Blue Sunday

I should probably start out with the conclusion of this post: I'm struggling more than a little with all this child-rearing. It's not that I don't love my kids. I do. Or I don't love spending time with my family. I love my family and spending time together. It's just that I wish we could spend some time doing things less...juvenile. So I've been down-at-mouth and kinda blue this Sunday.
--
I know, I know...what else do you expect when they're 4 (and a half! he'd want to be sure I added) and eighteen months? Intellectually I understand that it may very well several months before I can expect my son to discuss the constitutional implications of the military tribunal system erected for Gitmo or my daughter to appreciate the subtlety of a Marta backheel or sit quietly with me on the porch and watch geese punctuate the gray palimpsest overhead. But viscerally? I want to roll over and drum my heels like my own kids, wailing "I want my adult life back!!!"
Now occasionally we do get a break. We had a nice one yesterday when our friends the Ravas were back (here's a little account of their visit in July) - that's them (with Miss Shaomei looking on curiously) at the top.
--
Mama Rava was all agog at the laminate floor - she actually got down and caressed it, she was lusting after such a floor. Sadly this snapshot has more of a "Kimchi Squat" look to it. And I was hoping to make a name as the "Ansel Adams of Domestic Photography". Well, damn, there's another chance at glory shot to hell.
--
I have to admit that sometimes the Ravas are...overwhelming. They're fun, loud and active, and I always feel very timid and retiring when they arrive. This is a bit of a jape, as anyone who knows me will volunteer that I am usually considered a bit of a lout; loud-voiced, less than suave and a trifle louche'. Saturday's visit was the perfect power level, though: fun and energetic without ever getting too far over the top. Here's our Little Missy with Etzion Rava, two divas in the making if ever I saw them. Don't they have great smiles?
So everyone played with everyone, admired the home improvement, and - wonder of wonders - the Ravas offered to sit our two littlies for an hour so we could go out and have a nice dinner.

So we did! Nothing fancy, just wandered over to North Denver, not too far from the Peeper's beloved Kelli's house, for some mighty damn fine Korean sushi at Ukiyoe - better known up here in North Portland as the "Teriyaki Steakhouse" with dimmer lights and some tarted-up decor. But the sake' was hot, the sushi cold and the conversation delightfully...adult...shall we say? Okay, innuendo aside, it was nice to actually get to look my bride in the eyes for more than a moment!

--
The really amazing thing is that we got back to find our little girl....(you remember her, the poor little orphan child who can't go a moment without her mommy or daddy right there? Whose entire raison d'etre is "Stranger Danger"?)...asleep on Mama Rava's chest. I mean, I knew that they'd played and had fun and generally gotten on pretty wall...but...wow. This is a good sign. I hope this means that our little girl is starting to feel more loved and secure. That would be a Good Thing...

Oh, and just in case you haven't looked at a calendar lately...

It's getting to be awful Halloweeny...
--
My understanding from the critter on the left is that the Peeper is a dinosaur, not a dragon. He is quite insistent on that point. Peeposaurus is going to need so serious pinning/sewing if he doesn't want to come out of his costume on Halloween night.
--
Miss Rava's ensemble is a stunning creation of La Salon du Peep, that is to say, it's his LAST year's H-ween costume. I like it with a feminine twist, I must say...

--

So anyway, that was a fun end to a busy Saturday (we also went to the Truck Petting Zoo at the Children's Museum - at least Peep and Mojo did; I sat inside the Honda in the rain and read Naomi Novik's latest Alternative Napoleonic dragon-tale Empire of Ivory with a sleeping mei-mei in the back). So today was always going to start as a bit of an anticlimax...

--

Peep enjoyed his scrambled egg (since Shaomei had one he had to have one, too)

Little Miss carefully inspected the newly-rearranged toys (since the Peep objects to her playing with his stuff we've had to move the boy-toys into his room, leaving only the unisex playthings in the front bookcase)...we had already been up at 5, back to sleep until 7, up again and then out to our St. John's Starbucks for a latte' (for Daddy), a steamer (for Missy) and the sunday papers, then back home by 9. And they used to say that the Army "did more before 8 in the morning"...

Mommy sprawled in a chair, somewhat exhausted already from refereeing the Peeper-and-Mei-mei Championship Fight all morning. Poor woman - she's looking at a week alone with these two little terrors...I go back to work full time tomorrow.

And the Daddy, seen here, attempts to put the notion of quiet, adult conversation and life without diapers deep in a locked closet at the back of his mind.

And Miss Lily is starting to wonder is there is a Cat Exchange Program that would enable her to spend the next several years as a convent cat in a Cistercian abbey in Dorset.

Bad kitty! Bad, naughty kitty! Bad, naughty, EVIL kitty! (And don't look at me in that tone of voice...)

I should add that we did have a bit of a nice interlude - went for a rather chilly, rainy walk down at Smith & Bybee Lakes and met two very lovely couples, all four from Taiwan, one pair at the penultimate point of having their first child (she was bloomingly pregnant with a month still to go!), the other couple adopting a child from Taiwan. I had heard elsewhere in the IA community that Taiwanese adoption involves presenting your (the adoptive parent's) "case" for adoption to a judge, which frankly sounded quite difficult and potentially risky to me. The couple - presently in the early stages of paperchasing - seemed to feel very confident about their process. Very cool. Foolishly, we didn't get names or contact info - they seemed like very good people and I wish we had a way to find out if we could become better aquainted with them. A pox on these missed opportunities!

Oh, well. A childish life it is for me. Have a nice week - I'll try and be back on schedule with another post Wednesday!