I had this Oilily nightgown of Camille’s and I couldn’t bear to get rid of it, so I did a remake. I used some buttons from a baby shirt of Stefan’s that we got in France that I also couldn’t bear to get rid of (but after I cut off the buttons I did.)I had to give him a gumball to try them on, but now he won’t take them off.
Month: April 2006
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remake
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Dentist: bad. Zoo: good.
Today Peter, Camille and Stefan all had appointments with my cousin the dentist (one of Portland Monthly’s Best Dentists I might add. I don’t go to him because he’s my cousin, I go because he graduated #1 in his class, and he gives Peter all the happy pills he needs to get him to show up and get his teeth cleaned.) We camped out in the waiting room with trucks and homework and knitting and the crossword and books and the ipod and Martha Stewart; we made a day of it
After about oh, 16 hours, I needed to get the kids out while Peter was still in the dentist chair. I groaned when the receptionist suggested it, but the zoo is right next door practically. I’d been scheming on how I could drag them to a second-hand store. The kids knew I would say no, so I surprised them by saying yes to the zoo. Every dentist should be next to a zoo. It was like getting an epidural to go from the dentist’s waiting room to the sunny, leafy zoo in a matter of five minutes. Lemonades in hand, we walked around admiring the giraffes’ stride and spots, watching a chimpanzee lay on his back and chew leaves and seeing pretty birds hop around in the sunshine. It was a balm. I usually hate going to the zoo, but I want to go back tomorrow; don’t tell the kids.
Then we went to Uwajimaya. I was too distracted by Stefan, who would not stop asking for some thirty dollar Japanese fire engine book, to figure out which of the hundreds of craft books I wanted to buy. I will regret that. I should have just bought five of them without even looking. I loaded up on British Harcourt tea, Uwajimaya is the only place I know that carries it, besides a grocery store in Toulouse. I’ve squirrelled it away in the wine cellar to find later when we unpack, along with the champagne, costco-sized mega ketchups and cases of Two-Buck Chuck that I am hording. Every time I go to Trader Joe’s I buy an extra maple syrup. That’s the extent of my planning for this thingie called moving overseas.
We got travel orders. Portland > Washington DC > London > Niamey. Also many confusing emails about per diems and appointments and shipments and authorizations. I have too many details today–Oregon state taxes, reimbursement for medical expenses, getting the kitchen cabinets painted–to get worked up about things I can worry about later. Official travel orders make going to the dentist, the zoo, and Uwajimaya so poignant.
The zoo. The zoo was just what we needed.
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corners of my garden
Remember the eighty tulip blubs we planted? The trees go from the light veil of green to fully leafed in just a few days. We had our first 70 degree day. The quinze did it’s thing, now it’s the lilac’s turn. And the dogwood. Next up, the peony. The green is psychedelic.
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Peter’s email to Dina, April 11th
We had a beverage at Starbucks before the flight and Stefan made friends with an old lady with a cane. They were clearly enjoying each other’s company while Camille drank her orange juice and I watched her eat a lemon cake: long fingers and brown eyes.
In line for the flight, I knew there would be trouble over who should sit by the window. I told them they would need to figure out a way to make it fair and I proposed that each would have a turn each direction but to decide who went first by a coin toss. Stefan called it "heads" and won so he got to choose. Camille was upset and said, "Fine! He always gets to go first!" After a few minutes of sulking, Stefan tried to be friendly but got long slitty stares and a pout which only conveyed the message of, "leave me alone!"
After a few minutes, he came up to her and with his eyes wide open and said, "Ok, Camille! You can sit by the window! Ok?! Do you want to?!"
‘No! It’s ok Stefan." Bizarre behavior from both. And then it was over.
Later, on the plane, the stewardess remarked, "You seem like a very nice boy." To which he replied, "First we’re mean and then we’re nice!"
When the stewardess asked him what he wanted to drink, he said; "The real thing!" He told me he wanted a real Coke before she asked, meaning, not diet, not cherry, or cherry vanilla…
Mike picked us up and I was just as excited as the kids. Of course, when we got to the house, Tanya and Ana were out somewhere, only to prolong the kids agony. When they did arrive, Camille was jumping up and down like a pogo stick and Stefan ran up to Tanya and asked, "You wanna see my trucks?! I’ll show you!" The kids immediately started to play and it was at least two hours later before I realized that they had been playing nicely (including Stefan in their games) without any whining or sagas.
Yesterday morning, we had great coffee with breakfast. Tanya and I completed the camping list. Mike lent me his car (anything I borrow from Mike is special) and we followed Tanya and Lidia to REI. Tanya bought a rack with a space case for her new car. We bought Ana and Camille matching T-shirts with a dog on it.
Camille, Stefan, Ana and I drove to Bob and Valerie’s on Sunday. Grammy and Grampa were already there. The kids mostly played in the yard and later swam in the hot tub. Bob bought burritos and chicitos for lunch. Grandpa was ok but looked disheveled; unshaven and scruffy. He mostly sat quietly as he lately does. Valerie was a joy and we chit-chatted about our kids, trips, and current thoughts about the Foreign Service.
It rained on the drive back to Davis from Sacramento and all three kids fell asleep in the car.
Lidia came over with Bunya for dinner and we had fish tacos. The kids just played and played so nicely together. Camille and Ana made a collage from magazines. Camille’s has pictures of dogs and cats (both wild and domestic) and wrote; "Dogs are active. Cats are lazi."
Mike and Tanya are at work. Bunya is inviting us to lunch and tonight we are all going out to Japanese food. I have errands to run and I want to take the kids out to a park in between rain showers. The kids are currently playing school and Ana and Camille did some homework this morning.
The kids loved your "hot cross bunnies" joke and I can hear Stefan announce he wants to be eight now.
You are my life.
Peter
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All By Myself Fest 2006
I’m on the fifth day of missing Peter and Cast (CAmille and STefan.) I was suppose to be missing out on a week of Rainy-Camping-With-No-Bathrooms. Instead I am at home, working most of the days during a busy model casting for the holiday catalog, doing our taxes and missing Stay-in-a-House-on the Medocino-Coast-Drinking-Multiple-Bottles-Wine-From-Heush-Vineyards.
I’ve seen three movies in the last five days. This is triple the amount of movies I’ve seen in the last year. Putting kids to bed, enriching in terms of reading aloud the entire series of the Borrowers and most of Edward Eager’s canon (which includes Half Magic, but all of them are wonderful), really cuts into my movie-watching. I hadn’t been to an actual theater since last summer’s debacle when I took Camille to Charlie et la chocolaterie and lost Stefan on the streets of Toulouse for half an hour. So. Actual theater. I saw Inside Man.
Jodie Foster is in Inside Man, and she rules and rocks. We are the same age and you know how I look just like her. Except that I have dark hair, brown eyes and an extra 20 pounds. But other than that, wow, it’s uncanny. Also in the movie: Denzel Washington. ( I don’t look much like him. Boy, is he good looking though.) Spike Lee doesn’t seem to get women, they are two-dimensonal, but Jodie Foster can create her own third dimension regardless of the material given her, so see what a good director he is by making that choice? The movie was funny, a smart bank heist caper with a likable villain. A little violence that you can just close your eyes through. Enjoyable, but not as good as:
Monsieur Ibraham. (on DVD) Now this is a movie. Last night I saw Camille’s adorable sports teacher, married to her equally adorable third-grade teacher–honestly, they both look like they’ve just tumbled out of bed, in the most wholesome and charming way–and when I mentioned the film he said, “Oh yes! With the Arab that runs the store? And then they drive to Turkey? Magnifique!” All true. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Somehow, in the last scene the boy-now-grown-up running the grocery with great 1960’s music, it seemed to paint such a picture of how simple and good life can be.
How do you know your kids go to a school that is french? The PE teacher smokes.
So I have today and tomorrow before everyone heads home and it’s back to making a different breakfasts for everyone and tripping over brio trains. I miss hugging all of them.
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darnest things
Today I gave Camille a new cute lightweight shirt (Kenzo in fact) and she said, “I could even wear it in…no I can’t say it!”
Stefan said, “I hope we aren’t moving to Africa. They have REALLY big bugs there.” He also mentioned “Aggle-lators.” Then yesterday riding in the car he said, “Does every state have a sun, or is there one sun bright enough for the whole world?”
I hate looking at the mess in the basement and thinking that I have to go through all of it and decide what to throw away and what to put in a box that I won’t look through for two to four years or more. Ick.
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challenges
Today, I received my official FS contract and information. It sort of feels like winning the lottery. But it comes with some anxiety. There are many arrangements to be made. Finding a residence in DC. Figuring out how to have the State Government foot the bill. Paper work. Returning to Seattle for the Memorial Day weekend. Leaving the family behind. Fixing it so that my last day at OHSU leaves me with insurance until we start the FS. Buying staples to take with us to Niamey or wherever it is we end up. Tying up loose ends. And fixing those images of our extended family in our minds so that when we are gone for a time, we don’t forget the pictures.
I expect that DC on my own for 3 weeks will go by relatively fast. And I will see Dina and the kids in Seattle for Milla’s 50th!
Camille is having a hard time accepting the fact that we are leaving Portland. She gets distraught and cries. This pulls at my heart strings and I try to explain to her that we have the opportunity of a life time. The pluses far outweigh the minuses and NO!, I’m not trying to ruin her life! It’s hard. She can’t imagine her world outside of Portland. Sometimes she does say that “when we live in Africa…” So I think she’s coming to grips but still, it’s going to be the hardest on her.
Stefan on the other hand has been a supportive brother. He strokes her and reminds her of all the exotic animals we’re going to see. In her moments of despair, this annoys her but she knows that he is caring for her. A 4 year old trying to comfort an 8 year old. She’s the one that usually supports him.
Everyone knows moves are stressful. Even if the government is moving you and taking care of everything. The emotional wave of excitement and anxiety seems accentuated.
twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?" 