Princessed Out

As someone who’s routinely and systematically harassed by subjects of the Disney Princesses – or, as their littlest lady errant says, the “Dizuh-dee Wincesses” – I was amused today to discover a great set of photographs by Dina Goldstein that tell counter-fairy tales, like this one of Snow White living unhappily ever after:

Snowy by Dina Goldstein (via JPG Mag)
"Snowy" by Dina Goldstein

The other six are just as good, and two more are in the works…

Thoughts on Iran

The events in Iran are gripping both as they roil that country and possibly alter the world and as they are reflected in the social media, including especially Twitter. I’m confident that in four weeks – and in four years – we’ll know a lot more about the role of Twitter in facilitating the protests in Iraq, but I’ll guess now that the service will turn out to have been much less important than regular word-of-mouth and other local communication and organization in Iran.

The corollary is that some of us in the “First World” are so enamored of the idea of tweeting the revolution because we are so enamored of tweeting to begin with: we’re seeing what we hope to see and can see (through tweet aggregators like Twazzup, for instance), not necessarily what’s really happening in Iran.

And but so, for my money the medium that’s really showing us what’s going on in the Islamic Republic is the same one that’s been showing us world-shaking events since the 1860s: photography. And nobody does the photo-essay thing better than Boston.com’s incredible “Big Picture” feature. Today’s series on the protests in Iran is nothing less than breathtaking. I can barely stand to look at this shot, for instance:

A supporter of defeated presidential candidate Mousavi is beaten by government security men as fellow supporters come to his aid during riots in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 14, 2009. (AP Photo)
"A supporter of defeated presidential candidate Mousavi is beaten by government security men as fellow supporters come to his aid during riots in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 14, 2009. (AP Photo)"

Como Chameleons

Tempting fate, Shannon and I made plans with some wonderful but too-rarely-seen friends to take our collection of offspring to the Como Zoo today. Our last outing in St. Paul, a Memorial Day party at a friend’s place, was itself tons of fun, but led to three days of horrible sleep and terrible behavior on the parts of the girls.

But an outing to the zoo? On what turned out to be a beautiful spring day? With great friends and their ridiculously cute toddler? We’re in.

But Vivi didn’t get the memo, choosing – instead of having an easy morning of getting ready for the “yong wide” to St. Paul – to throw what even Shannon said may have been her biggest-ever meltdown. (The highlight: half an hour of screaming, “Mama, PUT IN MY WIP [hair clip]!” even though it was already in her hair.) We were thisclose to canceling, but miraculously Vivi collected her manure in time to hit the road. The girls were so tired of making and listening to noise that they were silent the entire ride up.

And the zoo was great. We saw a whole bunch of the big-name animals: giraffes, lions, a tiger, and many kinds of monkeys and apes, including a baby orangutan whom I’m sure never has meltdowns. The girls enjoyed it all a lot, though I think Julia (who pretended to be a snow leopard all the way back home) most enjoyed hanging out with our friend’s baby, who’s practically the prototype of the round-cheeked babbling toddler. And of course the grownups enjoyed talking with each other, at least in the broken-up way that you can when also minding three sets of kids’ feet and hands.

What the girls did not enjoy, though, is posing for a picture. These are the best shots I could get: one of Julia refusing to look toward the camera, the other of the two of them shaking hands with a man dressed like a tooth. (Long story.)
Broken Pose

Tooth Guy

We will definitely have to go back to the zoo soon to see more animals and do some of the other fun stuff, like ride the carousel or explore the conservatory, which was gorgeous.
Como Conservatory Pool

Arb Ride

Except in winter (when I have to use the streets, if I can’t ski to work), my bike commute runs from my house to the southeastern corner of the Carleton Arboretum, over Arb trails to the Rec Center, and then over the Lyman Lakes to the center of campus. My favorite leg of this trip is definitely the dirt-path section in the Arb. The trees and grasses are glowing with color. Even the browns and tans of the path itself seem heightened somehow.

Trail around Alumni Field

Old Faculty Picnic Grounds Oaks

And the manmade sights – like the vista over Bell Field toward Evans Hall or this bridge near the Cole Wetland – are nice, too.
Bridge near Cole Wetland

Five Years Old!

After considerable buildup, Julia turned five today – a milestone which she happily and shyly announced to everyone she could. Beyond an evil lingering cough, the actual birthday featured a wonderful picnic lunch with Genevieve, Shannon, and me at campus, lots of bike riding (before lunch and before dinner), making a new friend at the playground, a dinner of her choice, cake and ice cream, quite a few presents (including a Disney Princess tiara which went right onto her head), and then nearly an hour of playing baseball and rolling down the hill in the backyard.

As I pitched the oversized white plastic baseball toward the oversized red plastic bat in Julia’s hands, I couldn’t help but think – predictably, sentimentally – about how she has grown up. Here’s photographic proof: a few pictures of her (and the rest of us) on (or near) all five of her birthdays.

Wading into Summer

We capped the insanely busy weekend with a nice trip to the Arb so the birthday girl could wade in Spring Creek. (It’s not really wading if the water only covers your feet, but still….) Vivi, against her inclinations, decided to join the five-year-old in the water.

Vivi’s experiment ended after a few minutes, when a scary stick surprised her and, trying to get away, she stepped in some squishy mud, which was too much to bear. Before that, though, she did enjoy herself. How about that thousand-watt smile?
Wading

Sisters in Action

Start to finish, today was a day for the sisters. As far as I can recall, they spent a maximum of 75 minutes apart – the time when Julia was napping. Beyond the usual things they do together – three meals and two snacks, bathtime – they played at home in the morning (Legos, blocks, play kitchen), helped out at Menards while we bought flowers for the patio, played again at home right after nap, rode bikes and generally laid claim to campus in the afternoon, and then wound up the evening with, first, a second round of Shannon’s brilliant “Activity Lottery” and, second, Julia handling all of Vivi’s bedtime routine (reading a story, singing her songs, even tucking her in!). And except for a couple brief spells, they got along great. So great, in fact, that they both looked at me when I tried to take their picture.
Sisters

Teletubbies in My Subdivision

As it often does, the internet reacted hilariously to my blog post and photos about the girls riding their bikes up the slope at the end of our neighborhood park. Some preliminary comments on the blog about how the hill can be a tough little incline gave way on Facebook to chatter about how the park looks just like Teletubbyland, the place where the Teletubbies live.

All the talk was summarized neatly by my friend Doug, who used his Photoshop skills to… To… Well, to make me laugh almost to the point of tears, and to put Julia and Genevieve in Teletubbyland:

Jefferson Parkway Teletubbies
Jefferson Parkway Teletubbies

Well done, Doug!

Queens of the Mountain

The Tour de France awards a polka-dotted jersey to the rider who does best in the mountains. The overall leader of the Giro d’Italia wears the maglia rosa – the pink jersey. Blurring the two, I think my little cyclistes should wear pink jerseys for their new interest in climbing the short and shallow “hill” at the end of our neighborhood park. For all the effort they put into it, you’d think they were climbing the Tourmalet or Mont Ventoux or l’Alpe d’Huez. But like true climbers, they enjoy reaching the summit.

Vivi on the way up; Julia waiting at the top.
The Girls, Climbing the "Hill" in our Neighborhood

Heading away from the hill, on a high-speed descent to the next corner.
The Girls, Climbing the "Hill" in our Neighborhood

Nursery Schooled

Today was the last day of Julia’s preschool career. I won’t recite all the clichés about how it seems like she just started preschool yesterday, but they all apply. Instead, I’ll say that she has thrived at school, especially this year, when she has had one of the best teachers I’ve ever known, someone who has been phenomenally patient, creative, and engaging and – perhaps more importantly – has imparted a ridiculous amount of actual knowledge to Julia (and I hope, other kids)

I was lucky enough, this year, to participate in several school activities such as visitor’s day and the field trip to the nature center earlier this month. Here’s what we looked like, heading back home. Ain’t she cute? 

Congratulations on a successful start to your academic life, Julia Charlotte! 

River Bend Field Trippers

Vivi and Me

One nice and unexpected side effect of Julia’s penchant for riding her bike is that I get to spend a lot more time alone with Vivi, who is rounding into quite an interesting little girl. I mean, she was always interesting, but there’s less screaming and shrieking now, which makes it easier to actually talk to her (favorite topics: her ability to use the toilet, favorite colors, her alter ego “Big Boy,” and dogs) and to do things with her.

While tooling around Carleton’s campus on Saturday, for instance, we stopped and played at various spots while Julia rode ahead and then turned back. Vivi especially enjoyed climbing up on the boulders and wooden beams that make up the “Sticks and Stones” sculpture thingy at the southeast corner of the Bald Spot. No big sister trying to climb on the same stones, or jump off the same sticks! She was pretty proud of her ability to scramble up to the top of the biggest boulder – from which I had to say that she could not jump (even wearing a snazzy bike helmet).

Vivi Up High