heatwave
We were at my parents’ house again this weekend, our only full weekend off from summer markets this summer. We didn’t really feel the record breaking heat all that much and I guess that’s one thing the suburbs have over us. When you’re shuttling in a car from one indoor space to another, you don’t really have a chance to sweat it up if you’re not walking miles through city blocks.
Random stuff:
After taking swimming lessons for 10 weeks in the Spring, Mia’s becoming quite a little swimmer. We spent the better part of the day Saturday at the town pool where my parents live, and by the end of our day there, Claudine got brave and started dunking herself completely and learned how to float too by doing the running man underwater.
You ever laugh at how different your tastes are from your mom’s? I mean we were one of those families who had plastic covers on our couches growing up. Ok, maybe that was more of an 80s thing than anything else. Meanwhile my mom thinks most of the stuff in our apartment is plain, though she does like the black walls. Then again, she totally let me have all black walls in my room when I was a teenager. Ahead of my time I was, I tell ya.
Claudine, unlike Mia, doesn’t like mealtimes here at my mom’s because there is never anything on the table that she wants to eat (she’s picky, remember?). So dinner time always ends up being plain rice, which she does like, but she doesn’t like the kind here because my parents make rice mixed with all kinds of beans and grain and it turns the rice purple. The only way she’ll eat any is if we roll it up in seaweed, so there’s that. I swear, we’re never going to be able to travel anywhere overseas with this girl. She’d starve.
The girls are off from camp this week. At the time when we reserved camp slots waaay back in the winter, we thought it’d be nice for them to have a break from camp for a week because camp days are so hectic. Uh, what the hell was I thinking? I have work to do and we have no childcare and no camp this week. I’M GOING TO DIE.
Oh, that’s such a nice watermelon. And those are huge clams. Do they like art projects? Its pretty hit or miss, but sometimes kids like origami, and it more or less keeps them occupied. Simple shapes like frogs, fairies and rabbits.
hah! i love that despite claudine’s pickiness, she’ll still eat seaweed.
Oh, poor Claudine, feel really sorry for her that she doesn’t like any of the food, it all looks so delicious. I was a mega-picky child, today I love all kinds of food, so by the time you go abroad maybe she’ll be more adventurous.
Courage !!!
Maybe you can invite a friend of them : my mother says always that it’s the better way to have rest and peace for a long long time ….
Jenna, take heart. My youngest daughter was just like Claudine with eating: fussy, fussy, fussy. For years the restaurant standard was chicken nuggets. We, meanwhile, ate fusion everything, at home, and out. At 10, while eating at my mom’s, she famously jumped on her bicycle mid-meal to go buy unsalted butter (my mom’s was salted). Everything turned around in high school when she suddenly took her control in another direction and decided to learn to cook. She spent the next dozen years immersed in trying everything, and making things from scratch. Lucky her, she now lives in Europe where she can sate her adventurous palate quite endlessly.
Ahh, in elementary school my grandma used to spoil me by making me a plate of kim-bap every morning. Kids have simple tastes.
I love the posts about time spent at your parents house. So wonderful that you are close enough to visit your folks regularly and the girls can be familiar with an older generation and the steadfastness of their way of life. You can really see all the care that goes into preparing each meal – even with the disposable tableware, there is such an elegance to the plating. Cold cucumber (?) noodles with one ice cube per bowl, steamed clams – damn I totally crave simple asian food now!! Less is more sometimes when it comes to food preparation. Do you ever think about putting together a cookbook of recipes inherited from your parents and including some new recipes of Mark’s too? It would be awesome with your photographs. I notice in almost every meal there is a basket of freshly washed (presumably) hot peppers on the table. How are those eaten with the meal – raw?
I’m so hungry now. Every time you post pictures of meals at you parents I wish i could eat there.
Like Claudine I was a picky eater, i ate NOTHING….but once I grew up, that changed quickly!
These pictures are so gorgeous.
I wanna be your partents doughter:)
Well, my husband’s brother is still the world’s pickiest eater, he’s 30 years old and refuses to try new things or things he tried once and didn’t like. So maybe it will never change! But he’s happy in his own way, and his wife understands him, so it’s not the end of the world. Besides, it means there’s more of all the food he doesn’t like for the rest of us at the family dinners!
I grew up in Singapore and ate everything… my husband grew up in a small town here in the States and wasn’t introduced to many foods because his parents were super picky. Since we’ve been married, he’s been on a quest to try EVERYTHING, especially from my culture. I hope in time Claudine learns to embrace the different foods!
I feel your pain. I work full time and whenever I have to stay home with my daughter for anywhere from one day to several (she’s in preschool), I wonder how stay-at-home moms keep themselves from jumping off the nearest bridge.
I know the feeling about the camps…I freelance from home and the amount of camps we have depends on the amount of money coming in. The problem is that I can’t do one without the other. Last year I got a really big account and had no camps for the kids, luckily my parents live close by (which is why we moved back from SF) so they became tour guides/camp counselors. This year I bit the bullet and signed them up for tons of camps, this week we have no camps because next week we’re heading to DC. Wish I would have at least signed them up for 1/2 day camps, the bickering is goind to drive me insane!
Here, in Belgium (Brussels) the weather is just the opposite than in NY : ten Celsius degrees lower than normal (only 65° fahrenheit the day – brrr), the sky is always grey and it’s raining since one month.
It’s not normal and we’re all thinking it’s november …. most of the people are in a bad mood!
Throw ‘em in the car and head south! Asheville is calling youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
I love your photos ~~ your children look like they stepped right out of a John singer Sargent painting and the foods look so delicious~