Austin, TX for Grandpa Jack's Memorial Service

A few weeks ago we had a chance to visit Texas for the first time, to celebrate and remember the very full life of my Grandpa Jackson Worth Bosley (my dad's dad).  Although we always lived far away from one another and our paths didn't cross as often as I would have liked, it was from my Grandpa Jack that I inherited a childhood love of stamp collecting and learned where the countries in the world fell into place, and it was in years of correspondence to him and my father across the ocean that I learned the art and importance of writing letters.  

Family time was priority numero uno on our recent trip to Austin, but we did manage to visit a few places in our down time.  The day we arrived we had a few hours to ourselves before gathering with our family for dinner, so we went to Central Market and were completely wowed by their selection of basically every single thing.  We stopped at their amazing cafe for a snack and Gigi and the little girl in the booth next to ours kicked off a friendship by holding hands in the narrow gap between the booth and the window.  Aren't things simple when you're 3 years old?

My Grandpa Jack's wife Sandra was remarkable.  She had planned family dinners and was a lovely hostess in all things, despite the busy - and what must have been lonely - place of planning for the memorial service of her husband of many decades.  We loved hanging out with her, my dad and Emili, and members of Sandra's family who had come to support her.  

Thursday was our main sightseeing day, and after Marcos had helped Sandra purchase and install a new printer, we went out with my dad and Emili for lunch at Mr. Natural, a vegetarian restaurant in a very Mexican part of town.  Maybe that wasn't so rare for a Texan city, but us North Carolinians loved the party stores overspilling with colorful piñatas.  I was set on eating tex mex as much as possible while we were in Texas, and the vegetarian options at Mr. Natural were delicious.

After lunch it was a trip to Butler Park splashpad to get a break from the heat.  Every day we were there it was just a few degrees shy of 100, but although everyone was commenting on the heat, I thought it was amazing.  The flatness of that part of the country made for a great wind, and it was a much drier heat than I am used to here in North Carolina.  Even the high temperatures didn't feel oppressive to me, like they usually do at home.

Rose the dog loved to kiss Orion.  Below is the Capital building.  Austin has a great downtown area.

For dinner that evening Sandra took the family out to her favorite neighborhood seafood grille, and it was amazing.  Sandra was very well prepared, and over dinner she let us know of the plans for the Memorial Service the following day.  

Grandpa Jack and Sandra have been attending the Episcopalian church on the University of Texas at Austin campus, so that is where the Memorial Service was held the following afternoon.  It was a traditional service with the wafer and wine, beautiful organ and viola duets, scripture readings and people officiating in robes.  I loved the music.  Our children were the only ones there at a mid-day Friday service, and Orion lasted about thirty seconds so Marcos took him outside.  Gigi and I enjoyed the rest of the service, although in a reverent crowd it is difficult to have the only child.

My Grandpa Jack was a veteran of 3 wars, and worked many, many years for the CIA in the latter part of his career.  He was a very dutiful and responsible man, fluent in many languages, and intrigued by the cultures and people of the world.  I wanted to sit down with Sandra at length and hear stories about his life while we were there, but it wasn't the right time.  I hope we get a chance to sit down together in the future.  There's something about a memorial service to help us reflect on our lives and wonder what we're doing now that will someday be worth mentioning when we are gone.  There is additionally something about having a death in your own family to make you feel connected to a legacy of people.  I am my Grandpa Jack's only grandchild, and the only continuing strand of the Bosley chain through him and my father.  Am I representing my family well?  

Gigi and I loved leaving the church to the music of the bag pipes.

At the receiving line, Sandra greeted old friends, family and neighbors.  Orion and I were also in the line greeting people with my dad and Emili, and supporting Sandra and her family.  Gigi ate the delicious food that the church ladies had prepared and danced around, and Marcos took photos.  So many people who came by told me how wonderful my Grandpa Jack had been to them, and it made me a little jealous that they had spent more time with him than I had!

After the Memorial service we had a few hours before a family dinner party, and we headed to our final Austin sight seeing destination - SoCo!  South Congress is a really funky area just across the river from downtown.  Walking around, I kind of felt like I was on another planet.  It was late afternoon on a Friday, the place was hopping with people and live music, there was well groomed graffiti on walls, cacti plants, mist machines rigged to the overhangs at the outdoor cafes, Texas dry heat, and even the air seemed to be a unique shade of sunset pink.  We loved it.  We are nightlife people, and Chapel Hill is a slow place to live.  Austin just kept getting cooler.

But all too soon it was time to leave and join our family at Grandpa Jack and Sandra's home for a dinner with all of Sandra's closest fans and supporters.  It was a special way to spend our last night in Austin, and we really enjoyed getting to know the characters who loved and supported my family.  I am grateful for all of their continued support as Sandra is adjusting to her life sans Grandpa Jack.  I can't even imagine.  Companionship is such a powerful thing.

And that was our journey to Austin, TX!  We have heard for years that if you visit anywhere in Texas it should be Austin, and we are fans for life.  Family together time in Austin was the best of both worlds.

A few days ago we went to a very fun combined birthday party for the son and daughter of my dear work friend Lisa from my days at the UNC School of Social Work.  In a rare act of kindness, both the birthday girl and boy gave Gigi their birthday balloons as we were leaving their party, and Gigi was beside herself with happiness.  

Suddenly, a big gust of wind in the parking lot pulled one of the balloons straight off of its ribbon and the balloon was up and out of sight over the trees.  As it soared higher, Gigi crumpled into a mess of shrieks and rage at the wind, and so much sadness about her lost balloon.  She was inconsolable.  But after a minute she shared the thought that maybe the wind had taken the balloon to a different country where children didn't have balloons, or enough toys to play with, and maybe even to a little girl in India.

She was far happier with that thought than she would have been with the balloon.

I think I love the girl she is becoming.

Preschool Begins!

Last week we traveled to Austin, TX for my Grandpa Jack's memorial service (more photos to come!).  We arrived home from Texas on Saturday evening, and on Sunday was the Primary Sacrament Program that (as the Primary President) I have been praying and sweating over for the last few months.  I can't even tell you how many hours have gone into that one project - so many that when it ended I wasn't even sure if it had gone well or not.  Kind of like recognizing your own family's bad habits - it's just hard to see clearly from the inside out, once you become a thread in the tapestry.  And then in case life wasn't difficult enough, I decided to run our primary teacher training in two sessions immediately after the primary program.  It was a long, very full, and gratifying day.

Which is why I was super grateful that my mom friends in our Preschool Coop were fine with waiting until this week to kick off preschool.  Here's Gigi, ready for her first day of school, which was Tuesday.  Can I tell you how excited I am about starting this up again?  It worked really well last year to have us rotate homes and take turns hostessing preschool one day a week, and this year we're upping the ante to two mornings a week for two hours.  It requires a bit more preparation on our part (the price we pay to keep things free) but it will be so worth it.  

Last year Gigi was the youngest in the group at two and a half, and she had the hardest time sitting in her space for even a brief circle time.  It was torture (and not just for her).  Now, a year later, she just sat through her Tutu reading aloud her first chapter book and she has learned how to settle her body through circle time, easy peasy.  It's amazing what one year can do...  On top of that, last year our kids were at the level of A is for Apple, but this week my friend Kim did A is for Attribute, and taught about the 5 senses.  Can you see where I'm going with this?  Engaging with a few kids who are eager to learn, who can settle their bodies and grasp more complex concepts is fun!  

So that's our news for the week.  Gigi will also start back in with Kindermusik again on Saturday, which is the icing on the cake.  I love fall, and I love jumping back into a weekly rhythm and schedule.  We have learned the hard way that being frenetically busy does not do our family any favors, but having a few meaningful things on the agenda for the week helps us to move about engaged in life, like the hum of a bee.

And finally, a few of Gigi's hilarious creations.  With the fashion she adds to her characters, it looks like they could start a parade!

Three and a Half

On the side of our refrigerator I keep a magnetic pad of paper for making grocery lists, and I always have a page of Gigi quotes that I'm collecting and saving for the moment I have a chance to write them down somewhere more permanent.  We host dinners with friends off and on, and on one such occasion I was stuffing away the never ending eruption of extra papers and artwork lying about and I misplaced my list of Gigi quotes.  I rarely misplace anything, and it upset me for days.  I felt like I had lost a chunk of her childhood.  I remembered the gist of a few of the quotes, but because I can usually get them down word for word in the moment, I knew that my memory wasn't capturing them right.  It was so relieving to find them again a few days later.  Here they are.

***

After I told Gigi it was time for quiet time upstairs.

Gigi: Well, I don't like quiet time upstairs.  It's like jail!  My room is like JAIL!

***

During our family home evening discussion about Mormon pioneers, Gigi summarizes her version of what we covered.

Gigi: And then...  they walked, and walked and they passed the Pyramids of Giza, and then they arrived in Salt Lake City!

***

Me: Gigi, L-O-V-E spells love!
Gigi: Okay.  But how do you spell "djembe drum"?

***

Discussing the future.

Gigi: I'm going to play with my children all day when I'm a mommy.  I'm not going to clean up, or anything like that.  'Cause I love my children, so I'm going to play with them all day.

***

In the car, Orion suddenly starts screeching and I am driving and can't look back.

Me: Gigi, can you check on Orion?  Is he okay?
Gigi: Yes, he's just trying to sing.  Opera!

***

Gigi doing one of the things she loves best: yoga.  One of the great Prieto mysteries is where Gigi got her love of yoga and how she managed to learn any of the poses.  Demographically speaking I should be all over yoga, but I'm not sure whether it is really my pace, so this interest has been fueled solely by her.

Summer Wrap Up

I wrote this a month ago, and just remembered to finish it up and publish!

Marcos is home for good now that his summer internship in Charlotte is finished (hooray, hooray, HOORAY!).  Somebody asked me if there isn't a small part of me that is sad that he's back and I have to adjust to having him around, like military wives have to adjust back to having a husband back in the house after a deployment.  I said yes, there is a tiny part of me that is having to adjust: Marcos is a hairy guy, so the bathroom floor is suddenly strewn with little Marcos leg and arm hairs and we need to sweep it more often.  In other words, NO.  Having him home is the best.  I'm slightly less productive since I have someone to enjoy my time with in the evenings, but it's a price I'm wiling to pay.

Some randoms from my largely photo-free summer.  Above are the heavenly from-scratch pancakes my mom made for us one morning, with ricotta cheese and orange zest.  Below is Gigi "giving Orion piano lessons".  I am starting to love them together again.  After a sweet few months of baby brother love, there were a few hairy months when Orion started crawling and tearing down all of Gigi's buildings and creations.  The way she responded to him made me not trust them together because she was constantly having to defend her work - and not always kindly, but now she's starting to see him as just a baby again, and not The Enemy, so they play side by side without much friction.  She is patient when he ruins her things, she retrieves him from the stairs, and tells me when he's crawling up on the table, and they can now make each other laugh.  It's great.

Outside play with my mom, the superhero.  Super, super, super hero of the summer.  My mom made it possible for me to have girl time on a few occasions, she helped me make a million meals, she watched the kids so that I could go to exercise classes, and she watched Orion so that Gigi could do swimming lessons.  And she does it calmly, and well, and makes healthy food while she's watching them.  It's amazing, really.  And I think she even enjoys it.

Miss Anna the 16-year old YMCA swimming teacher, and Gigi, her faithful pupil.  It was Gigi's first time with swimming lessons, and I think it was a good go.  There was definitely a difference in her level of comfort in the water, from day one to her last day of class.  The promise of family night out for a piece of cheesecake once swim lessons were done didn't hurt either.

Drummer boy.  Orion has rhythm moving through him and he loves to drum it out.  We've noticed something funny about him - if you put spoons, or sticks, or any kind of drumstick in his hands and put his hands in the middle of the stick, he will grab it with his other hand, and move his hand down to the end of the stick for better leverage.  I didn't believe Marcos when he told me, but I tried it one day, and sure enough, he adjusted his grip right in front of me.  He is all kinds of surprising.

Orion at Eight

Orion just turned 8 months old.  It feels like a milestone because at this point he's been a pleasant baby as long as he was a colicky baby.  Four months of hard, four of lovey.  

I have been home full-time since Orion was born, and he is definitely growing into the age where he is concerned when I am not around.  Childcare at the YMCA has been a challenge (read: "Metta, come settle your screaming baby"), but luckily my mom recently returned from her travels and he feels comfortable with her, so she has taken the kiddos a few times when I needed an evening mental break at the gym.

Orion has been pretty good at eating, and I found a system I really like for freezing the foods I steam and blend up for him.  I think the trick is: if you steam a vegetable the right way, it tastes like candy.  They say to start with veggies and not fruits so that your baby doesn't refuse things that aren't sweet, but I'm pretty sure that veggies can be as sweet as fruits.

Orion pulls to standing on just about anything, and although he doesn't cruise laterally along a couch yet, he can stand independently without holding onto anything for about ten seconds before he slowly drops to the ground.  I think that he will be walking before he reaches ten months or so.  I can't tell if this will make my life easier or harder.

One of Orion's new tricks is that he grins really big, and shakes his head back and forth really quickly.  We've started saying "no, no, no, no" when he does that so that someday when he's enough of a Pavlovian dog we can say the no's first and he'll shake his head.  Anyway, kind of adorable if you're the mom.  Or the dad.  Or the grandma.

People always ask if Orion is a good sleeper or not, and I'm not sure what to tell them.  He seems good to me, I guess, and that's all that matters?  He goes down around Gigi's bedtime, between 9 and 10pm, and then he's usually up at 1am to eat, and then again at 7am or so.  All of his night feedings are purely about eating, and then rolling over and passing out, so I'm not losing too much sleep.  He also sleeps a solid morning nap, and another one in the afternoon.  I know that as an 8 month old he no longer needs to be waking up in the middle of the night, but the process of weaning from night feedings will require a few days of letting him cry it out, and I've decided to wait until the fall when Marcos is home and I have moral support.  Besides, my naturally independent, curious, and social children are not the type to enjoy a prolonged cuddle, so I take all of the night snuggles with sleepy baby that I can get.

Wouldn't you?

Gigi Says

Here are some things you can hear around our house.

Gigi: Papai, where did you get that owie next to your nose?
Marcos: I got it shaving.
Gigi: Oh.  You better be careful next time!  Chuckling mischievously.  I'm trying to be the boss...

Gigi: Mom, we haven't been to the Timothy's in a long time.  We should go there.  They're missing us.

Gigi has positive reinforcement down pat.  While eating some cookies I gave her after lunch.
Gigi: I love you Mom!  It's so fun to be around you!

After telling Gigi my grand plans to some day make bento boxes for her when she goes to kindergarten, Marcos walked into the room.
Gigi: Papai, did you know that one day my mom is going to be the bento queen?!

Climbing into the car, after leaving the grocery store.
Me: ...But those balloons belonged to her, so she got to choose whether or not to share them.  That's how the world works.
Gigi: No it doesn't work that way!  Everything belongs to ME!

I made a comment about how much better Gigi was becoming at eating spaghetti, now that she is a big girl.
Gigi: I'm trying to show you that I really like you, and I'm growing.  And I really love you.

Summer of (mainly) Fun

We're on week 6 of my 12 weeks of single parenting this summer, and we're hanging in, but sometimes only by the skin of our teeth.  My survival strategies tend to change each week, depending on what sort of glitches came up the week before.  We've toned down the frenetic activity of the first few weeks, and are trying to have only one or two exciting things each day, cushioned with lots of down time, art time, quiet time, and book time.

For the most part, I think that this summer is contributing to a happy childhood for Gigi and Orion instead of destroying it (although on some days when I am flustered and at the end of my rope, it is a little hard to tell).  We have been to the lake with friends, enjoyed many story times at the botanical gardens, pool days with friends, trips to our local museums, lots of practice riding Gigi's new bike, Monday preschool club, picnicked at a million parks, attended puppet shows, and since we just joined the local Y, I have been leaving the kiddos in the child care so that I can catch a break with a zumba or a kickboxing class here and there.  Since I am usually carrying three or four bags, holding the hand of a 3-year old and pushing a baby in a stroller, there is absolutely no way I can schlep around our good camera.  At first I was disappointed that I was not able to capture our summer activities, but it has actually been relieving not to have great photos.  It is when I have a backlog of photos that I feel inclined to blog, and guess what?  I just don't have very much personal time to blog this summer either.

But speaking of photos.  I have taken a few...

Kissy Gigi with her Papai.  We used to have busy weekends.  Now we try to take it slowly and give Marcos as much time with the kiddos as possible.  I loooove weekends.  Even after a long week at work Marcos spoils me when he is home with our family.  

And here is Gigi's new best friend, Michael.  Every once in a while you score the best neighbors in the world, and we are so lucky this time around!  Michael and his family just moved in a few months ago.  When they first moved in I was sad to hear that they only had a 6-year old boy, but it has turned out to be a great match.  Michael is calm, sweet and very much like an older brother to Gigi, minus the fighting.  When I suggested that we write "Friends" over the rainbow on the sidewalk, Michael said, "No, let's write BEST friends".  

Little Man is all over the place.  This photo was taken a few weeks ago, and already he is so much more stable on his feet than he looks in this photo.  He's not quite cruising, but he pulls up on everything and he is starting to move around a bit.  For being such a darned colicky baby, he has become so even tempered, smiley and lovely.

And that's us!