Where the Moss Grows

The New Expression

2006-08-25T09:51:00.000-04:00

This face just cracks me up.

I think she does it deliberately to make me laugh. She's got some new expressions like this one (I think her Dad taught her that) and lots of new words. She starting saying 'cool' after hearing me talk to Kevin on the phone. She says 'cow' and 'Poppy cook' when its lunch time. She calls her Dad 'Poppy'.

Isadora 16 Months

2006-08-25T09:44:00.000-04:00

What a cutie patootie!

Things I Can't Wait to Share with Isadora

2006-08-10T08:55:00.000-04:00

This is the result of a blog posting I was reading by The Lovely Mrs. Davis where she is celebrating the 37th Anniversary of Sesame Street. Yay!!!! I grew up on Sesame Street too and she wants to know what books, film, songs and other bits of popular culture that we remember from our childhoods that we plan to share ENTHUSIASTICALLY with our children.

Wow, where do I start...?

BOOKS: Dr. Suess tops my list. Isadora is 17 months old and she already loves her Circus McGurkus board book. I have my late 60's and 70's copies of 'If I Ran the Zoo' 'Happy Birthday to You' and 'Thidwick the Big Hearted Moose' (the genesis of my Mossmuncher moniker) and I have my Aunt's copy of 'On Beyond Zebra' from 1955. I won't let her have those copies until she's older but I look forward to filling her bookshelf with lots of Dr. Suess books. She also has some of the smaller Dr. Suess books like One Fish, Two Fish that I got from garage sales already drawn on by other children. Those she gets to play with now.

Aunt Jaime has given us the complete set of the Little House books (the ones by Laura Ingalls Wilder) which is definitely on my list. She also gave us a Golden Book collection that she and Travis enjoyed from their childhood.

The Narnia series is waiting on my Amazon wish list. My favorite was The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I used to spend a lot of time on a boat when I was a kid and I loved to hang my head over and look at the scene under the surface of the water.

Richard and Patricia Scarry books. My mother got Isadora a large Richard Scarry book already. My brother had those and I just loved them. I had Patricia Scarry's Storybook of River Bend which is one of my all-time favorite books. I have already read it to Isadora but she's not that interested yet. Its no longer in print! It has been partially re-published as "Animal Friends All Year Long" which I got for her but it isn't complete. It is missing the whole Jonathan Mouse story about how he comes to River Bend and only has the seasonal/holiday stories. Patricia Scarry doesn't even get her own wikipedia entry! She is in there only as a footnote to her husband, Richard. Add that to my list of things to do...

Our copy of Sesame Street's Grover "The Monster at the End of the Book" is already well worn in our house. I have video of Travis reading it to Isadora before bed in his best Grover voice. That was his favorite book when he was little and he bought it for Isadora when she was 2 months old, the same night I bought her Circus McGurkus.

Poetry. My grandfather used to buy me poetry books and I still read them. I have the Big Golden Book of Poetry and a smaller book of Robert Louis Stevenson poetry which my mother might have gotten me. There are a couple more childrens poetry collections that I cannot recall the titles from here in my office but I can't wait to share them with Isadora. My mother also got us a book of poetry collected and edited by Caroline Kennedy.

Video/TV: Sesame Street of course. I found some "vintage" Sesame Street clips on the web last night and played a few for Isadora this morning. I would swear I heard her say "bud" while pointing at Big Bird.

I also have the complete Schoolhouse Rock series waiting for the time where she might be interested. Travis and I took quite the stroll down memory lane playing those. He remembers different ones than I do being younger than me. Some were completely new to me. Yes, we sang Conjunction Junction aloud.

The Muppet Show! We would watch the Muppet Show now if it was still on TV. Travis and I just love it. Jim Henson was one of the great treasures of our time. We are also fans of Brian Henson, especially "Farscape" but that's an adult show.

The Many Adventures of Winne the Pooh. I remember these as separate Disney Specials when I was a kid and they were a HUGE DEAL to me then. The newer Pooh videos just don't do it for me. I hated the search for Christopher Robin movie and even the Tigger movie was boring. The writing is just not A.A. Milne and that seems to make all the difference in the world. I also have a complete set of the individual stories as separate books. I got this VHS tape years and years ago for me and I must have played this for Isadora a dozen times already. Too bad its in the Disney Vault presently, you have to get a copy used if you want it. I have this memorized and it takes very little to set me off singing all the pooh songs, much to my husband's dismay. The wonderful thing about Tigger...is Tigger's a wonderful thing!

Well that's a good start. As Tigger says "TTFN! Ta ta for now!"

This is my baby!

2005-06-22T22:29:00.000-05:00

This is Lily, my dog

2005-06-22T22:20:00.000-05:00

Relocation

2005-06-21T17:00:00.000-05:00

Someone today asked me what is behind my determination to move. I came up with a pretty reasonable explanation:

"We just don't like living in the burbs here, moreover we are tired of living in this area, so that's why we are looking. I thought I was doomed to live in Indiana forever with my ex but Travis is not from here and he's willing to get out. He's from a place in Ohio that's just as bad and MORE FLAT but he's seen a bit of the world and knows that it doesn't end at the state line....thank god. We're going to find someplace to live as inexpensively and independently as possible and use our money to travel. That's what I want to do, have always wanted to do. That's why I lived in that old house downtown. The mortgage was cheaper than rent and it didn't own me. This fancy house in the burbs is nice and I am glad for the opportunity to try out the lifestyle, but I don't think its worth what it costs. This house owns us. When we bought it Travis was working a higher pay job in warehouse management so it was no strain financially. Now that he does what he likes (brews beer) it has become a bit of a strain. I hate seeing all my money go to the house, its such a waste. He wants to buy some wooded acreage and build us a house off the utility grid. We'll have that eventually but it takes time. In the meantime we need to find the place where we want to locate our section of the woods and that place is not here. Its too flat, too Republican, too homogenous. I do not want to live in a beige house in a beige neighborhood with beige neighbors who have beige thought processes!"

We want to raise our daughter to think for herself and to be independent and responsible to and for herself. That will be very hard to do trapped out here in the suburban meadow with the sheep. What irks me is that we knew better when we bought this house. A friend of mine walked into the house first time and commented 'since when did you two get so conventional?' It was apparent to others that it was not where we belonged. I was playing at being someone I am not and Travis was responding to a fear of anything not new and in perfect condition. He also wanted to get me something nice which is very sweet since the house was pretty much a wedding gift from him. I told him I wanted a house, not a fancy diamond ring. That was way more than I expected and I will admit to some pleasure in ownership of what passes for prestige in real estate in the area. We paid an extra 20k for the school district, for instance. In the end, though, its just not me. Its not us and we're planning our escape from suburbia.