Kathmandu - The Good, The Crazy, The Entrancing

Twenty years ago while hanging out on a Kathmandu rooftop cafe, above the roiling madness of humanity down on the streets, I imagined bringing my future children here someday. At that time it's possible Nicolas was walking on those streets below, but I just hadn't met him yet. Now all four of us are here taking it all in together, each of us in our own way...

Acacia: "Omigosh it's so noisy! Why is everyone honking? Oooh! Look at those pretty backpacks! Can we go back and see those? That's the royal palace? Cool! There's so much traffic! Are there lanes? Which side are we supposed to be on? Why are there so many thousands of electricity lines going to every telephone pole? It's all looped up. It's a bit messy looking, don't you think? Everyone has dark hair. Look there's a cow next to us. It's going faster than the traffic. Not very sacred to shoo it away from the fruit stands, is it? Whoa! That's a monkey on the electric wires! Tiger balm? Cayenne loves tiger balm. Hey Cay, you should get some. I just saw a monk. Jeez! How are those motorcycles fitting in between the cars? Their mirrors are already almost touching."

Cayenne: "This place is nuts."

For old times' sake, of course.

"I  love all these baggy pants. Can I get a pair? Ooooh check out these leg warmers! They're awesome. These prayer wheel earrings are so cool! Look back out at Kathmandu. Can barely see the streets but you can still hear the horns. Why is that man lying in the road? Oh man, he doesn't have fingers. Or toes. I wonder what happened to him."

"He has leprosy."

Silence.

Cayenne's favourite part of Kathmandu was away from the traffic and tourists, and drenched in colour.

Our hotel's rooftop

If you look closely at the mountain horizon, you can see a hint of white. That's Langtang, whose base we'll be walking to (and from) for the next 12 days.

I'm hoping for lots more render-them-speechless moments.

  

   

On Being Tricked and Treated

If I hadn't been on a local street blocked off from traffic for a Halloween block party - filled with trick-or-treaters and campfires in driveways and people I knew - I might've been taken aback by the long shadow I noticed creeping up behind me while talking to Nick on the phone. I had called him in Phoenix to share what we were up to, as I try to keep him involved in our day-to-day lives as much as possible, and it'd been a little too chaotic to call him earlier with six middle school girls running around the house costuming-up.

I ladled hot cider and chili from the cauldrons on the stove to fill their bellies with a little protein before the sugar fest...

... and then they were off to forage.

After Timberline, where their favourite treat was homemade Zombie Fingers baked by our next door neighbor Uwe, they headed to the Rio Vista block party.

(Photo credit: Petra!)

I was describing to Nick the warm evening, the jumping castle and the kids dancing in the street when I noticed that shadow slink up very close to me, so I spun around and smacked right into - Nick.

"Ahhhhh!"

"Surprise."


When his last class of the day ended an hour early he spontaneously jumped in the car and didn't stop for nearly seven hours until he was home home. He missed his three girls.

We were a little bit tricked - and a whole lot treated!


 

Mama Bear

When you have children your skin gets popped inside-out and then your heart and all your nerve-endings live on the outside. That's why sometimes things hurt you more as the parent than the same situations did when you were the kid...

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"People are making fun of me and teasing me and I feel bad. I hate them Mommy."

When Cay calls me Mommy without following it with the word "Dearest," I know she needs me. 

When she left for school that morning I did notice she looked a little more eccentric than usual, and I secretly applauded her individuality. Thing is, Middle School kids are not very receptive to that. So while I wasn't surprised when her email reached me, it didn't hurt any less. People suck sometimes.

I found out who was bothering her and then sent her this photo she'd hadn't seen yet:

"Well not one of them comes close to the young beauty in this pic!!!   NOT. EVEN. CLOSE."

"Thank you. I put it on my DP. I love you."

"Anytime anyone says something negative to or about you, just look at that photo. It captures a strong, beautiful, confident young woman. That's you.

I love you too.  To pieces."

And that's about where my sage advice ended, and my Mama Bear kicked in:

The next morning, after some game-planning and giggling with me and her sis, she slipped her slender legs into some skinny jeans and a fitted t-shirt over her 22" waist and 34" chest, and went to school with my permission (should anyone make fun of her again) to say, "At least when I wear skinny jeans, my legs don't looked like stuffed sausages."

Although she found that hilarious I knew she'd never say it, because mean just doesn't come to her as naturally as it does to me. Which is exactly why I was upset people would pick on her. 

"Yeah. And then point to them and say, 'No really, that stuffed look? Not working for ya.'"

But for some odd reason, she didn't have the need to use those witty snippets.


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(Maybe instead of teaching her to be mean, I should've sent her this:)

   

Balancing Act

I sometimes fear we are poisoning the girls' opinions about camping. In my family, camping was all about the fun: Join other families with kids; canoe, swim, build sand castles, pick raspberries; sing songs with a guitar around the roaring fire; roast marshmallows. Repeat. All through the summer.

With us it's a means to an end. A certain somebody I know and love doesn't see the point of camping if you're not going to climb something, and our girls are lucky if they don't have to carry all their gear to the campsite first. 

But then they get to experience this:

... and this:

... and moments like this:

These photos were all taken on Mt Massive (14,428 ft) last weekend. Nicolas flew to Denver and met us in Leadville, and from there we four-wheeled to our campsite and pitched the tent in the dark. Good times! (ahem.)

Actually the good times usually come when we wake up the girls before sunrise. This is not greeted with open arms, but what beauty we'd miss otherwise:

Nicolas in the background packing up our gear. 

Cayenne beginning her hike up Mt. Elbert (14,439 ft).

Smiling already. This is a good sign.

Things got brighter...

... and then darker...

... and then colder...  but never any less beautiful.

Mt Elbert is Colorado's highest peak, so Acacia wanted to be the highest person in the state. 

Cayenne just wanted food.

Back to the car, and then to our favourite coffee shop in Buena Vista, to share as many minutes together with Papa as possible before going back to our everyday lives.

I suppose sleeping on the ground and getting up in the cold isn't so bad if this is the reward... but I'll make sure next summer when Nick is in school, that we do lots of camping just for fun.

Because it's all about raising balanced little people,

even if that means feeding them melted marshmallows. (Quelle horreur!)

   

Acacia

To our happy, sharp-tongued, sensitive, beautiful, justice-demanding, sociable, smart, sassy, quick-to-laugh, eye-rolling, athletic, funny Acacia:

Happy 12th Birthday!

We love you more than a toaster.

September 24

    

Life Lessons After Hours

Both Cayenne and Acacia were already in bed when I called up the stairs, "Did you brush your teeth?"

"Yup!"

"Yup!"

I went to tuck them in and knew instantly Acacia hadn't brushed her teeth.

"You brushed your teeth?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Kind of."

"I know you didn't brush your teeth. Cayenne? What about you?" I called.

Silence.

"Get up, mes filles! Go brush your teeth. Both of you."

"But MOM! It's midnight. Can't we just go to sleep?"

"You could have if you hadn't lied to me."

Cayenne slipped out of her bed and was brushing before Acacia whipped back her sheets with an, "Are you kidding me?!"

Stomp stomp stomp

"This is not okay!"

Brush brush brush

"It's midnight!"

And it was. We had spent the evening with Michel and Ilona, who had chosen to make a Timbale Milanese so we would have leftovers to take home, and a Mousse au Chocolate because Nicolas wasn't there (just kidding, Nico). And then we watched The Horse Whisperer.

 

(Photos taken with my phone in low light. I apologize for the low quality.)

And now it's Monday, the girls are enjoying their Timbale for lunch at school, they've hopefully forgotten that they hated me at midnight last Friday, and remembered that it's not okay to lie.

    

Life

Do you ever just stop, look around at your life, and think, "How did I get here?"

Me too.