Oh no, no, she never goes to work...

I must admit it took me 2 months to figure out how to upload the last pic of Esly talking on the phone.  This is what she looked like this morning as she said "no no no no no no".  The last few days she's been saying "no" a lot.  I mean, a discouraging and confusing amount.  She wasn't exactly being sassy and didn't seem unhappy but I was feeling a little out of the loop.  Finally while talking to Andrew I realized she was singing, not being ornery.  We recently got the They Might Be Giants 123's dvd.  There is a wonderful song that goes "oh no, no, I never go to work" and then details how each of the 7 days of the week the singer never does go to work.  Well, we love that song.  So does Esly.   And here she is singing it for you:

Esly likes to talk on the phone a lot...

...and her phones are, well, anything.  Alphabet blocks, juice bottles, dirty socks- all phones.  Baby spoons with food all over them, real cell phones, her shoes...all get the same treatment.  "Da da do, doohh. "  On and on with major inflection.  Pretty funny.

Don't we all edit for the better photos?

3 weeks+ west coast= vacation!

What a great time we had!  We had a few reasons to take such a long trip...namely that Andrew's sister Tiffany just graduated from high school with every honor I've ever seen (and some I hadn't), and I had support from my university to attend Paintings Edge lectures and work on art for a while!  (What an amazing opportunity...more later.)

I'll post a bunch of pictures:

Many thanks to everyone who put us up and put up with us...travelling with a 1+ year old is both exhilarating and life-threatening, as you'll see...

First we went to Sacramento to see my brother Mac. It was great to see where he is living- it's a small neighborhood downtown in biking/walking distance to everything you could need. All the food was excellent and I was envious. We have great food but you usually have to drive.

We also went to the zoo and Esly loves her uncle Mac.

Then we drove down to Southern CA where we went pretty directly to Tiffany's graduation and spent a few peaceful days with the whole family before a lovely Father's Day bbq and the parting of ways.  We stayed with my Dad and Shari for a few days and Esly especially enjoyed their 2 dogs. 

We did our rounds and saw 2-3 people/groups a days for a few days.  We stopped in to see some great old friends from the Huntington...we got a glimpse of the new Chinese Garden but it was a day when Esly was ready to go before we were.

We also saw some friends with a daughter a few years older than Esly...you can see the look of awe and admiration Esly has for Clare. Clare graciously showed Esly all her dolls and I could tell Esly was anxious to be older...

We saw Alison and Mac and spent time at the Norton Simon- he was very sweet and tried to help Esly identify a certain Duchamp piece from the exhibition brochure... it was a fun piece because everything was spinning (literally).  Mac has this amazing vocabulary and is incredibly perceptive.  It ws nice to walk through a museum with him.  I wish Esly were closer to the other kids in our life.  It's always really wonderful to watch their interactions.

We stayed with the Patterson's a few days and Esly just wouldn't sleep...she ended up getting 2 molars during the trip. So, one morning around 5 am when it was no longer possible to force sleep we got up and drove to Santa Monica where Esly enjoyed running headlong into the waves- no fear at all and perfectly happy to forget about her teeth pain. What a beautiful kid.
The fabulous Patterson's threw a fabulous bbq and we saw many old friends there...she's stuck in THEIR tamborine.

So- Paintings Edge.  We stayed with a friend who had a cabin in Idyllwild and had wonderful soulful conversations reflecting on life, art, poetry and the good lectures we attended which included Fred Tomaselli- an artist I've always enjoyed (process and content) and who I found forthcoming and interesting in person.  It was amazing to get some time to catch up with myself and Andrew (Esly stayed with Grammie-Andrew's mom- for a few days so we could have some rest THANK YOU).  

After about 3 weeks we ended our trip with time in Vancouver, WA seeing the Martins who have recently left us alone in Boise. ( sorry, I'm still getting over the loss!)  It was great to see them despite the heat wave and our waning traveling energy...we love them dearly. This is Andrew on the porch playing ball with Nels- I love Gypsy's alarmed face. And no, Esly never got hit although Andrew let her believe it was often HER catching the ball.

We had a lovely time with you all and miss you already but it was time to get home:

More posts at some point on my new backyard studio! I'm in process on a body of work I really like and I have a chance to show some of it at SPU in January. Hooray for my real life (outside my workaholic tendencies at my academic job).

esly videos...thanks for the camera, dad!

For all you eslyphiles (meaning grandparents): Esly plays, crawls, stands, and exclaims (what we know to be) "dad!". She basically shouts this everytime he enters a room or she finds herself at eye level with him. "Dad", "mumumum"(we believe this to be a reference to me), and "hi/hey" are her basic words/sounds. We love her.

Posting with more frequency...

...as this post is occurring in less than a 3 month interval which is literally SHATTERING my track record. So...to start you off, here's Esly talking earnestly...

...and super cute bath baby. She loves to splash and crawl around in the water. I'm looking forward to taking her to swimming lessons this summer.

Here is a nice video of her looking at the snow we had a few weeks ago...she really likes the large maple tree across the way. How do I know this? She speaks to it excitedly on a regular basis .
In superficial but fabulous news the Boise anthropologie opened 2 weeks ago...oh, sincerely: yay.

Oh, Christmas break! & Happy Birthday Andrew!

First- Happy Birthday to a lovely man.



This has been the longest Fall of my life. Learning to create a happy balance (it IS in fact possible) of teaching, mothering, and living the rest of life has been all encompassing. Everything has found it's place and my daily life is very pleasureable. A lot of this is thanks to the woman who so lovingly watches Esly 3 days a week when I'm at work...Esly loves her and it makes it possible for me to keep teaching. Andrew is also an amazing dad and we continue to be best friends...it's amazing how much that helps. Note- I think it's a sick myth that kids bring people together because our pre-existing friendship is all that's made this work so well!

Esly has been attempting to walk the last few weeks. She is just 8 months but threatens to be getting around on her own pretty soon.


Alison was in town last week installing her work in the galleries and it was so nice to see an old friend. The show is smart and lovely...pretty funny too. I'll post some pictures of us feeding Esly pickles (not our idea, she wanted them).



Hope to see you all over Christmas, we'll be in LA for almost 2 weeks.

new pictures

So for all you Esly fans who have requested some new pictures...it's your lucky day.
Esly is super active and inquisitive. We happened to have the camera on us the first time we noticed her discovering shadows.
She loves to eat everything she can get her hands on...

and just a cutie passed out in the afternoon.


Much love to you all!

School is in session, we don't have a newborn anymore

A friend sent this picture last week and I couldn't believe how busy Esly is compared to 5 months ago!

She and I spend our mornings exploring the house and yard.
She is pretty interested in her own reflection right now.
As much as I love my job I am really struggling to make this working mother thing work. I love being with Esly but am grateful for the time to do a job that feels so much like me- so much of my identity. At the same time, I hate when my job spills over so much into my time at home (a 9-5 sounds good sometimes), even more now that Esly has joined us. Sometimes she comes to work with me. These are some pictures my friend Jamie took with the webcam on her mac. You can actually see Esly's little brain saying "eat the keys".

Esly is also trying to eat me:

In other news, our car which we have loved to much is done. I was rear-ended last monday and the cost of getting the hatchback to open and the right lights to blink is worth more than the car. I'm just hoping we'll get enough to replace it with another dependable car.

Hopefully we can figure out the car thing so we can be in Portland next weekend visiting friends.