Mama's Christmas Gift

Calliope had a really REALLY hard time falling asleep tonight, and it didn't seem to be just the usual Christmas Eve jitters; the poor kid was sobbing for a LONG time. We tried everything...music, mama cuddles, sister cuddles, baba cuddles, my dad even brought his guitar in to play to her, we tried stories, you name it...nothing was working. She was inconsolable and part of the problem was that she was feeling guilty for being inconsolable...she kept saying it was just so hard to calm down even though she didn't have a reason to be upset anymore, which made her cry harder. We talked about it for a bit, but then!! Oh, then came this amazing exchange that was such a huge gift to this mama's heart; I can't believe this is a real thing that just happened. Today we saw (fiasco's AMAZING production of ) into the woods; and Sondheim is right:  Children will listen.

Calliope: 

Mama, sometimes the bad feelings just push into you even when you are already trying to calm down and you dont know why

Me:

Well the important thing is that you are able to recognize that, so you can start to understand that the bad feelings aren't you, and let them go.

Cadence:

Calliope, breathe out whatever is bothering you with each breath.

Hazel:

And think about the good things that make you happy every time you breathe in.

Cadence: 

Yeah, with every breath take in the happy thoughts as you breathe in and as you breathe out let go of all the bad thoughts that are making you grumpy and sad.

Hazel:

 Calliope, think about all the good things you want to do with your life, and focus on that.

Calliope:

 Or you can just swallow the bad stuff.

Hazel: 

Oh but no, if you swallow it it will just go inside you.

Cadence:

 And you don't want it trapped inside you, then you'll never feel better.

Hazel: 

Just breathe.

Cadence:

Like this.

All three start breathing calmly and deeply. The cats come and sit on them. All theee are sound asleep in under 10 minutes.

Unbelievable. They blow my mind...I adore my amazing, compassionate, thoughtful children, and I'm so glad they are actually gathering the tools they will need to make the best of this crazy life.

Happy Holidays, all.
With so. Much. Love.

Adventures in (not really) being a Pinterest mom

Hera help me, I've decided to try to sew.

In a fit of domesticity, I've made good on my decision to try to make my kids' halloween costumes when I can.  This year, Calliope is putting me to the test.  She wants to be a Cake for Halloween.

EDIT: Ok so I kinda skipped the documenting it part - BUT! I successfully made Callie an Orange Layer Cake Costume for Halloween!  See???

Materials are mostly felt, some interfacing, and some plumbing tubes.  It essentially functions like a hoop skirt, so she can sit, stand, run, jump, climb stairs, and even be picked up and carried, completely unencumbered...I'm admittedly a little bit surprised and proud of the fact that I was able to engineer this design.  Everything I saw (mostly, yes, on Pinterest) wasn't practical or fun to wear (or easy to store!! This collapses down to a couple inches thick, the diameter of the base layer.  Easy peasy storage!) so I set off on my own to make this happen.  So glad I did, even if I'm not the best seamstress (and I broke every single one of my sewing machine needles in the process) because the kid's eyes lit up and she wore it all night with no complaints...she adored it, which made everyone adore it, which made her proud (she came up with being a cake - an orange cake - all on her own) and that in turn made me proud so...yeah, I may not be a Pinterest mom, but I am a slightly crazy and happy one.

Happy 4th!

This is the best picture I got, since it was so muggy out my camera's lens irrevocably fogged up, and the smoke...But I kinda love it anyway.

We had a wonderful time celebrating with mom & dad, the day came complete with movies, shopping trips, ice cream making, cookie baking, grilling (in a freak thunderstorm), listening to good music, spending time with family, and of course eating all the great food we made and lighting sparklers out in the yard.  Guess who LOOOOVED them?

Things have changed so much recently, its kinda stunning to step back and look at it all...Hazel has even shed the last vestiges of her babyhood, rather consciously, I might add, and has basically given up breastfeeding and diapers since we arrived in KY two weeks ago.

Things have been busy, but the adventurous spirit has prevailed, and I think we've been able to keep the attitude fairly festive in spite of all the craziness.

Peace.

Happy Thanksgiving (weekend!)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

We had the great fortune to stretch our thanksgiving celebrations out over the course of several days this year, and I wanted to take the time this morning to thank all of you, our wonderful family and friends, for all the love, support, and companionship you have blessed us all with over the past several years. When I look around right now, I am almost overwhelmed by how lucky we are, to have what we have, and to be in the place we are in...and I am so thankful for all of it.

I am thankful for our family. I am proud beyond words of my two beautiful, sweet, intelligent daughters and my amazing, compassionate, hardworking, handsome husband, who teach me about the best in life. And I'm so grateful for our Fabulous Felines, and all the love and antics they bring to our home, and for our one poor hearty houseplant, The Little Aloe that Could (despite the fact that the cats like to sit ON it).

I am extremely thankful for my mom, and her endless patience and generosity, and for my dad and his steadfast dedication to learning and living, for my sister and her unique take on everything we share, and to all of them for boundless love, support, and genuinely enjoyable company.

I am also thankful for my Grandma Carol, who I think I am more like than either of us realized, and who handles more stress than she deserves with the utmost grace and humility. And to all the members of my vast extended family, who have each touched my life in their own unique ways, and who I have enjoyed getting to know as the nuanced individuals that they are as I've grown older. For my godmother Pat, and her husband Scott, who have brought plenty of good-humored advice to us over the years.

I am so grateful to have the support, love, and new friendships that have come to me through James as well. For his parents, who we know we can fall back on no questions asked. For his siblings who each bring unique knowledge and energy into our lives...we are so lucky to have so much love all around us.

And I'll just throw in here that we have some pretty kick-ass friends floatin' around in here, too, and we wouldn't be where we are without the help of some truly wonderful people who have gone out of their way(s) to help us out, and I am so deeply thankful to all of them, as well.

I am thankful for our amazing Home, which really truly does feel like our Home on a visceral level, which is something we haven't really had here in the city before now. For the fact that James and Cadence are both attending amazing schools, populated with really cool, bright people. For the fact that I am able to continue to do small things here and there to keep my career burning in the background while I'm focusing on being a mom - for the fact that I CAN focus on being a mom - and for our good health! And for all the ultimately unnecessary 'things' we have like cameras and computers that let us document and share all of the overwhelming privileges we find ourselves with with all of you - our wonderful community, family, network of friends...and so I say:

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful for my life. I absolutely love it, and everyone that is a part of it. I give thanks for everything in my life.

So, with that, here's a little snippet from our thanksgiving weekend - with pictures, which is what you've all been waiting for anyway!

Thursday, the actual holiday, started off with parade watching (which, for baba, translated into a 3 hour nap on the couch. Yay for rest!) and then some of the dog show that came on afterwards before we packed up, gathered recipes, and got all dressed up for dinner at Erik & Minerva's.

And yes, I DO mean All dressed up.

Here's James with his two daughters; Bear and Mario.

Unfortunately I don't have any decent photos from the day, but it was a wonderful evening with all sorts of amazing food and plenty of good company. James made some potato-leek soup, which we added to the hosts' lineup of white truffle brussell sprouts, squash risotto and ginger-carrot slaw, in addition to the requisite turkey, stuffing, rolls and cranberry sauce. I made some chocolate rum truffles, which joined a lineup of 8 pies and a homemade pumpkin gelato...it was a pretty decadent meal.

The next day, we headed to James' family home in Connecticut where parents and siblings were all gathering to celebrate the holiday a day late. Uncle Robert took Cadence to meet with a friend of his who has a similarly-aged kid, and they all went to a children's show at a museum and seemed to have a lot of fun. Hazel got to spend some quality time with her grandparents, I got a little work done, and James got another three hour nap on the couch. Yay rest!

Probably as a legacy to having raised four string-playing kids, there are a large number of violins in the Yu house. Once everyone got home, Cadence got to use one of the small violins from Yeye's collection to play with Andrew:

Meanwhile, Audrey and Nainai cooked away in the kitchen:

Finally, after Cadence decided the seating arrangement (Robert on her right, Andrew on her left, Mama and Baba and Audrey on the other side, with nainai and yeye at the ends,) dinner was served, as you can see:

Yes, that is Cadence proving once again that she is a much more successful carnivore than me, with an entire turkey leg. [Though really she closed the book on that issue when she lead me through the anatomy of her roast squab, and then ate the eyes, later agreeing with Nainai that they were, indeed, the best part.] That turkey, we're proud to say, came from our CSA...it was a heritage breed bird that lived a good life on a farm up in vermont. I can also assure you that none of it went to waste! Even Hazel had some.

After another fabulous dinner with lots of tasty dishes, like peas and mushrooms, bell peppers and garlic, Asparagus, tomatoes and basil with mozzarella, mashed potatoes, cranberry apple cider, (and more!) we moved on to dessert:

Audrey made a pumpkin pie, and Cadence made that pumpkin for the top! (but someone stole and ate the stem before I got a picture.)

I also reprised my truffles, but tweaked the ingredients a bit to make coconut-rum truffles this time. Audrey and Cadence helped me roll and dust them all after dinner!

I'm not really sure how the technology came into the mix, but it did so...here is a photo of Cadence drawing a picture of the whole family on Rob's tablet computer, while he cuts the pie for serving and Hazel playfully sticks out her tongue at Yeye.

There was kind of a lot going on.

After dinner we got a real treat. James picked up another of the aforementioned many violins, and he, Cadence, and Andrew struck up some impromptu post-feast music!

Thanksgiving String Trio from Kat Stroot on Vimeo.

Even Hazel got into it, joining Yeye on the bells:

Hazel & Yeye play the bells from Kat Stroot on Vimeo.

Somehow we all managed to stay up well past 2, kids passed out on James and I, watching Lord of the Rings...needless to say, we didn't get up too early the next day, but we did have time for a little cold-weather exploration before heading to a great little South American restaurant for a big meal and then home to the kitties!

All in all, it was a grand holiday. It's definitely kicked off an exciting holiday spirit around here!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday, and are enjoying the winter season, where ever you may be.

Happy Halloween from the land of Oz

Happy Halloween from Dorothy, Toto and the Cowardly Lion!

Happy Baba's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

These ladies have been up to something today...

(I love that shot...)

They've been collaborating and working quite well together:

And the end result was so beautiful, it moved them to tears!

Happy Father's Day, James! I hope you enjoy your super special card. You are an amazing father, and our ladies are so lucky to have you. I am also extremely lucky to have you, as a partner in this awesome endeavor...even if you do have a hard time waking up in the middle of the night when both kids are crying and someone's made a huge mess at 3am. You deal with my sleepy wrath with an admirable grace, and it doesn't go unnoticed.

Here's a message from Cadence, transcribed to the best of my abilities:

Happy Baba's day! I love you my dad. I love you so much you have love all over you and so if you get hungry at night then you can eat it all up and not be hungry any more. I want mama to tell you that I want to wake you up so that you can play with me. But you were having trouble waking up this morning. I am going to bounce on you and give you lots of kisses so you'll have energy.

We love you, James!

Love Cadence, Hazel, and Kate

A Super Special Day

Today is a very special day, what with it being valentine's day, the chinese new year, and, perhaps most importantly around here, James's 25th Birthday!

To the latter, I want to publicly send James this brief message, which I've already stuck on his facebook and will gladly put in any public forum I have at my disposal, because he deserves it and I'm proud to call him my husband:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my love!!! I'm so happy to be here and celebrating with you...I'm so proud of you and all of your growth and accomplishments over the past few years...and I'm so glad that you're the father of my children...Amazing! wonderful! hurrah! HAPPY!!!
I love you so much, and look forward to getting to spend the next 25 years with you, agonizing over raising these little bugs and changing the world. :-)

Happy Valentine's day to you all, xing nian kuai le, and Happy James's birthday to you all! come celebrate with us!

:-)

Happy Holidays!

I will apologize to all our photo-loving followers right now: we are in KY for the holidays, and I forgot to bring the camera charger (d'oh!) so I have pitifully few photos.

Things have once again been very busy, but this time it's been much more oriented towards the positive. James was mired in the first finals of his law school career for a few weeks, spending 14 hours a day studying, breaking only for meals and an occasional much needed nap. He managed to make it through relatively unscathed, and didn't hit the major burnout stage until just before the last exam. In the middle of all of that, Cadence and I took on the daunting (but ultimately quite rewarding) task of finding us a new permanent home. It took a lot of work, but in the end we managed to secure a gorgeous new home in Hamilton Heights! We're very excited about our new abode, and are very grateful to the many people who helped us to get everything moved into it just in the nick of time...we have hardly done any unpacking and haven't yet finished scrubbing down the floors, so there is much to be done upon our return to the city, but at least everything is in and we can take our time getting it set up and ourselves settled in. It's very exciting to be thinking more about how to decorate the place than whether we'll find a safe home. In any case, we moved and then hit the road for our holiday trip with a lot of weight removed from all our shoulders.

Cadence has been on a grandparent high; her Nai nai came and spent the evening with us just before we left, and since we got down here she has been delighted to get to play with Nana and Papa.  Not to mention how excited she's been to see Kelly and all the critters!!

The holidays kicked into full gear pretty quickly; I celebrated my birthday right after we all arrived, and we had the great fortune to attend some christmas parties within the week.  Cadence got to attend her very first age-specific holiday party this year, when many of her good friends down here gathered for a Toddler Christmas Party! It was also a farewell gathering for our friends Colin and Anya, since they are embarking on their own new adventure, following Dad Steve's new job to Baton Rouge, LA, so it was a very fun but somewhat bittersweet event.  There was face painting and balloons, good friends, lots of good food, gift exchanges, and even a few tears.  We're sad that they won't be here when we come for visits anymore, but are very excited for them as they take on a new chapter in their lives together as we have done; this is a family full of wonderful, talented people who have been through a lot together, and support each other to the end.  I have no doubt that they will be fine, and I am so happy for them and proud of them.  And, since she just announced it on facebook I feel comfortable now declaring for all the web to see: They are expecting a new baby boy in May, and we couldn't be more glad and hopeful for them.  There are no more deserving parents, they are both wonderful and have already proven themselves parents any kid would be lucky to have.  Congratulations, Anya, Steve...the whole family!!

As I mentioned earlier, we have pitifully few photos, but I do have a few to share with you; and thus I bring you one of the season's miracles:  getting six two year olds to sit on a single couch (without being held!) for a photo opportunity!!

And below you'll find a great one taken by Sheryl Hagan-Booth, Hannah's mom, which shamelessly I stole from facebook because...well, just look at it, it's just a fabulous shot.  Thanks, Sheryl!

L-R: Nadia, Mia, Hannah, Kate, Colin and Cadence.  What a great bunch of kids!  I also stole this next shot from Sheryl.  It really makes me understand why people are always saying that Cadence looks like a china doll.

Anyway, we had a great Christmas.  Christmas eve was very productive, and Cadence had a lot of fun going to the Candles & Carols service at the UU church that evening.  It was a fun service, and surprise surprise Cadence managed to steal the show (as usual) when Forrest, a good friend of my Dad's whom Cadie knows, sat on the edge of the stage in front of the congregation to sing a song, and she went right up next to him and danced along to the music.  After that, she danced to every song that was sung, even getting the minister to dance along with her.  She continued to dance, providing musically appropriate rhythms for each tune, even the candle-lit Silent Night at the close of the service, for which she danced a lyrical, slow, soft dance which fully embodies the calm of the song. It was brilliant.  That night, we stayed up late cooking, baking cookies and preparing for the Big Day! Here's a shot of the cookies and milk (an orange craisin ants-on-a-log) that we left for Santa:

The next morning, she woke up to a dazzling array of gifts (see the photo at the top of this post, though that was before Santa came!), and had a grand time discovering all of her new wonders one at a time.  She seemed almost more excited to give out the gifts she'd gotten for everyone else than she did to open her own, but she spent a looooong time with each new thing before moving on to the next, and that was almost always at great urging from the rest of the family, who were a bit more concerned with finishing the unwrapping with enough time to clean and finish cooking before the Minister came over for christmas dinner...

It ended up working out perfectly, though, and everyone seemed happy.  Kelly had a bright red car in the front yard with a big ole bow on the front (granted, it's the car she helped mom pick out over the summer, which they've both been , Cadence got her Ice Skates and Princess clothes (along with books galore, my mom's old cooking set from when she and her siblings were little, my collection of plastic dogs, puzzles, ducks, movies...) and a highlight for me was when James opened his gift and actually squealed...he will deny this, but I have witnesses.  I was going to post a video of it, but unfortunately the videocamera didn't get plugged in, so it died before the pivetol moment.  Ah well, it's a great memory; it was the Kitchen Aid mixer he's wanted since we got married.  I see lots of yummy breads and pastas in our future!

Cadence models her new Princess Clothes on Christmas morning.  She was a happy kid!

Nana and Baba listen as I read "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" to Cadence on Christmas morning.

We had a wonderful meal, topped off with something that is likely to become a new tradition: New Orleans style bread pudding...it was AMAZING. Cadence went back to church with Nana that evening, and we all finished the day off with a movie together. All in all, it was a pretty great day.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we also spent some time baking, building, and decorating a gingerbread house! Here are a few pictures of the finished product. It was a team effort, no one of us had creative control, so the end result was a delightfully haphazard candy home, complete with:

Some standard candy decor,

Some more Avante-Garde designs,

Family graveyard out front with a cross with an apple on it (there was a serpent to go along with it, but a cat ate it. Not kidding. Gingerbread serpent actually was eaten by a cat And not the one on the roof.), and:

A dinosaur with a dancing cane!

Happy Holidays, all!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

We had a visit from the easter bunny. (See? I even caught it on film! [er, in pixels?])

This awesome bunny left baskets full of goodies for Cadence and Kelly (and a few goodies for the rest of us, too!) and even left Cadence an empty basket with this note in it:

So off she went on an egg hunt!!

She found lots of cool eggs.

...and they all had candy in them!

She was enjoying gobbling it up...

...but then the chocolate police showed up.

So we all and had a good breakfast of mini quiche. mmmm!!!!

Cadence and Kelly also had a rousing game of catch the bunny.

And just in case anyone doubted that these two are related, I present the above photo as photographic evidence.

Then she spent a lot of time playing with the ball the bunny brought.

A whole lot of playing!

Then it was off to church for a talk on sacrifice in a post moral society.

Which she thoroughly enjoyed, of course. :-)

The church has awesome windows.

Punch buggy Easter Bunny! You never know who you'll run into at the UU church.

Back at home, Cadie and Baba did some bouncing.  Look, she's mid-air!  Good jumping!

Wheeeeeeee!

And then it was time for dinner...we had quite a spread. mmmmm, so good!

We even had strawberry shortcake for dessert!

The next bit is a mite hard to explain...I'll delay by asking if you can see how many cats are in the above picture...

Anyway, the next bit consisted of Cadence helping kelly to wrap the house in yarn.  I really don't know why...

you couldn't open the fridge or cupboards...

Ostensibly it was for the entertainment of the cats?

Jewels didn't seem to find issue with that explanation.

and James was trapped on the couch.  he had to bite his way out.

And Cadence finished off the evening by marching around with her umbrella singing "Tut, tut, it looks like rain!"

All in all, it was a pretty good day.  Happy holidays once again!