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Thursday, April 14, 2005
How phenomenally sad that I have more fingers on one hand than posts from the past year. I suppose that most of my posts begin with some such lament, but I can't quite let go of the image of myself actually keeping up to date with this stuff. I suppose in another two years (or four posts, whichever comes first) I'll accept this.
The good thing about waiting so long is that I feel permitted to talk endlessly about the kids again. Our life is really quite boring these days, which I rather like, considering. Yes, we'd love to rush off ice-climbing and watch the penguin babies hatch, or live for a week on top of a redwood tree. But we haven't. Part of the reason is that I began working this January. I'm at McKinsey now, in yet another guest appearance as Executive Assistant. I look forward to that day years off when I'm CEO of the largest environmentally sustainable employee-focused multinational children's aid foundation, or perhaps ambassador to the Caribbean and my bio can say that Dorothy Roca worked as a secretary while her children were young. It's fine, really; gentle hours, easy work, rational expectations. The single best thing about where I work though is the jaw-dropping view of the Seattle Port and San Juan Islands (also known as a "territorial" view, so refeshingly pioneer-sounding to my east-coast bred ears. I'm on the 31st floor of a downtown tower, with a corner view looking west and north. At any given moment there is some kind of dramatic weather galloping in over the ferry-dotted water and islands. Sometimes the mountains appear beyond it all with fresh snow, glowing from sunlight that has yet to arrive in the city. Look away for a minute and there's hail banging on the window and the Space Needle has disappeared into billowing mist. Literally five minutes later a gigantic bowl of blue sky covers us out to the horizon. I've truly become accustomed to clouds and fog, almost to where cloudless skies are odd, and after multiple days of same, rather unsettling.
See what I mean about boring!? In New York you know the season by the temperature on the subway platforms. If it's 110F it must be summer. And that was about all we had to say about weather there. But we like this!
Galen is READING!!! About a year ago I jokingly said to him that I looked forward to the day when he would read me the bedtime stories. Incredibly, this has come to pass. Sure, we're exploring pretty much everything Dr. Seuss has to rhyme about for now, but it's true how it works: one day they're struggling and sounding out every word, and the next day they're reading. Just reading! It's such a miracle. And even better, I happen across him now reading books to himself -- clearly he's thrilled with his new-found talent.
Alejandro is growing like a weed (a puffy one, of course) and has recently developed some full-blown personality traits that are head-slappingly complete. He now likes to slip steathily around wherever Galen is, hunting for whatever Galen's most treasured possession of the moment happens to be, then snatches it and runs hooting with laughter from the room. Galen, who hasn't learned the psychology of it all, invariably runs howling after him, which is a huge win for the baby. He also likes to come up close to you and look adorably into your face, saying, "hi. Hi! hihihihi," and then smacking you in the arm. We've been working on the "we use our hands for love!" rhetoric. So now he comes up to you, hits you, then gives you a hug to apologize. But the truth with the baby is that if a thing does not possess wheels then it is definitely down on the second tier (or below) of life's passions. I've tried to categorize, but cannot decide whether firetrucks come before trains or vice versa. In other news, he's bilingual in comprehension, and now says some words extremely clearly -- some of my favorites are "yessss" and "bussss" and "cookie!!" and "bookk."
Poor Javier. He always seems to come last in these posts. Not intentionally, of course. He's still doing all the same stuff, wowing his colleagues with his artistic prowess, painting like a master in the evenings, making cool projects with Galen, playing endlessly with the baby, and still cooking by far the best food in our home.
posted by Dorothy 3:39 PM
