Princesses!

This is Z and her friend E.  E and her brother live in the neighborhood, and happen to be about the same age as our kids.  And they go to the same charter school as our kids.  And they are even in the same classes as our kids!  How cool is that?  We're trading babysitting with their parents, which really works out just perfectly for everyone.  Obviously, tonight it's our turn to watch all four kids.

Play date

Lucky B got to spend the morning with his best bud from school. We tried to meet at a park, but the wind was blowing hard & cold, so we gave that up after about two minutes and headed to the friend's house.

B's going to spend the whole summer with this friend -- his mom is going to watch B while M & I are working.  "Watch" is an understatement -- she's got lots of nannying experience & works in the boys' classroom at school, and has planned the summer with a lot of care.  They're going to have a blast!  And I'm happy that B will have a "real" summer instead of going to camp at the school.  That just seems like a variation on more school to me.  Z will stay at her preschool for the summer (more fun than "school" every day of the year!).

By the way, B's friend lost that tooth on the very same day that B lost the first of his two top teeth. It happened at school for both of them. B lost his second tooth at my mom & dad's house last Tuesday (corn on the cob for dinner did the trick!), but his bud is hanging onto the second one for now.

Mount Evans

My friend Nia is only here for about ten more days before she goes home to Indonesia. She has done some hiking while she's been here, but had never seen dramatic Rocky Mountain vistas. I thought a trip to the top of Mount Evans would take care of that.

On the drive up Squaw Pass, the views were still pretty stunning. Storms were moving in, but you could clearly see the ranges to the north and west of us. By the time we stopped at Summit Lake, it was snowing lightly and pretty misty. We hiked a little bit there, did a little bouldering (B) and saw some wildlife.


I couldn't believe how close we got to this mountain goat! It was an accident -- he was behind a big pile of boulders, and we didn't even know he was there until we'd been a few feet away from him for several minutes. He didn't seem to mind our presence though -- he'd look up from his foraging every few seconds to study us, then went back to digging and eating.


Then we headed up to the top. It's been years since I drove up Mt. Evans, and I didn't realize there would be so many people up there! We practically had to wait in line to get to the top. Nia was overwhelmed by the scenery, even with all the mist and clouds. She told B at one point that it was so beautiful she felt like she was going to cry. Both of us were amazed by how many cyclists there were up there, and awed by the bravery (or foolishness?) of the people hiking up then skiing down the boulder-strewn snowfields.

At the top, it was only 30 degrees and very windy. Plus it was snowing these weird little pellets of snow that were blowing horizontally. It felt like needles hitting our faces. We didn't even stay five minutes -- just long enough to take in the little bit of view that was visible and take a photo.

I am so lucky to live where I do. Colorado is a wild, beautiful place, even when you have to endure a traffic jam at 14,000 feet to see it. At the end of the day, I felt like climbing a fourteener again. It's been many many years since I did that, and back when I was doing it, I barfed off the side of quite a few of Colorado's most beautiful mountains. Yes, even though I've lived here for most of my life, I get horrible altitude sickness. Horrible. Debilitating. Seriously -- on Mount Massive, it was so bad that I laid down in the shelter of a boulder and dozed/barfed while my family went the last few hundred yards to the summit. But I'm willing to try again!

Play date with Maia & QQ

Today we tried to have a play date at a park with Maia and QQ. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate -- within five minutes of when we arrived at the park, scary thunder and lightning started. We ran for the car and ended up having the play date at our house. It poured rain, and I do mean poured, for a solid 20 minutes. That almost never happens here. The intersections of the streets that are down nearer to the bottom of the mountain were all flooded. Good thing I got my vegetable garden planted yesterday -- all the new plants will love the moisture!

But back to the play date...Little miss Q has really blossomed since I saw her last (Christmas-ish, I think). She wasn't shy at all. She was so curious and friendly, and was signing furiously. That girl is going to be talking up a storm in no time! She was very disappointed that she wasn't able to play with the many balls in our backyard (stupid rain). She was also quite interested in the stairs, and did a little practicing going up and down. All of the things Maia says about her are true -- she is smart, beautiful, charming and fearless.

Z did her best to share her toys, but being a two year-old, wasn't entirely successful. B, however, was so kind, gentle, and solicitous with QiuQiu. He showed her new toys, how to do things, and made sure she had plenty to eat. It was really touching to see. Now if only he could demonstrate that kind of behavior with his own sister, instead of hatching plot after plot to get rid of her by whatever means necessary...

Here are the very few pictures of our day -- a couple of the kids at the park before the rain started, and a couple of QiuQiu:

Facebook dilemma

So this girl I used to know growing up has tried to friend me on Facebook. Let's call her S. We lived in the same neighborhood & were friends in elementary school & junior high. Then in high school, S turned mean. It's a long story & I'll spare you the details, but she and another girl did something really really awful to me once that I have never forgotten. It hurt my feelings very badly, and was horribly embarrassing too. Only a handful of people knew about it, mainly the adults in the neighborhood that discovered it, told my parents, then took care of it. But still. The other girl offered a lame apology ("I'm sorry for whatever it is you think I've done") when her parents forced her, but S never apologized. I really never spoke to her again after that. She moved away after high school, and for 23 years, I never heard a peep from her. Until now.

So I have a dilemma. My initial reaction when I saw the email from Facebook was "No way!" Why would I want to allow someone who was so incredibly mean back into my life, even in that tiny, insignificant way? Part of me thinks that if she could do something so despicable back then, there's something fundamentally wrong with her, something that has to still be there in the adult S. But then another part of me says, "Oh, grow up J." After all, it happened 23 years ago, and she was a teenager then. Teenaged girls are notoriously mean. It's time to get over it. Forgive & forget. Then the really vindictive part of me, the little tiny bit of teenaged girl that remains, thinks it would be AWESOME to ignore this girl who was so sure she was so much better than me back then. A little rejection would do her good. Revenge is sweet.

Obviously, this is not a big deal. It's just Facebook; it's not like she wants to get together or is moving in next door. Even if I let her into my Facebook world, it's unlikely it'll ever go any further than a tiny version of her snotty face appearing on my Facebook homepage every now & then. But it's actually been a week or two now (I've ignored her request so far), and I can't get it out of my head. Am I being petty in holding a grudge against this girl? Does that say something deeper about who I am? Do I need to let go? Or am I justified in still feeling hurt over something that happened 23 years ago when we were kids? And if so, is it justifiable to continue to shut someone out of my life over an incident like that?

So what would you do? Reject, ignore, or friend? And am I being a baby?

Party!

An online friend from out of town, Hayley, has been here in Denver for the past week with her family, and I just couldn't resist the opportunity to get together a group of friends from my online community. It's such a fabulous group of women, and I was positive we'd get along as well in person as we do online. We did. I wish all of them could have come, all 30ish of them and their families. But they're scattered all over the U.S. and Canada. So Hayley and her family came, along with Maia and QiuQiu (Mike had to work), and Christie & her family. Christie doesn't live too far away, but we hadn't managed to get together before this. Hopefully now that she knows our house is right on her way home, she'll stop by more often! It was wonderful to meet all of these women in person, and to spend an evening with a fun bunch of people. Even the kids got along.

3 Asshats: Christie, me, Hayley (Maia had to leave before this picture was taken)

The 3 of us with our kids. From the left: me, B, Hayley's Piper, Lina, Christie, Hayley & Paisley. I don't know where Z ran off to when we took this.

Christie & Lina

Maia & QiuQiu

QiuQiu

Hayley's Mike & Paisley

Lovely Lina modeling her Christmas outfit

B & Piper engrossed in the new Star Wars game he got for Christmas