Quick Takes: Back to School Edition

--1--

Piglet goes back to school on Wednesday; I confess I'm ready to be back in the school year routine.  Since our trip, he has been home all day, and while having all three kids home all day long has gone much much better than I could have hoped, it is still wearing.  Boo has been having an extra hard time of it.  He's not used to having Piglet home so much any more, and they don't yet play together very well.  (There are times when they get along and have a high old time, but mostly, it is still tricky)  I'm not looking forward to going back to the I-have-to-interrupt-everyone's-afternoon-naps-so-I-can-get-Piglet-from-school routine, but I'm hoping to manage it differently this year.  After all, the two littles are a whole year older, and perhaps we can manage the bus most days this year.

--2--

After an enforced leave of absence from the internet during half of our Austria trip, I'm ready to step back from some of my online activities.  I still need the internet for some shopping needs (diapers, groceries, etc), and I still need to manage my creative work, but I'm trying to be more purposeful about the time I spend online, and limit myself.  I feel much better the less I'm sitting at a computer. (Although I did get the Stairs blog post up this week!)

--3--

Salzburg, again.  I know!  But I can't get enough of it!!

Speaking of feeling better, after a whole year of feeling totally down in the dumps, I'm feeling pretty good these days!  I'll take it.  Never underestimate the power of good scenery.  Salzburg was so therapeutic for me.  I'm hoping we can translate that into some family nature outings this fall.

--4--

Speaking of outings, I wish we had decided to get out of town this weekend.  I got an e-mail from our civic association a few days ago about a big music festival that is happening at the Art Museum all weekend, which is only a few blocks away.  It's not the noise that bothers me; it's the parking issues!  We already have fairly profound parking issues, but the city is closing a significant portion of the surrounding streets for the two days of the festival, plus Labor Day, and parking is going to be an absolute nightmare.  I would just say, okay, we don't have to go anywhere, but we do drive an hour to church on Sunday, and I just don't know where our poor little car is going to live until Tuesday morning.  Mostly I don't mind the parking stuff-I've learned to manage after all these years, but this sort of thing drives me batty. (And yes, I know these are First World issues, but that's where I live, so bear with me)

--5--

We have recently discovered Sister Cities Park on the Parkway!  For those not local, it is a new little wading pool and spray ground that opened this summer after a year of renovations to the (formerly dumpy) plaza in front of the Catholic Cathedral.  The boys love it!  There is a nice hip cafe between the wading pool and the sprayground, everything has nice shade, and there are plenty of places for parents to sit and supervise from the sidelines.  The landscaping is well done, and the wading pool has some climbing areas, as it is modeled on a waterfall in Wissahickon.  I do think that the city made the park to get people out of the Logan Square fountain in the summer (there used to be literally hundreds of kids and some adults in the fountain all summer long, despite prohibitions against swimming), but Sister Cities is so much nicer anyway.  Something to feel good about the city!!

--6--

Boo has been on this kick all summer of wanting to wear underwear over his diaper.  And not the Gerber training pants that Piglet wore before being toilet trained.  Big boy underwear, specifically, Piglet's underwear.  All I can say is that it is a good thing that Piglet has a lot of pairs, because between the two of them it is sort of ridiculous.  (We'll just ignore the rather obvious ridiculousness of allowing a two-year old who is patently unready to potty train to wear underwear over his diaper...)

--7--

And a card!  My dad's birthday is on Sunday, and I've been waiting to use the Totally Tool set for just this occasion.  I bought it before it retired in the spring (sniff, sniff!), but I'm keeping it because my dad is a tool guy.  I love how this card came out--I was inspired by a bunch of cards I saw on splitcoast and on the From Our Hearts blog, and kind of went from there.  I did a lot of paper piecing on this one, and I made a faux wood design on the handle of the saw and hammer using markers.  

--8--

Bonus: Birdie turned one on Monday.  She nearly spent the night in the ER, as her respiratory infection got significantly worse in the evening, but she managed to stay home and is doing much better now.  She had her one-year appointment this morning, and her growth is on track, her development is catching up to normal, and we are thrilled with her progress!  We may have another bad winter ahead, but we are so much better equipped to handle everything this year.  

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes! (and then go outside for a walk!!)

Upstairs, Downstairs

Neil Simon's play Barefoot in the Park (adapted for the screen in 1967 and starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford), has a running gag about the stairs in a 5th floor walk-up in New York City. The characters interact with the stairs in various ways throughout the play and film; in a way, the stairs become a silent character in the unfolding story of newly-weds Paul and Corie Bratter.

I realized recently that my life is dominated by stairs.  Our house has a total of 47 stairs in it, and that fact defines our life here.  We do nothing in the house without climbing at least a few stairs.  There are four stairs from the sidewalk into the front door, and then the first flight up to the bathroom is about 12 steps (plus one step to get into the bathroom).  Another five or so steps to the second floor where my office, the prayer room, and the boys' room are situated, then 10 steps to the 3rd floor bathroom (plus one step into the bathroom).  Finally, another 8 or so steps up to the 3rd floor where our bedroom and the nursery are located.  Oh, plus 11 steps to the basement from the living room on the first floor.  So a lot of steps to get around the house.  I live in fear of having a broken leg or a major abdominal surgery that precludes any serious stair climbing (I had a stress fracture in my foot this past spring that was bad enough).

Having so many stairs leads to some bizarre behavior.  In this part of the country, houses were built with narrow winding staircases, so most queen box springs won't fit up them.  There is a niche market here for split queen box springs.  We actually have a king-size bed, so getting the two twin box springs up the stairs was okay, but the mattress had to be folded in half like a taco to make the corners and stay under the low ceilings.  We had to hoist two wooden wardrobes up the outside of the house on rubber straps up to the third floor because they couldn't make the corner at the top of the first floor landing.  (That was quite an ordeal--it is common to hire a crane to lift furniture up to the roof and then drop it down the backside to whatever level you need it.  We found some guys who did it with an assisted hoist up the back wall and over to the third floor landing and all I can say is that I'm glad I was at a meeting while they were doing it--my mother said it was terrifying to watch).  The dresser in our bedroom barely made it around the corners.  Those wardrobes will probably be staying with the house, should we ever decide to sell it.  The odd closet situation in the house means that winter coats are stored on the 2nd floor and extra shoes in the basement.  We have a vestibule with coat hooks and a shoe rack for storing in-use seasonal items and a few pairs of shoes per person, but the overflow has no where to go on the first floor.

 We have a complicated system of baby gates to prevent the youngest members of the family from trying out stair-climbing before they are ready and supervised.  Because it is a LOOOONG way down if they fall.  My other perennial fear related to stairs is of falling down them.  I have a mild phobia of heights, and honestly, three floors up is my limit.  We looked at houses with four or even six flights up, and I got a bit sick just above the third floor.  The stairs and gates also make it a bit tricky to figure out the best place to put the children at times.  Mostly they play in the living room, but sometimes it is better to separate the boys and put one in their bedroom (on the 2nd floor) and one in the living room (on the 1st floor).  It is hard to know where to be at those times because both areas need a bit of adult supervision even though they are child-proofed.  So I end up splitting the difference and sitting in my office (on the 2nd floor in the front of the house) and running up and down between the living room and 2nd floor as needed.  Or I'm trying to make dinner in the kitchen and listening for any odd noises from the boys' room above me and hoping that nothing terribly destructive is going on.  (I know these years when they require more or less constant supervision are fleeting and that someday very soon, many of these concerns will be non-issues, but for now, it is a conversation I must have with myself all day long).

Please sir, won't you let me out?

We own two hand vacs because I don't like trekking the kitchen one up to the 3rd floor bathroom and back down again on a regular basis.  (As an aside, if you are in the market for a good hand vac, this model has been fabuloso).  I have a decent upright vacuum that I rescued from our neighbor's curb that is languishing in the basement because of--you guessed it: the stairs.  It is difficult to clean well in a short amount of time and also keep the kids contained and safe with all the stairs.  I end up spending much of my cleaning time running up and down stairs to deal with crises with the kids.

We have a double stroller that I don't love because the model I really wanted would have to be stored in the basement.  Which means hauling it up 11 steps and down another four every time I want to use it.  The model we have can be stored at the top of the basement stairs, which means a tight corner every time I go to do laundry, but at least I'm not hauling 21 pounds of stroller up and down a flight of stairs all the time (and trying to keep the baby from following me down in the process).

I've bought albums on iTunes that I own because I can't bear to walk down 15 steps (and then back up again) to retrieve a CD from the living room.  We consolidate trips up and down by placing items to go up or down the stairs at strategic locations.  Items placed outside the second or third floor bathroom landing are meant to go down.  Items placed on the second step of the third floor stairs are meant to go up.  Anything on the landings in between is open to interpretation.  There is usually a pile of something on the fourth step of the first floor stairs, waiting to go up, and there is almost always something on the third floor bathroom landing waiting to go down.  There have been multiple occasions of dirty laundry going up and clean laundry going down several flights of stairs unnecessarily.  I'd benefit from a dumb waiter, I think, except I'm afraid the boys would use it for joy riding.  We tend to have duplicates of common analgesics because who wants to go up or down more flights of stairs than necessary when there is pain involved?  We have a diaper changing station on each floor--well, for obvious reasons.

It also means that when the doorbell rings, unless I'm in the living room (which isn't usually the case), I'm tearing down several flights of stairs, usually with a baby or toddler on my hip.  My favorite is when the UPS man rings and I'm changing the baby's diaper in the 3rd floor nursery, which is as far from the front door as one can possibly get and still be in the house.  At least the UPS guy is familiar with us and knows to wait a moment before giving up.  The postal service is another bird entirely--they often just drop a notice in the box without ringing the bell at all!  (The mail service in this city is notoriously bad--there are some neighborhoods where people will pay more to mail stuff via the postal service at Mailboxes Etc. instead of dealing with the ridiculousness of the local post office)  But I'm getting off track.

Having four steps to the sidewalk means bumping a stroller backward down four steps, and then bumping it back up again after an outing.  The double stroller is particularly troublesome in this way, being somewhat wide and unwieldy.  (Plus the fact that it weighs over 80 pounds once you put kids into it--I usually load and unload the kids on the sidewalk, but I still have to get the stroller in and out the door and up and down those steps!)  It means wet pants on rainy days for any children who aren't yet confident stair walkers and need to go up one knee at a time.

On the other hand, having so many stairs means the children learn how to climb up and down stairs fairly young, and are confident on the stairs much younger than children in houses with fewer stairs.  My two younger children both climbed up stairs confidently before age one, and the two older ones were going down stairs fairly well by 18 months.  (The baby is just turning one, so I can't say yet how well she will be going down as she just got good at going up).  I also get exercise every day going up and down all those stairs, usually hauling a load of something--laundry, toddler, baby, or sometimes all three!  What can I say?  I have talent.

Birthday Blast Off

My nephew turned four last week, and as his birthday fell on the day after we returned from our trip, I just couldn't get a card in the mail in time.  But I had a great idea in mind for his birthday and had a bit of time and creative energy to 'git 'er done' last night (can you tell I've been reading a lot of Mater stories to Piglet??)

When I saw the Blast Off set in the new catalog, it immediately went on my must-have list.  I think anyone with little boys can get good use out of this set.  I had an idea for a matching game that was inspired by a project I saw in the catalog.  I love how this project turned out!  I made it as a 8.5" square board, but you could easily make it larger or smaller and adjust the number of pieces/size, etc.  I've also listed it in my etsy shop, so if you have a little boy in your life who might like this, check it out!

7 Quick Takes: Austrian Edition

--1-- 

We went on a family vacation to Austria the first half of August. As in dirndls and beer steins, not kangaroos. With three children four and under. Yes, we are certifiable. I'm blocking out the plane ride there, as we were that family, with the baby screaming most of the way (and on a 7 hour trans-Atlantic flight, that is a LOT of screaming).  The boys slept badly on the plane and it was an overnight flight.  We flew a budget Indian airline that served only curries for dinner, which meant I was approximately 24 hours without a decent meal since the TSA agent confiscated my factory sealed jar of soynut butter at security in Newark.  Oh, and our main suitcase went missing in Brussels and there was a 36 hour delay in getting it to us in Linz.  Fun times.

--2--

One of the reasons we travel in August is to escape the heat of the city.  We chose Austria this year because Boo's godparents are living in Vienna temporarily and we wanted to see them.  So we arrived in Vienna (after a brief sojourn in Linz, where all three kids picked up a nasty GI bug) to the worst heat wave anyone could remember.  And there is no AC anywhere.  And no one seems to own a fan.  Oh, and Birdie cut 3 or 4 teeth on the trip.  Fab-o.

--3--

On the plus side, we did get to spend a lot of quality time with Boo's godparents, and the boys were thrilled to have the time with them as well.  They have a six month old daughter, so it was a little tricky managing everyone's nap schedules, but we did it.  We didn't get to see as much as we probably would have if the kids were a bit older, but given the heat, it was probably just as well.  Our friends were also were gracious in taking the boys off our hands for a few mornings so my husband and I could take Birdie and see some sights in peace.  We went to the special Klimt exhibition at the Belvedere (great!) and saw the fabulous Stephensplatz cathedral (gothic, huge, wonderful.  Be still my beating heart).  We were also able to go to one of the classical concerts put on for the tourists.  It was in a wonderful venue--an odd selection of pieces, but fun nonetheless.

--4--

We said a sad good-bye to our friends after a week in Vienna and boarded another train to Salzburg.  Oh Salzburg, how I love thee.  I immediately fell in love with Salzburg.  The old city is charming, the mountains are all around, the Danau River is lovely.  And it was cooler!  The weather was lovely during our stay.  Plus it is the birthplace of Mozart and where The Sound of Music was filmed (and where the actual events took place).  I don't think it is overstating it to say that the movie had a pretty big impact on me the first time I saw it. I've seen it probably every year since I was about 7.  (I have a long-standing crush on Christopher Plummer as a result).  

--5--

Oh yes, it is.  The gazebo used in the Sound of Music.  

I was super excited to take the Original Sound of Music tour.  Stephanos and I decided that the boys couldn't handle a four-hour bus tour into the countryside during nap time, so I took Birdie in the ERGO and off we went. She had a rare afternoon of peace and we had a fabulous tour.  We saw the places where the movie was filmed, learned some trivia about the real Von Trapps, and had a sing-a-long in the bus to the movie soundtrack.  As I said, fabulous.  

--6--

St. Stephen's Church, Vienna

We poked around lots of churches on our stay--there are wonderful Baroque and Gothic cathedrals everywhere.  Even the small churches are wonderfully appointed.  It was interesting to me to be in The Land The Reformation Missed.  Catholic feast days are still national holidays, shops are closed on Sundays and close early on Saturdays.  Everything slows down a lot on the weekends.  It was a refreshing change (if slightly inconvenient for us as travellers).

--7--

So now we are home, and trying to get back into the swing of things.  I always struggle more with jetlag on the back end (I know, I'm weird--most travelers have trouble when they go east, not west), and the kids are a little crazy with it (yesterday started at 2 a.m., yay), but I had a bunch of things planned for these first few days back, so that helps.  

Go see Jen for more Quick Takes!