week 7 without you. is this the hump week? yep, just coasting from now on. yeah right. it’s been an amazing and busy week for us. but i’m lonely. i’m ready for you to come home? can you com home?

i was sad to attend another oktoberfest without you. it was less than relaxing. i just wanted to eat a freaking pierogi and drink a heffewiesen but our daughter had her own ideas of bavarian revelry. let’s just say she stole the show from some tracht clad 80 year olds doing the polka and they were none too pleased about it. she and burkeybuns did enjoy some bouncehouse fun, crafts and her first face paint.

i went to see richard buckner. i decided that if i could have my voice sound like anyone’s in the world it would be his. sorry, celine, you just got bumped. also decided he was a scottish highlander in a previous life and that i wanted to braid his hair with mine into one joined plait but he had packed up and was not returning to the building by the time i decided it would be a good idea to tell him all this. another chance to embarrass myself in front of a musician is lost forever. or is it? also, i didn’t know how you’d feel about me picking you up from the airport with richard buckner ajoint my bahhh-day. i have an inkling you might actually like it though.

we attended henry’s third birthday. it was such a sweet little party. the soiree was a buzz with talk of how the buzzkers were missed. it was a pretty hip party too. i saw at least 3 other peeps who transferred themselves from the party to the buckner show. one of them being the balloon animal man/lead singer of the black swans. he was dressed in full get-up at the party so when he showed up in his street clothes i wasn’t 100% sure it was him. i approached him and asked “were you by chance just making balloon animals at a birthday party?” as soon as the sentence left my mouth i thought “dear nessie, please let him say yes or else i’m gonna sound like a supha-freak.” he did confess.  also, the guitarist for the black swans lives 2 blocks from us. i met him at the party and had a lovely convo with him and his wife.

oh, shizz, forgot to tell you a story about our visit to Spoonful last week. one of the most prominently displayed albums on the racks was bowie’s diamond dogs. darla exclaimed “hey, look! David Bowie!” as soon as she saw it. brett and his dad were thoroughly impressed. they must think she’s the most musically schooled tyke out there between this and the beatles incident. i of course didn’t tell them we have the album hanging as wall art. they don’t really need to know both were acts of sheer coincidence. i’m just sad you weren’t present for either of these moments so you could take some deserved credit.

funny things said by our child: “ooohhh mom, you’re so shiny” upon seeing my leg hair. i made the first batch of souper veggie soup from our green bean delivery this fall. Darla takes one bite and says “mom, i’m so glad you made this soup. it’s delicious.” it was so touching until she proceeded to repeat it over and over and over the whole meal. probably 50x. it was the first time ever that she actually sat through a whole meal. the one time it would have been helpful for her to only sit still for 3 min. darla got up from her nap early and i asked her what woke her up she said “because i just wanted to be with you.” she has been so lovey dovey this week. her daddy quote of the week is “daddy’s not home. we miss him. can you wipe my butt now?” whenever i ask her what your name is now she says “uncle mike.” hmmmm. I’m wondering if i should send some of these in to Preschool Gems.

we’re finishing up the week back home again in indiana and it’s been one hell of a visit thus far. darla got to walk willow and feed her as well as cowboy, the pony. we spent a beautiful afternoon outside exploring sandbox and the wilderness.

our finds in the wilderness: freshly fallen walnuts, deer tracks and wild mint!

we finished the evening with a trip to the bouncespot and roscoe’s tacos! ahh indiana.

then friday was spent getting ready for the tucker annual bonfire. you were missed and much talked about. but mostly we talked about babies. i stalked melanie and courtney to talk about birth and pregnancy. i’m sure you would expect no different. here’s d all bundled up for the campfire comraderie.

now we’re getting ready to start our saturday. but you’ll have to wait another whole week before you find out what we get into. sorry hubby.

sending you lots of love.

fwifey, now wifey.

you’d think that after waiting a year and a half between visits and 13 hrs of driving round trip i would have taken more time to document our stay in dc. alas, i was living in the moment. read that – i was too busy running after our child in busy venues and trying to keep her from jumping off martyna and heidi’s spiral staircase to really wield a camera. here’s what i got:

  darla and frauntie martyna reunion. thanks for housing us!

darla’s indifference to black cat

where i first espied frodo

fried homemade donuts at birch and barley

come into the light children. all are welcome.

i will now list my other failures of the weekend besides capturing any pictures of the cool stuff we did for four days:

-taking a toddler to vfest. epic fail. although not really my fault. i tried but it was really not the environment for a child. i pride myself in not being too squeamish about including darla in life experiences but after 1 1/2 hours decided to go with my mom instinct and get the heck outta hipster hell. after buying darla a really cute t-shirt of course.

-staying up past ten. i had good intentions every night of getting darla down to bed and then having some adult conversations, maybe cut loose a little bit but never was able to actuate these plans. oh well. luckily i have good friends that understand. luckily i have good friends that will move the party that they threw for our arrival to the nearby bar so we could crash in peace. i heard it was a good party though.

-keeping a dry eye. i was a soppy mess the whole weekend. but not in a touching, let’s cry together b/c we miss each other way. more in a parked-car-on-the-side-of-the-road-mom-crying-while-toddler-sleeps-in-backseat creepy kinda way. that actually happened. in front of our old building. and it was one of those ugly cries. ugh.

now for my more important accomplishments of the weekend.

– dancing on the sidewalk to an r&b church service

– 13 hrs in a car with a toddler

– being able to navigate myself around the city as if i never left

– lots and lots and lots of walking. my calves are screaming at me but in a good way

– 2 showers in one weekend. sadly that is not all that common for me

– co-sleeping with darla all weekend long. cuddlefest

-reuniting darla with drum circle. in some senses this was a failure b/c she didn’t give a lick about the drumming and only wanted to run away from me and jump in fountains. i didn’t get to spend much time enjoying the event with friends but still i hope it was enough of an experience to stick in darla’s memory. drum circle was one of my favorite weekly activities when she was small.

– food. oh my gosh glorious food. between thaitanic take-out, the corner crepery, mr. yogato and brunch at birch and barley i was stuffed beyond belief. 14th st has blossomed into one long row of beckoning restaurants and it makes me long to brunch at every one of them! if we still lived in the district i am quite sure birch and barley would be one of our go-to haunts

– and most importantly, seeing lovely, familiar faces. reconnecting with people that i miss so much. each day brought new reunions. frauntie kate, my phish buddies amy & jess. ak & susanna. heidi. dewey. and frauntie martyna! i even stopped into the hill rag on my way out of town and got to reunite with my old co-workers. i hope that some day we will be so lucky as to have built as wonderful of a circle of friends in columbus as the one still embracing us in dc. it’s hard to walk away from all that love.

well that was the weekend in a nutshell. triumphs and failures. yep, sounds like parenting.