Zoe and Anna's site

Gypsies, tramps and pirates

bythesea — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 06:11:55 +0000

Here are the women in our family working the feminist pirate, gypsy, fairy thing.

Groovy

bythesea — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:49:52 +0000

We are overrunn in grooviness. Having a plethora of groovy girls is no reassurance–we are acutely unhip. However, the girls are in heaven and Groovy Girls are one answer to a 20th century dilemma: to Barbie or not to Barbie. Zoe is in the Barbie-is-God camp and parents are in the Barbie (and TV) are evil camp. I suspect the Barbie horde will dominate.

On a less painful topic, a must see is these warning labels. If you have seen the Darwin Awards these are frightenly reasonable.

http://www.mlaw.org/wwl/photos.html

Happy New Year! And, put the firecracker down while you read this.

Chronicka

bythesea — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:46:23 +0000

Second day of Chanukka. Potato Latkes frying and Zoe singing “Deck the Halls with boughs of HAWL-ly, Fa-la, etc.” She is thrilled that she has the benefit of two parents who are embracing the Judeo-Christian traditions….all of them. We have a chanukkiah out, and the tree decorated, and we are having and attending “holiday gatherings”. The sweet smell of diversity.

My sister-in-law has inspired a back-to-basics approach to the holidays and requested family give to favorite charities in her name. So we have. But see this: our search has revealed a buy-nothing catalogue:

http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/catalogue/index.html

and check out the zen buddha Santa

http://adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/bnxmas/downloads.php

Ohhhhmmmmm

Sleep-in Saturday and Marie Antoinette Fixtures

bythesea — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:12:46 +0000

The girls slept until 8:30 Alaska time this morning! Caviar dreams! Maybe it’s a new trend…maybe every Saturday….

Our latest project has been helping the college to bring our kitchen to code. We repainted the kitchen–Zoe rollered some of the walls herself, requesting we do the mud room in purple and pink. We decided on moss green. In the spirit of do-it-yourself, I picked up an Ikea ceiling fixture for the kitchen for $2.00 at a garage sale and installed it–needless to say, the reasonably priced fixture was unreasonably gigantic. Zoe and Anna came to the kitchen to look at the fixture and Anna was silenced into finger sucking, and Zoe shouted “Mama, what is that?!” Astounded by the appearance of the 400 watts of candle power, Zoe said “that is as big as a boat!” She knows boats, seeing as we live on the harbor.

Mike, evacuated the house for higher ground, since the fixture was so low and noted due to its size posed “a hazzard for the children.” There was a temporary safety zone established in the kitchen and the children were prohibited from getting close to the fixture that he affecionately named “the alien.” We had to take the alien down and all the excitement has passed, so we put up holiday lights.

Finally, the appearance of Goo-goo. Zoe has been aching to be a baby. Anna is in full tilt toddler and Zoe wants back to the good old days. Goo-goo is Zoe’s pretend dog friend, who is sweet baby puppy. Thankfully potty trained, and frightfully well-behaved.

Bird Liberation Day

bythesea — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 00:17:13 +0000

The weather outside is beautiful, sunny and clear, 18 degrees and snowy. Considering the crazy rainy summer we had, it’s gorgeous. We are making preparations for what promises to be the shortest Thanksgiving ever. Anna will be done before she starts, Zoe will follow in short order and both will rush the table when dessert appears. The coordinated dinnertime assault also includes Anna’s current fixation on the salt shaker. In an effort to respond with positive parenting (tactical offensive maneuvers) we have planted a decoy at the table, a basket of short plastic spice jars. We have made big deal about those very important and fascinating jars. Stay tuned….here’s a mug shot:

Zoe has helped to decorate the place and is currently using a roll of tape to put up pictures in the window–she has the spirit! Zoe says to everyone in blogland “we hope you have a good Thanksgiving, too.” Her hands are not taped to her head. That’s just her fresh and funky attitude.

We are all recovering from a respiratory (pronounced res-PYRE-atory by a local authority) illness and hope to be sick again for the next holiday. Mike is in the kitchen struggling with the biggest decision of the day: how to sweeten the yams? Brown suger? Maple syrup? Marshmallows? I have seen him consult three experts on the topic including James Beard and The Joy of Cooking. I see another dissertation topic–he hopes to finish this one before next Thanksgiving. Anything for a reasonable distraction.

Let it snow!

bythesea — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 03:40:20 +0000

It has been snowing for the last week and we have been out playing. Zoe is learning to ski. Mike taught her first on the frosty lawn and the next day it snowed. Now she is actually schussing instead of schmossing. Anna got in on the action, but it is hard having short legs and a lot of clothing. Happiness is 18 inches of snow. Here are a couple of the latest pics we caught.