I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Anyway, since it’s Thanksgiving as I’ve done in years past, I’m going to talk about a few things I’m thankful for. The past few weeks have been a little hard on me, just life catching up to me, I guess. So I suppose I need this exercise in counting my blessings.

Obviously, the first thing on my list is Elanor and Brett. I think that’s a given. Elanor is an amazing kid, and although being her mom is extremely challenging at times, she’s the most fantastic little person I know. And Brett…through hard times and good ones, he’s a great guy, a great dad to Elanor, and a great husband. He works so hard and I know he does it because he loves Elanor and me.

I’m thankful that we’ve seemed to have a calm, uneventful year since May. No near death experiences, no car accidents, no layoffs…I really hope this trend continues.

I’m glad we live here in San Francisco, in our cozy, wonderful home, finally able to relax and enjoy life after a few really hard years.

I’m also especially thankful for the friends we’ve made since we moved here. Emily W and Emily K, Laura, Sarah, the La Leche League ladies, our neighbors downstairs, the greater moped and FourBarrel communities — we really have a community here, only after 6 months. Our dinner party today is a great cross-section of those groups: my stepbrother Jason (who lives in Reno and came down for the weekend), Dan, Emily, and Jack, two of Brett’s co-workers, our downstairs neighbors, and our friends Claire and Isaac whom we know from SPU.

I’m thankful, too, for what I’m learning about grace of all kinds: God’s grace, experiencing grace from other people, having grace for those around me. It’s a big, lifelong lesson, obviously, but it seems that this year has been particularly focused on this theme.

We have so much to be thankful for. It’s good to type it all out and see it in list form; I should do this more often.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Brett: You look cute today, with your cute shirt and frazzly hair.

Me: Frowzy hair? Thanks a lot.

Brett: No, no, Frazzly hair. Like Frazzle Rock?

Me: [rolling eyes] Uh, you mean Fraggle Rock? [laughs uproariously]

~~~~~~~~

Sorry for yesterday’s disjointed post. I heard Elanor wake up on the monitor as I was finishing it so I just hit post without editing it much.

Oh, and a shout-out: Happy Birthday to my friend Emily!! I’m so happy we are friends!

• Writing: A post manifesto piece about our child rearing ideas. It’s gotten really, really long. It may wind up being a series of posts, actually, but, then, that would be great if I do NaBloPoMo again. So keep your eyes peeled for that. No promises on when I’ll have it done, but I’m hoping in the next few weeks. It’s morphing into something way bigger than what I intended it to be, so I’m just going to let it lead for a while and see where it takes me.
• Reading: Some more of the books from my childhood that my mom brought me when she visited. Two of my favorites were in the box she brought: “Nickel-Plated Beauty” and “Hail Columbia” by Patricia Beatty. They take place in the Astoria area around the turn of the century and they are funny, heartfelt books. I love them just as much now as I did when I was younger.
• Cooking: Not much. I have been a very lazy cook lately. I did make two apple pies last week, which was fun, but other than that, I’ve been mighty negligent on the cooking front. It’s getting close to being soup weather here, though, which should help. I always feel more inspired to cook when it’s cold outside.
• Looking for: Some more work I can do from home. I am not super eager to do this, as I don’t want a repeat of how stressful it was for me in Seattle when I was working from home, but our budget needs to be expanded so I am looking and praying God will provide the right thing at the right time.
• Thankful for: Our home here and the friends we’re making. I still just love our apartment, and I’m really enjoying getting to know on a deeper level some of the people I’ve met. (I’m looking at you, Emily, Emily, Laura, and Sarah.)
• Loving: Elanor’s increasing verbal ability. It’s astonishing to me! She says something new every day, and I love it. She’s getting to be such a kid! And yet, at the same time, she’s still such a baby. What a fun and exhausting challenging stage this is!
• Anticipating: That Brett and I are going to be an aunt and uncle again! Brett’s sister Amy and her husband Seth are expecting in March. We’re thrilled, and we can’t wait to meet the little he/she!
• Learning: More and more about myself every day, as I work through the things I’m writing about in the piece about our child rearing philosophy, as I realize that I have long had issues with anxiety, as I continue to learn about how Brett and I function as a couple, and as I learn to trust in God’s provision.

Anyway, that’s us these days. Nothing terribly exciting, really. The weeks have their ups and their downs, but for the most part, life is good: full of good food, new friends, good coffee, a comfortable home in an awesome city, and a great husband and kid. I can’t really ask for anything more than that.

Now, though. Wow. Every day is a challenge, it seems, a huge one, and I struggle some days to just keep my head above water in terms of making sure we are fed and clothed (although for Elanor these days, that often means wearing only pants, as shirts seem to have become a uniquely painful form of torture overnight) and that we are both relatively physically unscathed by the end of the day.

Other days are better, but I still find myself not blogging on those days because I’m just worn out from chasing a very spirited 30-pound toddler who likes to climb everything.

I don’t want to complain too much about it here, partly because I know that I have a tendency to go overboard with the whining if I let myself, and partly because I know the choices we’ve made in terms of how we’re parenting Elanor are a little different than many of my friends, and I don’t want to start that discussion in this forum, at least not yet. So I’ve been quiet for a while.

And then once I’m in a quiet cycle, it’s like anything else: not posting becomes habit, and it’s harder and harder to break that habit. And then Brett notices that I haven’t posted in a while and he starts bugging me about posting, and that makes me even less inclined to post…and it’s basically a vicious cycle that means it’s weeks between posts.

But okay! Enough justifications about why I didn’t blog for several weeks.

I HAVE NEWS! Exciting news! (NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT.)

To me, it’s more exciting than that, at least for the time being.

WE GOT A CAR!

Woo-hoo! My mom has been jokingly talking for years about how she may just get up one day and go buy a new car to replace her ’98 Acura, and when she did, she’d give that car to us. And then, a few weeks ago, out of the blue, at 9:30 on a Saturday night, I got a text from my sister: “You are now the owner of a ’98 Acura!”

Turns out my mom really did just get up and decide she was going to go look at cars, and she bought one. She had a visit here planned at the end of September, so she just drove the car down instead of flying. So for about 10 days now, I’ve had a car again.

I’m really excited about it. When we made the decision at the beginning of the year that we were going to try to get a car, it was very, very hard for me to reverse that thinking as things at Brett’s old job went south and it became apparent that adding any monthly expenses to our budget was a bad idea. I struggled a lot with having to get myself back into the no-car mindset. And then we moved here, and it was easier for a while, but it started to get hard again, especially as Elanor became impossible, er, difficult, to take on the bus or to confine to a stroller.

I won’t lie; despite how excited I am, I’ve felt a little guilty about actually using the car. We were on our way to a playgroup this week and I saw a mom waiting for the bus with a toddler in her arms, and I felt like if she could take the bus with her kid, I should be, too. I can’t become too reliant on the car; I need to keep riding my bike and I need to stay active. I feel good right now, healthy, fit, etc, and I don’t want to lose that.

Other than the car, we’ve had a very busy (but fun!) month filled with lots of friends and family in town. I’ll leave you with some pics from those visits, and a promise that I’ll try to blog more frequently in the next few weeks.

First up, our friends Josh and Crystal came to visit. We went on a bike ride through Golden Gate Park and out to the beach with them, which was one of the best parts of their visit.

Then, our friend Bree came to visit. She and Elanor had a fun time playing together.

We also took a trip to Sacramento for a moped rally. My friend Emily and I spent most of the weekend watching babies sleep, or trying to get them to sleep, or nursing babies. I think our total time spent at the actual rally totals around an hour. Haha. Times have changed.

Then, when we arrived home from Sacramento, my dad and stepmom were waiting for us. We had a fun visit with them, too!

Finally, we had my mom’s visit, which was wonderful, too. I haven’t gotten those pictures off the camera yet, but when I do I’ll post some here…soon!

My love of books has been with me for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories have to do with reading, at first picture books, and later chapter books.

When my sister was born, my parents gave me a Sesame Street book called The Case of the Missing Duckie. I loved that book. The images in it still stick in my head even today…the part where Cookie Monster is frosting a cake (messily!) was my favorite page and I used to look at it for what seemed like hours.

When I was probably 5 or 6, I remember being extremely angry with my sister for something she’d done. So what did I do? I went to our room and shut myself in and just read and read until I felt better. (I specifically remember reading The Cat in the Hat that day.)

The first chapter book I ever read was Ramona the Brave, when I was in Mrs. Lowry’s first grade class. Oh, I loved that book. I loved Ramona’s spunk, and I loved that it was set in the town where I lived. I always wanted to go to Klickitat Street, but I never did. Maybe next time I’m in Portland I’ll do that — or maybe I’ll wait a few more years, until Elanor has read the Ramona books, too, and take her along.

My parents used to read to us: the Super Fudge books by Judy Blume, The Hobbit, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. (We still joke about the I-thought-you-saids.) My dad’s parents lived in Oklahoma, and we’d drive out there every couple of years. This was way, way pre-built-in-DVD-player days, so my parents would switch off driving and reading to us to help pass the time.

I loved the Emily books by L.M. Montgomery. The Mandie mystery books. (My friend Sarah Evans and I had a pact that we would keep reading the Mandie books until Mandie finally married Joe. This pact seemed VERY SERIOUS AND IMPORTANT to our, like, eight-year-old selves.) (I have no idea if Mandie finally married Joe.) (I should Google that.)

As I got older, I read everything I could get my hands on. I know my mom was often challenged by my desire to read things above my maturity level – Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume comes to mind. So I started reading Christian fiction. Some of it was really good, and some of it was really bad. I loved Janette Oke’s books during late elementary school. My friend Elise Bradley and I would act out the book Roses for Mama with our dolls, and the Canadian West series touched me deeply. I loved her books so much when I was little that I wrote to Janette Oke when I was in elementary school, and she wrote me back! My mom has the letter somewhere; I should get it from her.

I read a Christan young adult series called the Jennifer books. I was captivated by one of the books, wherein Jennifer’s family moves from one state to another. The author’s description of the newness of a new place, the way it feels to get used to sleeping in a new room, to how to find the grocery store, to becoming accustomed to seeing your things a new house — all of that has stuck with me and I’ve thought of it often during our many moves throughout the years.

I made one of my dear friends (actually, the one through whom I found out about Happy Week!) in the church library. Annie and I would meet up in the library, where Mrs. … Oh, no, I can’t remember her name! What was it?! Now I’m going to have to call my mom and ask her. Annie, you know who I’m thinking of. Do you remember? Mrs…augh! It’s on the tip of my tongue. As soon as I hit publish it’s gonna come to mind. Anyway, the church library lady would introduce us to new books, and she took Annie and me under her wing. We’d meet there between services in Junior High and into High School and compare books, talk, and giggle together.

While I was in college, I didn’t have much time to read for pleasure, although that was when I discovered my love for Lord of the Rings. My mom had tried to get me to read it for years but I had never wanted to before. Then, one day in college, my roommate Claire was reading it and she left The Fellowship of the Ring sitting around. I picked it up and I was hooked; I couldn’t put it down. Since then, I’ve read it probably at least eight times in full, and have read portions of it at least three times beyond that.

My time working full-time in Seattle before we had Elanor was full of books. I don’t even remember what I read; I just know that with my 45-minute-long bus commute, I would average three books a week. I read everything I could get my hands on at the library. I read some non-fiction during this era, specifically about food: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Anthony Bourdain’s books, Ruth Reichl’s books, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

Since I quit my job almost a year ago to stay home with Elanor, I don’t get to read a whole lot. Maybe one or two books a month. I miss reading, desperately. I miss getting lost in a really great story. I miss spending hours in bed, reading in my pajamas until 2 p.m. on the weekend because I just have to finish one more chapter.

I know; I know. It’s a stage of life. I’ll be able to read again someday. But sometimes I just ache to curl up with a good book, one that doesn’t talk about toddler sleep habits or nursing or…yeah.

That brings me to my point. Before we moved, my mom brought me three boxes from her garage, boxes full of books. My books. Oh, looking through those boxes was like rediscovering my old friends! Better yet, I’ve been able to carve out some time to sit and re-read some of my favorites lately: The Case of the Missing Duckie, my scribbled-in copies of The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, the Emily books, the Cherry Ames books, and some random, one-off books that captivated me when I was a girl. They still do captivate me, and I’m so glad I still like them. So many things from childhood are not as wonderful as we remember them to be, but these books have not lost their thrill for me.

I’m so happy to have these treasures here so that I can re-visit my childhood and, someday soon, share them with Elanor. I hope there will be a day not too many years from now when we both just want to curl up on the couch with a good book. Books in general make me happy, but seeing these books and having them in my home to re-read and to someday share with Elanor makes me really happy.

Rosanna’s husband Joel brought the dinner over, and they had put the pans holding the food in a big, sturdy apple box, the kind that is open at the top and has handles on either end. I left the box on the floor last night after I took the food out of it, not sure what I was going to do with it since it was sort of on the big side and it’s not the kind that you can easily break down to fit in the recycle bin.

This morning, though, I had an epiphany. Elanor was fussy and was acting (as usual these days) really bored with all of her toys, so I grabbed the box, plopped her in it, and proceeded to push her all over the house in it, much to her delight.

Elanor in her apple box. Sorry for the poor quality; Brett took the camera to Amsterdam with him so Noni snapped this with her camera phone.

She loved it, and she played with the box all afternoon, until she fell smack on her forehead while trying to climb out of it, despite having successfully climbed out twice today. Poor kiddo. She was fine, though, after a little snuggle with Mama.

Anyway, I can already tell it’s going to be a fun box to keep around for a while. I remember as a kid when we or one of our neighbors would get a big box that we could play in, how fun it would be making it a ship or a plane or a bus or a car or a house or any number of make-believe things.

As with Elanor now, it seems like most kids like to play with non-toys. Besides the box, she also loves the camera bag, hairbrushes, tupperware — basically anything that is not designated for her to play with, of course.

When my sister and I were little, we certainly had more than our share of toys as well as our own bedrooms and a playroom to play in, but I always enjoyed playing one of my favorite make-believe games in a very unlikely place: the back of my dad’s pickup truck.

I was extremely obsessed with the Oregon Trail and pioneers and wagon trains for about four years, and I would make my sister and our friends play wagon train with me as often as possible. My absolute favorite place to do this was in the back of my dad’s truck.

For starters, it was the perfect size and shape for simulating a covered wagon. We’d fold down the tailgate, put two bikes out in front of it to be the horses, and then one of us would sling a jump rope around each bike as the reins. In the bed of the truck, we’d make a sleeping area with blankets, a food area (which would hold a crate or two of play food), and then a storage area with things like doll clothes for our baby dolls, who were along on the trip as well.

We’d dress up in our play clothes, and then for as long as we could, we’d pretend my dad’s truck was a wagon and we were on the Oregon Trail. Sometimes the scenarios would last for days, although for the life of me I don’t remember much about the scenarios and what would happen to us on the trail. Getting set up to play was the most fun part for me, maybe because it was the part I could control the best. Once we started playing, everyone would get their own ideas about what we should pretend, which would annoy me. We had several very strong personalities in our little group.

Anyway, the back of my dad’s truck was my favorite wagon location, although we’d also use the picnic table in the backyard or even an area in our playroom that we’d mark off with blankets or whatever. But whenever my dad was home, we’d immediately take over the truck and head off on our pioneering adventures.

While I’m excited to give Elanor a few new toys I’ve picked out for her at Christmas and her birthday, since she seems to be so bored with her current toys, I’m also excited as she gets older to start playing make-believe with her and showing her how a box can be a spaceship, or how a truck can be a covered wagon, or how a 10-speed can be a horse. I love looking back and seeing how imaginative Melissa and I and our friends were when we played. I hope Elanor and her friends are as imaginative, if not more so!

So, what was your favorite non-toy or random place/thing to play as a kid? What about your kids now? What do they like to play with that isn’t a real toy, and how do you encourage them to develop their imaginations?

My intent was to get up once she was asleep and try to do some of my work and some of the eighty-jillion loads of laundry that await in the basement. But…I didn’t. And now she’s been asleep for over two hours, and it’s late, and Brett will be home soon, and I’ll have hell to pay tonight in terms of getting work done.

And, you know what? I don’t care. It’s getting dark in our cozy bedroom, I have my laptop in front of me, the cat in my lap, and the sweetest girl in the world lying next to me, sound asleep with her head on my leg.

So, of course, I certainly wouldn’t want to disturb a sleeping baby by removing my leg from under her head. So I will stay here until she gets up or Brett gets home, whichever comes first.

With this sweet, relaxing, snuggly afternoon coming on the heels of a great morning with Molly and her kiddos, which we spent playing in the living room, talking, looking at knitting, drinking coffee, and walking around the neighborhood, I’d say it’s been a good day. Yes, a very good day. I’ll take another day like this tomorrow, please!

Overall, I’m really glad to be home. It was a long week, and Elanor and I missed Brett a lot.

There are pics up on flickr — the link is over in the sidebar.

I’ve got some other updates to post soon, one really fun, and one that makes me cry. But right now I have a crying baby on my lap and about 9,000 things to do today, so unfortunately this is a short post!

We proceeded to have a two-minute-long conversation about my appointment, my lack of progress with regard to my cervix, my grumpiness, my intense desire to go home and lie down instead of going back to work, etc. — basically normal mom-daughter 38-weeks-pregnant stuff.

Our conversation was interrupted when I suddenly found myself on hold, listening to an annoying on-hold commercial about how “[Mom's Company] can meet all your construction needs…”

Confused, I waited a minute, then hung up and called my mom back.