american summer

if there is an american flag anywhere nearby ruthie will find it, point, and give a gleeful shout: "MERIYAN FLAG!" on the bus, flying above the playground, stuck to accelerating cars, painted on the fire house, waving in little passerby's hands, way beyond in the distance flying above buildings.. she sees them all and lets us know so that we, too, can share in the delight. an exasperated eve will complain, "she always says that." but then she will smile (we all do) with wide-eyed ruthie as she points and exclaims, holding her breath and spreading the excitement.  

as the heat increases each year and the sewing really gets going, i find myself continually (but somewhat unconciously) drawn to that flag's classic american color palette of red, white and blue. old pieces of fabric are pulled out, new pieces brought in and they wait in their pile until i figure out exactly what it is they will become.

as always, but particularly in the summer, they become simple shapes that remind me a little of my own childhood days.. days that looked nothing like eve, ruth and charlie's; rolling hills in the place of brick and cement buildings, one neighbor down the hill in place of hundreds on one block, five acres instead of 600 (maybe 650) square feet.. but days that i still, somehow, see glimpses of everyday as i watch these kids laugh and fight and play.

there are more reds, whites and blues to be put to use, and soon. but here we have a start. 

round one: american summer

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this many pictures for one post would certainly be unnecessary if i wasn't so entertained by eve's modeling lately. here's to summer and the extended days i'll be able to spend with this moody little girl again.

little mermaids

nearly every day for the past year eve and ruth have asked me one or all of the following questions: "why aren't we mermaids?" "why can't we be mermaids?" "can we, at least, please maybe be real mermaids when we grow up?".. after each round of questions and answers, their slumped little shoulders move to the next room to talk about sharks and crabs, to sing (or demand that i sing) ariel's songs, and to lament the fact that they are just humans.. 

the requests and pleas tripled after seeing the little mermaid on broadway last month (find a three or five-year-old girl and go see it, ridiculously fun). but almost two days have come and gone without one query about the possibility of future mermaid-ness. i think it may have something to do with monday. there were no shell bikinis or fins for feet, but there was a day spent with daddy at the one place in brooklyn where mermaid dreams almost come true, where being a mermaid makes sense: coney island.

the aquarium may have done it. 

or maybe the boardwalk, replete with murals of busty mermaids and strange sea creatures.

or maybe it was playing in the surf that satisfied all their little hearts' desires for a mermaid's life in the sea.

but now that i'm thinking about this, the drop-off in mermaid questions likely has nothing to do with monday and everything to do with our recent reading of the original hans christian andersen the little mermaid. the illustrations by lizbeth zwerger are so lovely and the story is wonderful in it's old fairy tale slightly creepy way but.. wow. you should have seen the girls' faces when the sea witch cut the mermaid's tongue out. or worse yet, when the prince married another and the mute, suffering mermaid turned to sea foam. pure horror. in lieu of the fulfillment of blissful wedding dreams, the mermaid is left to waft through the air for 300 years as she waits to receive an immortal soul. but beware, children (what true fairy tale is complete without a terrifying moral at the end?) for if she happens to be breezing through your home while you are being naughty, another day is added to the poor mermaid's soul-less wanderings.. the girls were not happy and being a mermaid didn't seem so great after all. 

i give them a few days to process, accept and mostly forget about the real version until the questioning returns. after all, a love this strong can't possibly die so easily.. they'll soon remember that they don't live in an underwater castle, have red hair, or a decent set of clam shells to call their own.. and that those are the only things they've ever really wanted in life.

update: eve and ruth are now arguing over who would win in a fight; a mermaid or a shark. one has teeth, the other has a sword (from a sunken ship?). ruth bets on the teeth, eve is going with the sword. i'm betting that within five minutes they ask me to sing every mermaid song they can think of. 

kids zone

sunday morning i woke up with painfully sore legs. strange, considering i haven't worked out in over ten months.. unless, of course, you count my daily crazy run pushing charlie and ruthie in the stroller down eight blocks to get to eve's school in time for pick up.. (which, i'll admit, i kind of do count). after a few foggy minutes of stretching and trying to remember if i had any violent dreams, it came to me: the giant bubble. 

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from 12-3pm on saturday eve's school held a fundraiser for a future science lab. in addition to the main event, i partnered with another mom and organized the "kids zone." in honor of the end goal, we put on a little exploratory science-y fair for the kids. it was so messy, and a little crazy but hilarious and so much fun. 

snail discovery. a ton of snails, hasta leaves, magnifying glasses and spray bottles (snails come out of their shells and move around a lot when sprayed with water, which actually makes them fun). the kids were fascinated. at three different points a group of kids ran up to me and, with arms about one inch from my eyeball, showed me the snails sliming their way up their arms. eve was not very interested. but ruthie, although she won't admit it, must have liked them; i have it on good authority that she gave one snail a good lick while holding it.. (no salmonella poisoning yet).. 

smell identification. jam jars, painted on the inside (to hide contents), small holes punched in the lid, and filled with common foods for the kids to smell and try to identify.  banana, orange, lemon, garlic, peanut butter and chocolate sauce. garlic was definitely tricky (although a lot of kids were pretty close- with guesses of "pepper" or "some kind of onion") but the chocolate syrup was particularly challenging.  "oh, i know this! what is it? what is it??" eve: "i can't believe i didn't know that because i love it sooo much."

the messy table.

mounds and mounds of homemade playdough for the kids to sculpt and mix to their hearts content.

big tub of GAK (glue, borax and water). at one point i heard "chicken fat! we need more chicken fat!" as the kids broke it apart and moved it all around. placing it on the edge of the table and leaving it alone, they would watch it slowly, slowly ooze and stretch to the ground without breaking, then scoop it up and start again. fake sneezes and hours of laughter were also involved. 

big tub of oobleck (2 parts cornstarch to 1 part water). playing with this mixture is one of six clear memories from my own pre-school experience. i loved it then and still do. roll it, squeeze it, hit it hard, try to move your hand quickly through it and it acts like a solid, but release the pressure or slowly let your hand sit and it acts like a liquid. "quicksand!" "ahh! my hand is stuck! really!" regardless of the smocks and rinsing bucket we provided, every kid was covered in white. admittedly, so was i.

the giant bubble. surrounding each child bubble after bubble was so entertaining that i didn't notice the 5000 squats i was doing. until the next morning. the bubble solution was amazing and got better and better by the minute. joy liquid soap, corn syrup and water.  hula hoop wrapped in cotton string to soak up more solution and trough made out of a dryer vent. stiff little kids watching the bubble surround them through squinted eyes, preparing for the burst. 

geysers. every 20 minutes i set off the diet coke/mentos geysers. the kids would count down, we'd guess how high it would go with three mentos, with five, with ten. then, pipe in hand to help get the mentos in all at once and to get it going higher, i set it off. the kids would scream, i would laugh as i watched their faces and tried to avoid the spray. i never did, and a few times i got soaked (it's what i get for looking down or at the kids instead of the geyser). luckily, diet coke is barely stickier than water.

after the fair i came home to try to clean up the three days of playdough, GAK and oobleck making.. i'm still finding bits and pieces throughout the apartment..  but mess, sore legs, diet coke hair and all, i am already making plans for next year. i am not satisfied with a tub of oobleck, i have visions of an entire kiddie pool of it, so kids can run across (or sink). i see secret messages, rainbow prisms, making silly putty with the kids, more geysers, more bubbles..  what else could we do? .. it could be seriously incredible. in fact, i may not be able to wait until next may/june. our own science party might be coming again soon.. i'm dying to try running across that pool of cornstarch and water.. 

"fifty cents a cap!"

caps for sale palette: round two 

rainbow skirt + grey shell top (any chance the girls have to call something "rainbow," they're taking it.. also, ignore wrinkles).

red denim shorts + checkered cap top 

ruth has declared she will "never ever never take pictures again for mommy. not until tomorrow ever. forever!" luckily, eve is still willing. even on a morning when she is rushing to get to school to get the bus to get to the museum of natural history to get to the butterfly exhibit to stretch her little finger out in the hope that a butterfly finds it a nice place to rest. 

no such luck, the butterflies went to the teacher's head instead. but eve was glad to have a rainbow skirt "because butterflies really love rainbows. for real. and when they see my rainbow stripes it makes them happy and that's better than dead." so true. 

waiting for the heat

i say that we are waiting for the heat now, as we search for socks to warm our chilly toes just after peeling off three sets of wet, cold clothes from our morning walk to school, and i mean it. but really, when the heavy heat of new york summer hits i will hardly be welcoming it. for now, though, on this shivery morning, we are waiting anxiously for some warmth and we are preparing. 

ruth wears her skirted swimsuit and practices "swimming" in the bathtub daily. eve discusses our upcoming summer stay in oregon and prepares for the risk of tsunamis (she asked for an example of a word that started with "ts" and out came "tsunami". we're now going on week five of tsunami-related conversations... if only i had thought to say "tsar"..). little charlie remains blissfully unaware of plans beyond his daily task of finding the colored pencils and distributing them as far and wide throughout the house as possible, but his little legs are practicing standing on their own so he can be ready for the summer playing. and me, i am sewing. sewing for the day when we no longer need layers or socks or something warm to drink. 

summer sewing is my favorite. skirts, easy dresses, uncomplicated shirts, jumpers and shorts. done. 

these shirts will be repeated in several different fabrics for the upcoming season. maybe with different details, or maybe the same. i'm a sucker for rolled sleeves and ribbon loops.. 

there will be more shorts, too. i always forget how easy pants and shorts are. in fact, i'm almost tempted to say they are easier than skirts.. they come together so quickly. testing my pattern by making three pair in one day was easy and totally do-able, not torture, for me or the kids. and even if only the final pair fit the way i wanted (flowered denim wins), i can tell myself that the other two pair are great too. after all, they are shorts, and shorts don't need to be perfect. shorts just need to allow little legs to run and play and dance in the sprinklers. and that is the glory of summer sewing. 

someday little charlie will be included in the sewing. i have no choice, really. soon all he has will be too heavy and too short for his skinny legs. and soon i will not be crouching in front of this computer, rubbing my feet together for warmth, i will be on the playground watching as all three red-faced kids run and jump and scream in the heat while i tap my toes in the spray of bursting water balloons, wishing for cooler days.