Come In, Houston...

The Lede (Now unburied!)

So, uh, yeah, that seven months of radio silence?

Two reasons.

First and foremost--it's hard to follow a eulogy post with the mundane details of my life.

Second, well, you know. Work. Christmas.  Halloween.  Yeah, that's it.

So anyway.  In summary:

Vomiting

J had her MRI in September, and it was normal.  She hasn't thrown up since.  Whatever.  

School

J started pre-kindergarten with her usual delusional aplomb.  "This is a class for four-year-olds, Mama.  No babies."  At her parent-teacher conference (no, seriously--they have these in pre-school!), we learned that she is brilliant, delightful, non pareil...except for that part about how we're working on not talking to our peers when the teacher is talking.  I tried to explain the genetics of that--how it wasn't J's fault.  No dice.

Holidays

Halloween. J dressed up as a rainbow butterfly fairy princess.  Pretty much all her favorite things rolled into one, though we wondered why she left unicorns out.  Because did you know, "In the old days, people didn't have cars.  If they wanted to go somewhere, they had to ride a horse or a unicorn.  Not like in the new days.  Now we have cars and spaceships."

So there's that.

J and Jack.  I made him myself.

Thanksgiving.  Oy, are we lazy.  We went to Portland and watched the Macy's parade in the pouring rain.  Good times.  The night before we (gasp!) ate dinner in a restaurant.  It was awesome!  i am not a fan of turkey or pumpkin pie; usually I cook something else or suffer through it at someone else's house.  This just is not a holiday I enjoy. Not sure I would do this again, but it was interesting.  

Oh!  Way to bury my lede!  POTBELLY IS NOW IN PORTLAND!!!  I grew up about a block from the original location, and I really miss it.  I remember several years ago returning to Chicago and seeing that they were all over the place.  Then I noticed they were all over DC.  And now there are two in Portland.   They were still working the kinks out when we visited the downtown location on Black Friday, but....YUM!

Christmas.  Always my favorite holiday.  Always.  And even more so now with J in her magic years.  The unwavering, unquestioning belief in Santa fills me with awe.  Not sure if you know this, but Christmas is "the Jesus' birthday.  Also Pink Baby's."  Pink Baby, of course, is the baby doll she received for Christmas when she was one.  I don't remember it happening this way, but J is adamant that Pink Baby grew in Santa's tummy.  Anything's possible around here.  

And so Jesus and Pink Baby are birthday-sharers.  J wanted me to bake an angel food cake that said "Happy Birthday to Jesus and Pink Baby."  I did make the cake, but as you can see, pre-packaged cookie frosting is not suitable for writing on boiled icing:

Why does no one ever Pinterest me?

We spent three days in Manzanita, starting on Christmas Eve. We rented a house right on the beach.  

Although it was, of course, cold and wet, it was heavenly.  Friends drove down and joined us for Christmas dinner. I want to do this every year.  It was such a happy little idyll.  C was here, and J was over the moon.  The sad thing:  This is probably the last time that we'll all be together like that.

J and I flew to St. Louis on New Year's Eve.  My "sleeping on the redeye plan" backfired because of Direct TV.  J was pretty keyed up, so I thought maybe a little Nick, Jr. would send her off to la-la land.  Riiiiggghhht.  I slid my Visa in the slot, and she stayed awake for the entire flight.  We don't get this channel on our cable plan, and she's only seen "Dora" sporadically (and one episode at a sitting) on Amazon Prime.  Who knew what wonders awaited her on a 737?  After "Dora" was over, another show came on!  She was in awe, since this only happens at our house when she's sick or I'm hungover.  We were introduced to the wonder that is the "Wonder Pets."  Seriously, WTF is that show?  

But I digress.

St. Louis was wonderful. It was so good to see my sister and my nieces.  We took J to the Magic House and, for her first time ever, ice skating.  She loved it.  I used to be good a pretty good skater--we skated on the Lincoln Park lagoon all the time when we were kids--but I suck at it now.

I went with my sister and older niece to their mother-daughter book group, where we discussed "Code Name Verity."  I was only able to read about a third of it before the meeting, but I finished it later--great book.  These mothers and daughters have been meeting as a group for six or seven years, .  The girls are now freshmen in high school!  I was taken aback by their level of discourse and their ease with discussing the material.  Looking at those girls really makes me NOT worry about the future.  I can only hope J ends up like that.

Other

I took J to see a few plays, "Peter Pan" and "Pinkalicious."  I though PP was very, very odd, but she loved it, once she understood that the pirates weren't real.  "Pinkalicious" was pretty delightful (and starred the same little girl who played "Annie" a couple of years ago).  However, it's a short book, and while they embellished it for the stage, there's just not enough material there to make a play.  But it was sweet, and all the little girls wore pink and were buzzing with excitement.  They had pink cupcakes for sale in the lobby.  They were lovely, but they were yuppy gourmet with lemon curd and whipped cream frosting.  J didn't like it, and neither did most of the other little girls who had them.  I think that demographic much prefers a solid vanilla cupcake with PINK buttercream frosting.  You know, like from Safeway or Fred Meyer.  But what do I know?

Next Up

A return to Disney World, and J turns five.  Posted sometime in the next eight months.