Cold Spaghetti

My girlfriends from college, “The Birds,” flew down this weekend for a Birds Weekend. I’m still too tired to say much, other than we had a fabulous time, fell in love with The Bead Shop (can I retire now and just make jewelry?), and ate LOTS of excellent food. We squeezed in a “lil’ shower” for Steph (who is having a girl — our newest bird — in October) over girls brunch and visited some of our favorite haunts (Oak Street Cafe, La Divina, Jacque-Imos, etc.)

A pictorial representation of the weekend is below.

Because their Aunt Julie LOVES them! She is here from Chicago… having fun with me by day and loving up our kids at night (and in the wee hours of the morning).Feeding Kate gelato. For the record, if you try to share any flavor with Kate that isn’t chocolate, she spits it out.Bouncing down Magazine Street with Will.

My friend Gwen rocked the world last Friday when she delivered baby Wesley, at home, in her bathroom, IN THREE PUSHES. For those not familiar with the whole birth thing, this is sort of like saying you just ran a marathon (an appropriate analogy for labor and delivery), but you did it in under 3 hours. In other words, you were showing some serious strength. And did I mention that he was NINE pounds? Nine pounds and 19 1/2 inches, like a round pumpkin. (Three pushes!)

So give it up for Gwen, Wonder Woman and Mama all wrapped into one! You can read her story of Wesley’s birth here. Hooray!

So says The Little Man last night. He had a slight case of the sillies.

The pictures below are from late last week (Friday night). It was an average night… Paul changing lightbulbs and the kids playing. The pictures weren’t taken for any kind of artistic quality, but to document the appearance of Kate’s body. (We thought it would be easier for us to notice change if we could look for changes in photographs.) We already think that she looks ‘thicker’ — but neither of us are sure if it’s wishful thinking on our parts or not. Her teachers are doing a great job of keeping track of her eating, so I can be confident that she is still eating well beyond her daily requirements.

Take a look and see what you think. If this were your child, would you be concerned about her?

Kate, as Troll Doll.
All gooped up with sunscreen, ready to go next door to the pool with fantabulous Tia Michelle. (As Mommy goes to Cafe Luna to read Harry Potter.)

In honor of the release of The Deathly Hallows, our neighborhood turned out a big Harry Potter party on Friday night. The kids went to bed at the regular time. Then at 9:15, I crept to Will’s contoured, sleeping body and quietly whispered: “Will, do you want to go to a Special Midnight Party?” He jerked away so quickly and with such excitement that his head almost smacked me square in the face. It made his sleeping position make a bit of sense: he sleeps so that, at any moment, he can leap up and be ready for action. No rest for this kid. So, Will was ready, with one request: could he be SUPERMAN for this Special Party. Well OF COURSE. Superman, is like, Harry Potter’s best friend.
Whole Foods had a HUGE table of food (all appropriately named things like puking pastilles and Bott’s every flavor beans) and offered several games including spell toss (you had to correctly recite a spell while tossing hoops into glittery buckets), snitch head bands (I thought these were really cute), and broom races. Kate was pretty chill. Will was… well, let’s say that his enthusiasm for midnight parties dulls after the 30 seconds of adrenaline wear off. One of his friends from school showed up, too (he was dressed as an Astronaut) and the pair went off, hand in hand, down the street, discussing their status as Superheros as they went.
Many stores participated. The pictures show Quidditch (Whole Foods), Weasley’s Wizard Weezers (Magic Box Toys), and Flourish and Blotts (Octavia Books). Other included Ollivander’s (local art store) and a “House Elf Cookie Station” (bakery where kids could decorate magically themed cookies). There was plenty of sugar available at every.
The bookstore handed out maps of the neighborhood (on cool parchment paper) for kids to stamp at each location. Prizes and games were everywhere. All of the stores employees (and family members, it seemed) were dressed as Hogwarts notables… and WELL dressed at that. There was no mistaking Moaning Myrtle, Snape, Umbridge (she was even walking around going “ahem ahem”), and more. When he found out that the back patio was closed up (there is a coy pond there and Will likes to go visit the fish), Will got a little rambunctious. Trelawney captured his attention for a short while, as she told a boy of about 8 that “very odd things would happen to his second cousin, or maybe a neighbor.”Here’s Will, my Superman, surveying the night. Although we only stayed out for an hour, the following day, Will was CRANKY. The kind of cranky that would make adults without children run to a doctor for sterilization. Paul made me swear that we would NEVER AGAIN, under ANY circumstances, think it would be a good idea to interrupt Will once he was asleep. NEVER. But it was fun while it lasted!
(The white above are people wearing the fun golden snitch head bands.)

… the last one.

I will never forget how we met in the first. A friend (working on a PhD in Children’s Lit in Wales) had suggested we read this new fun book (back then, there was just one). The recommendation was light and carefree, there was no hint of the darkness and depth that would come later. We remembered the suggestion, every once in awhile bringing it up and at least once looking for it at a local bookstore without success. It was at least a year later that Paul surprised me with a hardback of the U.S. version of the first, along with a second, bringing them bedside to me as I recovered from a nasty virus picked up from the shelter where I was working. It was early 1999. Scout had just entered our lives and as Paul read the first few chapters out loud (I was too weak to hold the book) slept, curled up tiny and warm on the pillow beside me. Thus began our love for the little wizard and our hidden desire to turn an under-stair cupboard into a bedroom for the kids.

Since then, we’ve thrilled at the anticipation of each new book. We talked about reading them to our kids before we ever had kids. We have both read and re-read each book, carefully removing and storing the jacket safely while a book is in use.

Although we attended the festivities last night (more on that later) we decided to pre-order the book online. It finally arrived around 4, as we were leaving for a birthday party. We got the kids home and in bed around 8, which is when I started reading. But I’m hesitant to read too much too quickly (and frankly, too tired). It’s finally here and it’s in my hands… and I found myself re-reading the quotations in the front of the book over and over again, for ten minutes, before turning that page to the first chapter. It seemed like a very important moment.

There is, however, a need to finish. And finish quickly. Paul (who is generally respectful of my decree of getting the book first, always) is threatening to tie me down and read the ending out-loud if I don’t turn it over in a timely manner. Always the gentleman, that one.