Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Ian's Birthday Party



So I know I'm way behind on this, but Ian's birthday celebration this year was really fun. (I figured I had to make up for so many not-so-stellar years) We went bowling with our friends- it's the first time any of us had done it for awhile and it was sooo fun! Afterwards Ian took us to a little pizza place in Abbott Kinney that was fun and yummy and it felt like a bit of an adventure. The next day we had a BBQ party at our friends' place. The food was amazing, Ian grilled up some pizzas and they were so good. The next day, Ian's actual birthday, just he and I went to Disneyland in the afternoon and early evening. It seriously was the BEST birthday weekend. Love you honey!!




Thursday, May 20, 2010

Life with an Elevator+4 little boys=many angels circling the building




When we were looking for a "temporary" abode three years ago one of the must-haves on the list was no stairs. After almost eating it, I just could not deal with two babies and flights of stairs from the parking garage if we all wanted to stay in one piece. Any place we looked at had to have a front door (and parking spot) at sidewalk level or come with an elevator. Since it's tough to find the former in Westwood, the latter was ours and has been awesome. So far.

Now that the kids are older and especially Jack and Christian are mobile the elevator is no longer our friend. For one thing, its incredibly impatient. It only gets summoned every 15 minutes or so so I'm not sure why it's always in a big hurry, but you can feel how desperately it wants to close the door as quickly as possible. I've memorized its open-time heartbeat by panicked heartbeat: 7 tiny seconds. This is nowhere near enough time to herd four little kids who all have minds and wills of their own over the tempting gap just the right size to throw mom's keys down, or maneuver a quad stroller that barely fits out the door. Or load in grocery carts laden with Costco food. So it's always closing on us and I have to push in the black bar quite hard to make it open again.

For one thing, it's the perfect recipe for pinched little fingers, crushed bones and severed digits. After all, it happened just recently to my friend, her little 2 1/2 year old, and their bathroom door. The incident resulted in a dangling finger and four hours before a doctor stitched it back on. This elevator is far more powerful, insensitive, and creviced than a mom and a bathroom door.

For another thing, it's the perfect recipe for chaos and mom-insanity. Tacking on the extra time it takes to go anywhere when we have to already have to pack snacks, locate and wash sippy cups, get kids dressed, wiped, socked and shod, last minute diaper changes etc. and THEN herd them to the elevator, try to get them all inside instead of playing on the stairs (while I get one the other runs away- you get the picture), and then exiting them safely and trying to herd them over to the car in the parking garage while trying to protect the wild little tykes from cars backing up and cars coming in and the massive garage door opening is unlike anything I've tried to do before. I need a sheepdog. I am a sheepdog.

I should be much more frustrated and upset, weeping on the ground, pulling my hair out and having a tantrum of my own when it literally takes me somedays 20 minutes (this is NOT an exaggeration) to get my kids from their car seats to the front entry of our apartment. Oh, and try to deal with a cargo load full of Costco loose food as well. My kids should be more maimed, and we should have far less Costco trips, but miraculously, and I'm talking about serious miracles here people, none of those things are really happening. Well, too much.

Lucky for us we have Wiley, Bingo and Champ. These are the trusty shopping carts that someone has thoughtfully placed in the parking garage to make cargo transfer possible. Wiley is the handiest, I don't know how he's in such good form, but he almost pushes himself. Bingo is solid and you can load him up with the heaviest stuff and Champ is just an all around good packhorse. I usually need all three to get our stuff up. But I can do it without too much problem. The kids love to sit in the child seats.

But even luckier for us, I have literally seen my kids fingers get fully pinched and caught and dragged in the sides of the doors while I'm thinking oh no, this is it, there's no way that's coming out but then miraculously their little hands slide out unharmed. I have seen my kids about to fall down the stairs while I'm trying to herd them back down into the elevator and as I'm watching in slowmotion it looks so bad I see an airlift in the immediate future, but then something lifts them and puts them back on their feet. I almost feel like I shouldn't talk about this unseen help because it sounds crazy or ungrateful, but I am not kidding, we should have had a thousand incidents by now and everybody's escaped with nothing worse than a couple scrapes.

As to my sanity, I have to admit I do get very grumpy sometimes, but it never lasts for very long and overall I'm good with it. The elevator keeps us humble, it helps me be more organized (well, than I would normally be;), use my time consciously and run our errands very efficiently. It helps me look at the things that I love about living here- walking distance to the temple, the best sushi right around the corner, and close to all the things Ian is working on so we get to see him more.

That being said, I don't want to tempt our good luck. We've been looking and thinking a TON about where we are going to move because we really do need to move. And our neighbors can't wait for us to move. And I must say a driveway sounds like a heavenly thing that I will never, ever take for granted. We made a massive list of pros and cons of all the places we are looking to move to and nothing is jumping out as a clear answer with a real advantage. So we're here for the moment. But every night and every morning we pray that we can find a house to move to and a plan to make that possible. (Caleb and Julian always pray for a house and a dog. Not in that order.) Hopefully we find it soon!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

the Power of Moms-Friends


I love being a SAHM, but definitely one of the difficulties is that it kind of inherently cuts you off from the world. No office to go to every day, no boss motivating me or group lunches to herd over to.
Lucky for me, I have an amazing and inspiring group of mom friends who are in every way my colleagues. I met many of them when Caleb and Julian were just a few months old and they have made my experience so much more than it otherwise would have been. Our kids are mostly all the same ages so we have a lot in common. Getting together with them multiple times a week over the past 3+ years has been amazing- probably more fun for us than our kids. We go to Disneyland together, try out parks, and we're doing a 5k run in two weeks. We go to the occasional movie together and do baby-sitting swaps so that we can get in low-cost date nights. We watch each other's kids so that we can go to the doctor, the grocer or for a haircut (although with my four kids I might do this a little less than some others. The fact that I have friends brave enough to help me at all speaks volumes as to how amazing these ladies are). We take turns teaching a music class on Friday mornings for our kids, and on Tuesdays we get together for bike-riding. They have steered me towards fun, low-cost gymnastics classes and helped me figure out what to do for preschool. I swap dinners each week with one friend and another has let us plant a garden at her house. They motivate me to exercise, eat better, develop my talents, be more patient and overall be a better mom, a better wife and a better friend.
I don't know what I would do without my mom-friends.
Sadly, many of them are moving out of LA this summer. So this past weekend we headed up to San Francisco for a last hurrah girls' get together. In total, we were leaving behind 20 children and 8 supportive husbands (and my amazing mom-in-law who sacrificed her own Mother's Day to carry my load. The Mother's Day thing was totally unintentional by the way. We figured it out after the plane tix were bought...)



We got to our hotel in Union Square on Friday night (although on the plane ride over we had a stir when we recognized Jesse Metcalfe from 'John Tucker Must Die' riding 1st class on our flight). But the biggest treat was meeting up with Katie at SFO, who flew in from London just for our special weekend. Together we trekked over to the Ferry Building for the world's most amazing hamburgers and sweet potato fries, and then brought cheesecake back to the hotel for a pajama party over 'the Young Victoria'. I could have gone home that night having had an amazing time, but the fun was just beginning.

The next day we got up early for a gorgeous morning run along the water, then we all got manicures and pedicures (for me it had been YEARS since this last splurge) and started a conversation that carried us through the rest of the day: How did you meet your husband? And how did you get engaged? I had heard these stories in bits and pieces, but it was great to get the full version from everyone. While a couple girls went to the Wicked matinee we hit H&M, Anthro, Nordstroms and walked to Ghiradelli Square and rode the cable car. That night we ate at an awesome local joint called 'Sears Fine Foods' where Katie gave me a bite of the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich with pesto, butternut squash, and white cheddar. Unbelievable. We stayed up late Saturday night listening to everyone's stories, and as I listened I seriously felt like I was watching lots of romantic comedies. Some of these stories were way better than a movie!

On Sunday we mostly hung out in Golden Gate Park, chatted, and took tons of photos of us- by ourselves. Like an individual photo. It was crazy! I can't wait for the exceptionally talented photographer Lindsay's photos of the occasion- it was definitely a weekend to remember. I came home excited to see all my boys, with a fresh perspective on all the things I've got going on here and a much longer fuse than I had last week.

It was my kind of fun. We talked about doing another one in five years.
I'm in.
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