Langer Loksh

Like Ripping off a Bandaid Slowly

We came back from the Cape to close on the new house on Friday morning, and then turned around and went back. Then we came back on Saturday night and went straight to the new house just for fun. Then today Jeff and Summer planted the vegetable garden while I pondered which rooms were hideous enough to have to be painted immediately, before we even move our toothbrushes in. (Answer: all of them!) Charlie passed out on the floor so we just stepped over and around him. We all feel at home there already, and our stuff isn't even there.

We ate chicken and squash from the grocery store kitchen (Grandma's favorite!) on the floor, which reminded me of the pizza on the floor at the old house 10 years ago, and then even though we didn't even want to, we came back to our old house, where the beds are. Moving over the course of two weeks is going to be hard, but for the opposite reasons that I'd thought. We suddenly cannot wait to move. I personally cannot wait for all those toilets.

Double Rainbow

We had a very nice time on Cape Cod last week. I will perhaps summarize in another post; perhaps that will be much too boring for you all. We'll see. But I must move ahead now as things are moving ahead with the move.

Here are some RHCPs. We had an end-to-end double rainbow on Craigville Beach in Hyannis; In a dozen attempts, Jeff failed to capture both children looking at the camera and smiling. For which I do not blame him, as that is a nearly impossible feat, something like, oh, finding a restaurant on Cape Cod that isn't a clam chowder/boiled lobster situation. And anyway, would you really want a holiday card with a rainbow on it? I thought not.

The last one is the most depressing because of Summer's sideways glance--I thought we'd outgrown that. I have about two years worth of pictures in which Summer is making that face, coinciding roughly with Charlie's face being obscured by the plastic plug.

Actually that first one's not half bad.

Om

Last night Summer and Mia, while bedding down in a couch cushion fort for a sleep over, each lost her second tooth. Lots of blood and jumping up and down and squealing.

We're going on a little Hyannis Hiatus. I leave you with this picture of Charlie in his ubiquitous warrior garb striking a yoga pose at soccer. Peace out.

Big Yellow Mush

I'm not sure why, but the school bus is the thing making me the most sentimental. Tomorrow's the last day of school. I just took a picture of Summer with bus driver Linda to frame and give to Linda.  Summer is the last kid off the bus, and she and Linda have long talks about life. Next year Summer will be on a different bus, and the route is the opposite: she'll be the first one on in the morning and the first one off in the afternoon. Maybe she can have long talks in the morning with that bus driver. She's already scoped out a classmate on that new bus, Timothy. But it won't be the same as having Lauren (below) and her big sister Stephanie.

I know, I know, I am a big, boring, mushy, overly sentimental weirdo.

But I'm glad I got a new lens!

Oh, and Way More Importantly

Congratulations to Allison and Jonathan and new big brother Lucas on the birth of baby Joshua TODAY!

La La La La Laaaaaaaaaaaa

Lakers! Bye bye!

Look for Jeff on TV.

The Perpetrator

Charlie attacks neighbor Mia without mercy. Today he whacked her with a wooden croquet mallet. Then, while she recuperated on the couch, he came after her again, with a carabiner.

When Summer was about two, one of her playmates used to hit her over the head with toys all the time. Summer cried. The playmate's mom, a good friend of mine, told me that she thought the reason her kid hit mine was because of the way my kid reacted. This bothered me. If someone hit me on the head every Tuesday morning, I might cry too. People are not supposed to hit each other on the head. People should be able to attend their toddler play group without fear of being hit on the head.

And yet now I kind of see the logic. If Charlie brandished a croquet mallet at Summer, Summer would immediately tell Charlie in a firm voice, "No Charlie, put that down." Mia just stands there. Then her face melts into a huge silent scream. Then about 30 seconds later come the tears. It's really rather pathetic. Don't get me wrong. It's not OK at all for Charlie to hit Mia with a croquet mallet. But if Mia made even the slightest attempt to ward him off, he wouldn't hit her. He would say "I bad guy!" and then take off running in the other direction.

What am I supposed to do? Besides confiscate all the croquet mallets, which I've already done. I made him go in his room, and he cried, and Jeff told him he'd take away his trucks and not give them back.

But I don't think he'll actually stop menacing Mia until Mia stands up to him herself.

Charlie's Tab, Part MCMXLVIII

I took my camera to the local shop, where the guy noodled with the lens for a few minutes, gave up, and sold me a new, identical lens for $79. I was quite pleased.

Can't Even Come Up with a Post Header Sarcastic ENOUGH

Not SUCH a big deal about the broken camera lens, I've been thinking all weekend. I can just use the lens from our non-digital SLR camera, right?

Dug it out this morning.

It's a Nikon.

Sold

We signed the P&S last night. Peggy came over with a bottle of red wine, and it reminded me of our very first night in this house. We'd sat on the living room floor, because we had no furniture, and we ate pizza out of a cardboard box and drank red wine.

Peggy also brought a bright red folder filled with instructions for me (call the fire department for a smoke detector inspection; call the homeowner's insurance company and terminate our policy the day AFTER closing, just to be safe; call the electric company to take our name off the bill, etc.) and a little frame she'd bought at TJMaxx that says "It's not the home I love but the life that's lived there," with a photo she took of our little red house. She hung an enormous "SOLD" tag on the sign outside. I tried to take a picture but my very good friend Charlie pulled my very precious Canon Rebel XTi off of my desk and onto the floor, busting the lens.

So it's official, and we're excited. We close on the new house two weeks from today.

Summer has four more days of kindergarten. Today Jeff joined her for the Father's Day breakfast. Summer was thrilled to host her dad in her classroom.

Charlie has fallen on his face two more times since the doctor told me to not let him fall on his face (what with the potential broken nose). Still, he is the intrepid cheerful Mr. Man. This evening he used all his best wrestling moves on Uncle Jack's dog Copper.

And on the way home from Jack's, OH MY GOD, did you hear about Tim Russert?!?!?