Made in Brooklyn

wild thing

Posted on April 20, 2012 by robyn

One day Isaac and I went to pick up Andrew from school. Andrew’s teacher wanted to talk to me for a minute in the hall before Andrew came out of his class. But, while we tried to talk, Isaac got more and more wound up. He kept trying to run off and I kept running after him, leaving Andrew’s teacher mid-sentence. Then he’d want me to pick him up, just so he could flip backwards and hang from my waist by his legs (something he generally does when he’s feeling overwhelmed…and usually only winds him up more). He got wilder and wilder and more and more difficult to manage. I tried so hard to manage him while also trying to listen to what Andrew’s teacher was saying…which was a little hard to hear (both in the sense that it was hard to hear because I was distracted and hard to hear because it was about Andrew’s behavior). Finally it was over and I could get both of the boys in the car, strapped in their seats.

And I breathed a sigh of relief for that being over and then immediately felt extremely embarrassed that it happened at all.

What must they think of me?

I told a friend about it, and she told me about a Rumi quote that makes her think of Isaac: Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.

And I thought it was perfect.

He can be a wild little thing. Authentically, honestly wild. And at this point, there is only so much he can do about it. He just is. And looking back I see that he was doing what he could. He was overwhelmed by the wide open hallway and the large groups of kids walking by…so he tried to leave or calm himself with his upside-down-mama-hang. Essentially, he wasn’t doing anything wrong. His strategies weren’t working and it would be helpful if he learned some other ones…but for where he’s at and what he knows…he was actually doing his best. Even though at the time, it felt like his worst.

When my friend sent me the quote it was a nice reminder. It reminded me that although he was being crazy and disgraceful, he wasn’t doing anything ‘wrong’. Like a lover, he was swept up in the moment, in his experience, in his emotions. And it was really nice to hear that when he is crazy and disgraceful, it’s absolutely okay to accept him that way. When I read “let the lover be”, I hear “Robyn, it’s okay. Take a breath. It’s okay.”

Though, I feel like I will be in the role of “someone sober worrying about things going badly” for a long, long time. :)

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drawings and stories

Posted on April 19, 2012 by robyn

Last night I was listening to a RadioLab show while I washed the dishes. I was trying to listen to something about 1860′s medicine and this crazy story of a doctor that would place foods inside his patient’s stomach through a skin flap and then remove them to analyze digestion. GRIPPING STUFF! But…Andrew kept interrupting and I kept asking him to shush. So….a few minutes later he walks in with this paper. He had drawn a speech bubble with ‘DS’ to very quietly ask if he could play on his DS. :)

Andrew’s been drawing a lot of the characters and worlds from Super Mario Brothers. He says the first world…with all that grass and trees…is Vermont. :)

And I found this one on the toilet last week. It says “Let Andrew do the paper wrap.” He likes to be the one who unwraps the new roll of toilet paper and thought placing a reminder in a key location would up his chances. :)

Isaac’s been drawing too. This, he says, is a pig. I think it looks like a cow. But when I show it to him, even over a week after he drew it, he still insists: “pig with four legs!”

And he’s been drawing tiny rainbows. I love these because of the determination and persistence he uses to use all those colors. Usually he is impulsive when it comes to crayons…not with these though!

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Posted in Andrew and Isaac | 3 Comments

week in the life

Posted on April 18, 2012 by robyn

For the week of April 23-29, I will be documenting our day-to-day lives and to prepare, I’ve been assembling the base for the scrapbook I’ll use to organize it all.

I’ve done this two other times and although it’s a pretty extensive project, I really, really enjoy it. I enjoy looking back at past albumns, but I also really like the process itself. Every year it’s been a great push for my photography.

The last two years I’ve had three daily elements:

- a full sized photo. It fills one whole page (this year I will print these 8×8) and it usually tells the main story of the day.

- what I think of as the four-square page. It has a small photo and description for each of the four of us. I use this space to tell a little story, or habit, or fact or trait or whatever for each person. Honestly, I first thought of this because I knew that it would be hardest to get Dave in this book! And I thought if I had a dedicated space for him everyday, it would guarantee to have more Dave than it might otherwise. :) And…his is still the hardest space to fill. But, he’s been great about helping me out. He takes photos with his phone of his office, or places he goes during his workday for me to use.

- a collage page. I make a small collage of silly photos I take during the day of: foods we eat, toys, clothes, shoes, whatever little whats-its that catch my eye. :)

This year I am adding an envelope and journaling card for each day:

It’ll just be a space to write my thoughts on things. I’m a little concerned that I’ll be so pooped from putting the rest of it together that I won’t want to do this part. But…if I try to fill these out earlier in the day, then it should work out okay. And it will only take a few minutes to write something down. I’ll think of it as a journaling-scrapbook-based-meditative-5-minute-break. :) It’s all how you frame it, right?

And that’s my plan! Looking forward to this!
Are you thinking of doing this too? Or something like it?

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Posted in scrapbook, week in the life project | 5 Comments

weekend

Posted on April 16, 2012 by robyn

Datenight

‘staches at the playground

Grand Army Plaza

Prospect Park

it was a beautiful weekend and we spent most of it outside. The kids head back to school today after their Spring Breaks and I feel a little sad about that. I really liked having those two around. :)

Have a lovely Monday!

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Posted in photography | 1 Comment

today

Posted on April 13, 2012 by robyn

1. I am wrapping up a project for work and sending it in. The next project will be my last one for some time. My contract ends in early May and they are out of projects until who knows when.

2. Dave and I have a date tonight with rare film showing at the Museum of the Moving Image. The screening is part of the conference he’s been attending and so this date is not only with Dave and rare film, but also with lots and lots of other archivists. :)

3. One last day of keeping the boys busy so I can work. They’ve done really, really well this week, occupying themselves with all kinds of things. Though honestly, all Andrew wants to do is play Super Mario Brothers on his Nintendo DS. And all Isaac wants to do is watch Blues Clues. :)

4. And I’ll be using this sunflower seed bread to make sandwiches for our lunch. PB&J for Isaac. Hummus and spinach for Andrew. Baba Ghanoush and spinach for me.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

chores and art class

Posted on April 12, 2012 by robyn

I’ve been trying to get Isaac to do a few chores around here. Andrew’s been doing chores for a while (clearing the table, making the beds on the weekends, cleaning up messes, helping with the trash), but it was trickier finding things Isaac could do. Or, maybe it was just easier to do the things myself instead of teaching him how. :)

He now has three daily chores.

1. He picks up his toys. I’ve been really on and off about him picking up his toys for a long time. Sometimes it felt like he had NO idea what it was I wanted from him. Or it was such a battle that I admitted defeat and Andrew and I cleaned up his mess. But, it’s become clear that they have the kids pick up the toys in school. I’ve never seen it happen, but I can tell that it’s a skill he’s been practicing because now he understands EXACTLY what to do. And, sadly, he sings the Barney clean up song while he does it. And so, now, I sing the Barney clean up song too. Annoying? Yes. But it’s a signal he responds to and he happily gets the job done.

2. He sets the table. Mostly this means he brings the placemats and napkins to the table. Sometimes forks. And once, the plates. When I’m not rushed to begin dinner, I talk him through spreading out the placemats at each person’s spot (“this one is for Daddy! Put it at Daddy’s spot!”). Then I talk him through putting a napkin on each placemat and a fork on each napkin. He still needs a lot of cajoling and instruction to get everything in the right spot, so when I can’t take the time to do it, Andrew does it! (Hooray for big brothers!) But when he CAN do it, he jumps all around the dining room with his breakdance moves, SO excited.

3. He puts his clothes in the washing machine. This one was his idea. He sees me do it all the time and one night, as he was getting ready for bath, he went and stuffed his clothes in. So now, I often ask him to run and put his clothes in the washing machine (where they sit until I’m ready to run a load). He really, really loves this chore. But he always wants to put his dirty diapers in the machine too…and if I tell him not to and take the diaper and put it in the trash, he takes it out of the trash and puts it back into the washing machine. I’ve been getting good at getting the diapers out when he’s not looking. But once, I forgot. I ran a load of laundry and half way through the cycle, I remembered that there was a diaper in there. Luckily it didn’t explode and get that gross gel everywhere before I caught it. But at this rate, that’s bound to happen sometime.

Last night I made this page about the Art Class that Andrew was in for a while. It was such a great experience for him and making a scrapbook page about it gave me an excuse to make my own mess…which maybe one day I can teach my kids clean up. Another chore for the list! :)

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Posted in homemaking, Isaac, scrapbook | 1 Comment

Spring Break and Easter breakfast

Posted on April 10, 2012 by robyn

The kids are on Spring Break this week. AND Dave has a big film conference at the end of the week. His conference is here in New York, but it is a stretch of LONG all-day events. So this week I am finding a little more on my plate than my usual, run-of-the-mill week.

Luckily, my kids can get pretty absorbed in their toys. For Easter we gave Isaac a Duplo farm set, which had him enamored for hours yesterday. Andrew’s been studying his chess book and has already hammered me a few times (punk). He’s also been making Super Mario card games and has made a lot of origami. For “quiet time” (no one naps around here anymore…but I still need some afternoon quiet), I set up play areas in the two bedrooms: the bucket of super hero toys and some new Super Pets books for Andrew, the basket of potato head pieces and bag of connectegons for Isaac. And yesterday, at least, it worked like a charm. I got a LOT of work done. And the boys were happy and engaged.

This used to be my regular routine. I used to write with kids home playing all of the time. But now that we are used to structure of the school day, it feels soooo different to be trying it out again.

Here’s hoping this rhythm works out all week. :)

I made these mini doughnuts for breakfast on Easter morning. They were as easy as muffins! Thanks to the pans my pal, Tara gave me last Christmas. And they were delicious! Thanks Tara!

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Posted in baking, motherhood | 2 Comments

Easter Weekend

Posted on April 9, 2012 by robyn

The boys both had Good Friday off. Andrew mapped out an egg hunt for Isaac and ran around a local park hiding eggs before guiding Isaac to each one. They both loved their Good Friday egg hunt, but Andrew loved it most of all. :)