Happy Halloween

Tonight, Charlie and I went trick or treating with one super adorable frog, a skeleton princess, Christopher Robin, and a water bottle full of wine.  We're going to let Scarlett eat a little candy, then 'trade' the rest in for a water bottle that she's excited about.  And since we only had 2 trick or treaters in the time we were home, this means Charlie and I have a LOT of candy to eat in the coming days. 

We are up to the challenge.

Homemade costume #3.  Charlie is really upping his game.

More Scar speaks

Me: "Scarlett, What does it meant to love somebody?"
Scar: (smiles big). "Happy!!"

later...

Me: "What makes someone a princess?"
Scar: "Happy!!"  (Thinks for a moment...) "Princess are happy but do not smile."

Blankets

"Everyone needs blankets except pumpkins and chickens and kitty cats."

-Scarlett, seeing the moon covered with a blanket of clouds

Superheroes

The thing about Texas is...

There are a lot of things about Texas.  It's a big place.  First off, my mom was born there, in Austin, and I wish I could have taken more pictures of the good stuff for her.  Most the pictures I took were out of the window of a moving car, or inside the hospital. Also, there were far less giant state-shaped belt buckles and big hats than I expected.  But there were some.  And there were some super Texan guys on the airplane on my way home.

One great thing is the food, which was accompanied by the margaritas:

And my coworkers who I never see, like Candace (who is really from Tennessee):

I was on this 'expert panel'.  What I'm an expert at, I have no idea.  Cleaning cheerios off the front of cupboards and warming up milk to the exact temperature that a two-year-old will drink it at?  Nobody asked questions about those.  Anyway, if anyone wants proof that I'm an expert at something, here it is:

I guess I sortof know a lot about being a PM too.  In this slide, I talk about the project manager way of grocery shopping- geographical through the store, so that I hit everything on my list in the order I walk by it.  That's right, you didn't even have to attend my conference, you get that right here for free.

These slides don't accurately show how enormous my hair was.  One thing about Texas is, it was humid.

Also, I left my water bottle someplace in Texas, which fascinates Scarlett.  She says maybe somebody in Texas is drinking out of it now. 
It's good to be home. 

Austin, TX

I miss Scarlett.  I miss Charlie too, but not in such an acute, homesick way.  Tomorrow I fly home, but they don't come home until the next day.  I've gotten lots of pictures from Charlie and his mom.  Scarlett playing and climbing on things and trying to drink rain water.  And I can hear her garbled voice over the phone.  But nothing compares to getting to hold her tight and kiss her sweet little chubby cheeks.  To reiterate, I am not cut out for the traveling-mama role.

In the meantime, I did my long-awaited (by who?  me, I guess) Project Management presentation today, for maybe 15 or so clients and a couple of my coworkers.  There are pictures of it somewhere, which I will post later, as I know there's nothing more interesting than pictures of me standing in front of a PowerPoint presentation. 

Austin is really lovely.  I went for a run by the river, and it's like Portland with all the greenery and all the exercisers, except it's far more humid and my hair is really huge.  I've had my share of margaritas and good Mexican food, and time with work friends who I rarely get to see.  I have a whole lot of work waiting for me once I get home, but that's not to be dealt with until Monday, and I get to see Scarlett on Saturday, and Polly will occupy me on Friday so I don't sit around counting down the time until my little girl is back. 

Separation Anxiety, day 1

Today Charlie and Scarlett got on an airplane headed to Chicago.  I leave tomorrow for Austin, for work.  In another life, I would be super excited to go, and eat cheese plates that someone else paid for.  But this afternoon, I just miss my little girl.  We have been apart for two nights, twice, and that was sad enough (probably only for me, not for her).  But this is five nights, which feels like too much.  I know some moms do this a lot, and probably enjoy it, but not this one.

I asked her to pose for a picture before we went to the airport, and this is what she gave me:

With her silliness and smile, she will take Chicago by storm.

Tea Party

Last week, Scarlett was invited to the world's most adorable tea party at this high-tea house in Oregon City.  It was fancy, but a kid-friendly kind of fancy.  There were hats to try on, and crackers with letters on them, and a little playhouse outside.  Also some of Scar's favorite things- tea, and finger food.  Oh, and chickens.

Scar and Lucy, in one of many iterations of trying on hats.

It was a girl party, except that Arnie was invited (obviously).

Lucy and her cousin Teagan, channeling their inner British royalty.

Outside, in they play house, they had a pretend tea party.

Notice that Scarlett's hands are inked up?  She has a fake tattoo addiction.  She adds three or four new ones every day.  She looks like she has sleeve tats, which I guess is pretty Portland of her.

At home, I asked Scarlett to tell Charlie about the tea party.  She said:

"I have to tell you about the hats.  

I saw some with my eyes. 

I didn't wear the bear one."

She is really into frogs lately

"This cup is red like a frog is green." -Scarlett, in the car

Marathon Day, part 2

Once again, marathon day exceeded expectations because of the lovely weather, my homemade sign, and lots of runners to holler at.  They liked my sign.  Jon accompanied me and, very calmly, handled a lot of my 'We're going to be late!' and 'Shit, carry this!" panics.  He also carried the sign, and corralled Scarlett, and did a lot of cheering.

Mile 6: Scarlett, below, helping.  I can't remember what Jon is doing in this second picture.  It kindof looks like he's going to jump up and scare Scar, but I'm sure it was something else.  It was early, so anything goes.  Anyway, Scarlett didn't catch them in the crowd as they first ran by.  She kept asking, confused, 'where is Aunt Sally?'

We also saw my mom at mile 6, and other walkers, most of whom hassled me that I didn't have a sign for them. 

Mile 11: We didn't get pictures of Sally and Charlie running, let's assume it's because they were unbelievably fast.  Or, that it's hard to manage a toddler, a sign, and a camera at the same time.  They looked happy and calm at mile 6 and then again at 11. They were about a minute behind the 3:40 pacer.  Then we rushed against time and traffic, across the river, to mile 18.

Mile 18: When we arrived, Sally was pulling ahead.  She was fueled by the power of birthday, I think.  The east side is, by far, the best place to watch the race.  Lots of parking, less spectators, lots of room for kids to run up and down the sidewalk. 
  

At the finish, we were joined by a larger cheer squad.   There was a lot of squinting and saying "I think that's her" and staring at everyone in a yellow shirt, wondering if it was Sally. 

Charlie, second from left, in black. 

So the official times were Sally 3:47 and Charlie 3:55.  They accomplished so much before 11am!  And an improvement of over 10 minutes for each of them. 
Then, we had the rest of the day to celebrate Sally's birthday and eat Foster Burger and go to sleep early. 

Marathon Day, part 1

Charlie and Sally run the marathon tomorrow.  Marathon day is one of my most favorite, because when I was first living in Portland, I remember going to see my mom finish the Portland marathon.  She puked in a flower pot. (Mom, should I remove that?  I can, if you want.  I remember it vividly though.  And as you know, the puking-during-marathon genes were passed on to me.)  I love the atmosphere of race day, even for smaller races.  Everyone is so happy, and the spectators bond, and everyone is foaming at the mouth with pride.

So in preparation, Scar and her cousins did a little kid's race this morning at this pre-marathon family wellness expo.  Scarlett called this "my marathon".  She and the other little kids ran a lap around the track, but at the end she had to be carried a little and she was coughing.  I told her it's okay, all runners have bad races and this will help her train better.  In any case, there was all sorts of adorableness.  Hope and the older kids ran two laps.

Everyone went down the bouncy-house-style slide, and through the bouncy obstacle course.  Scarlett got a frog painted on her arm.  Have I mentioned her love of frogs?  She loves frogs like crazy.  Hope did some rock climbing.  Esther did the long jump.  I hope, later in life, Scarlett has race memories from her childhood.  So far, I know she's excited about the sign I made.  What's on the sign, you might ask?  Well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow...