Does life every slow down? Right now, it seems that things just keep getting faster. As what has become usual, the last couple weeks have flown by at a breakneck pace. I'm trying hard to become more comfortable with making deadlines EXACTLY on time, since doing things by the skin of your teeth does, I guess, mean at least that you are not wasting time being ahead of the game. (Although not having any wiggle room takes some getting used to!!!) It's not the style I had before kids, that's for sure. But, ah well. Anyway, here are some of the highlights from the last couple of weeks.
First, two Sundays ago, we officially became members of our church. It is hands-down my favorite church that I have EVER attended, and we are really happy to make the commitment official. They have unbelievable music, dance, pastors (Morris, Parish & Miller) & sermons, and a huge community service program (we first connected with them through the weekly playgroups they host); and their mandate is being "open and inclusive", which we love. It's really incredible to find a place that has all of this in just one spot! It has been our home church since shortly after we moved to NYC, but we've recently decided to make it a regular routine and commit officially. We did that two Sundays ago, and it feels good to be an official part of that community.
Second, Alex and I have been taking turns with manic work schedules. Last week, I attended a mini-conference at Hunter College (on the UNHCHR), then had my weekly class, then participated in my first Activist Alliance training for NOW-NYC, and then (after participating in our church membership morning) drove three hours up to UCONN so I could give an invited talk there the next day. When I got back, I had another class to give, and then sent off what I hope are final copy-editing comments on my coauthored book. In the middle of this, I also turned 32 (happy birthday to me!), and took a whole day off to relax and enjoy the day (thanks to Alex for making it possible by letting me catch up on work on Saturday for the work I didn't do on Friday!). Immediately after this, Alex took a flight out Saturday night for India, where he will be for a week for a workshop. This is the same week that Aidan has no pre-K (fortunately, he will be able to stay at daycare instead!), and a neighbor of ours who usually watches him while I teach class is in Scotland (our wonderful babysitter Laurie will be taking both kids instead!). Things continue to be wild.
In the middle of all of this, life continues as normal. Kiana now has many favorite things: Blue is absolutely and without a question her favorite color, and she looks for it everywhere. She LOVES the letter "O", and searches for the "O" magnet from our alphabet refrigerator set when it gets lost. As part of this, she also LOVES songs that sing "ooooooooooohhhhhhhh!" in them, too. She and Aidan continue to have more fun together every day, and I LOVE seeing them together enjoying each other.
I also had a wonderful birthday day. Alex made me strawberry pancakes for breakfast, and then I went to yoga, had lunch (& beers) with a good friend, and then went downtown to a restaurant called Poke for dinner with the family. While we ended up discovering that the restaurant WAS named for the Hawaiian sushi dish "poke", they didn't actually HAVE any poke there, which was disappointing. However, they did have delicious sushi and sashimi, and the best part of the night was having Aidan and Alex both try the sashimi! even a couple of different kinds! We ended the night with chocolate chip walnut cookies and chocolate mousse cake, and it was a wonderful day.
The most exciting thing that happened this weekend was that Aidan had his first sleepover! Our friend Cira and Mary came over Sunday afternoon, played all afternoon, had dinner, and then spent the night! Amazingly enough, all kids were asleep by 9:30PM, and Aidan and Cira slept happily together all night without waking each other up. It was very exciting to have a built-in playdate first thing in the morning, and everyone enjoyed having banana pancakes (well, Aidan wasn't so psyched about the bananas in them, but he eventually discovered that they were awesome). And overall, it was a resounding success!
We're all looking forward to Daddy being back late Saturday night, but it seems pretty short this time in comparison, and we've got lots of good plans in the works, so things are going well.
