the present. I've been keeping a daily diary for the past month, keeping note of policy changes (limitations on gatherings until, finally, a shelter-in-place order for all of Missouri that begins Monday) and how we are spending our time. Elective procedures have been cancelled and my department began a week on/week off rotation to help our families and limit our exposure.

Be safe, everyone! Let's get back to champagne days with friends. 💙