I found this Williams Sonoma dish at Value Village today. I think it looks really pretty with the tile floor in my kitchen, so for right now I'm keeping it there. I was just about to give up and go home when I saw this big beautiful bowl on a bottom shelf and am so pleased, because I didn't find much else.
I did, however, find a familiar face in line at the cash register. At first I couldn't place him, so he kept catching me staring at him and then I really wanted to place him so I could tell him who I was and then he'd know I wasn't some psycho lady with a baby checking him out. Then I realized that he's a waiter at an Italian restaurant in Edmonds whose name I didn't know for long time so I referred to him as "The Pirate Waiter." Briana has since learned that his name is Peter, and we kind of like him because he is friendly to our children, a great waiter, and has a kind of casually-cool aura about him like maybe he'd be an interesting sub-plot type of character in a movie, maybe the wise bartender who helps the main character with a tough problem. So I was robbed of the satisfaction of assuring him I'm not in the habit of staring people down in line at Value Village, it was just that I recognized him but couldn't immediately place him, and then we'd have a casual laugh over the little misunderstanding, exchange a friendly "how have you been?" and be on our merry way. But you can't point at someone in line at Value Village and say "Hey, you're that waiter who looks like a pirate, and like maybe you'd be an interesting sub-plot type of character in a movie, maybe the wise bartender who helps the main character with a tough problem!" I wasn't certain it was him anyway until he walked out, carrying the CD player he'd bought up over his shoulder and perfectly balanced on his professional fingertips.
Jack has begun to mellow towards his brother. He's always loved him, but has not always found appropriate channels for expressing himself. Lately we've been having little practice sessions on the right way to touch Matteas, and we go over the parts of his body that are okay for touching and then practice being gentle. I think it's working, and Jack is also maturing. I'm afraid that I'm going to blink and Jack will be all grown. It seems like he's been around a long time and it's strange to try to imagine my life before I had kids, but I look at his baby pictures and it seems like a lifetime has passed since then.
Last year we tried to take Jack trick-or-treating, but he was totally disinterested. This year he was willing, with mixed results. He enjoyed the first two houses, neighbors he recognizes and says hello to often. The third house was a disaster. The guy opened the door and held out a dish of candy for Jack to consider, and while he carefully picked his treat a tiny but curious dog began sniffing Jack. Jack was unaware of the dog's presence because it was small enough to be covered by the candy dish. Jack is afraid of dogs. Terrified, really. About six months ago a puppy on the beach jumped up to say hello and put his paws on Jack, who completely freaked out and pregnant me got to swing Jack up onto my shoulders out of harm's way. That was six months ago, and Jack still talks about it and remembers the puppy's name(Jimmy).
So when Jack failed to notice this tiny little dog sniffing him, I decided not to say anything and hoped he would continue not to notice. But he did. And then he tried to escape, but he was so startled that he had a difficult time working out an effective retreat, so all he managed to do was kick his left leg over to the right, stretching it out in front of his body and then trying to balance while screaming hysterically. It was pretty funny, but not as funny as would have been if I wasn't afraid we'd just scarred him for life. "Here Jack, have some candy, it'll be fun! SURPRISE! It's your worst fear!"
We have been busy. Busy with Christmas, relatives, travels, recovery, colds, parties, more recovery, and cleaning. Both a lack of it and occasional spurts of it. The above picture is of Aaron's parents, brothers, Aunt Sandy(Sonia's sister) and Uncle Dan, their two daughters Rachel and Amanda, son-in-law Chuck(married to Rachel) and Chuck and Rachel's four kids: Hannah, Levi, Aden and Ellie. We drove up to Steveston, Canada to visit the day after Christmas. Dan and Sandy also have a son and daughter-in-law, Avi and Wendy, who couldn't make it. Jack had a great time playing with his cousins, especially Eli, who is charmingly bossy and ridiculously cute.
Jack and Eli sharing some dessert under the dining room table, where they played most of the evening.
Everyone loved Matteas, especially Eli.
Matteas under the Christmas tree. He was too excited to sleep, so he kept me compnay while I wrapped presents and we watched Midnight Mass at the Cathedral on TV.
Christmas morning breakfast. We had fresh fruit, The Dish, and sticky buns.
Jack in his Christmas jammies enjoying some fishy crackers out of his stocking.
This is Ingrid. She is special for many reasons, but she is especially dear because she named Matteas. And she speaks French to him, which he seems to understand perfectly.
We went downtown to see the trains in the Macy's window again, although it was a little trickier than last year when we had only one kid and three adults on the trip.
This is what happens when you have eleven children in your house and you ignore them for five minutes so you can eat dinner. We needed new toothbrushes anyway.
Presumably, this clever disguise was intended to hide the naughtiness with the toothbrushes.
Three sisters, twelve years, eleven kids. We're not totally insane yet, so I feel that we're doing well. Things got a little crazy that day, and after an hour or two of screaming Briana and I took ten of the kids to the park while Moira stayed behind with sleeping Adam and cleaned the kitchen. It took a while to assemble all the kids, find coats and shoes, and get out the door. As soon as we did, it started raining. But we pressed on, and after an hour of running around in the cold rain we brought the kids back for a nice warm tea party and spaghetti dinner. It's good to have family. Crazy, but very good.
