Ahhhhhh

Yesterday Matthew (essentially) finished his semester. There is one class left, a review class, but tests, papers, and presentations are done for the summer. He will have nearly three full glorious months to work and be with us before he starts his student-teaching in the fall.

AHHHHHHH...

Apparently I've been, unconsciously, looking forward to this for some time. Because the feeling in our house last night was one of mild and quiet jubilation. Here's what a celebration looks like in our house these days:

chatting in the kitchen, while cooking dinner, Dory running around us
one of us leaving to do something with Dory
Dory nursing for a bit from all the excitement
eating said dinner
spending most of dinner trying to explain to Dory she may sit on the table, during said meal, but may not stand, jump, walk around, or squat on table
cleaning up dishes
not so subtle attempt to coax Dory to bed
Matthew getting in bed, in said attempt
Matthew falling asleep at 8pm
Dory and I playing quietly in living room, with Thistle and Shamrock radio show playing in background
Dory and I in bed, her falling asleep while we read, as she says, The Yor-yax
Dory asleep, Matthew rolls over, around 9:30, says "so tired..." commence more soft snoring
I close out the night by taking Georgie out to use the bathroom, turning out the lights, and reading a bit of Chickens magazine

We are wild and crazy guys.

And speaking of wild and crazy, here's our adventurous girl, doing a little tree-climbing at Baby M's house (where I nanny) this past Friday. She very much likes climbing trees. I imagine being one to two feet off the ground must be invigorating to the three feet and shorter crowd...









Is she beautiful or is she beautiful?

It's Started...

We ordered seeds Tuesday night. In Friday's mail we found...




Included was a free seed packet for wildflowers and also a note apologizing for any delays as they were swamped with orders. Tuesday night order, Friday morning delivery. Concern about delay in delivery? That is good service.

On Saturday, we went to our local nursery and what an experience. Being afflicted with Budgetus tightus and so shopping very little, I've discovered walking into a store can be sensory overload. This is true especially for little ones. Dory has been to Target a handful of times in her life and the last two times, she looked around in wide-eyes wonder, and said, "Mommy, yook at all dis stuff!" I either want to flee, overwhelmed, or I want to start buying everything (its so cheap!) and so must flee, to protect our hard-earned and carefully rationed budget.

Walking into Stanley's however, was, well, lovely. It was well lit (naturally, from a durable glass ceiling), the air felt clean and clear (from the tables and tables and tables of plants), the sounds were soothing (from the many outdoor fountains, yes something ornamental, to buy, I realize). And their employees weren't just helpful, they were eager. Passionate. Excited to help.

And for someone, such as myself, who knows nothing on this matter of gardening, except what I've recently read or gleaned from conversation, this was of tremendous value. For instance, when you're filling your own beds with dirt, you need lots of dirt. LOTS. My expectation of four or five bags- I was a little off. A cheerful, knowledgeable employee, a woman, in fact, I'd seen at our downtown library's storytime with her two boys, informed me, we need a 'scoop'. She directed us away from purchasing at their store and pointed us towards two different mulch companies where we might get our scoop. The Wow-factor is high with Stanley's folks. We bought a few bags of organic compost, to complement the scoop, a bag of seed starter dirt and (here was my impulse buy) a small impatiens to tend in our window until its warm enough to transplant. That is one draw back to starting with seeds; there's no immediate green something in the house.

Grandpa Mojo kindly and generously donated time and energy into preparing wood for the boxes during the week. He came over Sunday and he and Matthew set to work. Magic happened. Our vegetable beds started to take shape.



The building of the boxes...

Just a few steps closer to our first, real garden, and my dream of a self-sufficient life.


(Somehow I failed to get a picture of the other two finished beds, in daylight, so this will suffice for now.)

There you go. Start some seeds this week indoors (luckily we are an egg eating family, so we'll get some mileage out of all these cardboard egg cartons I've saved). Get our scoop this weekend, mix dirt and let's see what happens.

I must stop here to marvel- this is, I hope, much of our vegetable and fruit consumption for the year. And it fits in a yellow manila envelope and costs less than $3 to ship. Even if half of our garden was a major flop, the money saved (not to mention other factors, fuel, cost to the environment, etc) is immense. We will come out so far ahead. This does not include the great amount of family time, sunshine and enjoyment I expect us to reap as we work this garden together. My only question: why haven't we done this sooner?

Actually, why isn't everyone doing this?

Ode to the Library

I love the public library. I have loved it as long as I can remember. I love the simple idea that one card (once paper, now a thin piece of plastic), freely given, allows me nearly unlimited access to more books than I will ever be able to read in my entire life. I love the way a library feels and the way a library smells and I love the people who work there. I even stepped into the twenty-first century with my library and I am crazy about the fact I can put books on hold, on line, pick them up at the library of my choice and even renew them from the comfort of my living room sofa. It is a brilliant, brilliant design.

I especially love Knoxville's public library. I can safely say, of the five different cities in which I've lived, Knoxville's is my favorite. Since we've been living in Knoxville again, I've made the best use of the library I can, using a borrowed library card (thank you Mom!) and the calendar of events. We've checked out dozens and dozens of different books for Dory already and even a Pecos Bill movie on VHS her Dad insisted she would love. We go, each week, to Baby Bookworms, the two year old and under story time. And this week- this week my library out did itself.

In a matter of incredible timing and divine coordination, we went to the downtown library for Baby Bookworms this past Wednesday. While I love our little group, at our local library, the downtown Bookworms puts on a show. The librarian played songs and did a puppet board story and led dancing and for the children she passed out shakers and musical instruments and even a cut-out paper star that Dory could take home. Matthew and I were both wide-eyed over the display. Afterwards we stepped across the hall into the actual children's library and discovered Santa, that day, was expected.

What a gift to give. Parents and children- under and over two's- piled into the children's library and waited for Santa. The librarians set out juice and cookies on a little table and a chair for him. The woman who led our Bookworms crew passed out special gingerbread men to all her students, and gave Dory special star-stamps on each of her hand. For the rest of the day, Dory would catch sight of these little designs on her skin and marvel over them. She turned her palms up and down, amazed, her expression the same delighted disbelief that her father and I reserve for those dear, tiny hands.

When Santa entered all the children became kind of quiet and breathy, unsure about this tall (and somewhat gangly) gentleman in the red coat, overwhelming the small, child-size chair. The librarian explained we were responsible for taking our own pictures. (Miracle of miracles, we had our digital camera in the diaper bag- don't tell me Someone's not watching over all of us...) She then said something along the lines of (and this sent me over the edge in the love-affair I have for my library): "We just ask everyone to remember: we have all the time in the world. If your child needs to warm up to Santa first, please take your time. We want everyone to have a good time, to ask Santa for what they want and to have good pictures to show for it."

And, as these things tend to go when there's no hurry or pressure, the line went like clock-work, the children were fairly calm and easy (no wild hysterical screaming as I've heard echoing around the mall), we waited hardly any time at all, and suddenly Dory, in this impromptu experience, met real-life Santa Claus. I introduced the two, asked her if she could sit with Santa for a moment, and, when she didn't disagree, set her on Santa's knee and then crouched next to them, just out of the shot. This lasted about five seconds, and, though the librarian waved her puppet above Dory's head and I whispered words of encouragement, and Matt called her name, Dory would have no more of Santa. But, being the adept family photographer he is, Matt, also sitting in a child-size chair, snapped one shot before Dory was back up, in our arms, and ready to go.

And this unexpected, unplanned photo, somehow the more wonderful for her and St. Nick's solemn expressions, is her first Santa picture.



Thank you, from the bottom of my little literary heart, Knox County Library.

On The Road, Part Three

Hello District of Columbia!

Arrived in D.C. around six Saturday night. Had a second Dave concert to get to, with kick-off at eight. Did a hurried check-in. We were all exhausted (there had been lots of traffic- more about that later) and D.C. is sort of a nuts town when it comes to roads (makes no damned sense, would be the other way to say that) so we were in a rush to get our stuff upstairs and then head out.

But make it to the concert we did, where this child, instead of sleeping, stayed up, playing, the entire time. It was another amazing night. We found another empty patch of grass, sort of roped off from the crowd, with two policeman standing in front of it. Matthew politely requested if we could sit back there. They were sweet, jovial young guys and agreed. Through the evening we were joined by a second family with kids and an older foursome trying to stay out of the crowd. It was a festive little spot to be.





The next day- we saw the city! Or, specifically, the Georgetown Farmer's Market, some of the National Zoo, Museum of American History, and the food court of the Museum of American History.

We stumbled across the Farmer's Market. Looking for the subway, about two blocks from our hotel, we came across it.









It was the most delicious peach I've ever eaten. Dory, I think agreed, but then she's only eaten one or two peaches ever. So take it with a grain of salt.

We took the subway. She was intrigued.



And then to the National Zoo!





We went with a specific purpose, to see him:







Butterstick, the Giant Panda, born in D.C. only a few years ago. From what we heard, he's headed back to China before the end of 2009. Seeing him was wonderful. And as the sign reminded us:



Exactly what we said.



After the zoo, a brief nap on the subway,



a quick stop for a picture in front of the Washington Monument,



and then



where we had



lunch!



Then highlights of the museum! For us, touring with a baby means we did more "oh look, I bet that's cool!" while we zipped by. More drive-by sightseeing then in-depth perusing. Dory did well, in the Beco carrier, but she would hit her limit and this first museum was far less conducive to baby exploration than some of the others. Hence the lack of explanations about the exhibits. Just lots of us standing in front of things, taking pictures. Enjoy.













When Dory hit her limit and needed some Baby Free Play we got her out.





Finally dinner at a little Italian place called Bertucci's down the street from our hotel.





We made it through the salads before Dory was done with high chairs, carriers and basically anything hampering her baby free play, so we had our entrees packed up and carried them back to our hotel. Where we all crashed.

And that was our Day One in D.C.

On the Road, Part Two

Everyone was in great spirits when we woke up Friday morning....







After leaving the hotel we stopped at the tomb of LeRoi Moore, the saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band. He passed away last August and, while, as a fan, I mourned his death (though I never actually met the man and I do harbor hopeful feelings about the life after this one), I felt so incredibly sad for his parents. There's a line in one of Dave's songs: "You should never have to bury your own baby." I thought about LeRoi's mother and my heart ached for her.

The tomb itself is unmarked, but somehow through DMB's fans, people in the know know this is the spot. Matthew and a buddy came earlier in the year to hear the band play and they came to visit. He said besides flowers, people left sunglasses. LeRoi had terrible stage fright and always played with sunglasses on or his eyes closed.

Today was just a quiet, peaceful day in the cemetery.



We still had plenty of time in the day before we needed to head out for our next destination, so we went to breakfast and then to explore the shops of Charlottesville's Main Street.

Dory at her first ever IHOP:





Random shots of the University of Virginia campus, taken from the car. We didn't stop to look around, as there was a graduation going on and the grounds were thick with people. Matthew and I are both put off by great long lines and huge crowds, which doesn't make us the best tourists in the world (more on that subject later).







Our next destination was Chesapeake, VA, a spot right outside of Virginia Beach. Why Chesapeake, you ask? Because that's where the aforementioned best band in the history of the world happened to be playing.

That's right, Dory has officially been to her first Dave Matthews Band concert.



I was a wee bit unsure about this (in a complete state of panic by the time we got there, might be another way to say it). I wore her in the Beco backpack, so she was high off the ground and snuggled up close to me. That helped. I also like to think I gave off a certain "I will rip off your head if you breathe wrong on my baby. Enjoy the show!" attitude. We planned it out ahead of time, buying tickets for the lawn, taking a blanket and planning to camp out on the back of the lawn, far away from the people. We didn't plan on the show basically being sold out and amok with fans.

We ended up finding a little perch, on the opposite side of the hill that formed the lawn, where the three of us could sit on our own, away from everyone, and listen. We couldn't see the band, but as Matthew pointed out, we've seen them plenty. Once we staked out a spot, away from the crowd, it was incredibly peaceful and we had a ball. Dory, for her part, fell asleep four songs in and slept the entire time. I don't think the band should take that personally.




And that was our night in Virginia Beach.

The next day it was- on to Washington D.C.! And that will leave this blog to be continued...