Cold Spaghetti

– Compact fluorescent lightbulbs
– Aged gouda
– Italian Boule
– Tummy time toys
– Temps in the high 70s
– Gymboree outfits
– Big Easy Roller Girls
– Pushing Kate’s hair out of her eyes
– Lit Review/Dissertation Research

After a very busy Saturday, we enjoyed a more low-key Sunday. An afternoon of light drizzle made for a great escape to a humid, but not unbearably hot, playpark.




In case there was any question of where Will got his crazy slide-habits from…

Rolling Stone has a wonderful article about the rigging of the 2004 election.

Will thinks monsters are scary. I wonder if, like his parents, this is sort of stuff that he will recognize as truly, truly frightening.

Will’s best girl, Aya, had a party at The Fly on Saturday. (The Fly is the section of the Mississippi River Levee behind Audubon Zoo. It’s a beautiful park with a great playground, athletic fields, and the launch site for the Aubudon River Cruise.) We had a great afternoon!

The Louisiana Children’s Museum celebrated it’s 20th birthday on Saturday. Totally by accident, we were there.
We decided to go to the museum for our morning outing with the kids. When we checked in, we noted 4 birthday party sign-ins (members use party rooms and have free admission for guests.) Still, it was early and we enjoyed a few of the exhibits without much of crowd. Will and Paul gave the nightly news report on local TV (above).
And Will went shopping in the Little Save-A-Center. His purchases: laundry detergent, a lobster, a crab, hamburger, sausage, crackers, and shrimp pot pie. Definitely our NOLA kid!
Kate watched it all, sitting cool in Will’s Superman shades.Will and Paul had a fun time in the bubble maker — it was early enough in the morning that the juice was big-bubble-worthy.
It was around the bubble makers that I noticed a staff member giving a press photographer a tour of the center (the photographer took some pictures of Will with the bubbles.) Then I remembered … today was full of special events at the Museum! No wonder it seemed to be filling up (fast) with kids and adults! A few minutes later, the announcement came through regarding live music in the little theatre. Live music?! We were THERE.No other than Theresa Anderson was performing! Live music is good anywhere. But this is New Orleans. And this was Theresa Anderson. It was FANTASTIC.
The kids had a blast and the adults jammed for all we were worth. Too cool! LCM had live music lined up all day, plus ice cream, give-aways, and even a Second Line.
After Theresa’s performance, we headed to the door to get home for naptime. We just barely missed the huge crowd gathering to get into the museum — whew! (Will needed to nap in order to be ready for Aya’s birthday party in the afternoon, so we had to leave before noon.) We scored 20th anniversary t-shirts for Will and Paul along with free books for the kids before leaving LCM.

Our neightbors Walt and Linda, givers of Will’s 2 pirate t-shirts, do-rag, and band-aids, scored again! This incredible lunchbox is the newest to Will’s pirate collection. Argh, matey!

The kids have been seriously getting their party on lately. Friday night, faculty hosted a party for the doctoral students (aka: meet the fresh meat night). Wednesday, car trouble lead to a fun impromptu party for Aya (Will’s amor). And last night, Eva hosted doctoral students again for a dinner party (Happy Guatemalan Independence Day!)
Celebrating Aya’s birthday on Wednesday gave us an opportunity to give her the birthday present we had for her (harmonica and recorder sets). I was nervous that Will would get confused and think it was for him. Was I wrong! He saw the package and before anyone could say a word, grabbed it and brought it to Aya saying, “Surprise, Aya! Happy Birthday! Present for YOU!” Even more impressive, once open, they happily shared the harmonica and recorder with no fighting whatsoever. The rest of the night they marched around playing in a “parade.” What totally awesome kids. Kate was enthralled.

Those may have been the words to “Steppin’ Time” if Mary Poppins and the Chimney Sweeps had had a Jumper-roo!Craigslist pulled through for us again and we scored a Jumper for Kate. She LOVES being upright on her feet and Will loves to play with her while she’s in it. The seat has a lot of spring; we’re trying to impress on Will the importance of not sending his sister flying into orbit.
What’s that blue blur running behind Kate in this picture? It’s Will. Be afraid. 2-year olds can really move that fast.

We’re 100 days into Ray Nagin’s re-election and we’ve finally been given the 100 days plan! Considering the many committees Mayor Nagin formed upon election to study all sorts of city-wide problems, certainly The Plan will be comprehensive! Something to give New Orleanians an idea of what to expect for the future for our city.

*drum roll*
The Plan is to…

…”establish a department for dealing with the recovery from Hurricane Katrina and post weekly Web updates on the rebuilding.” (as quoted from ABC news)

The Times-Picayune writes:

“While committees on topics ranging from health care to repopulation met during the past few months, neither Nagin nor any of his advisers hinted Tuesday at any major change in direction for the city. Much of the progress they touted sounded more like the return of a hobbled government to some level of functionality than the realization of a bold new vision.“

What is that sound? Could it be the last shread of hope for this government ripping itself out of the recesses of my soul? Not to be dramatic or anything.