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hello hello! i'm cat, and this is my (our) blog. i write a lot about motherhood and try to find the creative in our day to day lives. i also may share photo sessions as they come my way or a photos series i may be doing as a personal project. maybe a new recipe we're all loving at the moment. instagrams and dr. seuss quotes. this is also a space for me to just write. i've always been a lover of words. grab a cuppa brew and have a browse. cheers.

Posts tagged Charleson Park

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Theo suffers from what I like to call the second child syndrome. Poor little guy does not have the month by month following of his life like Evelyn does. And Evelyn, well her recordings drop off just about the time Theo entered the scene. They do have a lot of instagrams though, and who doesn’t love instagram? You can tell by my overuse that I’m a bit obsessed with the app. Thank god for the iPhone. I am truly indebted to Apple b/c without their products my kids would go undocumented for the most part. They just make it so easy to remember moments. Anyhow, I’ve gotten off point, this is not supposed to be an ad for Apple.

A couple of weeks ago I made the effort to grab my big camera along with the fifty million other things I always take with me when we leave the house (Matt usually takes one diapers and one pack of wipes, and he survives), in order to capture Theo at 9 months and Evelyn just before she hits 3. Officially, officially no longer a baby. No more baby chub, real little girl ringlets, the ability to hold a conversation, reveling in her power over her little brother, scraped knees of a little lady and all. A proper little girl. This was right before Theo started walking, when he was happy to sit for a few seconds and play with dirt and rocks and stones that all little boys (and Evelyn) like to play with, before crawling off. I wanted to remember his chubster cheeks, his dark turned light hair starting to curl around his ears, his smile, his curious hands, his happy demeanor, his fascination with his big sister. Just yesterday we were brining him home from the hospital and Evelyn asked him to get out of his car seat to play with her…before long we’re gonna need another baby around this place! (don’t tell Matt; and, you’re probably wondering how I can say that after yesterday’s post!) Besides, can you imagine how neglected a third child would feel?! There would literally be no pictures of that kid. Guess we’ll have to make do with the two rascals we already have. It’s a good thing we like them :)  

Little tip for moms of little girls on making clothes last way longer than they should: that shirt she is wearing under her hoodie is actually an 18 month dress. Still fits her in the arms no problem!

Seriously?! He has the best smile.

I love how Theo is looking at her in this picture. ha!

 

 

 

 

Finally getting back to my blog! I wrote this post while Matt was gone last week, about our little adventure in Charleson Park, a quick 3 block walk from our building…

The days have been quietly slipping away as Matt has been gone since Tuesday now. We still have a large chunk of time before he gets back, but so far it’s not been so bad. We’ve been exploring the city a bit, but ironically so I’m already finding myself comfortable within “our” spots, stores and sidewalks. I don’t plan on it staying like this though, there is too much to see. I just laugh a little as I see myself fall into the patterns I’ve always fallen into: veering away from things that are different, new, scary. We truly are creatures of habit (at least I am!). At the same time I realize I need to give myself a little bit of time to just get acclimated. I think I’ve had a good amount of change the last few weeks…

I hate not blogging and recording more consistently when a lot is going on, there’s so much to remember and record—but that’s exactly why I haven’t, because a lot is going on! But as I have at least the next foreseeable moments ahead of me to just sit and think about the last two weeks or so, I’m sure it will come back…

One thing in particular I’ve been so impacted by is the friendliness of strangers. I’ve mentioned it before, but numerous times I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that people don’t mind just talking with me, even as they don’t know me. Every time they’ve been interested that I’m here only a few weeks, from the US with my family because of Matt’s signing. They are eager to help and point out local things I need to check out and do with the kids. It honestly and truly brightens my day, as recently I’ve not had much adult interaction other than gritting my teeth at the checkout person as the kids squirm to be free.

Which I feel like the kids are doing a lot of lately. I’m not sure if it’s the size of our apartment or our lack of toys as we left everything in MD, but they just seem couped up. I really don’t know why since we walk literally everywhere (except for Ikea where I have gone a bit crazy). Maybe it’s the adjustment for them too. Although they are kids, I’m sure they know things are different.

On a particularly long day this past Monday, after a particularly rainy weekend, as the kids were about to drive me insane, the skies stopped spitting on us and I knew I had to do something with them. So off we went to Charleson Park. Or I went in general direction of the park. I didn’t actually know where the entrance was. So I found myself with my double stroller, one kid strapped in and one roaming free as the traffic whizzed by us on 6th Avenue. In hindsight, 7th Avenue would’ve been a much better choice.

The steeply inclined dirt hill without a stroller would’ve been barely doable, but for some reason I decided to try it out anyways. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking, especially since I was in visible view of the road and people in their cars would clearly be able to witness my error in judgment by pushing my kid up a mountain while my two year old braved it on her own. So up we went…and about halfway there I knew I had made a really bad decision as the stroller started nosing back down. Evelyn had veered off to my left and was panicking as she attempted to scale some rocks. Luckily she pulled herself together and made it to the top unscathed. I on the other hand was still stuck. I refused to look down at the cars as I knew they were wondering what nut job would do such a thing.  Instead of fighting gravity, I went with her and hoped Theo would survive the bumpy ride down…jokes, jokes. I did, however, go with gravity and turn the stroller so that it was facing down the hill. I put it in the locked position, and got Theo out so I could just walk him up the rest of the way. I then faced the dilemma of leaving my 2 year old to watch my 9 month old so I could get the stroller. Luckily the stroller was not far, but still, we were at the top of a hill. I plopped Theo down, planted Evelyn next to him, and told her to squeeze him and DON’T LET HIM CRAWL AWAY FROM YOU. Knowing how she loves to be in control of her little brother, I knew she’d take this task very seriously. She didn’t disappoint as she proceeded to grab his neck in a headlock hold, that booger wasn’t getting away from her.

So, we made it out unscathed. We went on to discover a beautiful and large park complete with trees and trails that eventually led to the water and lots of open space to run around. There is even a great playground for Evelyn, and swings for Theo, which make him giggle. What’s best though, is the view. The view across the water is spectacular. Bridges and loads of sailboats in one direction with high rises in the background, and to another direction is BC Stadium with the mountains behind it. I think it’ll be best if I just show you. And, on our way out, we made sure to take the bridge on 7th Ave. Hindsight’s a bitch sometimes, ain’t it? At least it made for a good story.

Enjoy…

She loves the elevator in our building. It’s like the highlight of her day to push the buttons and guess which door is going to open.

Ash Ave.

A fall in the mud. Didn’t stop her from playing, though.

Wasn’t expecting to see this.

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