where did october go?

i am really not sure what happened....
the month has flown by and it has been weeks since i have posted.
here are the past few fall weeks in photos.

happy fall boy


climbing trees


mateo gets a new (second hand) rocking horse


a visit to noni & babu's


wild rumpus boy


pilar practices her guitar


and gives daddy's banjo a whirl


sleepy head


a trip to the sauvie island patch










autumn flower girl


mateo escapes a diaper change


look how they shine at night!


carving pumpkins with the ceniceros family


all the punkins


how beautifully they glow

keeping up with the jones'- portland style...

i suppose every city has its' version of "keeping up with the jones' ", right?
i think i might have been a bit naive when leaving san francisco that we somehow would miraculously escape this phenomenon. we were fed up with trying to be so hip- which seems to be s.f.'s version. you know, knowing the coolest boutiques around town, music haps, designers in the know, having the chicest unique crap in your house etc. etc. thankfully david never succumbed to the super duper pegged jeans worn with raggy hitops and that hair-do that screams "i spent 20 minutes and gobs of product on my hair to make it look like i did nothing to it"-- i guess david couldn't do that even if he wanted to. but seriously, it was exhausting trying to keep up in that town.

anyway, portland has a whole new flavor or keeping up and it falls along the lines of how green are you!?!? then on top of that we have landed ourselves in the waldorf community which adds a whole other layer of keeping up....anyway, i find it exhausting again- but at least they are all things i can really get behind. things i really believe in. things i want my children to learn and ways i want them to be in the world. so i guess i'll take being exhausted for now and look forward to a time when maybe there won't be so much "keeping up".

obama flags

i must admit that going to university in eugene left me feeling a bit cynical about prayer flags, that's how it is when you are 18- things are hard and fast and you know everything. but ever since i saw strings and strings of prayer flags sprinkled all over the nepalese mountains i have had a love for them. when you see something in its place of origin then that thing takes on a whole new meaning- or rather, it actually has meaning. unlike the bourgeois hippies in eugene who throw them up on their porches to profess their enlightenment similarly to those who hang dream catchers from their rear view mirrors. i mean taking from another culture to tout your own enlightenment is pretty transparent that you have none isn't it? but truth be told- i have waved prayer flags in my yard upon occasion since my return from nepal and india 11 years ago. and i have to confess that when i see homemade prayer flags they make me feel extra warm and fuzzy. i guess as you get older you see things have much more wiggle room and things, thoughts and ways of being are not so black and white.

so pilar made obama prayer flags the other day- with my encouragement- and no i am not expressing our political enlightenment but i do like the idea of the wind taking our wishes for a new and hopeful president out in to the abyss to meet up with all the other wishes and prayers for obama to be the next leader of our country. we are hopeful that november 4th will prove that we really do want change for this country and that we believe it is possible.

chosen sisters

a girl has got to have friends right?!?!
i am always amazed when i meet a woman who does not have a solid group of women friends. my friends are my lifeline much of the time. they help keep me in check. call me out when i am off. praise me like no other could. they lift me up when i am sad. they check in. they remind me that i am strong. they make me think about things-- good things, smart things, funny things. i know it is a little bit woo woo and a little bit yaya sister club, but my chosen sisters are, like courtney says, my family. and for whatever reason the universe brought us together oh so many years ago, i think i might now begin to understand what we truly have to offer one another and i just know we will be friends til the end- which is a long long long way off since we are just getting started really.

naughty babes

today has been sluggish due to a brutal night. neither of the kids would go to sleep. this was most disconcerting after a week of amazing bedtime routines and sleep for them both! we played musical beds. tried the exercise ball. let mateo stay up and play in the tupperware drawer--meanwhile d. was trying to put out a big press release and not able to help too much... finally i gave in to both kids going to sleep in the big bed at the likes of 9:45!!! look at them both here- sound asleep with their mouths hanging open--sleeping blissfully. i was tempted to put spoonfuls of salt in their mouths for being so naughty. but i refrained because their peacefulness was just too sweet to mess with and my sanity too precious. they best sleep soundly tonight because we have serious debates to watch!

octopus mama

i bought myself this necklace last fall. in part because my favorite s.f. style maven had one that i secretly coveted and in part because i see it as a wonderful mother image. to be a mother is to hold everything- literally and figuratively- and sometimes it does require nearly 8 arms. anyway, i wore it until i gave birth to mateo- i then took it off during labor because it felt restrictive. it has been 10 months since i have worn this necklace and today for some reason i put it on. i thought a lot about why i was putting it on and i think it is because i am finally starting to get my mothering groove back. i am feeling more and more capable of "holding" all that i need to. and my octopus necklace is a symbol of that.

sweet saturday

today was the perfect day. a true day of leisure. it has been a while since we have seen one of these. we lounged around this morning and then harvested the remainder of our summer garden's bounty and then went to the recycle roundup. kids were in bed early and david and i actually got to watch a movie. nothing like sweet family days with nothing on the agenda!






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