Welcome Spring!

It's spring in CW!

Have a great week everyone.

Farrideh

Farrideh is a neighbor. She lives in a green house two doors down with largest, most beautiful weeping cherry tree I've seen (you can glimpse it in this photo). She watches her two granddaughters everyday, they have pretty little Italian names because their mother is Italian. But Farrideh and her husband and her son are not, they're from somewhere else. Her accent sounds Greek, but it could just as easily be Turkish or Syrian or Armenian. She could be any number of nationalities really. I'm a bad judge. I thought for sure one of my good friends was Armenian when I met her, but it turns out she's half Mexican. I'm not sure why I always want people to be Armenian.  I'm also not sure why I'm always shy to ask people where they're from. 

Farrideh met and fell in love with my son on Halloween. She's older and kind of sticks to her own yard, so that was the first time they were introduced. She opened the door to her cozy home and the smell of some kind of wonderful meditteranean dish flooded out. Immediately she was down at Nicky's level, patting his head and cooing all over him. She let him dig through her candy dish for at least 5 minutes. We must have left with 20 treats.

Now when she sees him coming she says "There's the baby. I am in love with this baby!" They have a moment. Sometimes Nicky runs up and hugs her and says nonsensical things to her in a really loud voice. She loves this. She'll say, "Now this is just for you and me ... " and say something to him in her native language. Sometimes, like the other day, he'll see her and a big smile will spread across his face. Then he'll whip up his t-shirt, point at his bellybutton, yell "Bellybutton!", and run off in another direction for a ball or a truck. She'll laugh and watch him go. She's not the kind to chase him.

She doesn't expect much from me, doesn't need me to tell her about what he's eating or how he sleeps, whether he's said his first sentence or likes to play outside. She'll get all that from him soon enough. And when she beams and says "Such a happy, happy boy!" I know it's a compliment, even though she's not looking at me. This is their own, this little friendship.

These interactions with Farrideh always strike me. They make me think he's so lucky in life, this running into someone like this on the street, someone who loves him so much, someone who would pick him and kiss his boo-boo if he fell, give him water if he was thirsty. I see already that she will care about him as he grows, what he'll be for next Halloween, what he wants for Christmas, how he likes school.

It pulls at my heart strings, which are really getting worn out lately.

Mines

Look at what momma got for Easter! My very own touching video, complete with the song I adored from the link in my last post. Watching this I realized we have a lot more footage than I thought -- even some  baby feet!

How sweet is my husband?

Happy sunny holiday weekend!

All Week Long OR I Don't Film Enough OR The Price Is Right

All week long I've been wanting to post. I've been commuting to the office and thinking of posts as I drive, then not finding time to write them once I get home. This is a messy compliation of all those ideas.

I've been tired this week and going to bed early and getting up late. Never in my life did I think I would call getting up at 6:30 late, but now it is very, very late. If someone had told the pre-children me that once I had kids getting up at 5:45 would be the norm, I may have waited to have children. It would have been a ridiculous reason to wait to have children, but I can see how that knowledge could have resulted in that outcome. This makes me think I'm being far too transparent with my sister if I want her to have children in the near future.

I've been enjoying a bit of a lull in my workload, but I can feel it building as sure as I feel spring springing. Once I'm in the thick of it, I'll be fine, but right now I'm full of self pity for all the work I will have to do in the next few months. I was really moved by this post over at the Panic Room. This guy always seems to put it so well ... if I tried to write this post it would go on forever, but his quiet little paragraphs say it all. He's also a really talented photographer and the video (the video!) link on this post is so beautifully done. I got a little misty because it all comes together so well and also because I know we are definitely not taking enough video of Nicky. It's hard to fit it all in--the iPhone pictures, the good camera pictures, the seeing it with your own eyes and just enjoying the moment mental pictures. The video camera is often left out, but man I would love to have a video like this of Nicky to watch during a stressful moment at work. Just to have it. That would be great.

Writing this I remembered that I do, in fact, have something like this to watch on this site. My husband put it together for me so long ago. He came in while I was watching it and said he would work on another one today. Yay!

What else ... the other night the husband and I watched the Departed again. I believe I've seen it 20 times. I love that movie so much for so many reasons -- the actors and the pacing and the setting and the music and the subject. I love crime/mob/gang/street drama. I'm not sure why I find it all so intriguing, but I know I'm not alone. If you, too, see the appeal you should check out novels by Richard Price. He's a great writer and penned the scripts for more than a few episodes of The Wire. He also wrote Clockers, which later became a Spike Lee joint and is said to be the inspiration for The Wire. I would recommend the book Samaritan, written about a middle-aged divorcee who returns to the projects of New Jersey to teach a writing class at an inner-city highschool and ends up in the middle of a murder mystery. I know it sounds very Dangerous Minds, but trust me it's much, much better. I've had his first novel, The Wanderers, and a more recent one, Lush Life, on my to-do list for awhile now.

Anyway, that sums up most of what's been floating around up here. Have a great Easter everyone. We are looking forward to egg hunts and 80-degree weather and little boys in button-downs and khakis, and maybe a date night or two in the mix. Love ya!