Ida's shout out to ECJ

Ode to Tumbleweeds

Today, Saturday, Ella had to work. So I got a taste of what it would be like if we didn't have fine childcare. I mean, it was a pleasure, and we had fun, and everyone is still alive, but it's tough to handle these two simultaneously...

So here's a few nice photos I stole from the secret Tumbleweed Flickr site (don't try to access it; you're not okay).

Miki with her secret sleeping friend:


Look how happy and serene Miki is:


This is part of a longer series of Ida's intrepid blackberry picking:




And what better than a big-toothed cousin who will hold your hand? Elsie's gone for a week, alas. MIss you!

Dog days of summer

Darn. Last pre-school special at Oak's Park.

Miki's into it.

Cars are mesmerizing.

Theo kept slipping further down and Arthur couldn't stop laughing.

Ida's never going to machine gun anyone.


New camera illuminates some of the terrors of the notorious "Dark Ride":



That junket really tired folks out. Even Ichi, who stayed home to sleep.


A tender hug from Cousin Sylvia, back in Wisconsin.


And two of Jim's favorite things...

A Documentary about the trip to Tumbleweeds

Many times people say to me, "Pete, how in the heck do you deliver four little girls to school at 8:30 AM with such ease and aplomb?" Well, I know I make it look easy, but I also practice during the day, with dolls. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting--as my harassment of Canon has gotten me a new camera, at last--to document one of the morning trips. First, and this isn't easy, I got to get everyone loaded up:

Miki's in here, too, but she's a baby so her seat--in the "Captains Chair" across the aisle from Theo--has to face backward, where she can watch the big girls in the back.


Wait, wait, WAIT. Let's rewind a little bit, here. First I got to drive Ida and Miki over to Martins St, where often I have to roust these scallywags and get them on schedule.


You might say to yourself, "Whoa, Arthur looks a little ragged, a little rough around the edges, green around the gills. I wonder if he was out until 3:30 partying with a Rock God?"
OH, Lord! You can imagine that this attorney had a few things to say about these late night adventures! She told me all about it.

As you can imagine, Arthur had plenty of equivocations.

Anyways, it's always entertaining, over there, and nice to get away from, sometimes. Here we are on the road again:


I unbuckle the big girls, pick up Theo and Miki, and bolt for the front door of Tumbleweeds. Here's Elsie trying to catch up (fortunately, the Moving Van has remote control doors):


First rule of Tumbleweeds: soon as you enter, take off your shoes and wash your hands. Elsie's got the jump on Ida!



Meanwhile, Miki wakes up to be greeted by her friend Willa. (Theo's dominating the boys in the back room, by now.)


I'm racing around, unloading lunches, signing clipboards, filling out forms, unloading clothes, looking good. And then I have to go home and it's kind of sad to leave these girls behind for the day, even though they just want to play with Briana.

Mighty Washougal

The girls are home on Tuesdays.

Miki likes everything.

We traveled across a state line to check out the Washougal River and breastfeed on its banks...

These scallywags were there (Sharon and Madison came too! But they absconded before they could be captured on film. Trust me: they did some fantastic things, and looked great.):

Arthur's really bringing his A Game lately (btw the tattoo is of a cougar cub, he told me, not a lion; it's still healing). On the way home he sat in the "way back" between Elsie and Ida and kept them distracted with some meandering tales about themselves, at the zoo, and also battling a goat and a backhoe loader. These tales rivaled some of the finer narratives of "Dogwalker," and it's no wonder David Eggers wishes Arthur to write a children's book with him.

Anyways, Ida can take a person out into some deep water

and for at least half an hour, too. (There's another good picture, but Ella didn't like it.)


People may be wondering about Theo's walking. Here's an excellent documentary of her regaining her footing on some uneven terrain:

Ida vs. Chandler: A Tender and Heartfelt Goodbye

Oh, Chandler! One of if not Ida's best friend of all time has departed to the East coast with her secret boyfriend! New York City, in fact. Chandler is going to graduate school. In approximately 7 years she'll hire us to be her nannies.


For those who have forgotten, here's a picture of these two friends through time



Additional photos, not as championship quality or monumental as our love for Chandler but happening around the same time as her departure. Chandler is generous, willing to share.

Miki vs. Ichi


Arthur has on at least two occasions picked up all three girls from Tumbleweeds ON HIS BIKE. He is super strong. He just got a new tattoo of a lion that covers his whole back, and it suits him perfectly.

Ida vs. the Fox Nightmares

Ida's starting to sleep through the night again, after the trip, but she has also been beset by nightmares involving foxes. Big foxes, who want to hold her. It's difficult not to place the blame on the "Dora the Explorer" videos that we watched on the airplane. They feature this kleptomaniacal and masked character "Swiper the Fox"; I joked around a little about Swiper to my young niece Sylvia and was met with a trembling, trembling lip. Her mother told me, "Swiper is no joke. Don't joke about Swiper."



Most nightmares are a normal part of coping with changes in our lives. They are not necessarily a sign of pathology and may even be a positive indication that we are actively coping with a new challenge. For children, this could occur in response to such events as entering school, moving to a new neighborhood or living through a divorce or remarriage. It could also have to do with exposure to foxes.



Using role-playing and fantasy rehearsals, we have coached Ida to assert her magical powers and tame the frights of the night. New endings for dreams can be created so that falling dreams become floating dreams and chase dreams end with the capture of the villain and foxes everywhere become not only friendly, but at their own house, far from ours. When we give our children reassurance and encouragement to explore creative solutions to dream dilemmas, we restore their ability to play with the images in their nightmares rather than feeling threatened or demoralized. These assertiveness skills carry over into future dream confrontations and lead to greater confidence to face waking challenges.

D'Amatos! (D'Amatoes?)

Cousins Samson and Sophie! Exciting! These are our Sicilian cousins who live in Milwaukee, and who are rarely seen (by us). Jen and Fred will not be seen on the blog, unfortunately. Needless, to say, they were looking H-O-T. And they were extremely hospitable, even giving up their own bed and their exotic "other bedroom" in their bedroom that will be inhabited, one day, by a footman and a masseuse. Anyway, Cousins Sam and Sophie:


Sam made up a lot of ground in our good opinion on this trip. He's still like a teenager almost but he cleaned the car window Ida wrote on with a crayon, played with her, and came out to eat a pancake or two in the morning. Ida's still talking about him; she even gave him a kiss goodnight. As did Matthew.


Ida often talks about Cousin Sophie, and was eager to get to her house to see her. Here they are...


...and here they are two years ago. Ida is really familiar with this picture, so when we arrived at Sophie's house she seemed convinced that "Baby Ida" would be inside.


Lots of hammocks on this trip.


As Ida would say, "It's crazy."

Canadians, II

On our way out of scenic Door County we hit the old Sevastopol beach on the lake side; the water there was fifty degrees. Too brutal for anyone except Daddy (who went all the way in and earned the admiration of all on the beach until a slightly chunkier father down the beach stayed in even longer) and Ida, who kept pulling unsuspecting folks into the cold. Like Aunt Sara.


Eventually Ida turned blue and broke down and had to be wrapped up:


Grambee did a lot of hard and cold work, out there. Plus, she made sandwiches out of summer sausage, cheese and Saltines.


What did Miki think?


Here's the whole team eating those "sandwiches"; check out Uncle Pierre LeBlanc in his orange shorts! And JIm in his Skin Cancer Survivor Wear:



Cousin Sylvia made something. She had to use a stick.

Canadians, I

The LeBlancs voyaged in from Ottawa, Canadia. That made Ida kind of excited, kind of crabby. That's Cousin Lillian and Aunt Sara!


Some people think Cousin Sylvia looks like Aimee Mann, which is kind of a weird thing to think.


Here's one of the last trips of the 2000 [apologies; thanks for Grambee for the correction] Ford Taurus ("Car of the Year"); at Ella's Prodding (some believe it was actually Grambee's idea), it was turned in to a chevy Aveo by B. Hussein Obama's "Cars for Clunkers" program. Still, one can breastfeed in it.


We scaled the immense and vertiginous Eagle Tower!


Ida climbed almost all the way to the top. Carrying...who's that we see?


Matthew! (And Jim, whom Ida did not carry)