Sunday, September 27, 2009

Upsie-Down Baby!

Slide Mountain

Calvin's Monster ABC's

Calvin being cute in his Daddy's sunglasses

Boy, you've gotta carry that weight!

On Saturday we picked a "difficult" trail in the Kit Carson forest, just north of Taos, by the ski area. We loaded Calvin into his new backpack, and also stuffed the zippered area with water bottles, diapers and snacks (the whole shebang was probably close to 50 pounds). I carried the sandwiches.

The slope was steep, and as we wound our way up one switchback after another, Quinn started to huff and puff. "I'm going to have buns of steel after this," he declared.

On and on the trail went. The sandwiches I was carrying were starting to make me feel a little bit hungry. And I wanted to get at one of those water bottles that Quinn had. I suggested we take a break. "Great idea."

Was my athletic husband wheezing? After we ate, I said, "Here, I'll carry the backpack," and unzipped the backpack that was connected to the carrier.

"You knew that was detachable?"

"Yeah." I shrugged, and put on the little backpack.

"I'm gonna kill you."

Hummph. As if it's the first time I've heard that.


Bamboozled by the sunglass man!

On our trip to Taos Quinn needed some sunglasses and so we waited for the sunglass shop to open before we left for our hike. Walking in there were displays for designers sunglasses and I was curious how this would go, since Quinn isn't really a designer sunglasses kind of guy.

The sales guy started to talk about the features of some of the pairs and caught on that Quinn was looking for the cheapest thing. He has a rack of $50 sunglasses 30% off. He said the thirty percent made them the same price as "these sunglasses," he said pointing to another rack, "and these are just the cheap plastic ones made in China."

I found myself hiding my own purple plastic pair behind my back - he had successfully planted the seeds of sunglass snobbery - I was wondering how my life would be different if I had a fancy pair of sunglasses.

Quinn bought the pair, and bragged about how stylin' he was half way up the hill. "It's a good thing I didn't get those cheap sunglasses made in China," he said. Then he looked at his frames and guess what was written there? "Made in China."

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Picnic at the Monastery

On labor day we went with our church for a picnic at the Monastery in Abiqui. It was a beautiful day. We spent most of it outside walking the trails and listening to the liturgy. Then everyone went to eat a ton of tasty food while we listened to music. Later all the kids went to play in the creek.

St. Dimitri Orthodox Church 2nd Annual Ethnic Sampler Dinner. Sunday evening, September 20, 2009. 5-8pm. Graves Hall at the United Church of Los Alamos. Limited Seating. Reservations Required: Call 672-9679. Items being served: Appetizers: Dolmas, Greed Salad, Tabouli, Mushroom Caviar, Roast Beef & Kalamata. Entrees: Pastitsio, Spanakopita, Ham, Kielbasa, and Beets. Desserts: Baklava, Galecktoboureka (phyllo custard). Come join us for some ethnic food and fun.






Thursday, September 17, 2009

A balanced diet



Calvin's babysitter complained that she can't get him to eat fruits or vegetables, but only things like sweets and chips. I think she was trying to suggest that I should feed him more healthy stuff so that he will have a taste for it when he gets to her house. I thought, Hummph! I feed him healthy stuff.

But then I thought some more about it, and realized that he needs special choreography before he will eat healthy. For example, the other day he was running around the front yard and he said, "chocca' pudding!" and so I went to the refrigerator, but instead of getting him chocolate pudding I grabbed the prunes, and he bought it! But I had to feed him while chasing him down the sidewalk.

Then, for dinner we got him some fried rice with peas, carrots and onions in it. We went to the dinosaur park to eat it and he wouldn't have anything to do with it until he was on the swing. Then he liked it a lot.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

My New Best Friend

My mom used to always call women she just met "my new best friend," and I wondered how she could say that about someone she barely knew. Was she that full of shit, or what? But a few weeks ago I met Christine, who, within the course of a five minute conversation became my new best friend.

She went to my church, St. Dmitri's, and spent the entire service chasing her hyper toddler, Shawn, outside. Afterwards I told her that I was looking for friends who want to switch off babysitting so I could work. "Me too!" she said. She was trying to find time to be a substitute teacher. Then I said I wanted to go to Abiqui the next afternoon to interview Corinna Stoefl for my Art Field Trip blog. She wanted to go to Espanola the next morning to interview for a teaching position. So we set it up. The next day we met at McDonald's in Espanola where I watched the boys while she interviewed for her job, then we drove up to Abiqui and went to Ghost Ranch, had lunch, and then she watched Calvin while I did my interview.

It worked out perfectly. We met each other at the right time, and or lives and needs were so compatible. Plus, we had a really good time. How can I not get carried away and say, "You're my new best friend!"