Andrew and I are both dog people. Before getting married, we talked pretty seriously about getting a dog, but then we got engaged, were working full time (plus I was working another part time job), planning a wedding, driving across the country, getting married…you get the picture. It didn’t seem fair to get a dog if we couldn’t devote the time we both thought a dog deserved. “Maybe after we’re married,” we both said. Then I got pregnant.
Now that Griffin has been in our lives for over a year, we’ve been talking about how we’d love to have a dog someday. . .like when Griffin can take care of it. But we’ve also been thinking, “Who needs a dog when you have a baby?” The parallels are more than you might imagine. Griffin likes to:
unroll and shred the toilet paper
eat everything, especially non-food items
get into the recycling and garbage
go for walks
pee on the rug
run around in the backyard
lap up water from puddles
And yesterday, we discovered he loves the sprinkler! Check out the video:
Of course, a dog can’t say “Mama” or “Dada,” and a dog certainly won’t sit on your lap and listen to you read stories while he turns the pages. And even though Griffin likes to pull all the books off of the bookshelves and reorganize the tupperware all over the kitchen floor, we think he’s a keeper and better than any dog we could have imagined.
I’m discovering as I get older that perhaps I’m the kind of person who prefers the quiet. Those of you who know me well might be saying, “Duh, Sarah. Aren’t you the woman who has chosen to spend most of her summers in a tent in the woods? And hey, didn’t you live for an entire year in a state park?” So perhaps I’m a little slow on the uptake. I mean, really, I kind of think screaming should be reserved for when you’re being eaten by a bear. You’d think I would have figured out by now that I prefer quiet.
But seriously, sometimes these insights creep up on me and I realize, “Oooohhhhh, there are different people in the world. Those who like it noisy and those who like it quiet, and I like quiet!” So imagine my surprise when I said to myself, “I really should buy Griffin one of those fake phones that makes all kinds of noise when you push the buttons! And maybe it should be in Elmo’s voice! And be able to say Griffin’s name! That would be an awesome addition to my life!”
Yes, I’ll confess that I’ve often looked with disdain at those toys that light up, talk to you, and do all kinds of things that seem unnecessary. I believe the words, “The WORLD is stimulating enough! I will never buy something like that for my child! Kids don’t need all those bells and whistles!” have come out of my mouth on more than one occasion, definitely with an eye roll for dramatic effect. But need is the operative word here. Of course kids don’t NEED those things, but they sure do like ’em, and Griffin is definitely one of those kids who delights in things that go “whirrrrr!”
Sure, he’ll play with the beautiful stuffed animal I painstakingly made out of felt or the natural wooden blocks, but what he really, really loves is carrying our cordless phone around while pushing the buttons to hear the noise and watch it light up. We were ending up chasing him all over the house making sure he didn’t dial 911 or India, and finally I decided he needed a phone of his own.
I considered looking at the second-hand stores first, but frankly traipsing all over Oakland with Griffin in tow pursuing this one thing I may never find wasn’t too appealing. So I headed to Target as part of a greater errand run, and the choices were surprisingly limited (apparently the newest thing for kids is to have their own play laptop, so I guess I’m behind the times). It was either Elmo, Buzz Lightyear, or some obnoxious Japanese character I’ve never heard of. I had to forget my goal of purchasing things without television or Disney characters on them (I guess I’ve got a lot of issues), and let Griffin play with Elmo and Buzz in the cart to see which seemed the least disturbing. Surprisingly, Elmo won.
Admittedly, Elmo is pretty cute, and Griffin absolutely loves the phone. He carries it all around, puts it up to his ear and says, “Hay-lo!” He hasn’t touched our real phone since, and thankfully Elmo has an off switch for those times when we need just a little more quiet.
As you may know, my sister Alli designed and printed our wedding invitations a couple of years ago, and since then Andrew and I have been telling her that she’s going to be the next big thing. While we may be slightly biased, I do think it’s undeniable that Alli has amazing talents that produce beautiful, visually yummy designs.
It turns out she’s been working on an alphabet book for Griffin for the past eight months, and it arrived in the mail two days ago. If my socks could have been knocked off literally, they would have shot straight across the room. She got it “published” through Shutterfly, so it’s a real, hardcover book, and it could not be more beautiful. It’s so beautiful, in fact, that I’m not letting Griffin touch it. He can only look at it from a distance until his proclivity for eating books subsides. I wish I could post the whole book, but until it’s really published (and I seriously think it could be!) I’ll share a few of my favorite pages from The Incredible Edible Alphabet by Alli Stocco.
Sarah is amazing. She organized the most incredible birthday extravaganza that anyone could hope for. And it was a complete and total surprise.
My birthday is the 21st and I had talked to Sarah months ago about not doing anything big — I couldn’t imagine organizing a big birthday party on top of everything else we’re doing this spring. At some point she suggested we could do a barbecue some time in May, after my thesis is done and the house is on the market. Sounded like a great plan, and I proceeded with life, forgetting about my birthday entirely.
Then on Monday I got an innocuous email from my brother, Anthony, who was in town for work (he comes for a week of meetings every few months):
Hey guys,
I'm in town this week until Sunday. I thought it would
be cool to meet up on Saturday if any of you are free.
Maybe lunch and a movie? Clash of the Titans might be
fun.... What do you think?
-Anthony
Now that I have reread it, it is a bit suspicious (especially if you know Anthony well). But at the time, I just thought, “cool, glad Anthony’s in town for a few extra days, I’d love to go see a bad movie!”
The week was the usual maelstrom of school, thesis writing, house prepping, cover letter writing, and parenting, so it all went by in a blur. But I wasn’t suspicious at all.
Saturday morning I meet up with Anthony, Tyler and Ed, and we start walking to the farmer’s market where we were going to have lunch and then catch the flick at the Grand Lake theater across the street. As we near the farmer’s market, Anthony turns to me and says, “I’m sorry, Andrew, but we are not going to see Clash of the Titans.” He hands me a blue card:
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Inside the card was a poetic introduction followed by the first clue:
Introduction to the challengeClue #1
The solution, of course, is Cancun in Berkeley, which not only has my favorite burrito but is also a place of Great Significance (to me, anyway). Cassidy’s sister, Margot, recommended the place to me before I moved to Oakland. When Kevin Muñoz and I arrived in 1996, we started meeting there for lunch every Wednesday, continuing the weekly lunch tradition we had had at the Oberlin computing center. Over the years, it became a rendezvous for anyone who was available at lunch time on Wednesdays… sometimes just a few of us, sometimes a dozen or more.
In short, it was the perfect first stop on my birthday hunt.
I won’t post all the clues here, but let’s just say that Sarah did her research, including many places near and dear to my heart over the fourteen years I’ve lived here. Highlights included the grimy piano bar where Sarah and I had our first date (the clue had blown off into a puddle of urine), and the spot in the Oakland Rose Garden where we became engaged (the clue was, fortunately, still tacked to the tree next to which I nervously issued my proposal).
My stunned arrival
But wait, as brilliant and surprising as this whole memory hunt was, it was only a distraction from the real surprise. Unbeknownst to me, Sarah had been planning this whole thing for months and had invited people from all aspects of my life to a surprise party in the back yard of the house. They had gathered there at 3:30, expecting my arrival around 4. Guests included friends from high school, college, my teaching program, the middle school I work at, and Griffin’s birthing group!
While we were on our hunt, they gathered and waited. And waited. And waited. In my ignorance, I was taking my sweet time working my way through the hunt. (I thought this was pretty much the best birthday ever, so I wanted to savor it!) In order to get some exercise, I even decided to walk between a number of the final clues! Sarah and my guides engaged in some frantic behind-the-scenes text messaging to remove a stop or two from the hunt, so I eventually got the final clue that led us to the back yard.
As I came around the corner, expecting to see Sarah and Griffin and maybe Dave and Nancy (probably working hard on the garden in preparation for our upcoming open house), I was greeted by a rousing “SURPRISE!” from a crowd of guests, most of whom I haven’t seen in months!
Some of the wonderful (and patient!) guests Straight from the Merritt Bakery (one of the stops on our hunt, no less), a fabulous cake... with two working light sabers!
It was a fantastic way to end a fantastic day. I am in awe of Sarah… pulling this off in a year with nothing going on would have been a major feat. But this spring has been INSANE. It boggles my mind. (I am not the only one who feels this way either… the most common things I heard from the guests, besides birthday greetings, were compliments for Sarah’s masterful planning.)
The day was also a reminder of what we are leaving behind with this upcoming move. Seeing everybody at the party brought home to me the amazing community we have here. It’s a hard thing, moving somewhere new. I appreciate so much that Sarah recognizes the roots I’ve put down here, and honored that connection with this beautiful celebration. It was, truly, a super duper birthday.
Then we had lunch with Maddy and Zoe and I visited Laura Jeffrey Academy, an all-girls middle school in St. Paul. I toured the school with some prospective parents and then had a great meeting with the educational director (their equivalent of a principal).
Somehow in the midst of all this Sarah and I drove around various neighborhoods in St. Paul and Minneapolis to start thinking about where we might want to live.
On Thursday evening we celebrated Griffin’s first birthday in Courtland with a whole passel of Stocco family friends. It was fun and festive, and the cake was delicious.
Friday morning began with a somewhat strange meeting with the principal of a progressive charter school in Minneapolis. Sarah and I participated in their “morning meeting” and then chatted briefly (and awkwardly) with the principal who basically said he doesn’t have any job openings and has no ideas about where one should look for teaching jobs. Weird.
Then we raced over to Crosswinds Middle School in Woodbury (east of St. Paul) and met with a friend of a friend who has been teaching there for a bunch of years. She was great and introduced us to her principal who was similarly great.
The sum of all the meetings was that budget cuts will make the job search very challenging. On the bright side, I got many useful tips on how to best market myself and where to focus my efforts most productively. At this point I’m focusing on charter schools and will start checking out possible private school options.
On Friday afternoon Sarah and I met with a realtor and started looking at houses and exploring various neighborhoods in St. Paul. Our first foray was a bit underwhelming (but things got better later).
On our drive back to Courtland that evening we realized that we were utterly exhausted. We called the realtor to reschedule our Saturday tour to Sunday morning.
Saturday was our spring break! We had a leisurely breakfast, napped, took long hot baths, and walked to the local park where Griffin loved the slide. (First time he has ever been really into it — he just kept diving down this one, head first! Pictures will be forthcoming.) I also wrote thank you cards to the various people I had met with during the week.
This morning (seriously, I can’t believe this was today) we raced back up to the Cities to meet with our realtor. Today’s tour focused mostly on Minneapolis and was much more positive. We saw a fabulous house in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood and a couple of other cool contenders in Southwest and near Lake Nokomis.
Then a picnic lunch by the lake with Pam and Jeff who had just picked up uncle Bob at the airport. Fun in the sun, and great to overlap with Bob for an hour.
Then back to the airport to fly back to SFO. Griffin had a harder time on this flight. He’s got a molar coming in and was tired but couldn’t fall into a comfortable sleep. Still, he handled it pretty well and is a pro at airplane bathroom diaper changes.
When Ed picked us up at the BART station he handed us a bag with three English muffins from our favorite bakery. He figured we might not have breakfast organized for tomorrow. Is that not the sweetest thing?
Whew. We would never have been able to get this much done if Pam and Jeff and Alli hadn’t handled Griffin during most of our trips to the Cities. It was a win-win for everybody: we got a lot done and Griffin got to bond with his grandparents and auntie!
Here’s what Griffin thought about all of this on the BART ride home:
Worn out after house hunting and job hunting and birthday partying... what a spring break!
We tried to get a cake from the bakery in Minneapolis that made Sarah's first birthday cake but it had closed long ago. However, this one was made in the same spirit, with clowns, balloons, and two coke bottles from the original cake! Griffin doesn't quite know what it is, but he's pretty sure he wants to touch it.Whoa, that's sweet! (Probably more sugar tonight than in his whole first year...)I could get into this...Sticky gooey fun!In the end, not nearly as messy as we had expected. He didn't even put his hands in his hair. Older and wiser already!
Had a great flight! Griffin was squirmy but generally polite. (And who isn’t squirmy when they have to sit in a tiny seat in a noisy tube packed with strangers?)
( I probably could have skipped these posts, but I am addicted to my new phone. Love the wordpress app!)
Lots of must have items at the Sky Mall.He miraculously fell asleep right before the beverage cart came by, so we could actually get something without him tossing it all over us. Slept for about an hour.Mom is so great!
Today was a very productive day. A selection of our activities:
Reorganized all the bookshelves so that they are both orderly and attractive. (Sarah has taught me many things… you don’t have to just put books on bookshelves… you can stack some books horizontally to break things up visually… you can intersperse photos and art objects… it’s rad.)
Packed ten boxes and stacked them in the shed along with two empty bookcases
Rearranged the bedroom now that it lacks a bookcase to make it look more open
Contacted the principal of a charter school in Minneapolis and scheduled a meeting with him on Friday. (He definitely doesn’t have a job for me, but gotta start building the network somewhere.)
Walked down to lakeshore and bought an iPhone! It’s a very welcome birthday present from my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!) We’ve resisted the “smart phone” phenomenon for years now, not wanting to pay the added monthly expense. But with the chaos of the move coming up, the ability to have internet access in the car while driving around the Twin Cities seemed well worth the expense. Of course I don’t have time to play with my new toy, but I’m sure it will be extremely useful in MN this week.
Cleaned up the kitchen to make it look like the counters are not usually completely covered with clutter.
And, of course, we changed diapers and did all the usual parenting stuff… but I must admit that Griffin has been very generous at allowing us to pack and accomplish things while he toddles around the mess.
Now we’re about to head into Berkeley for a date: Patty Griffin at Zellerbach Hall! Sarah put this on the calendar months ago, but she called it “Special Date Night” and wouldn’t tell me anything more. I just found out what it is. What a great way to end a day!
