overheard

"mami! mami! he can FINALLY do it! he did it! he can finally get over the gate without me taking it down! without me even helping him! now joey can climb over the gates like me! horraaaay!".

then they both show their faces at the top of the 1st flight of stairs, smiling.

awesome. goodbye showers. goodbye going upstairs. goodbye downtime.

not that bad after all

there's been a lot going on lately. a lot. i usually don't' do well with a lot but lately i've been learning to manage and juggle. two things my body does not how to do well instinctively. learning, slowly but surely.

today was gray's annual doctor's visit. it's been a week of nonstop crying and full out freak out attacks because i made the mistake of telling her last week (duh!) that she had an appointment, and that yes, she was going to get one.little.shot. and i've paid the price for that honesty every day since. let me just tell you something...learn from my mistakes. do not lie to your children, but do not tell them in advance, either. seriously. nightmares, night sweats, sleeplessness...not worth it. luckily, we made it through, and the nurse, realizing that she had a full-blown-four-year-old-freak-attack on her hands, let us get the shot first, before the appointment, which is not protocol. as soon as the shot was done (sorry to all those mamas out there that had their kids at the same office today!) gray was fine, and charming, and her usual hippie my-little-pony-huggin' self. my four year old girl only weighs 33 pounds. seeing her on that crispy white paper in her little tinkerbell undies almost made my heart burst. she's a tiny four year old person, personality bursting at the seams. and after her shot, she stated

"see mama, getting a shot wasn't that bad after all".

maybe i can learn a lesson or two from my sweet girl. with all the hustle and bustle, and disruption of routines...maybe it isn't that bad after all. in fact, in little over two weeks, i've got to spend a week with one of my besties, watch two babies being born into the world (my third birth was yesterday!), and immersing myself in summahtime. not that bad after all.

(gray's new shoes, and this picture- courtesy of auntie emily)

matchbox 200

(another picture stolen from auntie emily, but i can't resist)

we ain't no stinkin' matchbox 20 here, people, we're at least matchbox 200.

having a boy after being the mama to a little girlie girl is so different. i hate to blame it on gender but my little guy is so boyish. all on his own, he's discovered the beauty and allure of matchbox cars. and after realizing that he just loves them so much and they keep him so damn occupied, this feminist-geography-majorin'-mama is full on board, buying up the yard sale cheapies like they are going out of style. the older and crappier the better...i figured i better at least teach him to appreciate the vintage cars while i'm at it. cars cars cars, that's pretty much all you'll hear about over the course of the day here. we even went to a antique car show this past weekend, something that 1. i never thought i would do but 2. found highly enjoyable. cars cars cars. gotta love the cars.

in other news, gray looked up at my very seriously yesterday and stated:

"mama, i know i have a really deep voice, but i'm still a person." hum.

taggie tag tagged

i've been taggie tag tagged by mindertins and erina (anyone else?) to play along in this meme...so i'll take a second break from the chaos and check in-

*We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
*Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
*People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
*At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and they should read your blog.

reading: harry potter #7- i'm taking my time with it. i don't want to speed through it and be left with nothing. i don't care if it's trollish, jkr can write herself some good books. i like looking forward to bedtime, when i slip under the covers in the AC and read about 5-7 pages before i fall blissfully asleep.

watching: nothing much. PBS kids. we don't have real cable and i don't stay up late enough to watch anything good. although last night, after realizing that our dryer is broken, we lied in bed and watched fat march. which is just wrong on so many levels. but we watched anyway, of course.

dreaming: gray has a doctor's appointment on friday. no big deal, right? wrong. she needs to get a shot, and pretty much it's the end of the world as i know it. yesterday was filled with bloody-murder screaming about the impending appointment. girl's got some major anxiety. it would drive me crazy except i.used.to.be.the.same.way. funny how quirky stuff like that can pass down. anyway, she woke up screaming last night, screaming about shots. so we went into her room and i gave her some guided visualizations, which i should probably be good at considering my line of work...but instead i made her imagine a big pool filled with peanut butter cup ice cream, and us floating on big peanut butter cups, and floats that were big spoons. and big birds in the sky that pooped chocolate sauce, and when it starts to rain all that comes down are sprinkles...

eating: tomato and cucumber salads from the garden. and about to make zucchini bread, as soon as i can get my lazy ass to the grocery store to pick up eggs and sugar.

doing: doula meetings. upcoming births. horribly behind on emails and to-do-stuff in regular life.

wearing: hand-me-downs. my friend nicole was kind enough to gift me a big bag of fabulous clothes this past weekend, and now i'm strutting around in a purdy new dress today. it's helping me deal with the humidity. thank you.

managing: to clean out basement today? maybe? i heart the fall...i want to start clean and fresh. i want to get rid of everything but i have yard sale baggage and can't manage to have my own. maybe i can convince my dad to have one for me?

bonding: we've been reading books. lots of books. and drawing. gray's drawing skillz have increased exponentially. and her letter-making abilities. it's incredible how kids learn on their own, when they are ready. i'm in awe of my kids every day.

who do i tag now? i hate this part. femiknit, em, erina, mindy (cheating, i know), jen, amanda, stacy t., wendy, and todd. xx

"oh!..."

(picture blatantly stolen from auntie emily)...and just as an aside, my cherubs don't usually go around advertising for polo sport ralph lauren, but it was a hand-me-down, and if you knew how fast joey can tear up and stain a t-shirt, you'd understand why at any moment he can be seen 1. advertising for companies i don't know thanks to loving hand-me-downs and 2. wearing tutus and easter dresses if we don't have clean laundry and 3. usually strutting around naked. so there.

so joey's got this new thing. everything is "oh!...cars!" or "oh!...blue!" or whatever he may be observing at the moment. i have to say that it may be the cutest thing i've ever witnessed in my life...my 19 month old son mimicking a little old granny. i love the oh's. it reminds me to never lose the wonder about the simple things that life has to offer us.

oh!

so what do you do?

so what do you do when your best girlfriend is in town...the one that you lived with in college, the one that saw the best of you, but also the worst of you? the one who laughed when you were on the bathroom floor hugging the public toilet bowl after your first love affair with vodka, with strangers' pubes close to your lips? you relive old times, and then you make new ones, of course. having my two little mini-me's with us only increases the nina beana and auntie emily fun.

here's us. see how sleepy we are? that's because we are. not only was this picture pre-coffee, but it was post-week-long-visit. i snapped it right before emily walked out...after our jam-packed week filled with crafting, birthing, thrifting, bonding, travelling, gardening, and being with each other.

there was a healthy dose of travelling around in the car...which was thankfully air conditioned.

and then there was this silliness...at a photo studio, getting our "family portrait" taken. yes, those are child-sized cowgirl hats. and yes, i have an invisible lasso. and yes, those are magical mushrooms and fireflies on the backdrop.

our gay husbands even got in on the action. don't think for a second that i won't frame this bad-boy and hang it on the wall. giant pencils and stacks of fake books are a must.

so how do you balance having two insane children while having a wonderous houseguest for a week, you might ask? well, when things get boring, you give them giant bars of auntie-emily-gifted soap, throw them out on the deck in a rainstorm, and have them take showers, au naturale.
and then there was the crafting. bookmarks, quilts, the usual. crafting, coffee (lots of coffee), and thrifting. buying stuff for a change was kind of fun, made funner by a girlfriend egging your purchases on.


then there was the picnicing and the festivaling and the concerting. and the kids acting wild on the ocean. and the kids getting covered in tuna. if i have one gross-out in the world, it may be kids covered in tuna. the only thing worse is breastfeeding a child after they eat a tuna sandwich. give me naked unshowered people to massage, give me toe jam and toe lint, but please don't make me breastfeed a recently tuna-ed child.

moving on...
lots of pictures. lots of love. new memories to eclipse the already-full-locker of memories we already have together. thank you em for taking caramel, for doing all the things in one week with me that i've been wanting to do forever.

xx

photobooth friday- the squished edition

7.23.07. lake george, NY- arcade

we played "how many people can you fit into a photobooth in lake george?" with the charlton's last week, and this is what we came up with. four adults, and three kids.

ro, nina beana, jen, johnny
joey, gray, and seth

i could eat seth's face in the first shot. jen and i cut the strip in half and then she made me close my eyes and choose my half. although both halves rocked, i was secretly stoked that i picked the top one...the one with seth's intense wide-eyed doe stare.

happy photobooth friday! and don't think this was our only strip from the trip, yo.

following the dream

i once had a dream that i would guide babies into the world, and hold hands with mamas that were scared or in pain or even blissful, letting them know that they weren't alone. and now i'm following the dream, driving through the city in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep, darkness all around and the rain starts to fall, and every song that comes on a radio sounds like a tailored soundtrack to my new life. these past few days have been an extension of that dream. i feel more alive than i've ever felt, despite the sleeplessness and all the breaking of routines. it's all becoming real. thank you universe for providing me with such life changing experiences, and for guiding me with the magic of life.


auntie emily is also in town for a week, which has been such a blessing. our household is turned upside-down with love, with creativity, with piles of gifts and meals being created. the kids are filthy but happy, the adults are well-fed and our souls are filled up with the best things that we need. we are all together again, acting like we used to, going to tattoo parlors and portrait studios, getting family pictures taken with oversized pencils and tiny cowgirl hats. we sneak into each other's bedrooms and we lay together on the couch eating donuts. if only the summer could last forever...

what's in your wallet?

every day has been a whirlwind
between the vacation
and the charlton-high
and the bags to pack and unpack
and then the veggies in the garden to pick
and the blueberries to eat
and the summer suppers to be had on the deck
and the birthday presents to create
and the parties to go to
and the pregnant mamas to massage and
the two upcoming births to attend
and you can't forget about the throwing up
from all the dehydration and the being out in the sun
and then auntie emily's visit later this morning
and a week to fill up with
antique-ing and thrifting and art projects
and the food, can't forget the food
and the swimming
and the smores
and the love.

there's so much.
what's new with you? what's in your wallet?

overwhelmed with it all

we're home. mama's sleepy but oh-so-happy and fulfilled. i heart vacation. i heart our sweet, sweet friends. i heart sleepy little 60's towns and road trips and the feeling of coming home to your own bed. i heart my kids who make me so damn proud.

i'd post more, but i'm off to make out with harry potter for a few blissful minutes before falling dead asleep. until then, here's the link to my flickr vacation set:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/93618941@N00/x7z8Fp

and in other news, the wishmama's rescheduled date originally planned for this friday the 27th has been postponed again until a later date, which we'll announce soon! sorry for any inconvience. xx

good night.

the gilbert family ABC's

"ABCDEFG- shake your bootie

HIJKLMNOP- shake your bootie

QRS- shake your bootie

TUV- shake your bootie

WX- shake your bootie

Y and Z- shake your bootie

now i know my ABC's- shake your bootie

next time won't you sing with me- shake your bootie!"


good luck in school, kids. good luck in school.

xx

wishmamas update for all you local peeps

tomorrow's gathering at philips academy with children's author tabatha d'agata is going to be postponed due to the crazy rain until next friday july 27th, from 10am-12noon. stay dry!

home school

it doesn't take much to make this mama happy- and here's all it took yesterday...this new pair of shoes. they are the perfect shoe- cloggish but not frumpish, heelish but not ridonkulously girlie. talk about putting a pep in my step. thank you, sweet dr. scholls for making my day.

what have we been up to, you ask? a whole lotta home school stuff, just trying to get through the rainy week intact. the week before vacation and births to attend and our delicious upcoming house guest. (ok, em, house family...is that better?) taking the time to just sit in the house and be, as hard as that is for us. there has been, of course, the usual gatherings and work things and massaging-mama things and harry potter movie going dates thrown in to keep life interesting. but here's a little scream (oops, i meant stream...well, at least i think i meant stream) of conciousness about what we've been doing:

home school
reading the phantom tollbooth out loud
watching pregnancy massage videos together and practicing
reading shel silverstein books
and listening to the cd's afterwards so we can hear what his voice sounds like
learning about insects
and sharing
and having our own art shows and museums
making ABC scrapbooks and thinking about letters
even though it's summer
filling up big bags of art supplies
and then making butterflies
and nonsense drawings
thank-you card creating
and life lessons in the garden
about growing and flowers
and the birds and the bees
and death and new beginings
lots of sitting back
watching the kids learn together
doing dangerous things in a somewhat
controlled and monitored environment
somewhat
and making it through
with only
minor
bumps
and
bruises.

from the mouths of babes

yesterday morning, while in the garden, grace came running out back with a new piece of artwork in her hand.

she says "look what i made mama! i made this for boo boo! see?"

i say "wow, that's beautiful, he's going to love it."

"but look, i even wrote his name...see... B-O-O-B-O-O...boo boo!"

"that's awesome," i say.

"i did it all by myself, without you micro-managing me!" she replies.


i swear to god this happened. her vocabulary is out of control.

here comes the sun: photobooth friday

july 2, 2007
mama and gray at salisbury beach, MA- tailgating with tripoli's pizza, puppa and joey

this is my new favorite summahtime strip. my dad thinks that i look like alice from the brady bunch in the first square, and i can't disagree. i was trying to be all gangsta but my hands got cut out of the frama. the second square...i was trying for the profile shot but i decided to make a horsie mr. ed face. the third square features a creepy glowing finger that makes it look like gray is flipping the bird. and i'm giving her the bunny ears. the last shot- my fav. i was bouncing gray up and down on my knee, because i heard that photobooths capture the shot even if there's movement. if you look closely at my earrings, you can see that they are flying up in the air. it's my favorite photobooth detail to date. gray's face is priceless. i heart photobooths.
speaking of photobooths, isn't this postcard from andrea over at hulaseventy wonderous? she's also the mastermind behind photobooth fridays, might i add.

and seeing her hand-writing and sweet message just made me swoon.

lately, this is what we do to keep busy.

are you keeping busy in this hot, hot heat? xx

summahtime

there is just too much to write about, unfortunately. you can look at the flickr pics, which will give you a glimpse into the craziness that has been our summer (or summah, if you're a local) lives, running from place to place, and dipping in our feet in a whole bunch of waters. our vacation was dreamy, and filled with donuts and lobsters, herb walks and waterfalls. hidden treasures in trees and raspberries on the side of the road. the rest of our time has been spent foraging in the garden, weeding, picking blueberries and raspberries, dancing our booties off to live music, cutting wildflowers and stuffing them into old salsa jars. there have been lots of mangoes eaten. and those ice creamy treats called drumsticks. we've had our share of those, too. we've got it good, us gilberts. there's a crazy magic in the humid air, threatening to rain down on us. it's the magic of birth and redemption and cleansing. it's good music in the car even if your good music is neil diamond. it's receiving a mailbox full of postcards and the latest issues of your favorite magazines. it's hanging out with friends drinking wonderful drinks and eating delicious food that you grew with your hands. it's about breaking down and feeling so low only to come full circle and feel alive again.

wishmamas- cookin' up a book with children's author tabatha d'agata!

wishmamas- cookin' up a book with children's author tabatha d'agata!

come one, come all!

please join us at philips academy in andover, MA for an outside wordy recipe adventure with children's book author tabatha d'agata! you can read more about the wordy recipe program here, and find lots of information and pictures of tabatha and her books here.

when: friday, july 20th, 2007 at 10am-12pm. (raindate july 27th, 2007)

where: philips academy in andover, at the little field with the mini-stage. take your first left off of rt.28 at the lights when you see philips and follow the road as it curves around the field. you'll see us gathered- pull over and park anywhere.

what: (from tabatha's website)- Here's a recipe that’s sure to satisfy the hungriest appetite! Wearing her apron for this interactive and theatrical book presentation, Tabatha Jean D’Agata will discuss and demonstrate the critical parts of a story by using story-building elements from a book as her ingredients. She'll add those ingredients into a large stew pot, stir the final papery-mixture -- and then reach in to reveal a book in its entirety. The final recipe result? Sprinkle on some drama, and Tabatha to read and share!

at philips, you'll find a cozy outdoor ampitheater at the entrance to the bird sanctuary. we'll gather there to watch tabatha enthrall the beans with her words! after the program, feel free to picnic on the green grass or take a walk through the forest sanctuary, where there are seven letterboxes hidden! find the letterbox clues here. the kids also may enjoy dressing up on the ampitheater mini-stage and putting on a show, so pack up your props and costumes, too...if you have room in your bag :)

any questions, please contact me (email is on the sidebar) and i'll be sure to get back to you.

conversation at 5am

she likes the weeds, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

"gray, please don't touch my boobs."

"why? oh yeah...they're sensitive, right?

"yes."

(touches them again)

"gray! i said please don't touch my boobs!"

"i'm not touching your boobs...i'm touching MY boobs."



we're headed off for vacation...lobster, cape breezes, homemade quilts, an old-time bandstand concert, birthday celebrations, some much needed catching up, letterboxing, and coffee on the porch. happy weekend! xx

crowns just because

crowns just because, originally uploaded by Nina Marie Gilbert.

today we wear crowns just because
and today we buy new craft supplies for vacation
just because
and we fill our hearts and our heads
with stickers and flowers
and books of wonderment
just because
and we have lollipops for breakfast
and listen to a new cd and shake our booties
and take naps with the fan on
just because
and work on some presents for our friends
and dream of sleeping on the cape tomorrow night
and sharing food and snacks and time at the beach
just because

wear your crown proudly today
cheers to you and your summer spirit. xx

this is how we roll on the 4th of july

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i'd like to say that this scene was something special...something that we don't do often. this scene, however, plays itself out more than not at our house. we like to use the 4th of july as reason to justify our crazy family obsession with marching and dancing and our lp's of 'reader's digest god bless america- songs of pride and patriotism' from 1984. we love marching. we love yankee doodle dandy. we love the 4th and we love pissing off our neighbors at 5:30am with marching tunes. we aren't acting for the camera, peeps. this is just how we roll on the 4th of july.