Dahlias!

Since my university is on Spring Break, I am able to do things that I haven't been able to do for a long time. I feel like I need to make the most of this break, because it may be the last carefree and stress-free season that I experience for some time. The warm air and sunny skies have been more than accommodating, so I've been able to do a little bit of gardening.

I planted some spring bulbs this afternoon: dahlias. Hopefully I didn't plant too many dahlias in the same section of the house. We had a monster-sized dahlia at our old house, and I worry that I might have just created a dense, late-summer jungle to surround one corner of our house.

  I planted the Nonette and Arabian Night dahlias on the south side of the house. In the process, accidentally upset two Allium bulbs that I planted last fall. Hopefully they'll be alright. I'm kicking myself for that mistake.

I planted the Yellow Passion and the Thomas Edison bulbs on the west side of the house (to the right of the front porch, near our rhododendron). The rhodie isn't thriving, so I'm hoping that we can add some more color and bulk to that area of the garden.

It will be nice to have some large blooms in the garden during late July and August. I hope these grow!

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I have really enjoyed looking at my daffodils over the past few weeks. Any time I go in or out of the house, I make sure to look at their bright blooms stretching down the length of our home. It cheers me to see their yellow heads bobbing in the wind. As a result, I keep on singing a song around the house that I learned in sixth or seventh grade; the song is written with lyrics from a poem by William Wadsworth:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

I memorized this song and poem when I was in a choir for children who were homeschooled. I was only homeschooled for about a year, maybe a year and a half, but one of the things that I remember most about the experience was this choir. We had a dynamic and eccentric conductor whose name was Mrs. Burke. I think that her passion and interest in music helped to encourage my own desire to actively participate in choirs over the next decade of my life.

Try as I might, I can't find the version of the song online that I learned when in this choir as a teenager. I hope that I come across the music again one day, so I can include the information about the music and composer in this post. But when writing this post, I found some other nice choral versions of this poem. Here is a really nice a capella version by Robert Sund, as sung by Camerata Musica Limburg:



This is another nice version written by Myles Wright:

J's Birthday Weekend

This was an important birthday for J this year, so I wanted to make sure that he had a special day. The night before his birthday, we went out to celebrate with our friends Meka and John (the latter celebrates his birthday on the day after J). We ate dinner at the Madison Park Conservatory and then hung out at our friends' place for a few hours. Meka got donuts as a birthday treat for the boys:

Sam had a sleepover at Bop and Gram's house that night, which meant that J got to sleep in on his actual birthday. After we picked up some pies for J's birthday dinner with the extended family, we picked up Sam from his sleepover. While we were with Gram, J opened two presents. This picture was taken right before he opened his present from Sam (a Batman t-shirt). Sam wanted to buy J a Robin t-shirt (so that he and J could be sidekicks when Sam is in his Batman costume), but I convinced Sam that J would rather wear a Batman shirt than a Robin shirt:

The boys wore their Batman shirts together for the first time on the following day (the day after J's birthday)

After picking up Sam, we headed to a nearby outlet mall to grab some lunch. As soon as we got out of our car, we ran into my good friend Rachael (which is a coincidence, since neither of us live near these outlets). Her husband Richard was shopping in another area of the outlet mall so we didn't get to see him, but we got to visit with Rachael for about thirty or forty minutes. She even joined us at Subway for lunch. We had Sam take a picture of us afterward, so we could remember the fun event. The first picture didn't turn out, but Rachael and I ducked down for the second shot and it turned out alright:

J decided that he wanted to go to a movie on his birthday. So after eating with Rachael we left the mall and drove down the street to the local movie theater, where Oz The Great and Powerful was playing. It was a fun show. Sam was a little bit scared of the witches and The Dark Forest, but he did just fine.

We swung by COSTCO afterward and picked up some fun treats (including the chocolate chip cookies that J loves). Then we went over to a store that J recently heard about: The Root Beer Store. J loves to try different types of root beer, and this place is filled with bottles and bottles of different flavors and brands. He doesn't want to aspire to be a connoisseur of root beer (he said tonight that a "connoisseur" is someone who has dislike things), but considers himself an "enthusiast." Here he is, surrounded by bottles of his favorite drink:

This bottle wasn't for sale, but we thought it was an interesting novelty bottle to keep in the store.

We came home in the late afternoon and I pretended like we were done with our birthday activities for the day. However, I had asked a few of J's friends from high school to show up at our house in the evening and surprise him. My plans worked out perfectly and J didn't suspect a thing. They went out and enjoyed an evening together.

The next day, we had a family dinner at J's parents house with all of our cousins in the area. We had three different kinds of pies:

 

I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful, affectionate and thoughtful husband. I'm so glad that he was born!

Sam and Girls

Sam thinks that he completely understands girls. Last night, right before Sam fell asleep, we were chatting about who he wants to invite to his birthday party (which, incidentally, is a few months away). The topic turned toward inviting some of his girl cousins to his party (which he wants to do). But as we discussed girls, he explained to me (while lying on his back in bed) the difference between boys and girls. Below is his list of "what girls like." As Sam lay on his back in bed, he listed these things off on his fingers, one by one, as he spoke:

Girls like:
1) Princesses
2) Queens
3) Unicorns
4) Ponies

In contrast, Sam says that these are the things boys like:
1) Superheroes
2) Transformers
3) Star Wars
4) Dinosaurs
5) "Boy stuff"

Sam's generalization is cute right now, since he is a little boy and trying to figure out his own definition of the world. But I hope that one day he realizes that his generalization is stereotypical and even a little ridiculous, like this "unicorn princess Barbie" image that I found while writing this post. J and I tried to emphasize that I don't like any of the things on the "girl list," even though I'm a girl. Sam didn't know how to respond to that. It will be interesting to see if these clear-cut gender distinctions continue in his mind over the next several years...

Nature Walk: Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

Yesterday, when the weather was so nice and sunny, we decided to go for an adventure to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. J's friend sent has awesome pictures that he took on a visit, so we thought we'd take Sam. Plus, we knew that the relatively flat boardwalks would appeal to Sam's little legs.

The excursion went fairly well. Sam was thrilled at the prospect of using his binoculars, so he was pretty cheerful for the first half. He liked to try and read all of the informational signs about different wildlife, too. About halfway through, though, we began to walk into some pretty dense fog. We couldn't see many birds at that point, and Sam began to complain about feeling cold. So we turned around and walked through the sunny section of the refuge to reach our car. We were glad we got at least a little bit of sun; the whole reason we went on this outing was to be outside in the sunshine!

We'll have to come back in the summertime, when we have a better chance of having continuous clear weather. If anyone plans to go to this area, be aware that there is a $3.00 entrance fee. You also can download a .PDF of the Refuge Trail map beforehand.

Here you can see the fog starting to roll into the refuge. These trees were really interesting, since they were spread far apart and didn't have a lot of branches. J thought that one of them in the far distance of this photo (between J and Sam) looked like a giant skeletal hand that was tilted at an angle, as if reaching out of the ground.

Daffodils and Rainbows

Spring is here! The daffodils that I planted last fall started to bloom today. It looks like these yellow ones will open first, and then we'll see some of the white and orange ones later.

We are really enjoying the sunny weather that we had yesterday and today. I feel so much more productive and happy on sunny days. My busy work schedule also seems much more manageable to me on sunny days, too.

The sun has also brought some beautiful rainbows to our neighborhood. My mother-in-law took this picture of our house last week:

This photo reminds me a little bit of a painting by Frederic Edwin Church that I saw in the Metropolitan Museum of Art last month. I'd never seen this painting before, and I was really impressed with Church's use of light and color:

Frederic Edwin Church, The Aegean Sea, ca. 1877

Detail

New York trip!

A few weeks ago we went on a trip to New York. I went to attend CAA this year, partially so I could participate in the THATCamp sessions on digital technology and art history. I learned a lot in the conference, and I recapped a few thoughts from the conference on my art history blog.

Sam and J came along for the trip, too. While I sat in dark conference rooms with art historians (mournfully dressed in black), J and Sam went to the fun tourist sites. They covered a lot of ground in the city and saw several things, including the Empire State Building, FAO Schwarz, the Statue of Liberty, the Natural History Museum, and The Museum of Mathematics. In the evenings (or whenever I skipped some conference sessions, which wasn't often!), we did things together. We loved going to the Met and "The Lion King" together as a family on Valentine's Day. We also tried going to the Frick Collection together, only to discover that children under ten are not allowed. So J and Sam went to the Whitney while I stayed at the Frick.

We had fun eating dinner with my Aunt B, who was working in New York that week. We also loved visiting with my brother A, who visited with us for about a day and a half. We went with A to the MoMA, Dia:Beacon, FAO Schwarz (a second visit for J and Sam!) and Dylan's Candy Bar.

Sam was a champion traveler on this trip. He had a little trouble falling asleep on our red eye flight to New York, but that was really the only thing that was hard for him. I feel like we've really reached a sweet spot with him in terms of his development. It's really easy to take him places and travel, and he also has the patience to go to places which J and I would like to visit (like art museums). He's very good and staying with us, following instructions, and (almost always) keeping his hands to himself. I'm proud to have such a well-mannered and conscientious little boy.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Sam and J on top of the Empire State Building

 

Dinner with Aunt B near Grand Central Station!

Poor Sam was so wiped out with the time difference; he fell asleep after eating a small slice of pizza.

Sam was very excited to see the Statue of Liberty. He probably anticipated this part of the trip more than anything else.

When we went to the Met, we each picked things that we wanted to see. Sam picked Egyptian art and medieval armor, I picked Greek and Renaissance/Baroque art, and J picked mid-20th century art. When we were in the ancient Greek gallery, Sam was impressed when I told him that this kouros figure looked a little like Egyptian art. Here Sam is standing in the same stance as the Metropolitan Kouros. When we were in the Egyptian gallery, he kept looking for statues that had one foot in front of the other.

Holding hands in a classical art gallery

Family portrait reflected in an Anish Kapoor sculpture

 

 J and a room full of Albers!

Sam liked this knight the best; he thinks the armor looks the closest like his pretend armor costume.

Getting ready for "The Lion King" with my little valentine!

A happy kid after "The Lion King" show

 

Sam doesn't know the names of a lot of paintings, but he does know that Van Gogh created "The Starry Night." When we got to New York, I told Sam that we would get to see some paintings by Van Gogh. He asked if we would see "The Starry Night" - and we actually could fulfill that request!

 My brother A used to have a reproduction of Rousseau's "The Sleeping Gypsy" in his room.

Sam was also very excited to see this Picasso painting, "Girl Before a Mirror." We own a poster of this painting (which lists underneath that the painting is from New York), so Sam specifically asked to see this painting on our trip. I'm very pleased that my little boy asked to see "his Picasso painting" while we were visiting!

 At Dylan's Candy Bar with A