Monopoly

When my kids play Monopoly Jr, it is the most interesting thing. My six year old, Mary-Mae, obsessively arranges here money in to neat organized stacks according to their value. This makes me think she is a planner, like to know what is ahead, and where her feet are planted. My four year old, George, makes a point of throwing all his money into a mixed up pile so he has to dig to find the sum he owes people. This makes me think he is an adventurer, enjoying the thrill of risk and reward in the unknown.

I find myself watching them playing, deciding, or thinking, who got what from me? Who is more like me? The quinnestential Gemini, I have been both. I have both personalities in me... I love seeing them become people, who decide their choices. A simple game exhibit how different they are, and makes it clear that I am a participant... but somethings ARE out of my control... and they are their own. What a gift.

Dance, Ellen, Dance!

Why I love Ellen Degeneres.  She makes me happy. Point blank, plain and simple, she makes me happy.  After a while I start to ponder how it is that something can make me so happy that really has nothing to do with my immediate life.  I remember being young and watching her sitcom, and her stand up and thinking she was VERY funny.  And then she came "out" and it was a time where she was moving in uncharted territory.  Then she became this jumble.  A jumble of who she was, what she represented, what she was doing, where she was going, who was watching her, etc... and it was messy to watch.  And it appeared to me that she had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she was tired, and then she disappeared.  But then, she came back.  
And I love to watch her talk show.  
After her brief monologue she always dances through the audience, and this is the part that makes me really happy.. and I know why.  Every day.. no matter what when the music plays and she starts dancing she looks light.  No longer is she carrying all that weight she did when she was with what's her name.. and the fact that she doesn't have the weight but once did, she knows how much lighter life is, and that makes her look even more lighter...that right there is why I love getting older.  The awareness can't be matched by anything.  They say that "youth is wasted on the young"... but when I look at Ellen dancing with the confidence of a teenage girl who can't imagine anyone not thinking she was totally awesome, but inside knowing there are lots of people who don't think you're awesome and a bunch that think you are but don't want you to know it.. ,I know that the power of youth can reincarnate itself in us. We can have it all, the naive beauty comes back only it is gained through wisdom and self awareness and love..
Getting older can be getting better...
it is such a cliche.. but so true.
did I happen to mention I turn 35 next week?  Bring it on!!!!

OH, the way we are

Life is good, really good.  Home has never felt better, friends have never meant more, the kids have never been cuter, and the wine has never tasted sweeter.  We have all enjoyed settling back into our lives.  Nestling ourselves into the routine that once seem to drag and at times boring.  But now it is novel again, new light shines on it, and it feels so good.  After dinner tonight we walked down to Baskin Robbins for ice cream.  As we walked home, all ducking to avoid being hit by the random tree branches that stretch over the walk way of the sidewalk, and avoiding the uneven sidewalk that is distorted from the massive tree roots that are underneath it is unmistakable...
"Toto, we aren't in London anymore."
The greenish relaxed scenery of Seattle is a lovely frame to our lives.
It feels normal yet energized.  

There's No Place Like Home

We are home, and it feel so good!  The flight was long but the kids were amazing, so we were happy, going through customs on the other hand... not the funnest of all time with 3 kids who bodily clock was telling them it was 4 in the morning...
On the ride back to our house, I look at Gabe and said.."It so rural!"  After seeing pretty much city all around us, where ever we went for the past four months it was striking to see the expansive views, and trees, and mountains, etc.  And then when we pulled up closer to the city, we were all just giddy, the kids were yelling, "There's where Daddy works, there's the space needle."
The closer we got to our house, the more excited we got... it was so fun!  I never knew a homecoming could be SO fun.

Now, as we slowly settle back into the groove, we have small reminders of the experience that now seems like a distant memory.  The oyster card (London transport) I catch a glimpse of in my wallet when I go to pay for something, the butter dish that I fell in love with at Emma Bridgewater's store in Marylebone now sit on my kitchen counter, and so on... and it feels good to have those little things that quickly transport us back to that incredible time.

Good Bye, London....

Dear London,

Thank you for being such an amazing host, our time here has been incredible.  We loved your Museums, your neighborhoods, your parks, your shops, your pubs, your theater, and your people!  We are all packed up and anxious to go, but my walk to get coffee this morning, I found myself lingering a little longer before I crossed to street to admire your beautiful homes, your tall strong old trees, and the fresh smell that comes from a long rainy spell.  We all will always carry with us a fondness for you, and will return with every chance we get.  Hopefully, there will be many.

It's been real......

Love-
The Bakers

Yo, Mom

Top Ten Thing I find Delightful about my Mom

10) That she loves to read, and always encouraged me to.
  9) The two days she spent trying to convince me that Phoebe was switched at birth, even though she never left my sight,          because "She doesn't look like any of us."
   8) That she emails me every day to say "Good Morning"
   7) That she LOVES the beach, and is annoyed when social functions rob her of "a nice beach day."
   6) I think it is also adorable that she gets annoyed when I use anything higher then an 8 SPF sunscreen. "Don't you think you would look better with a little color?"
    5) She lives by the motto :Let's get on with it."  No need to dwell in the past.
    4) That she seems to be able to pull off just about anything she tries.
    3) That she taught me how to laugh at myself, and not take everything "so seriously"
    2) She has an opinion about everything, and isn't scared to share it.
    1)... and the number one thing is that no matter what, I know she will ALWAYS be there for me or my sister, and that is the kind of Mom I want to be.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!

Whose Lovie is it anyway?

The other night Gabe was out to dinner and I was home, where else, with the kiddos.  Phoebe was down to sleep, and Mary-Mae asked if I would sew up some holes in her green blankie.  So, I pulled out the sewing kit and started to stitch.  Those of you who know me might be confused that I actually OWN a sewing kit, let alone know how to use it.  The fact that I was so willing to help shows how strong MY attachment to the blanket it.  It is a lovely quilt that my parents bought before Mary-Mae was born.  Like all good first time Mom's I had a theme, and that theme was The Beach.  The quilt has rows of sea creatures, starfish, dolphins, whales, fish, etc.  I LOVE this blanket, and as I was sewing it, my mind started drifting to me unwrapping it at my shower, sitting in our nursery big and pregnant, folding and re folding the quilt over and over, getting more and more excited about her birth.  I remembered when she was six months old getting her portrait taken laying on the blanket.  How fun it is to look at those pictures now and compare the two blankets.  As I eagerly stitched trying to make it so it doesn't dissolve into several pieces I wondered what she would do if I didn't repair it.  Would she be just as happy to have a scrap of it, or would it not be the same? I decided I didn't want to know the answer, and that was why I was happy to help with the repairs.  With every stitch I realized keeping it whole in one piece makes her babyhood seem more present.  If it did dissolve and wind up as a piece of the blanket we would look at the pit cures, and say "REMEMBER the green blankie?"  It would be in the past a piece of history, and I am frantic to make it NOT history.  I want that time to still be in the present, and as long as the blanket is whole, it means she wasn't a baby that long ago, right??
  
"Ummm, Mom?  Can I have my blanket back?"

Bye Bye Dinosaur

Well... today was our LAST Friday, and Gabe's last day of work in London. So we all got up and out early with Gabe and had some breakfast and coffee at the our local Starbucks, across the street from the Gloucester Road tube stop. It was fun because this area is so familiar to us, and feels so much like home. I said to Mary-Mae, "Isn't it neat that for the rest of your life you will be able to get off the tube at this station and know exactly where you are?"

Leaving early we also had the privilege off seeing all the children going off to school in their spring uniforms. The are so fricken' cute. They wear floral dresses, with ruffle socks, overcoats and straw hats with ribbon on them!!! Can you stand it? I think it is so sweet!

Then we had an hour until - you guessed it - the Natural History Museum opened. We couldn't leave without going ONE more time.. it was where we spent the most time for sure. So Gabe went off to work, and we walked around the area and neighborhood and looked at things, and then we headed over to the Museum. They have these awesome "Explorer Backpacks" that you can check out that all have different themes, and you search the museum to find things .. very fun!! They are free and come with a hat and binoculars that you get to wear around. The kids had so much fun and we were there for 4 hours!!!!

When it was time to leave George sat down and hung his head, and I said..

"What's wrong?"

"I'm sad. I'm just going to miss this all so much."

George wears his heart on his sleeve, and I love how easy it is for him to express things...

Now we are back in the flat, Gabe just got home early, with the weekend ahead!!!