the best place in the city for pictures

i swear there’s something magic about photos on the staten island ferry.  perhaps it’s the orange cast from the ship itself, crazy breezes, or reflections from the water, but it’s hard to take a bad shot.

watcher

leaping shadow …

flip side

walked the glow of each other’s majestic presence …

i love the ferry

band of brothers …

brothers

D hid, and this was the best I could get …

hiding from the camera

these two yahoos were along, making it a rare day …

da boys, from a few years back :)

and i leave you with this …

no he's not upside down

indian summer day

shadow boy

is it just me, or does this look a bit like an ad for Guess?

first gorgeous day in a week or more, sunny and warm.  threw fynn in the stroller, douglas took his bike, and we ran/biked to prospect park, meeting up with M whose work was cancelled 10 minutes after he got in.  i hadn’t intended to run and was in flip flops and non-running gear, but couldn’t help myself, it just felt so good to fly up the street alongside of d on his newish bike.   lay in the sun, watched the boys play in the mud and with the aerobie, and kept an eye on fynn’s toys that a nearby girl kept taking, running away with, and leaving out the middle of the huge meadow.  the park was packed. 

walked home slowly, browsing stoop sales, playin in the fountains at the library, and buying a cheap bag of felted wool and silk scraps from a lady down the street.  thinking of making more of fynn’s patchy lavendar pillows and hocking a few on etsy.  the felt would make great patches. 

m’s strumming his guitar and it’s the perfect end to a delicious day.  it’s been a long time since i’ve felt like that, and i’m glad. 

Haircuts @ home

Had the novelty of home haircuts today, but not by me.  Hence the novely.  Had no idea what to expect, hired the guy thro a local parents network, and as he cuts kids for free along with a parent, it seemed a good deal. 

Fynn’s before shots …. I was so loath to cut it but figured it’s the end of rats nests, and the constant hair flipping and eating messes.

I went first, and the only record of it is Fynns …

Which tells an awful lot, yes?  He wet it with a spraybottle, convinced me to do bangs again, and went to it.  Slowly.  Really slowly, and I’m not sure why?  He seemed to know what he was doing, and had confidence, just a lot of checking/rechecking etc.  Hope that’s not the case every time.  It took almost two hours!!  Hmm.  Cheerful, lots of banter, lots of keeping Fynn from running off with scissors and turning on hair dryers, etc.  I was just glad to get up.  You’ll have to wait for an after pic on me, sorry.

Fynn was next. 

He took to it well, with lots of shrieking every time the spray bottle came out. It was pleased squealing, not angry, thankfully. 

He just couldn’t really sit still.  After waiting 2 hours for me, he’d run out of interest and patience.  Had I realized, M could have taken the boys outside, but we didn’t know how it would go.  We put a video on the laptop and propped it on the washing machine, which helped somewhat.  Next time …

He got a cute cut, but it could have been better, which the stylist agreed with but Fynn had no patience left to do more. 

The best cut of the day was Douglas, who wasn’t even sure he wanted one.  He said something offhand about a mohawk, and The stylist said sure, you have the perfect hair for a faux-hawk, and promptly, efficiently, and beautifully gave him one.  Perhaps the 3rd time’s a charm?  Either way, I’m pleased.

It suits him to a T … and he loves it.  Yay for a non-mom haircut :).

Ready for summer, at last.  We’ve had a great week, btw, with lots of work and lots of fun getting done.  One major client site went live on Friday, yay for that.  M took the boys one day, which was heaven … actually billed 6 hours that day.  An impossibility on school days.

Summer is good, plans for the road trip/family time shaping up, and now to find a way to have a few days with just the 4 of us, searching out where to live next.  Hard to have those plans be last in line, trying to get them fixed.

Now off to entertain be entertained by my company :).

last day of school

feeling a bit fragile today.  not sure what it is.  very very glad to have c here, she always gets my feelings to the surface.  one kid finished first grade today, the other finished being a ‘ladybug’ and his first year of preschool.  very little sleep last night.  facing a summer of no childcare, but lots of work to do to keep things afloat.  have to work out a time-share with m on the days he’s not working.  almost burst into tears when thinking of the boys getting to see grambie next month, tho it will be very very short and she probably won’t remember much as it’s going to be chaos with a big family wedding.  rain for 2 weeks means hardly any sun.  almost everything feels like it’s in limbo.  i think we have a front-room tenant(s) starting in august, yay!!! not sure what to do for july.  still have r here but he knows he’s out if we get someone in.  owes a month, about to owe two.  not feeling the yay today, feeling very introspective but not depressed.  just needing to get it out.  i imagine that will happen tonight.  i hope so.

today, in pictures.  stops just before i got to see Douglas after school, when i met up with him at the park with his friends, in jeans and nothing else, soaking wet and gleeful.  another good day.

fynn had a performance at school, followed by pizza at the park.  i wasn’t feeling like being social, sadly, and kept to myself pretty much. 

circle time performance, singing

watchers

ladybugs

sweet melissa

see kai run

showing dad the medal

rather apt

juice boxes are coveted

and abandoned for popsicles  (did i mention i love redheads?  i have a slew of pics of this delicious one)

 

painting in the rain

In one of my few inspired parenting moments, we moved the paints to the porch, set up a old easel, and put the boys to it.

they had a ball.  some squabbling over paint, but not too much. 

then is started to rain.  not having painted enough, we rigged an umbrella, and the rain stayed gentle.

hilarity ensued and paint flew

masterpieces

a good day.

The last time he painted

gave him watercolors to paint with, had my back turned … got this. 

immediately after scrubbing him off in the bathroom, he said he had to poop. I left him climbing onto the toilet. I returned a few minutes later to red nail polish on his toes, fingers, fingernails, and doorframe, with gold polish poured on the floor.

Not one shred of remorse.  It was picture day.  Thankfully, it was also after school.