Happy Birthday!

To this guy:


Last night, we celebrated early by spending a night out in Georgetown. We left the children with my parents and spent the night in the guest bedroom at my office. We never were farther than 2 blocks from our house all night, and yet felt like we were on a mini vacation. We were.


This morning we walked home and were greeted by two darling children and lots of birthday hugs. Nana and Papa joined us for a birthday brunch as did Grandma, auntie Chrissie and cousin William, who sang happy birthday with us via FaceTime.



In a couple of hours we are driving to the coast to do a sunset photo shoot (Finn, Inca and I are the models!) for a personal project Nick is working on. It is a good day to be born.

Finn, our little fish

 

Look who climbs!

Sunday morning, I had just finished making breakfast and ran into the living room to let Finn know breakfast was ready and I came back to this little missy on Finn's stepladder trying to help herself! What a little monkey!

Daddy talks funny

Sunday in the car, Nick and I were having a playful conversation about the correct way to pronounciate a particular word and the debate quickly turned into English versus American language. At the end of the conversation, when Nick had 'won' the linguistic debate, Finn clearly feels sorry for me, turns to Nick and says Daddy, you need to speak properly.

What do you mean I need to speak properly, Finn? asks Daddy

Well, Daddy, you don't really say things right. It sounds kinda weird.

My words sound weird to you?

Well, yeah, you kinda sound like a goat.

Nick and I laughed ourselves to tears, Finn's comment made even more funny by the fact that Nick's melodic accent sounds nothing like a goat.

Thanks, kid!

The stories these days

Finn has a thing for birthdays. They are his favorite occasion, besides someone coming home from a trip with a prize for him and getting a new digger. He is very anxious when people have birthdays and he cannot be there to help blow out the candles and watch presents being unwrapped. So, last week when we were writing some birthday cards for some upcoming birthdays, he was gung-ho to draw in the cards, until he heard that they were birthday cards. And he was not going to see them for their birthdays.

Oh, no! he cried, not for their birthday! They are not going to get these cards because before the mailman brings their cards, they are going to fall in a lake and a monster is going to eat them all up and they will never have a birthday again!

We talked about why he felt so bad about someone else's birthday and how sad it would be if they really fell in the lake and got eaten by monsters, so he conculded the story with this:

When they fall in the lake, before the monsters come, a nice whale sees them and pokes them up to the top with his nose and they get to climb out and have a really, really fun birthday and get lots of presents and blow out the cake three times. The End.

Although this is an example of an unhappy story, lots of Finn's stories involve happy things and provide an excellent window to his current state of mind. Unlike his difficult stage at 18 months, he can articulate much more these days and is able to give us little clues to his mental well-being. The imagination on this one is incredible and I have to start writing down more of these stories.

Did you know... we have a teeny-tiny deer that lives in our lettuce patch? He is very shy and hates it when I water the lettuce and this little deer built a little house under the lettuce leaves. One of the leaves is his blanket and his best friend is a tiny frog that no one can see but the deer. They ride the diggers at night when no one is watching and the diggers are supposed to be sleeping. (not) the end.

Princess Poppie plays dress-up

We have a lot of weddings, birthdays and other fun and fancy parties on the horizon and Poppie has been through a growth spurt lately so we had a little dress-up sesh to make sure her current wardrobe still fits.

A little Mexican number with lace detail? With a pink bolero and a flower in her hair? A uni-brow would complete this Frida Kahlo look.

What do you think, Finn?

The party princess look. She couldn't stop staring at the bow. It fits, for now.

Yay, Finn! You can jump on mommy and daddy's bed sooo high!

And the winning ticket? Her favorite green flowered frock that is easy to put on and light and comfortable. Perfect for finally being allowed to play with Finn!

Before we collapse into a pile of ruffles and tears! Poppie does not like this dress-up game. She wants to be jumping on the bed with her brother!

Caught 'em: a few steps!

Please ignore the missing tiles and the fact that she is chewing on something she shouldn't. She's walking! (almost)

Hello there!

There's been a lot going on around here. First off, little poppet Poppie turned 10 months old on the 12th! She continues to be a delightful, playful and pure-sunshine baby. But baby she will not be for long! On Saturday, she started taking three steps at a time and has been practicing her walking non-stop. She has also learned how to climb stairs and climb up on the couch. 

 Poppie has been practicing talking and by both my and Nick's account, we think digger is her first word (besides Dada, Mumm-ma and something that sounds like Nana). Go figure. This girl worships the ground that Finn walks on and wants everything to do with him. However, she is learning to hold her own ground and will hit, scream and bite him if he tries to take a toy away from her that belongs to her (interesting enough, she won't do this if it is a toy that belongs to him that she is 'borrowing').

She is enthusiastically extroverted, but always has an eye to Nick and my whereabouts. If we stray too far, she cries out and crawls to us in her funny little spider-crawl way. Her health is great and she is gaining weight and can eat for England. Berries and fish are her favorite. A true little Alaskan.

Finn is going through a challenging growth spurt. It is more emotional and intellectual than physical, which makes the resolutions harder-to-reach. His fears are awakening (monsters, dinosaurs that eat you and the dark are three on the top of the list) and tantrums have taken on a new meaning, especially since we thought we had made through the twos without them. The last time he went through such a phase was when he was 18 months old, and that was some tough times for our little family. However, one the good side, when he is  not being overrun by aliens two year old hormones, our little Finn is an absolute delight, complete with clever little jokes and the most articulate stories one could imagine coming from a two year old's mouth.

Lots more coming this week!

xx

Outside Magazine and my family

I am excited to share what a wonderful 4th of July week we had (in a later post), but even more excited to share Nick's latest work. For those of you abroad, Outside Magazine is the top outdoor-enthusiast magazine here in the US and a very high-profile cover for Nick. In the image are brothers Ben and Daniel kayaking off the Washington Coast. And yes, they did survive!

Great image, Nick and congrats Ben and Daniel for making it on the cover!

Fishing for the first time

Didn't catch anything, but had fun anyway.

Poppie and Daddy

The way things are today

I read a fascinating article from The Atlantic written by one very successful professional (and mom) who used to speak on the subject that women can have it all: a high-powered career, a happy family and balance. However, once her son was going through adolescence she recognized not only how impossible it was within her own life, but how detrimental it was for her to set standards that virtually no woman could attain. In other words, in her humble (and wise) opinion, women can't have it all (unless you are superhuman, super rich or self-employed).

Reading this article is incredibly timely because I am in the midst of the transition from being a professional with lots of responsibilities to a self-employed housemom. In the midst of the busiest time of my professional career I wondered how other women coped. I cringe as I write this, but the order of priorities was work, my children, my marriage and myself. And, as anyone with young children know, the first two priorities took up 99% of my available energy. 1% of my time and emotional energy is not enough to sustain a marriage or support myself to get through another busy day.

Every moment of the past 4 years I craved to find more balance. When Snopac went up for sale, I could hardly imagine what it would feel like to prioritize the children and my marriage and still have some time leftover for myself. And as my professional priorities start to wane (I am working until the end of September, but on a parttime-basis with a flexible schedule), I am finally able to work on that balance, but it is not as easy as shutting off one light and turning on another.

In this process, and I recognize that I still transitioning, I have found that my default is to fill up my days, and our family calendar with as many things as possible. Without intentionally meaning to, I was re-creating the hectic schedule that I have become so familiar with. Because living lightly, with less to do, made me feel less important. With some gentle coaching from Nick and my mom, I am slowly learning how to do less. In our lives, this means saying no to extra travel and trips so we can spend more quality time at home together. It means taking one outing a day with the children instead of being out all day. It means taking advantage of the fact that we have a nanny to help us through the transition and not feeling guilty if I take some time to go swimming or for a run (if only I knew how much children would change my available time, I would have been the fittest in my life, read more books, visited way more museums and learned two languages. What did I ever do with all that time?).

I am not sure that I have left the professional world forever. In the meantime, I am working on a project with my mom and another sucessful, creative mom to start a blog about parenting and projects. I am starting to work for Nick, and if we can build the business the way we want, I will have my plate full of projects there too. And of course, there are the children and the possibility of expanding our family in the future (future, not now). More than enough to keep this girl busy.

The next challenge in life is to find the sustainable balance, so I can do it all. And still be happy.

Wheeee!

A follow up video from yesterday's pictures...

Happy Monday!