6.24.2014

there's something about...

-the way she eats finger foods.
kindin holds sandwiches, pizza, and all finger foods in this funny backwards position.  always has and it seems she always will.  it's a funny little adorable quirk with an unknown origin!


-the crazy faces she uses.
dalia is laughably facially animated- and she does so covertly.  i remember her rolling her eyes as early as one year and her newest discovery is going cross-eyed.  i've been trying unsuccessfully to catch one of her sly expressions on camera for a very long time.


-that dum dum love stroke.
every time jack gets his hands on the sucker bowl at the grocery store, he is sure to grab a sour apple sucker for his mom.  once he heard it was my favorite kind and he now discretely presents it to me with the proudest parkour smile.

6.23.2014

rearranging, painting and pickin'

dave's cushy work schedule allows for a lot of time to focus on home projects.  originally, our plan was to get started on the unfinished basement but we've since turned our attention to converting our living space to be more user-friendly.  our evenings, friday afternoons, and saturdays are often consumed with rearranging, painting, and pickin'.

my first request was a face-lift for the guest bath.  we updated ugly fixtures, laughed at the week long undertaking to repair the wall after removing the builder's mirror, and happily covered up the pink footprint.


we immediately got to work after a late night brainstorming session resulted in ripping out the ugly built-in bookcase in the front room.  its cubby now perfectly fits my mother's piano and is aching for a giant mirror to reflect an expanding gallery wall.




i should mention dave's project to hardwire the internet throughout the house.  i understand nothing of this process and am likely underappreciative of what it will mean to the future of our home's technical capabilities but, rest assured, the parry home will be cutting edge.
 
we most recently began converting the dining room (which was being used as a toy room) into a family room.  and, as you can see, the hardest part of this project has been redirecting the flow of toy traffic to the basement.


next on the list is covering up that mossy, oil based paint in the study and making it a room you can work in.
look at that antique desk (lovingly rescued from abandonment by my dad) we started with!



6.12.2014

how hard to push?

jack only mildly loves swimming but i think it's a life skill, a great way to get exercise, and a perfect activity for tiring little boys in the summer.  not having found swim lessons as high a caliber as what we were used to in phoenix, we have tried an alternative route this summer for swimming- the city's recreational swim team.  knowing it'd be a difficult stretch for jack but that he met all minimum requirements, i signed him up alongside his sister.  once again, jack only mildly loves it.  and he has me really questioning how hard to push.  there has been a lot of crying.  there has been a lot of whining.  there has been a lot of noncompliance.  there has been unresponsiveness to incentives.  ...and there has been a lot of second-guessing.


dalia shares in jack's sentiment.  sitting poolside every day watching and waiting hasn't been fun- especially since it follows a morning tennis lesson.


but kindin is jazzed.  she has a gaggle of girlfriends who happened to also sign up and absolutely loves it!