Is this irony?

I'm pretty sure I don't really grasp the meaning of irony.  But, I was at a *mandatory* parent orientation meeting for Mateo's preschool tonight and I noticed something.  First, as far as I could tell from those in attendance, we are still the only gay family in the group, despite it having grown significantly since last year.   Last year, the school was in its first year and not all the way full.  This year, word has gotten around and the director is already getting applications for NEXT year! 

Anyway, so we're the only family with two moms in the school.  I get the feeling that this may be the story of our kids' educational lives, which is kind of a bummer because Portland is full of gay families.  I guess we're just all too spread out for our own good!

Then, as I was casually perusing the list of everyone attending the school, I realized the we are in the distinct minority in one other way.  What is that way, you ask?  That we all have the same last name!  In other words, that one spouse took the other spouse's last name and then both kids got it, as well.  There are some straight families like this at the school, but a huge number of them have the husband and wife with their own names and then the kids' names hyphenated or with the husband's last name, or, in one confusing case, with a completely different last name. 

(As an aside, there were also some crazy hyphenations, such as (I am making this up, but it gives you the idea) Gonzalez-McKinley.  Having lived with a hyphenated name for three years after Sacha and I got married, I have some fairly strong opinions about them, most of which are overwhelmingly negative and which I will avoid sharing here.  I'll just settle for saying that it makes me feel happy and content that Sacha and I and the kids all share one one-word last name.   Obviously, this feeling is not shared by everyone, but I'm glad we made that decision the way we did.)

I guess my point in writing this is that I just had to laugh that we are on the far alternative end of the spectrum in terms of our family's two-mom structure, and on the far traditional end in terms of our last names.  It was weird to be the only lesbian there but to have taken the most traditional route possible in terms of taking my wife's last name and giving it to our kids.  Is that irony?  I don't know, but it was definitely interesting.

Additions

We've been waking up at night to find Mateo in bed with us.  Or, rather, I've been waking up tightly sandwiched between my wife on one side and my little boy on the other.  This has led to some rather painful neck/back contortions during my sleep, but nothing too serious :)  Unfortunately, we've both been too tired to go through the process of getting him back to sleep in his own room, and he thrashes around too much in our bed...so I have been spending about half the night scrunched in his twin bed with him.  I know this isn't a good habit to start, especially because neither one of us sleeps especially well, but I dread the thought of establishing good sleep habits with him AGAIN.  Seriously, is this ever going to stop?  Things were going along swimmingly for quite awhile and now we have to contend with going through the whole bedtime routine at 3 am for probably at least a week.  It could take an hour for him to get back to sleep on his own, and the running out of his room and crying and all that could end up waking up Natalia, too.  Ugh.  I keep hoping this will magically solve itself, and then there he is again, in our bed, in the middle of the night.

Talia, meanwhile, knows very well that Sacha is about to go back to work and has become Mommy's little koala bear.  She wants Mommy's milk all the time and wants to be with Mommy or talk about Mommy all the time.  I hope the work transition isn't too hard on her.

And, finally, speaking of additions, our new tree is in!  It's already changing fall colors and it looks great.  Our front yard looks so much better, we think, without that old dead tree in it and with the new one in its place!

Sacha starts work tomorrow and starts teaching students a week from tomorrow.  Mateo starts preschool a week from tomorrow.  We're hoping for a great school year for both of them! 

Running

I used to run a lot. In high school, briefly, and then in college, all the time. Except when I was injured, which covered a lot of time, too. Recently, meaning in the past couple of years, I've picked it up again, and found that I can quite comfortably run for half an hour twice a week and my body will do fine. Attempt to increase the distance or time and things go downhill quickly. After figuring this out again recently (I started running for 4o minutes, to which my body said, "How dare you?") I am back to my half-hour runs and just enjoying them for what they are. I usually take my iPod and just enjoy listening to the music while beating myself into a pulp. Today, I had a great run in the 90 degree heat. I may have long northwestern roots on one side of my family, but I looooove the heat! At least in limited doses. I don't think I'd do very well in Arizona.

I was feeling pretty wiped out when I got home, but I was drenched in sweat and wanted to stretch for a few minutes before I went in. In lieu of a glass of water, I grabbed some tomatoes and strawberries from our garden and wolfed them down. HEAVEN. Probably the best moment of my day. They were so, so delicious. Then I went inside and drank three huge glasses of water.

And with that, my weekly naptime running dates have come to an end. Sacha's going back to work next week, and while I might fit in a few weekday runs after she gets home, the reality is that running is going to be a weekend thing again for quite awhile. At least I can say that I really enjoyed my last naptime run of the summer, and that those tomatoes and strawberries at the end were worth every step!

Edited to add:  This turned into a Mama triathlon!  I biked the kids to swim lessons in their bike trailer and then swam in the pool with them before biking them home.  I was exhausted by the end of it all, but in a good way!  I was thinking there should be some kind of mommy triathlon event in Portland.  You could push your kids in a 5K, then bike with them on your bike or in a trailer for a certain number of miles, and then for the swimming, maybe kick some laps in a pool with them on a big piece of floaty foam?  Seriously, I bet tons of moms would sign up.  Maybe I should try organizing something...

Round up

We're in the middle of a weeklong visit from Sacha's parents, which was been very fun.  We've had a nice combination of staying close to home and doing some adventuring.  They even went wine tasting today, which sounds like it was enjoyable for them.  They also watched the kids so Sacha and I could go out this morning, and they've been getting lots of quality time with their grandchildren.  And, Sacha's mom took me shopping yesterday, which was a lot of fun!  Here we all are on Sunday, having an extended family dinner with the four of us, Apa, and Bubby and Poppa.

 While they were wine tasting this afternoon, we stayed around here and took the kids to the first day of two weeks of swim lessons.  This is Mateo's first year of having class without a parent in the water with him, and, while we weren't sure how that would go, he did just fine!  He put his cheeks, lips, and face in the water, and had a wild time kicking around on a pretend boat the instructor pulled around.

Meanwhile, Tali went in the water with Sacha and did all the things the baby class does - lots of songs, bubbles, kicking, and toys.  Talia has been a bit skittish in the water before, but she did great today.  She was begging to get in the pool from the moment we put her in her swimsuit, at home, about an hour before her lesson actually started!   I stayed out of the water today and will go in with her tomorrow.  After Sacha starts work again next Tuesday, I'll be on my own, so I'm crossing my fingers that it will go well!

Also, we had a tree taken out of our front yard this morning and that was quite the event!  It's an old eucalyptus snag that died this winter and has been looking awful for months.  After navigating the city permit process, we hired an arborist to come and take it down.  The guy with the chainsaw actually felled it like a tree in the forest, which was quite a surprise for everyone, not least the neighbors across the street!  Luckily, as I'm sure the arborist knew, it was not as tall as it looked, so it didn't even get close to the other curb.  Whew! 

Looking lovely right before it came down...

They ground down the stump and will be planting a new trident maple tree there in the next month sometime

Mateo was actually a bit spooked by the whole thing, showing us that his longstanding fear of falling trees has not yet been outgrown.  We made up our own art therapy and drew a picture of how the tree came down, and then wrote down what he narrated.  He refused to nap later on, although who knows if that was why, but went to bed just fine.   It was seriously crazy how fast the tree went down.  I was switching from one camera to another to get a video of it, and suddenly BOOM!  Down it went.  I can see how he'd have been a little freaked out.   Here's our little picture map of the tree going down:

The whole tree thing got me in the mood to do some yard work, so Mateo and I worked on that after we got home from swimming.  He actually was a big help!  I pruned the plants around our front window (visible below) so that we'll be able to wave goodbye to Mommy when she *sob* starts work next week.  All the while, he was helpfully putting stuff into a pile and even helped me load it into the yard waste bin.  He's really becoming a big kid, and is also eating us out of house and home, so he must be growing physically, too. 

I can't believe the summer is coming to a close!  Seriously, I made an appointment for the 31st of August and was like, what?  The end of August already?  Crazy.  Let's hope we have a nice, warm fall to make up for the frigid summer we've had!

Speaking of summer, here's a photo of our garden in full bloom (although I took this right before I pruned that front section) and some of our tomatoes.  They're just starting to ripen, due to the aforementioned lack of sun, but YUM anyway!

Today felt like Saturday

Seriously. Three out of the kids' four grandparents were in town and at our house for part of the day, as was Apa. Bubby and Poppa, Sacha's parents, are visiting for a week, and my mom was here for some meetings and carved out some time for us today. We had a big adventurous day!

My mom brought pastries and other goodies for breakfast and then she and Poppa and I took the kids to two parks. That took the rest of the morning. Then, the kids napped and the adults chatted while I worked out (and Sacha's parents went for a run - they are doing the couch to 5K thing!) and then
Mateo woke up right afterward. Then, Sacha and her dad and I took them to the zoo.

Usually, going to the zoo in the late afternoon is perfect, because most people are leaving and you have the place to yourself. However, we forgot about the zoo summer concert series! The place was packed with concert-goers, so it wasn't quite as relaxing as it might have been, but we still had fun. I didn't bring the camera, but we went to see the bears, the fish, otters, and went to the petting zoo. The kids loved it, and didn't even put up too much of a fuss when we left.

Then, we got a quick dinner to go from a local market and put the kids to bed. Now, Sacha's parents, they of the unstoppable energy, are out dancing the night away and Sacha and I are about to hit the sack. It felt so much like a Saturday that surely tomorrow must be Sunday, but no! This is what summer is all about, especially when one is a stay-at-home mom married to a teacher. I know a lot of schools have already started, so I have nothing to complain about, but I can't believe she has to go back to work in two weeks. We have all so enjoyed having family time this summer!

Also, huge congrats to our friends E and M on the birth of their new baby boy! Their older son is also named Mateo, so it's wonderful to see him become a big brother just like our Mateo is!

Here are some photos from our park adventures:

I may have mentioned this before, but Mateo refers to this bike rack as his "house" and likes to have people pretend to ring the doorbell to come in. Luckily, Poppa was on the invite list!

Little sister with a new haircut and the tiniest two pigtails ever!

Talking to Grammy at the "front door"

Have I mentioned how much I love this kid?

He is SO into learning how to go down these poles on his own. Not quite there yet, but getting close. Oh, and I love him, too!

This one likes to hang with her belly out...

...much more than she actually likes to slide. Mostly, she likes to camp out at the top.

Getting some help from Poppa in her 18-month jeans. No matter, she's got mad two-year-old park skillz.

Accidentally had the camera set to "retro" for this one, but I loved the way it came out.

Snuggles when she did finally slide down into Poppa's arms

Striking out on her own...

...to find her brother in the bat pose. Future gymnast? Yogi? Only time will tell!

The next level

With the help of our friends, Katie and Cathy, we went to the next level of canning today.  Well, they were the ones who did most of it, but we learned a lot along the way.  They arrived with five recipes already prepped, including a chutney, green beans with dill, an incredible recipe involving grapes, and two more that I can't remember.  Even more amazingly, the whole thing, including cleanup, was done in five hours!  I missed a lot of it, because I took our squirrelly kids out to the park and then to a coffee shop after they got stir-crazy, but the results look amazing.  I can't wait to try each one out!

Here are two of the recipes being tended to:

The all-knowing pickling book!:

Prepped ingredients, ready to go:

The most important ingredient - our portable air conditioner!:

Katie, Mateo, and Cathy with the finished products:

So pretty!  

Summer, finally!

Summer is finally here, at least for this week! As the native Californian of the family, I am ecstatic about the heat and Sacha is wishing it was fall already. In fact, I just went out for a run and when I got back, realized it was 94 degrees outside. That must be why I felt so sluggish!

Anyway, we went to a free concert last night, in the same series we attended last year. It was our first time seeing this acrobatic dance troupe called Do Jump! and they were great. The kids were giggling and dancing and generally enjoying themselves for the whole time, which was pretty amazing. We actually just got to sit and enjoy it ourselves, instead of doing a lot of behavior management. We went with another family, with whose older son Mateo has been friends since birth. The boys had a period of hilarious dancing/wrestling that photos don't really do justice, but it was joyful and a pleasure to witness. Here are a few photos from the evening:

If this isn't pure joy, I don't know what is...

And here we are back at home a few nights ago, chilling before getting ready for bed. These guys are SO happy to have Mommy home for the summer!

Today, we had Megan and Galen over for waffles, and they brought us our Christmas present - a watermelon fresh from Hermiston, which is in eastern Oregon near Galen and is famous for its watermelons. YUM. Then, Mateo and Apa went out on a boy date and, according to both of them, had SO MUCH FUN! Here are our boys just after returning:

They went to the Gorge to hike and Mateo hiked almost all the way on his own. Then, they visited Grand Central Baking, our neighborhood venue of choice, on the way home. They got Mateo a blueberry macaroon after lunch "to match his blueberry eyes." I know I'm biased, but I think both our kids' eyes are quite stunning and this photo of Mateo from last night really shows them off.

This afternoon, we're planning to check out a new ice cream place within walking distance (although we'll probably drive because of the heat) and then tomorrow...a canning adventure! Friends are coming with ambitious canning recipes and we're going to try them together. We canned 18 quarts of peaches earlier this week, but we've never tried anything that involved an actual recipe (ie, green beans with a specific sauce), so that will be new. I'm sure I'll be back with photos on how that goes!