while waiting for the ash to clear last week we congregated with our neighbors molly, petra and stella and assembled ikea furniture. it seemed like a perfectly productive way to spend a wednesday evening and gave us lots of practice for more charitable work to come. and, it seems, stella and owen are quite handy with power tools. they were eager builders and kept exclaiming "look! we built it!" every time we put in a new set of screws. after twentythree mind numbing textless steps we did indeed build it.
ode to screwdrivers and cordless powerdrills
santa anas
i wanted to write something about the winds and fires and grit today, but i cant seem to get
joan didion out of my head and can't think of anything to add other than the little blue steamie's exclamation: "cinders and ashes!"
balloons
Balloons to blow
Balloons to burst
The blowing's best
The bursting's worst!
owen and i were reading some poems by mary ann hoberman before bathtime tonight and after we read "balloons" owen said--mama, let's get some balloons. and i said, yes that does sound fun. we haven't had balloons in a long time. and then owen thinks carefully and says,
let's get balloons for christmas
let's put them in the sky
let's blow the balloons
whooosh
and that sounded to me as lovely as any poem we'd read.
this just in. . .
sightings of superowen have come in all over south county--these pictures came in from san juan capistrano minutes ago:
he had to, and i quote: "zoom away like jeremy the jet plane" but rumors are that he'll be out in full costume with the bats and ghosties on halloween:
'on being ill' toddler style
a few months ago when owen and i were travelling solo up to seattle we had a particularly rough morning getting through security and on to our flight--it was one of those 7 am flights and owen had woken up and then fallen asleep and woken up at all the 'wrong' times and was just hollering and crying and screaming all the way through the airport. SNA isn't an international airport and is filled with business day travellers and families on the 'disney flights.' so it isn't always a pleasant mix--we've had to run over a few toes with our beaten down orange maclaren a time or three. anyway, one lady just stopped and said, 'yeah, sing it little man. that's what we'd all say if we could.' and it's too true.
i was thinking of that at the end of a week of sleepless nights while owen and i battle phlemgy coughs and stuffy noses and overall icky tired discomfort. o's pediatrician likes to call this age the 'trying twos' rather than 'terrible' and i tend to agree with him--terrible, unless you mean it in the way that you'd call a t-rex a 'terrible giant' like awesome and terrifying, seems an unapt
descriptor for a time of discovery of emotion and expression. this is the first time owen has been able to hone in on the words he needed to express his overall miserable state. "mommy, my tummy hurts." he said to me bleary eyed last night. "owen, sweetie, can you show me where is your tummy?" and he points to his chest and yes, his tummy does hurt. and "mommy, what's in my ear?". icky sticky snot, i think is the appropriate response. and we've worked all week long on blowing out--like this, see you feel the wind on your hand from your nose--instead of sucking in and even trying to work up a good spit. and today all day was one big whinefest 'nonnononononono i don't like applejuicewater and no toast and i want chocolate milk!' and a constant "its not nighttime owen cannot take a bath he is clean yes thomas owen is a bosssyboiler!" [emily, one of owen's favorite engines,by the way gets called by thomas a 'bossy boiler' for ordering all the trucks around] and i just wanted to whine back 'mommy just wants coffee just one cup this week and someone to make it for meeeeeeee'
but instead we've just become sesame street junkies clinging to each other in our snotty jammies
under the tylenol-stained covers. and all he really wants is what lola wants when charlie is trying to go play soccer with marv--charlie just to sit and sing and imagination with her and really don't we all want that when we're not feeling well? isn't that the best thing about being sick? someone to put your head on their lap and sing you songs and bring you chicken soup. and i'm writing this now instead of doing the laundrying and tidying i felt irritated i couldnt do all morning in this sick house while owen naps thanks to an assembled a medley of all the lines i could remember from songs from the station (you gotta love the bouncing puffs of steam remniscient of that bouncing yellow ball) and though it'll be nice to go back to owen kicking me out of the garage so he can have his playroom to himself with his books and legos i know i'll miss an excuse to just snuggle and 'hold you.'
Al Gore coming to Oslo
so.. Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize which will be awarded in Oslo on Dec 10. For those that don't know, Alfred Nobel is Swedish and there are different prizes for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature that are awarded in Sweden... Only the Peace prize is awarded in Norway... but this one also tends to be the most popular, which doesn't sit well with the Swedes I'm told.
Anyway, a few months back I noticed Al Gore's movie "an inconvenient truth" was everywhere you look in Norway. Scandic hotel allowed it's Hilton HHonors guests free access to the movie, and also there were books and t-shirts available in the lobby... I'm starting to think that someone was trying to influence the Norwegians this summer. I'm not going to give my personal opinion on the matter (although the film contains 9 errors), since if Al Gore can influence young people to think about the environment, it can only be a good thing.
seen at Oslo baggage claim
pet peeve of mine.. those people who stand right in front of the baggage carousel to wait for their luggage.. take that.. i hope this line catches on at other airports.
meanwhile, owen befriends a pumpkin-scarecrow
grandpa kenn just shared his pics from the pumpkin patch with all the grandkids and it confirms what i thought--owen grew up into a big handsome boy in the sixty some hours i was away: this picture proves it!
and one of my favorite "while you were away" stories happened at the pumpkin patch: grandma
connie let all of the grandkids pick out three pumpkins and apparently owen took this job very seriously--one of his pumpkins a little "white boo" had a black bruise on it so connie later swapped it out with one that was in better shape. when they got home owen wanted to see his three pumpkins and when shown the new white boo owen demanded to see his pummpkin: "that's not owen's pumpkin!". typical owen. . . anyway, it sounds like owen had a little vacation of his own and thanks again to both parents for taking care of all our babies! enjoy some of my favorite pics from owen's end 
of the trip:
calgary souvie
even better, it was my surprise gift from d. shipped from london to vermont and then carried over to calgary and finally down to the oc. i love gifts that travel! and now i've got o. walking around saying, "mommy, [fill in train of the day] is my favourite and my best." and yeah, he does say favoUrite! hehe
"mommy went to the airport and got on an airplane and went to work!"
(said to mommy on the phone from grandmagrandpashouse, and then: "owen is playing at grandmagrandpashousebye!")
despite a few blips here and there (no carseat arriving home at SNA and a left-behind thomas suitcase with favorite emily and rosie) we successfuly did the toddler-hand off at SEA hopped on a horizon flight to calgary and enjoyed some intellectual fun at RMMLA and some pubcrawling through downtown. here are a few pics from the calgary end of the excursion("mommy at work"; the arts block as seen from the calgary tower; the james joyce pub where we appropriately stopped for a pint of kilkenney--note the reflection of the calgary tower in the glass; downtown c.; after dinner pint at fionn maccools):
calgary is cold
we got here late last night, and have a busy day at the conference. I got to spend some of the day getting to know the city, while cara is busy revising her paper. It was good to see my folks and Ryan who met us at SeaTac last night for a quick dinner and owen-hand-off. enjoy some early pics:
city view
cara & drennan
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