Category: friends

Neko must have sensed something. Something girl-like was in the air.

A little more than a year after the potluck to say goodbye to Zoe and her family, they returned for a visit. Neko is a shorts and t-shirt girl (when nudity or PJs are not an option), while Zoe is a dress girl.

As we got ready for the potluck, Neko suddenly appeared in a dress, princess shoes, and a headband—an outfit the likes of which we have never seen on her before.

It was great to see the whole family again, meet baby Henry (who is even cuter in real life than in the photos), and revel in a quintessential summer evening complete with homemade ice cream and sprinklers.

Tom has some friends that are in a band called The National. He often sees them perform when they come to town, but I've never been able to attend a show on account of the fact that our kids like to sleep at night, preferably with adult supervision.

When we found out they would be one of the opening acts for R.E.M. on the North American leg of their tour, it seemed like a good time for me to clear my schedule.

Of course, when you have three children, it's not that easy to get away, so we had to do this whole convoluted thing with flights and coverage and blahblahblah. Bottom line? We made it. However, once I got there I realized I had forgotten somewhat critical things like a hairbrush and my flight itinerary.

I was kicking myself for not bringing the good camera, so you'll all have to make due with this blurry mess, but you get the idea. A bunch of adults doing adult things, none of which involved waiting on someone while they tap impatiently on my knees. Matt even snuck out after their performance and came to sit with all the folks who had made the trip up to see them.

The band sounded amazing and all the guys couldn't have been nicer, and I found myself thinking I should have seen and met them long ago. I couldn't be more excited for them and all the other good stuff that's brewing.

After the concert we made our way to a local bar, the Dakota Tavern, where we saw a band called Monkey Business play a tribute to Chuck Berry, and oh, where was this bar and this band in my twenties, because I could have spent a lot of late nights there. Some of them under a table.

Thanks to Matt for scoring us excellent seats and nudging us into a fabulous, childless night away.

My friend Amy and her husband Matt and daughter Sophie dropped into town for 36 hours. Just enough time to hunker down for a good visit and fabulous kite-flying.

Next time I demand they stay at least 48 hours.

And we get to meet Marlo and the kids at the park. Last year at this time I never would have guessed we would have been able to do that. Welcome home!

It’s been raining for days. But today the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and produced a gloriously beautiful spring day. Tomorrow it will rain again, and for many more days this week. But this little handful of sunshine? Perfectly timed.

When we moved from the Big City, we joined a new playgroup via invitation of an old high school friend. As I began to learn the names of all the children, I kept hearing the name “Mary” but never saw her appear. I would later find our that just as we were making our move from the Big City, Mary and her family had just moved to the Big City. To Children’s Hospital, to be treated for a brain tumor.

I can’t even begin to imagine the journey Mary and her family have been through in the past few years. It sounds horrifying. But I won’t dwell on those details since today Mary will happily share the news of her recent visit to Children’s where she passed all her tests with flying colors.

Today we joined she and her family and many other survivors, friends, and families to for a walk to raise money for pediatric cancer research. Following the walk was a meticulously planned festival for the kids including bouncy slides, pony rides, face painting, arts and crafts, and the critter guy who let Neko hold his alligator and I got to help hold a 100-pound snake. (Take a deep breath, Kate D., it wasn’t bad.)

Thank you to John, Kim, and Mary for letting us be a part of this celebration. And at the end of the day, I couldn’t have been more thrilled to discover this picture of Mary’s LONG, CURLY HAIR blowing in the wind. Congratulations.

Neko’s friend Abbey came over to play today. Neko has been to Abbey’s house a few times, so we were long overdue to have Abbey come our way.

Neko is new to this playdate thing. She gets pretty possessive, and doesn’t want Shep to play with them. I’m not really sure how to sort this all out just yet. I think Neko should be able to have some private time with just her friend, but Shep doesn’t understand that yet, and just spends the whole time sobbing outside her closed bedroom door.

Fortunately, he was able to go to my parent’s house for a few hours this morning. Phew.

Abbey is a second child and Neko is a first, and nowhere is that difference more obvious than when I’m watching the two of them play. Neko is used to playing with Shep, where he happily does her bidding and she’s in charge of all the rules and the plot and Shep please turn in four circles and stand on one foot while hopping and pretending you’re an allosaurus.

Abbey, however, doesn’t always want to do what Neko does. She has her own ideas, and she happily offers, “Maybe we can do your idea for part of the time and then my idea for the other part.” Which makes Neko stomp her feet and throw her body to the floor because someone in the world dared to disagree with her.

For the most part, the playdate went really well, but I can see in the future we’re going to have a conversation about doing things that BOTH people want to do.

Blurry, out-of-focus picture taken with the timer of Neko, Abbey, myself and Abbey’s sister’s tiger snake Webkin which Neko covets. (She will be receiving one for her birthday.)