halloween: we are ready.

now if we can just get him to keep it on.

bam bam rubble: friend of the beasts.

bam bam rubble: hero to the poor.

finally. standing still for a second.

and just in case we need a Plan B, he can still squeeze into last year's spandex. it's a christmas miracle.

the burton/whiting weekend extravaganza of autumnal activities.

a few weekends ago kathryn and mike showed us around the bustling metropolis of new canaan, connecticut. at times i felt a little out of place without my luxury SUV and fine casual wear, but team burton unanimously agreed that this weekend was probably one of the most thoroughly enjoyable ones we've had whilst living in new york. we apple picked, pumpkin patched, watched movies, got our "craft" on and ate, ate, ate. i even let my hair down a little and tanked an entire cupful of unpasteurized apple cider. wild, i tell you.

matt and mike are cousins, meaning if all goes well we'll all be in the celestial kingdom together someday. i'm glad we're all friends cos eternity might be awkward, otherwise.

muchas, muchas gracias, whitings.

lots of pictures... some from k, some from me.

fire engine.

pony ride. don't let his somber countenance fool you. this face means he is trying really, really hard to play it cool and contain his total elation.

and the tongue means he's trying to stifle a smile.

see, there's the tongue.

fox preferred the low-hanging fruit.

boogey nose.

he chose the placement. i promise.

los whitings fantásticos.

sittin' on a stoop. and the tongue.

hey mike, let's go get more apple cider donuts. okay? okay.

oh copper pumpkin, we miss you.

and it's not like i can just reproduce one here in the city. you suburbanites don't know what a luxury a garage or yard is. if i went outside on the street with an open can of spray paint, i'm sure i'd get slapped with a misdemeanor.

yes. i'm still bitter.

take that.

i could not sleep last night.

the insomnia was probably due to one (or all) of the following reasons:

1. my dinner of chili and my third trimester pregnant belly were slugging it out. glub, glub, yuck.

2. my chipped nail polish was quietly taunting me to chisel it off.

...

done.

3. the angry feelings in my heart were festering toward the dirtbag who stole one of my pumpkins (my pretty, spray painted copper-colored pumpkin) from my doormat. restating for effect: stolen not from my outside porch -- from my DOORMAT. inside my locked apartment building. it kind of takes the idea of ripping off somebody's pumpkins to new and disturbingly intimate levels because the guilty party is probably somebody i know or have seen. so and who had the audacity?? to steal from the pathetic looking pregnant woman in the third floor walk-up? was it one of my neighbors? the chatty and seemingly friendly UPS guy? or hector, the super, who thinks i'm a total idiot for calling in a work order to have the pilot light on my gas stove re-lit (if he knew this story, he'd understand)?

so, at 3 o'clock in the morning, desperate for sleep and wanting to shake the feelings of violation, i fought back with the fine blade of my lexicon:

i'm sure the white one will be gone within 24 hours.

hat and tie.

lately no ensemble has been complete without them.

totally unrelated topic: my autumn playlist 2009 needs some beefing up. help me. what are you listening to?

i know i've posted this video before, but i always feel like a little meryn cadell when the weather turns nippy:

we rarely take a cab...

but we did yesterday, and foxman seemed to know exactly what he was doing:

he pulled the plastic out of my wallet and knew where to stick it without any coaching.

scary.

now all he needs to learn is his address and how to hail a cab and we've got ourselves a little self-sufficiency. poor city kid... he's more comfortable in the back seat of a taxi than in a backyard.

good idea. bad idea.

good idea:

this is going to be the newest addition to matt's wardrobe.

i keep matt on a short leash, and i won't let him go to iran to ski, at least this year (ya, ya, i'm a horrible wife). so to make up for it, i started looking for a "ski iran" t-shirt. couldn't find one, but i stumbled across a "ski iraq" tee (this website has some great threads), which led me to find the saudi beaut. think he'll like it?

bad idea:

googling "bed bugs" while enjoying a bowl of curry and brown rice.

bad. very bad idea.

so hot right now.

fox is really into mr. potato head

and watching the movie, "cars."

gunth is really into fox being really into mr. potato head and "cars."

sweet, sweet peace.

baby sister is really into kicking me, especially when i'm going to bed.

i'm really into this new camera thing, but i've got a lot to learn (like, why do my photos look grainy when i upload them to this page?? boo.). matt doesn't do big surprises very often, but he when he decides to do one, he nails it. xox. thanks for the help, k.

and i'm really into buttered toast.

and matt is really into his bike being fixed. did i not mention he was hit by a cab while riding his bike to school a few weeks ago? well, he was. the incident was very minor, and not a hair on mjb's head was maimed, praises be. if you don't believe me as to how minor it was, here's how he broke the news to moi:

(phone call)

matt: so i need you google how much road bike rims cost.

me: okay. why?

matt: cos i just got hit by a car.

me: oh... what?

i think matt just passed off one of the requirements to becoming an official new yorker.

how we rough it here in the hood.

so a few sister-friends and i kind of lost our way yesterday while trying to find the little red lighthouse.  never in all my livin' life did i ever expect to get lost in a forested area of manhattan.  in nyc there's probably only 274 square yards of woodland, but each of those 274 square yards is prime breeding ground for all manner of illicit activity.

while wandering through the enchanted forest, we ladies and our precious children passed a woman snorting a line, a tent city, and a group of juvies doing community service.  scary?  well, that's not exactly how i operate.  here's a glimpse into my warped sense of reality... i didn't start to panic until i saw mosquitos.  because of course it's extremely likely that these mosquitos are going to be carrying west nile virus.  and of course the little badgers viciously preyed upon every single person in our party. and of course my panic sort of reached its peak this morning when fox awoke with a couple of bites on his body.  please slap me and tell me to get a grip.  i'm sure the lady who was getting high has been living quite peacefully in the forest for some amount of time and has never once been stricken ill.  i should have asked her.

we eventually made it to the lighthouse.  here's the proof:

f and k. and then k took the rest...

fox and scarlett.  they have big plans for halloween... stay tuned.

a lunch of rocks, cigarette butts and suckers.  mother  of the year.

our metal was tested, our muscles were fatigued (especially kathryn, who practically shuttled fox and me on her back up and down about 400 subway stairs, and especially abbie who was rocking the double stroller), and the shocks on our strollers may be a little less absorbent than a day ago.  all in the name of getting out of the apartment.  as my driver's ed teacher once yelled at me over the PA system (after i made a dumb driving error but quickly corrected myself), "give that girl a burrito!"

(p.s., the incubation period for west nile virus is approximately two weeks or less.  just in case you were wondering.)

close encounters with famous people, no. 7.

kelly ripa.

kathryn's photo, of course.

the encounter: yesterday afternoon lloyd, whiting and i spotted ms. ripa and one of her sons along 79th street, sometime around 5 PM, between park and lexington, i believe.  she walked right past us.  she's a darn cute little pixie.

bonus: her handbag was fabulous. and she was eating something.  that made me feel better that tiny little newts such as herself really do eat things.

encounter rating: 4.5/5 stars.

fox: 1. parents: 1.

okay, fine. you wanna get cute with your little tricks? don't think i won't go there, cos i'll go there, and i'll build a house there.

crummy picture, but you get the gist

last week we said goodbye to the padded-cell, more affectionately known as the pack-n-play, and it has taken temporary refuge in the closet until baby sister arrives early next year. in its place now proudly stands a toddler bed.  honestly, i didn't think we'd be crossing this bridge only 18 months into fox's short life, but fox is 95th percentile in height and 70th in weight (i.e. he looks like a four year old), so i guess physically he should have been bailing over the sides of his "crib" months ago.

so how do you explain to a baby that he now has to stay lying down on a mattress all night long and not wander around his bedroom and climb things he shouldn't? mercy, i wish i knew. as i was tucking him in that first night, i was doing my best to help him understand what in the world we were doing to him. i'm sure my "big boy" pep-talk laced with tears didn't inspire much confidence in the lad. i was flooded with guilt, worrying that we were making him grow up too soon and selfishly mourning the impending loss of the precious only-child time i have left with my sweet boy.  he knew i was in a bad way and comforted me with hugs, which then set off my snort-sobs. and that is how fox officially entered toddlerdom.

over the past few days there has been much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and i'm sure this is a 'two steps forward one step back' sort of process, but tonight he went to bed and stayed there, no tears.  extreme, most righteous internet high fives.  if i weren't so sleep deprived, i'd be dancing in the streets.

fox: 1. parents: 0.

close encounters with famous people, no. 4, 5 and 6:

cynthia nixon.

kim cattrall.

sarah jessica parker.

southwick -- she only needs one name.

(we had a "wild" weekend together, and this is the only picture i snapped of her/us.  slap me.)

the only one we didn't see was the prudish brunette.  i'm okay with that.

the encounter: unless you've been living under a rock for the past decade, you can probably gather from the line-up that linds and i ran into the set for the upcoming sex and the city movie at bergdorf's, which begs the question, what business did you, erin, have showing your face at bergdorf's?  to which i would retort, absolutely none.  

bonus: got barked at by some chump in bergdorf's for snapping off the following pictures:

if you look hard enough, you can totally see nobody important.

i am a total threat.

encounter rating: 4/5 stars.

weekend rating: (weekend entailing the US open, eating at cafe habana, s'mac, blt burger, patsy's and yogurtland [yl's new mint froyo may blow your mind -- you've been warned], confirming the female(!) gender of my child in utero, shopping, getting lost, wandering, chatting... ) 9/5 stars.  i think we could have done nothing more than sit on a park bench all weekend, and i still would have been happy as a lark.  luh you, linds.

just some things.

um.  well.

we officially have a stable, legitimate internet connection.  for the past ten months we've been "borrowing" somebody's unprotected wireless connection (and that was only really working when the wind was blowing in the right direction).  i feel a sense of relief about paying for internet again... i was starting to question my worthiness to enter the temple.

all he needs is an icy, bottled beverage in his hand to complete the ensemble, don't you think?

you know what's nice about a month-long utah vacation?  many wonderful things.  but you know what's been nice about being back in nyc for the past three days?  everything's been nearly perfect.  the temperature, reuniting with friends, the black and white cookie from glaser's (and the ladies who make them), the cupcake from butter lane, central park, walking my tail off, sore muscles, the disgusted sighs/looks/comments from stroller-haters.  yep.  perfect.  i really think i am going to be head-over-heels in love with new york in september.

although the past few days have been blissful, i find that i've totally lost my vibe and have blisters on my feet and anemic aggression levels to prove it.  i didn't even have the fortitude to shoot a disgusted look to the passerby who, on an empty sidewalk, gave me an unintentional booty tap.  and, for "medical" reasons, i've gotta rethink the way i do some things around these parts.  how do i function without being able to carry a stroller up and down stairs?  the thought of avoiding the subway makes me feel like a caged animal, especially now that i've got a superb excuse to spend student loan money.  and for the first round of money hemorrhaging, i've been eyeing these little pretties (which are not for fox, despite the photographic evidence above that he may have enjoyed playing princesses with cousin jenna):

ten.

my hawaiian senior trip.  i am just dripping with innocence.  ignorant to the skin damage caused by that glowing, beautiful tan and full of unrealized potential.  sigh.

this weekend was my high school ten year reunion (i'll spare you the math -- i'm 28). i didn't go. the combination of god's vast fruited plain, my rambunctious one year old and our student budget crushed my dream of a last-minute roadtrip to zion for the occasion. i was a little bummed. and matt was out of town. and the scenario took me back to that question which always comes up around high school graduation time, where do you see yourself in ten years? i can honestly say i didn't actually see myself sitting on my duff, watching tv by myself, eating POP chips and hoping that the creepy guy who stared at fox at the playground earlier didn't follow us home. but then again i guess i can also say i never saw myself bearing fruit in hong kong. or backpacking through south america. or running a marathon (yeah, i can dream).

someone tell me, was it fun? lie to me and tell me it was lame.  i wish i could've caught up with old friends and classmates.  i wish i could've shown off pictures of my son.  i mean, ain't he somethin'?  (thanks mike and robby):

i finished something i started:

fox, finishing a shack burger that  i started.  when i tried to take it back, he shrieked like a velociraptor.  do not come between this man and a meal.  photos courtesy of the talented kathryn, of course.

i deleted my twitter account; i just couldn't get on board with it.  why do i need the drive-thru version of facebook when i am content with the sit-down dining experience of the "old" facebook?  kinda felt like overkill.  and i don't often delete my social-networking profiles, even the ones i haven't logged onto in years... not sure why.  i have a hard time making such final commitments, i suppose.  i'm quite certain my mug is still floating around hotsaints.com somewhere.  yes, i just said that.  but twitter.  maybe if i had a blackberry or iphone or cell phone that possessed decent texting capabilities, maybe then tweeting would make more sense for me.  maybe later.  i apologize to all of my two followers.

last week i sneezed tortilla chips through my nose...

definitely not my finest moment of the week, but it made the highlight reel.

remember that one time i went to turkey and greece? here's what else happened (unedited photos -- this just needs to be finished):

discussing "mehmet okur."

europe on the left, asia on the right.

hagia sofia.

the blue mosque.

pretty istanbul.

i loved this night market in istanbul. the hanging lightbulbs were fun, and the colors were pretty.

hot dogs as a pizza topping.

save water. flush twice.

now in athens.  protesters protesting the man.

look closely; you can see the man.

ruins, ruins everywhere.

a scrumptious greek feast.

on the acropolis, the parthenon and friends.

afghani men taking pictures with my son.

japanese women taking pictures with my son. 

a mother's day brunch with an acropolytic (word?) view.

temple of poseidon.

fox's favorite part of the trip.

homeward bound.

write what you know

when i don't do this blog stuff for a while, apathy starts creeping in.  but i feel like i need to write... the thought reservoir in my brain is about to break and send the little dutch boy with his finger in the dam into the next life.  so here's what i know:

1.  i know that i love not being sick.  last month i was sicker than i've been since high school -- flat on my back, dizzy, vomiting, fevering, uncontrollable hacking, swine flu sick.  the doctor said it wasn't the swine flu. what does he know.  that wasn't a question.  i lived, in case you were wondering.  in reality it probably wasn't so bad, but matt was out of town when it struck, and i would have poked my eyes out with a spoon had the little boy taken ill.  mercy shone down on us that week... fox miraculously eluded infection, and he decided that he likes the taste of hand sanitizer (read: alcohol).  

2.  i know that i sort of love orange county.  the smell of blossoms wafts through the air, the beach is close, people drive cars to super target, there is a super target, and the local trader joe's is EMPTY (next time i go to the union square trader joe's here in nyc, i'm taking a picture of the crowded aisles -- navigating that joint with a stroller is like trying to push a coffin through the general admission section of a stones concert).  we had to travel to the county of orange for a family wedding, and whilst there, the thought of returning to new york city kind of made my stomach hurt, which leads me to the next thing i know: i know that i can't live in a big city long-term.  i think part of me would die a little, and i'm certain i would die young from black lung.  but for now, i love new york.  our time here will be over much too soon. 

i know fox really loved orange county, too:

cousins.

fox stealing his cousin's snack.

3.  i know i have good friends.  everywhere.

4.  i know that i won't be reading lauren conrad's fiction novel about a girl whose life is plastered all over a reality television show.  oh lauren.  i kind of thought you were smart for a second.  quit while you're ahead.  

5.  i know there is an erin burton in british columbia who isn't getting some of her emails.  i'm trying to set things straight, erin; i really am.  some of the senders are repeat offenders, even after i give them the heads up about the wrong address.  i'm starting to wonder if the canadian erin burton gives out my email as a bogus email, like a fake phone number.  do you think i want to deal with the poor schmucks you're trying to fade-out, girlfriend? not cool, erin.  not cool.  there's also another erin burton floating around out there with relatives living somewhere in the dirty south.  i sometimes get family email updates intended for said erin asking me to pray for a sick brother and for an uncle who knocked over a drug store.  i kind of like those emails.

turkeygreece breather.

"i'm going to play the word hand because it's pithy and strong."  -- matthew j. burton, a morning in april, 2009

i've decided i'm going to keep a notebook and pen by my bedside so each morning i can record the awesomely creative first words that stumble out of matt's mouth.  his A.M. gibberish has produced insightful comments regarding professional wrestling moves, iran, and mathematical formulas.  hmm... pithy?  really?  i don't think i've used the word pithy even in wakefulness.  ever.  he's been playing a lot of online scrabble lately.

the kindle.  here's what i think about it: sad, sad, sad.  i kind of hope it dies, and i'm usually pro-gadgetry.  the whole concept feels very eerie, very fahrenheit 451-ish.  so... sterile?  cold?  what's the word i'm searching for?  soulless?  nothing can replace the feeling of a good "page-turner" in your hands... dog-eared pages, scribbles in the margins, writing your name in the cover... and something tells me that falling asleep with the kindle on your chest could potentially cause cancer.  

and for about an hour every morning, direct sunlight streams through one of the four windows in our apartment.  this is usually where the boys can be found:

upon arrival.

after a full 24 hours of transcontinental air travel, fox decided to make himself comfortable by stripping down to the huggies and going straight for matt's speedo (which matt uses strictly for swimming laps, i assure you).

the fair city of istanbul.

the blue mosque (where we answered the call in the previous post).

the hagia sophia, completed in 537 AD, has been a basilica, a mosque, and now a museum.  it was quite possibly my favorite part of the trip.  here's a peek inside...

oh how delightful; they put up the scaffolding just for us.

i really love the 6th century AD floors.  

worn marble floors intrigue me... how many thousands of people have walked through these doors?

muslims believe that in mosques it is sinful to display images of people, so when the hagia sofia was transformed into a mosque in the 15th century, all the original christian mosaics in the basilica were plastered over, and these gigantic shields, displaying names of islamic prophets, were hung.

some of the recovered mosaics... beautiful.  the mosaic tiles were interspersed with jewels to give the mosaic images movement.

a bit of chipped away plaster to reveal the original mosaic ceiling.

the entire ceiling of this joint was once covered in mosaic tiles.  that's cool.

the hagia sophia: extremely cool.  a must see.

spice market.  my nostrils tickle just thinking about it.  turkish saffron, garam masala and a kebab spice were purchased.

fox, learning to nap in a backpack.  he mastered this art by day two.

and turks sort of loved fox...

restauranteur turk and stray turk.

old turk.

young turk (we went through two bottles of hand sanitizer).

turk with camera.

turk sunset.

now, off to upload more pictures... it's my absolute most favorite thing to do.  ever.

call and answer.

we've been answering the call.  in istanbul.

back now.  more later.  must sleep.