Nana Visits- September 2014

Nana did two nice things for us recently. She came and stayed with us on Saturday so that we could take James (without Miranda) to go apple-picking, and she even took an extra day from her stadium gig so that I wouldn't lose my mind while Kevin was at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday. I wanted to save losing my mind for when he was on his midwest book tour. Ha!

Nana takes Miri for a stroll to the park

The woman who complains about how I dress Miri, put her in jammies.

 

Miri's first time in a swing!

Feeding Miranda applesauce... it gave her the poops.

Nana supporting the right team.

Reading with Bob

Nana and mini-Nana, chillin'.

WWFTC Reading at Fall for the Book 2014

Kevin read for the Fall for the Book festival at George Mason University so we took the whole family down to hear him read. The Fall for the Book Festival is pretty awesome actually. It's a week-long event and brings a lot of great authors to Virginia for readings, talks, and book signing. Some of the headliners this year were Pulitzer winner Richard Russo, bestseller Jodi Picoult, poet Martin Espada, essayist Eula Biss, thriller writer Sophie Hannah, and the author of Orphan Train Christina Baker Kline.

With George Mason himself.

Kevin read "Isabel and Colleen" from his collection We Were Flying to Chicago. Even though it was Monday afternoon he had a big crowd of people of all ages, and his crowd spilled out of the tent! After he read the story he answered questions about his writing process. He also introduced me and the kids to the crowd.

Kevin reading "Isabel and Colleen" to a big audience

Miranda and I are listening intently.

Spill-over crowd!

A lot of our friends from different times in our life came to the reading. It made me so happy to see everyone there together! Kevin's friend Jon from high school in Florida was there! His friend Cory from college, his wife Robin, Robin's entire family (!), Jody and Bill (Brady's parents) were there. My friend Sarah from law school and her son William, my friends Anna and Mike (from after college) and their two younger kids. Thank you guys so much for coming out! You warm our hearts!

Kevin talking to his high school Jon

James meeting Robin and Cory's nephew

James photo bombing the photo of Robin and Cory's family

Miranda wearing the dress Sarah got her.

Me and Sarah and our 3.5 kids.

Jody and Bill- meeting Miranda! 

Anna, Mike, and their two youngest, Clara, and Maxwell

Clara is James's age and they were having an awesome time getting dirty!

And Miranda and Maxwell are pretty close in age too! He stole this picture!

Fairfax, VA 2014

We traveled to Fairfax for a really quick visit for Kevin's reading at GMU! Luckily, our friends were awesome and almost all came out to see us in the two days we were there.

The drive was terrible, but not as terrible as we'd feared. Miranda hates the car but it turns out she's fine if we just let her drive. So we did.

Miranda is perplexed how Waze could be so wrong about everything.

The kids were happy to get the hotel and start living the dream. James was especially excited since we'd promised him there would be a pool!

Living the Hyatt high life.

Janice came out to see us!

And Cory!

And Megan!

The pool! James loved it but Miranda was a little dubious.

And then, who should we happen to meet at the pool? Roger, Lina, and Caleb!

Someone's thumb, Lina, Caleb, Miranda, me

Even better, after the pool, I got to go out to dinner with Janice and Megan! Without kids! It was the only other time I've gone out for fun besides Jackie and Rob's wedding. In 5 months. Or more maybe. Whooo boy, I was like a crazy woman on the loose. I had almost one whole drink and I had dinner AND an appetizer. That's right. Rebel without a cause.

Girls' Night! (The little one wasn't invited though.)

• Last time we saw Cory and Robin in March 2014
• My last trip to NoVa in February 2014
• Our last trip as a family to DC-NoVa in October 2013

Lit Crawl NYC 2014

Kevin and his publisher participated in "Lit Crawl NYC" which is a yearly event. The organizers set up several events throughout the day involving literature. Kevin played led a team in "Literary Taboo" for his publisher Black Balloon Publishing against team captain Catherine Lacey Electric Literature. Basically they had to describe books and authors without using certain words.

Nick, who's kind of a trivia master, was on his team. The following exchange occurred.

Kevin: (Looks at card, sees book series he's never read) It's a job a young girl might have, and this is the central organization.
Nick: BABY SITTERS' CLUB!!!!
Audience: (Hysterical laughing.)

Nick, when it was his turn to give clues.

Needless to say, Kevin's team won.

Okay, okay, here's another good one, from the other team.
Woman we don't know: It's the book your asshole Republican college boyfriend buys you a copy of and insists you read.
Woman 2: ATLAS SHRUGGED!!

After that Kevin and friends went to a reading at Swift Hibernian Lounge, (Eric Boyd, Phil Klay, Abeer Hoque, Ali Power, and Genya Turovskaya) in support of the Guernica/PEN Flash Series and PEN Poetry Series. And finally, they went to the After-Party at the Magician, which is already one of Kevin's favorite bars.

Jaime Visits- September 2014

Jaime came to visit! Officially she was in New York to take a yoga class with a yoga master, Sharath Jois. But when she was done with that, she picked up some rice pudding for us at Rice to Riches and came over. She helped me with the kids while Kevin was in Manhattan for another literary event, I made dinner, she put James to bed while I put Miranda to bed, and then we stuffed ourselves on rice pudding with just a little bit of wine. Seriously, I have the best friends.

I think Jaime is supposed to brush James's teeth, not the other way around?

Chocolate, French Toast, and Coconut rice pudding. Done, done, and done.

James's First Day of Nursery School 2014

I was more excited about James's first day of school than James, or anyone. James hasn't been to school or daycare before. Up until now he's been home with me every day, and really he was overdue for something more challenging. He'd been going to Tiny Tots activity thing at a nature preserve with Kevin and we learned that they also have Nursery School. He's just there a few days a week for a few hours but it's a big deal!

Look at the little man!

First in a yearly series with his sister

He's attending the Center for Science and Learning's Nature's Kids Nursery Program at the Tanglewood reserve.* It's a nature and science nursery school on a nature preserve. They have a lot of rescued animals there including parrots, owls, and a huge blue-tongued lizard of some kind. Among other things, they slosh around in mud and go looking for bugs. I'm equal parts excited and terrified for him. He thinks it's all awesome.

We're here!

Checking out his classroom and meeting one of the teachers, Ms. Sue.
His other teacher is Miss Andrea.

Parrot in the classroom

Showing Miranda the preserve dinosaur

Oh hi.

He liked it so much that he asked NOT to go home when Kevin went to pick him up. Then he had a huge fit when Kevin made him leave. He did this the second day too.

 

Pick up photo: Does not want to go!

One of my favorite things is that the teachers put up a board each day showing what they learned. As you know, asking a toddler questions can provide you with mixed results.

Learning Log

So it begins! Our little baby is growing up. He's awesome and I'm so excited for him.

Labor Day Weekend with Grandma 2014

While Kevin was at writer's camp, Grandma Kathy came to help me for the long weekend. We spent a lot of bonding time together. We took the kids to the park, fed them, put them to bed. We drank a little bit of wine. We might have watched a soap opera or two. Haha. Good times. Thanks for helping Grandma!

Smile!

Grandma trying to teach James to pedal!

It worked a little.

Miranda's imitation of Ash on the way to the park.

James at the John Lewis Childs School playground

 

Grandma and Miranda at the park

James is helping Grandma cook.

A nice break for me from feeding the baby!

We miss Grandma already!


And here's a day-after-Labor-Day photo of the Clou family.

Writers' Retreat 2014

Kevin went to what I called a writers' camp, Wellspring House. It was his friend Pete's idea, who is also a writer, but I had to encourage and bless the expedition because we have a young baby at home and Kevin can be very selfless if you don't stop him. So off they went for writing, writing, and rewriting. He also got to enjoy nature walks and of course, dinner and drinks with Pete. As payment, I requested he take pictures for me. Here they are!

Pete and Kevin

The House

The Nature

The Novel (on the wall)