Topless on Facebook (and almost Eyeless in Gaza)

Nope, not another inadvertent cleavage mishap.

These are actually pictures of my three-year-old playing on the Slip N' Slide with some of her best friends in the neighborhood and Li'l A. Our neighbor J hailed us just as we returned from Li'l A's allergy shot expedition and the kids went off nextdoors in their running shorts and tees, stripped off their tees, and proceeded to have a muddy good time.

All the other kids are boys, and Baby A is both the youngest and a girl. No one cared except a cross-country friend who called to counsel that I cover up the three-year-old's chest. I'd talk Topfreedom, except that even that's not the issue as most three-year-old girls are literally undifferentiated from most three-year-old boys chest-wise.

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Din

minds waiting on tables
dinner on minds, in air

your hands are fish
your mouth is water

your belly pregnant
with fancy flames

tender are vegetables
lost in becoming language

steam stretches branches,
falls thick and everywhere

my voice finds its legs
and children, dinner is here
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Our Hiatus

Made mad by memories
I said to you: go
you went

I wish you to come
but wait
And all the stares stay

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This Yellow Springs Life

I thought the highlight of today would be my date at the opera this afternoon with Big A, but as it turned out, it wasn't.

Big A's colleague had two spare tickets to Ira Glass on tour and they were ours for the taking. And we took 'em. And yes, it was awesome to listen to and see Ira Glass, but that wasn't the highlight either.

Saturday morning line up for me and the kids while Big A sleeps off his night shift involves the Farmers' Market, getting to choose their free book at Dark Star, spending a couple of dollars--via birthday gift cert--at Mr. Fubs, and trying to get home to listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and This American Life over lunch.

As it turns out the opera and Ira were across the street from each other, but I wanted to go with Li'l A. So the highlight was to have Big A let me enjoy the second half of the star gala at the opera by myself while he braved the wilds of the midwest to retrieve the Ira Glass tickets so I could dash home, change out of opera togs, grab some of the pizza that had been delivered, and go back downtown with Li'l A in tow.


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If It Were my Home

One of my new favorite activities with Li'l A is one reprised from my childhood. I recently copped a free-standing globe from the local Goodwill. It's hopelessly outdated (which explains why I was able to buy it for $ 4.99) but it's a lot of fun to quote a place and have Li'l A scramble to find it. To give him clues and watch him piece it together. To see him figure out that the revolutions of this Arab Spring are connected in the most tangible and environmental way possible--through land.

I can't wait to share the new If It Were My Home feature with him: You can compare your present life with postulated facts and conditions of your life if you had been born in some other country.

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Car Parable

Driving home.

Baby A: Mama did you know Dada had another car? But one day, when he was sleeping, a thief came and took it away.
[Sudden quiet. The air vibrates with strong, unsaid emotions.]

Me: Did it make you sad, NuNu?

Baby A: No. [Deep breaths.]
It makes me SO angry! If I ever see that thief... [Growling.]

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The thing about sunshine

The thing about sunshine is not only that I end up smiling at strangers all the time from sheer happiness. Even when I'm just squinting at the sun, the way I bare my teeth makes people think I'm smiling at them, so they smile back.

Net aggregate of smiles: impressive.