5/3 The Day of Full of Beans and the Farmer's Market

Ivy, who is not really that enthralled with books and/or reading, not only laughed and turned the pages of Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle, but also asked for another go round.

At the end of dinner, G was feeding Ivy the leftover beans that he found on every one’s plates. They both like beans, neither really like rice. It was cute to see him giving her the yummy beans, and it made both of them happy.

After dinner, G and Ivy played growling with each other. Sometimes, it was more like screaming, but it was definitely a game for little guys who were full of beans.

During and after dinner, I was composing a blog post in my head, and when the kids went into the garden to have their milk with papa, I went to the computer and wrote.

Experimenting to try and come up with a dish like my grandmother’s rice and beans. Well, it should actually be called Habichuela Guisados y Arroz de mi Abuelita. (If anybody would like to correct my Spanish, I am good with that.) It didn’t really taste like hers, but it was yummy and I am getting closer.

My mom came and picked me and the kids up to go to the Crafts and Farmer’s Market downtown. I don’t know what they really call it, but that was the gyst. We walked around. The boy ran to and fro chased by Grandma (hehe). The girl rode in her deluxe stroller. We listened to music. We watched the sights and the folks. We looked at the art and craft booths, the kids had a cookie. We tasted chips and salsa (I might go back and get some salsa when we get a job.) Then we stopped at a sidewalk cafe and had juice/muffin for the under agers, and mocha frappes for the bigguns. Junior stole grandma’s frappe, though, and we gave him some in his straw cup. Then home and straight to nap for them. So tired, not even the caffeine mattered.

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5/2 Also the Day of Breakfast for Dinner and Star Wars

We had pancakes and a sausage, mushroom and scallion frittata, with cheddar. It puffed up so nicely in the oven.

G watched The Return of the Jedi and he loved it. Now he’s seen the whole original trilogy.

G thought the Ewoks were teddy bears and wouldn’t allow me to tell him any different. I went to get his teddy, because he wanted one of the ewoks.

Went through the last month and a half of photos and some of them are pretty good.

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5/2 The Day of Keeping Track and I Like the Word "Pollywog."

Ramen noodles. I know they’re terribly bad for you, but they sure do hit the spot as a cheap, quick meal/snack.

I sent a resume out to a tutoring company through Monster.com. At least I can feel I got something done today.

Started marking down the things I have done in a day in my calendar. Mostly comments on blogs, or, like today, the resume sent. This is stuff for the future or for community that could easily get lost. Just like to keep track of what I am doing so I don’t feel like I am just aimlessly surfing the web.

Chatted with an old student on Facebook. It was nice. He’s running an afterschool program on the Lower East Side. He wants to teach but also wants to pursue anthropology. He makes me proud.

I levelled up to the next Vampire on Facebook. AND I got a new minion. I am such a dork.

Going out in the morning to look at the fishpond. I check to see if the tadpoles have become pollywogs yet. I think their legs are starting to appear. I don’t know exactly how it happens, but they are less round and more bulbous. The boy is interested, too, but he doesn’t really know what is going to happen, despite seeing the transformation on Curious George.

Waking up to the baby girl calling. Going into her room and having her raise her arms for me to pick her up. She was wearing her big brother’s pajamas, because we have to do laundry and she needed long sleeves last night, so she was all cute and boyish in her floppy pajamas.

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5/1 The Day of Bad Back Naps, Yummy Foods and After Bedtime Nibbles

Lots of new tv. Sitcoms, which I feel starved for, and Lost. Good times. Good times.

Chocolate, just when I needed it and couldn’t resist the nibbles any longer (I have recently decided that I need to watch the nibbling, but refuse to make a goal about weight loss on general principle.) A little chocolate, but no other snacks, good.

Bedtime stories in mama’s and papa’s bed. And then they must have been so tire that they just dropped off without fighting it.

The boy ate sausages. Another food that has re-entered his diet. Still no pasta… BUT he does like ramen noodles. He will eat anything if you call it “soup.” Maybe soon.

The girl, however, was in the pasta up to her eyebrows. And kept asking for more.

Fell asleep while the kids were napping. I lay down to rest my back and just went to sleep. Usually I can only nap when I am sick… I suppose the back thing counts.

Made orange cranberry muffins and the kids had them for snack. They are very sweet. They came out of a box. I think I need to go scratch. Did I say this before?

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4/30 The Day of "This is What it's Like to Be Alive."

“This is what it’s like to be alive.” Robert Hass on poetry and what poets are saying.

Poetry talk on PBS, last day of Poetry Month. I like that the poet is not some young buck, but a man who has lived and shows that he lived. There is still hope, there is always hope.

Bedtime, with the girl running around and rolling in her baby alligator death-roll ways, trying to get away from or lure sleep. The boy sitting on the bench while papa reads him a book. Every rhyme makes him laugh, and he repeats the last word. “Cake!” “Buy!” “You!”

The boy ate the chili! Not when I called it chili, but when I called it soup and fed him from my spoon, he said, “mmm,” and asked for more. He also ate some rice, as long as it had soysauce on it. And a bite of corn. Hmm. This week, he has been very adventurous with food…knock on wood, I hope it continues.

Letting the kids play in the cabinet at my feet, with pots and pans…until it got too rowdy and they had to leave the kitchen. It gives hope for a time when I will be able to cook with them in the same room.

Midday movie, the benefits of being unemployed.

My bad back has allowed me to spend all my spare moments laying down, without guilt. I don’t have to get things done, I just need to relax and stretch out what has been pulled, until the little ones demand I get up and chase them or lift them or whatever it was that screwed it up in the first place.

And it is, once again, ANTM. I hope the young girls/wannabe models will make me laugh with their pathos and sigh at their beauty.

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4/29 Playing and Drawing and Writing the Day Away

A shower after dinner and kiddoes bedtime. I just felt scummy and my back has been bad since I pulled it a week or so ago putting Ivy in her bed. Kids are bad for your health, but the shower was an outoftheroutine way to wash off the day.

Writing poetry, even bad poetry, it gives something for my watery head to do while waiting for the shower to heat up. And the more you write, the more you create, the more there is for you to write and/or create. Like how lifting weights makes you able to lift heavier weights… or do kick boxing or build tree forts or carry the moon on your back… whatever you are aiming for.

G enthralled with his first viewing of Star Wars.

G and Ivy playing together. Oh the playing. Sometimes they are sitting in the same box, sometimes they are playing some sort of fort game, sometimes they are running around the room singing, sometimes they are rolling around on the floor laughing, sometimes they are poking each other with sticks or taking toys from one another or pushing one another to the floor. Good times.

I drew in my journal today. Due to technical difficulties, I have not been doing so well with posting photos, but today I just took my camera and put the self portraits I took on the screen, and then put the paper over the screen and traced the photos onto the paper. Sure it’s not high art, but I like my ingenuity. And I’m thinking of painting the mini self portraits with watercolor, just to fool around and experiment.

Going through some blogs and sites inspired me to draw again.

Morning muffins that I made last night.

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4/28 The Day of Dreaming Adventure Kids and Purple Girls.

Making muffins when the kids went to bed. They came out of a box, but I doctored them up with my magic potions and they were quite tasty when they came out of the oven, all warm and cinnamony. I think I would like to make them from scratch. They wouldn’t be as sweet that way.

After dinner, S took the kids outside in the garden and let them play around. The bonus to this was that I got to clean up undisturbed after making dinner. (I suppose someone else could have cleaned up after I made the whole dinner, but oh well.) It does seem that even chores are a vacation, when you get to do them without toddlers hanging onto your legs, crying, “mama! mamaaaaa!”

I got to take some self portraits with my digital camera, hoping to post some new photos or change my avatars on various sites.

G watched the movie Titan AE and he loved it. Had a hard time sitting through the second half, because I think his attention span was being challenged, but he still loved it.

Putting the kids to bed, I’ve been trying various things to keep G in his bed, rather than having him climb out and fall asleep in front of the door to his room. The latest is to drape a blanket over the headboard and call it a sail, and place his “crew” of stuffed animals at the foot of the bed, and ask him where he’s going to go on his journey that night. Into space like in the movie? To meet a whale and/or mermaid? Looking for hidden treasure? I don’t know if he actually goes on those types of journeys, but he seems to enjoy thinking that he might.

Something bled in the laundry and turned many clothes purple. Luckily, it is mostly Ivy’s clothes, and she looks pretty cute in lavender. It even hides some of the stains. She is, once again, The Purple Girl.

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4/27 The Day of Movies and Kissies

G and Ivy kissing. Ivy has recently learned to pucker up her lips and kiss, and she does so for G, waiting for him to come kiss her, and he does. It’s very cute to see two little hardlymorethanbabies kissing.

The Boy charging up and down the garden path with his sippy cup of milk and his sword/stick. I think he was playing Lord of the Rings.

Getting the shopping done with my mom.

Movies with the grown ups. Have I mentioned that my uncle has a huge projector screen? It’s like going to the movie theater. It has become our nightly routine to watch something.

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